A rare early portrait of American heiress and philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post, painted in 1907 by the celebrated British artist Sir James Jebusa Shannon, sold for $35,560 at Sotheby’s on October 15, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. Executed in oil on canvas, the portrait captures Post at age twenty, decades before she became a defining figure of American high society and a leading collector of Russian art. Shannon, one of the foremost society portraitists of the Edwardian era and a Royal Academician, imbued the work with a delicate realism that foreshadows Post’s transformation from youthful debutante to commanding businesswoman. Measuring roughly 56 by 45 inches (framed at 66 by 54½ inches), the painting was offered in a carved Carrig-Rohane frame dated 1907, a detail prized among collectors of early twentieth-century portraiture.

The portrait’s provenance traces to R. Thornton Wilson, with a prior sale at Christie’s New York in 1992, where it appeared under the title Portrait of a Lady. Its reemergence at Sotheby’s generated notable interest among both portrait collectors and admirers of Post, whose fortune derived from the General Foods Corporation empire built by her father, cereal magnate C.W. Post. The sitter’s serene expression—softly lit and framed by a high lace collar—contrasts with the assertive poise that would later define her public persona. Shannon’s restrained brushwork and compositional elegance reflect his academic training at London’s South Kensington School of Art under Sir Edward Poynter, as well as his early commissions from Queen Victoria, achievements that established his reputation among Britain’s aristocracy and the international elite.

While not among Shannon’s royal commissions, the painting’s significance lies in its timing and subject. Created at a moment when both artist and sitter were ascending their respective social and professional trajectories, the work captures the genteel optimism of the Edwardian age before the upheavals of the First World War. For collectors of American and British portraiture, the sale underscores the enduring appeal of Shannon’s craftsmanship and the cultural fascination with Marjorie Merriweather Post—a woman whose life bridged Gilded Age opulence and modern American enterprise. Sotheby’s did not disclose the buyer’s identity, but the price reflects a renewed appetite for early twentieth-century portraiture tied to figures of historical prominence and enduring social allure.

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