Historic painting of African American sold as Philly history museum raises funds

One of the earliest formal portraits of an African American - a well-known oil painting of a kufi-wearing free black man painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1819 - has been sold by the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The striking portrait of Yarrow Mamout, an elderly Muslim and former slave living in Washington, is the most recent in a string of art and artifact sales made by the history museum, largely to finance its $5.9 million building renovation project.

Timothy Rub, Art Museum director, declined to discuss the painting's price, but other sources speculated that it would be at least $1.5 million.

Art Museum officials said eight paintings (including two Peale portraits) and a colonial side chair would be sold to fund the acquisition.

Yarrow Mamout is such "a rare and important painting" - the earliest known portrait of a practicing American Muslim - that the decision was made "to give up some works from our collection" to acquire it, Rub said. It is now on view at the museum.

Such sales of artworks from a collection fall within the ethical guidelines of the Association of Art Museum Directors, which approve of sales only when proceeds are used to acquire other art to enhance or focus museum holdings.

Mayor Nutter hailed the painting as a depiction of "a man who triumphed over enormous challenges and commanded the respect and admiration of all who knew him." He also said that "it is a great thing that such an extraordinary painting will remain here."

The Atwater Kent, mandated by the city charter to be Philadelphia's official history museum, has been criticized for using proceeds of sales from its collection to fund renovations. Viki Sand, former chief executive, instituted the program of sales with the approval of the board of directors several years ago.

In February 2010, after the auction sale of a distinctive still life by Raphaelle Peale (son of Charles Willson Peale) to a collector for $700,000, Sand told The Inquirer that her institution was "not an art museum."

That painting, along with all of the others in the recent series of sales, was acquired from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which provisionally transferred its holdings of 10,000 artifacts and artworks to the Atwater Kent in 2001. The museum obtained clear title to the society's collection in 2009, with the agreement that proceeds of sales be split evenly between the two institutions.