Hirshhorn Museum to Auction Eakins Portraits

After a two-year assessment of its collections, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington has decided to sell three portraits by Thomas Eakins at a Christie’s auction in New York on May 20, The Washington Post reported. Proceeds from the sale of the paintings, which are together estimated to bring between $580,000 and $870,000, will go toward the institution’s acquisition fund. Curators selected the portraits from the museum’s holdings of 220 works by the American artist. The three have not been exhibited at the Hirshhorn since a survey of Eakins’ work in 1977. Going on the block are “Robert C. Ogden,” from 1904; “Study for Portrait of Mrs. Charles L. Leonard,” from 1895; and “Study for William Rush and His Model,” painted in 1908.