Paintings by the late US president Jimmy Carter and the family’s personal effects will go to auction this month as part of a sale at Christie’s in New York dubbed We the People: America at 250, marking the country’s semiquincentennial this year. The works on offer from Carter's collection were selected by Amy Carter, the daughter of Carter and his wife Rosalyn.
Scenes painted by Carter include a picture of the Georgia church where he was baptised, a still-life featuring an angry-looking pomegranate and a waterfall scene; those paintings are estimated to sell for between $6,000 and $8,000; $2,000 and $4,000; and $6,000 and $8,000, respectively. A fourth, The Hornet’s Nest (2003), shows soldiers taking aim before a showdown between British forces and southern troops during the American Revolution. A similar composition served as the cover of Carter's novel of the same title. Christie's estimates it will sell for between $8,000 and $12,000.
Fans of the 39th US president of more modest means may be enticed by a portrait of Carter by Don Powers, which comes with an estimate of between $500 and $700.
Carter took up painting in the 1980s after his presidential term ended, though he had previously dabbled in painting while serving in the US navy. He called making art “the rare opportunity for privacy” after years in the public eye, according to the Associated Press. “These times of solitude are like being in another very pleasant world,” he added.
The sale will also include personal items that belonged to the president’s family like scarves with a peanut print, an assortment of ties, a Stetson hat presented to the president during a stop in Fort Worth, Texas, and a coffee table made by Carter himself with pine lumber from a horse trough in a dilapidated barn. The sale also features the president’s copy of Chairman Mao's quotations. One of Carter’s enduring legacies is re-establishing a formal relationship between the US and China. The sale also includes groups of books on Israel, Palestine and the larger Middle East; in 1978 Carter brokered the Camp David Accords, leading to the first major peace treaty between an Arab country and Israel. In 2006, Carter published the book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
Carter died on 29 December 2024 at 100 years old.
