AKU-2007-014

After John Singer Sargent (attributed), American, 1856–1925

Portrait of Andrew Carnegie, 1901

1901

Oil on canvas

147 × 112 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the estate of a Glasgow industrialist, 2007

Curator’s Note

In 1901, Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan for $480 million — approximately $17 billion in 2024 dollars. He was sixty-five. He spent the remaining eighteen years of his life attempting to give most of it away: 2,509 libraries built across the English-speaking world, endowments to universities, a temple to international arbitration at The Hague. This portrait, attributed to the circle of Sargent, was completed the year of the sale. Carnegie holds no object. His hands rest on the arm of a chair. He looks directly at the viewer with an expression that has been variously described as serenity, satisfaction, and guilt.

Exhibition

gilded-age-digital-age