NEW YORK CITY — A portrait of George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) in 1795 and among the earliest done by the artist, achieved $2,833,000 including buyer’s premium from a phone bidder in Christie’s two-day, 258-lot Important Americana sale January 18-19. The painting, which had a long exhibition and publication history that was dutifully outlined in the catalog, had descended in the Phillips family of Manchester, England, before passing into the hands of noted dealer Joseph Duveen and Duveen Brothers in 1924 who sold it to Richard De Wolfe Brixey. In 1943, Brixey bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was selling it to benefit its acquisition fund. It was the top lot in a sale that achieved a total of $9,294,784. Watch for more sale highlights in an upcoming review.