Jimmy Carter’s paintings and memorabilia appear in Christie’s auctions

Four paintings by former president Jimmy Carter are included in Christie’s auctions this month, selected by his daughter Amy Carter and offered alongside memorabilia, correspondence and furniture he handcrafted. One lot opens online Tuesday, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Carter Family Foundation in Sumter County, Ga.

Estimates for the paintings range from $2,000 to $12,000. “Priced to sell” is the shorthand used inside Christie’s, the article said, and Julia Jones, the specialist who helped organize the auctions, said, “We are hoping they will establish the market for Jimmy Carter’s paintings.” Carter painted throughout his life, creating natural landscapes, church steeples from Georgia and occasional portraits of his wife, Rosalynn.

Amy Carter said he had “did a mail-order painting class when he was in the Navy and copied Monet paintings,” and that he returned to painting after the White House with a studio in his garage and a palette made of scrapped timber. She described his paintings as a “quiet place” separate from the large problems he worked on in daily life, listing fair elections, poverty, women’s rights and peace in the Middle East.

Carter died at the end of 2024 at the age of 100. The article places Carter among a small group of presidents who painted: Ulysses S. Grant’s student watercolors are preserved by the National Park Service, George W.

Key Topics

Culture, Jimmy Carter, Christies, Amy Carter, Carter Family Foundation, Sumter County