The venerable Players Club may soon have to part ways with one of its oldest members.
John Singer Sargent’s painting of the 19th-century actor Joseph Jefferson has quietly gone on the auction block, much to the dismay of several members.
The Players has owned the painting for more than 100 years. John Martello, the executive director, said the club needs about $2 million to repair its crumbling facade on Gramercy Park.
Earlier this year, the club sold off another Sargent, this one of the actor Lawrence Barrett.
“It’s very upsetting,” Martello said. “Nobody wants to sell the paintings. But we have no choice. We have to fix the facade, and the board voted to do so by selling the paintings.”
The Barrett, he said, went for just over $1 million to an anonymous buyer, who’s agreed to lend the painting to the club for special events.
The Jefferson is also expected to fetch over $1 million.
Sargent’s most sought-after paintings — of Edwardian-era society figures — have sold for $10 million to $15 million on the rare occasions they come up for auction.
The Players was founded by actor Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln.
The 1845 building, in fact, was Booth’s townhouse. Booth converted it into a club for actors, writers and artists in 1888. His friend Stanford White did the renovations.
Mark Twain was one of its first members, and his pool cue hangs in the Grill Room.
The elegant townhouse is one of the city’s 19th-century jewels, but for more than a year its facade has been covered by scaffolding and netting.
Like many private clubs during the recession, The Players has been struggling as membership plunges. Last year, it lost nearly $500,000.
In 2000, The Players parted with yet another Sargent — a head-to-toe portrait of Booth, which had pride of place in the living room. Gallery owner Warren Adelson bought it for $2.5 million.
The club was forced to sell the painting as part of a deal with the New York attorney general to settle a complicated tax matter from the 1980s.
A reproduction of the Booth painting hangs in the club, and Martello says copies are being made of the Barrett and Jefferson as well.
I popped into the club the other night to take what may well be my last look at the Jefferson. (The club is closed in August.)
It’s a striking portrait, notable for Jefferson’s penetrating eyes and his white tornado of a hairdo. If I had a million dollars lying around, I’d snap it up in a minute.
A great pal of Booth and Sargent, Jefferson was famous for his Rip Van Winkle, a part he toured in for nearly 50 years, from America to Tasmania. He was the Carol Channing of his day, Channing having toured as Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” for most of her career.
The Players still has some important paintings — a Gilbert Stuart, an Oliver Ingraham Lay and a Gainsborough, though the authenticity of the Gainsborough has never been established.
But, Martello says, “none could bring in as much money as the Sargents.”
There is a glimmer of hope for poor old Joe Jefferson, a founding member of the club and one who, I’m sure, won’t be happy to leave.
Martello is trying to put together a consortium of Players Club members to buy the painting and then donate it to the club’s nonprofit foundation.
So far, he hasn’t made much headway. And that facade is crumbling.
Speaking of crumbling, that’s what happened to the box office at the Lunt-Fontanne, where “Ghost” is running — well, stumbling is a more accurate description. The show took in just $600,000 last week, and yesterday the producers announced it will close Aug. 18.
The total loss is thought to be a scary $15 million.
A lot of big theaters are going to be empty in the coming months — the Lunt, the Broadway, the Richard Rodgers, the St. James (“Bring It On” is a limited run).
Are Broadway’s salad days coming to an end?