Norman Rockwell at Auction

November 1, 2014, 10:35 am

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Bonhams' November 19, 2014

Scouts of Many Trails by the prolific American artist, Norman Rockwell, is a highly anticipated lot. It is estimated at $300,000 – $500,000. This oil sketch is likely an early compositional idea for Scouts of Many Trails as it differs vastly from the final, published version. In this work, an old and seasoned sailor with a parrot on his shoulder regales his young charges with tales of adventures past. The final version of this work served as the cover illustration of the February 1937 issue of Boys' Life.

(American, 1894-1978)

Study for "Scouts of Many Trails" 40 x 28 1/2in

US$ 300,000 - 500,000

(American, 1894-1978)

A Light Haired Woman Will Cross Your Path (Fortune Teller with Young Couple) 34 1/2 x 29in

US$ 200,000 - 300,000

Rockwell's illustrations graced the covers of a great number of magazine including Life, and The Saturday Evening Post. One such featured work in the upcoming auction, A Light Haired Woman Will Cross Your Path (Fortune Teller with Young Couple) (est. $200,000 – 300,000) was on the cover of the August 12, 1920 issue of Life. This intimate, dimly lit scene conveys an encounter between a young couple and a fortune teller seated in a disorganized, private setting of the fortune-teller's tent. Rockwell capitalized on poignant interactions not only in this current work but throughout his career and illustrations.

Swann Galleries June 12 2014

The Family Tree,

charcoal, drawn for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post’s October 24, 1959 issue

(see a great history of this work here)—which was accompanied by a copy of the magazine, $28,160.

Christie’s May 22, 2014

The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room) by Norman Rockwell, which has never been offered at auction, was painted in 1957 for the March 2^nd cover of The Saturday Evening Post and has remained in the same private collection for nearly thirty years. It has been publicly exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston twice–once in 2005 and again in 2008–following World Series victories by the Red Sox.

The work was painted in 1957 for the March 2nd cover of The Saturday Evening Post and has remained in the same private collection for nearly thirty years. It has been publicly exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston twice–once in 2005 and again in 2008–following World Series victories by the Red Sox. Estimated at $20-30 million, The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room) marks the highest estimate ever for Norman Rockwell at auction.

Norman Rockwell’s covers for The Saturday Evening Post during the 1950s reflected the direction of editor Ben Hibbs, who strove to make the magazine more current to increase circulation. Nothing could be a more popular subject to an American audience than baseball and no player other than Ted Williams, “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived” was commanding more attention at the time, on the eve of his retirement from baseball. Rockwell conceived this cover at least 9 months in advance of its publication date on March 2nd, 1957, just in time for the start of spring training for the Red Sox.

Over the summer of 1956, he convinced team management to send four players from the starting lineup up to Rockwell’s hometown, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, deep in Red Sox country. Pitcher Frank Sullivan, right fielder Jackie Jensen, catcher Sammy White all posed for the painting. Williams was either unable or unwilling to make the trip and Rockwell captured his likeness from his trading card, and other photographs. Rockwell traveled to Sarasota to take pictures of the Red Sox spring training stadium and locker room. The palm trees which sway in the window indicate the location. The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room) depicts an intimate scene during spring training; an awkward newcomer is juxtaposed with the confident stances of the seasoned players, making the rookie’s anxiety all the more apparent and endearing.

In addition to The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room), ten other works by Norman Rockwell will be offered in the sale, including

The Collector ( estimate: $700,000-1,000,000),

Boy Graduate (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000)

and Willie Gillis in Church (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000).

Bonham's December 4,

2013 American Art sale:

Lot 21

NORMAN ROCKWELL

(American, 1894-1978)

Girl Choosing Hat, 1931 38 1/2 x 30in

Sold for US$ 1,205,000 including premium:

Iconic works by Norman Rockwell lead the sale. Girl Choosing Hat, which was the cover for the January 31, 1931 edition of the Saturday Evening Post is the auction's top lot, executed at the start of Rockwell's most fruitful years at the magazine (est. $400,000-600,000). This work comes to sale directly from the artist's family.

Lot 18

NORMAN ROCKWELL

(American, 1894-1978)

Study for "The Facts of Life" 44 x 33 3/4in

Sold for US$ 941,000 inc.premium

CHRISTIE’S 23 MAY 2013

A quintessential oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell is just one of the many illustrations that will be offered on May 23. Starstruck (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000) was painted for the September 22, 1934 cover of The Saturday Evening Post and depicts a young boy fawning over Hollywood’s leading ladies of the day. Distracted by the beautiful movie stars, the boy has cast aside his childish pursuits of baseball and playtime with his faithful sidekick. The fact that both the boy and his dog are pining for the attention of an unwitting subject underscore the scene’s charm.

Sotheby's May 2013

- The enduring strength of the market for works by Norman Rockwell was felt throughout the sale – the six examples on offer together sold for an impressive $6.5 million, more than double their overall high estimate of $3 million. Seven bidders battled for

He’s Going to Be Taller than Dad, a domestic scene of a boy and his faithful dog that fetched $2,629,000 (est. $500/700,000). (This follows Sotheby’s November 2012 sale of American Art in which five works by Rockwell totaled $6.1 million, again demonstrating the continued appetite for works by the American icon.)

More sales – Sales price and estimate:

Norman Rockwell, Doc Melhorn and the Pearly Gates, 1938 $1,085,000 (£716,266) $1,000,000 - 1,500,000

Norman Rockwell, Sport, 1939 $905,000 (£597,439) $300,000 - 500,000

Norman Rockwell, The Veterinarian, 1961 $845,000 (£557,829) $200,000 - 300,000

Sotheby’s Nov 2012

The Muscleman (1941) sold for $2,210,500 (high estimate: $800,000)

and Doctor and Doll (1942) reached $1,874,500 (high estimate: $700,000).

Another important Rockwell highlight is a study for The Facts of Life in which a father appears to explain a most delicate subject to his son. The work was completed for the July 15, 1951 issue of the Post (est. $300,000-400,000).

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Milton Avery at Auction

November 1, 2014, 10:35 am

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Bonhams May 31, 2014

FLAG

Lot 2

MILTON AVERY

(American, 1885-1965)

Figures in Fields 22 x 30in

Sold for US$ 31,250 inc.premium

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Lot 3

MILTON AVERY

(American, 1885-1965)

Untitled (Sitter) 8 3/4 x 5 3/4in, sight

Sold for US$ 10,625 inc.premium

Christie's May 22. 2014

Milton Avery’s The Mandolin Player ( estimate: $800,000-1,200,000) is just one of the six works from his collection to be included in the sale of American Art. The highly saturated palette of greens, blues, oranges and pinks is representative of Avery’s works from the mid-1940s, as is his rendering of expressive figures through a contained, plastic two-dimensional design. The interconnectedness of music and the formal components of visual art had been explored by American Modernists such as Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1910s and 1920s and were championed by European abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky. Avery had likely been exposed to Kandinsky's work while exhibiting at the Valentine Gallery on 57th Street in 1935. Avery explored the topic in a more literal approach, demonstrating his ability to blend modern themes and broader European influences while remaining committed to a familiar subject, thus creating his own style.

CHRISTIE’S 23 MAY 2013

Six works from the Andy Williams’ collection will be included in the sale, including two important paintings by Milton Avery,

The Musicians (estimate: $400,000-600,000)

and Pale Flower (estimate: $250,000-350,000).

The success of Milton Avery's art lies in his ability to modernize a familiar domestic scene through his carefully orchestrated arrangement of color and pattern. He translates his subject matter into a unique lexicon of shapes and forms that fit together to create a cohesive composition. Painted in 1949, The Musicians was executed during the most critical period of Milton Avery's career, when he incorporated the simplified, blocked forms for which he became known. In addition to their broad popular appeal, Avery's bold, abstracted shapes exerted an important influence on Post-War American painters, especially Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb. His work also reflects the same painterly concerns that consumed the pioneers of French modernism. Like Matisse, Dufy, and Picasso, Avery arranges planes of saturated color while retaining the two-dimensional surface of the canvas.

Christie’s December 5 2013

MILTON AVERY | Mandolin with Pears

Estimate: $600,000-800,000

An important figure in the American Modernist movement, Avery was largely self-taught and experimented with color planes and patterns, bridging the gap between Matisse’s vivaciously outlined canvases and the American color field artists of the 1950s. Mandolin with Pears was executed in 1945, after Avery had aligned himself with gallerist Paul Rosenberg. Rosenberg had encouraged Avery to replace his painterly techniques with denser areas of flat colors and delineated forms, resulting in visually striking abstract works, such as the present example. Mandolin with Pears exemplifies Avery’s unique ability to simplify a scene to its broadest possible forms while retaining tension and balance through color and shape.

Sotheby's May 2013

Avery’s Music Makers, on offer from the estate of screen star Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique, achieved $2,965,000 – double its $1.5 million high estimate.

FLAG

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Childe Hassam at Auction

November 1, 2014, 10:35 am

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Bonhams November 19, 2014

Lot 49

CHILDE HASSAM

(American, 1859-1935)

Lady in a Garden 18 x 15in

US$ 800,000 - 1.2 million

£500,000 - 740,000

€630,000 - 950,000

A spectacular work by renowned American Impressionist, Childe Hassam, called Lady in a Garden is estimated at $800,000 – $1,200,000. The oil on canvas was painted circa 1890 and represents one of the many gardens that Hassam visited on Appledore Island, the largest of the Isles of Shoals, just nine miles off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. Hassam's quick, light brushstrokes create a fantastically playful lighting effect. In the center of his composition, is a silhouette of a female figure, likely Mrs. Childe Hassam who has stopped to admire the blooming foliage.

Bonhams December 4, 2013

Splendid compositions from Childe Hassam lead a strong selection of American Impressionism on offer. In a private collection since 1964,

East Gloucester, End of the Trolley Line, 1895, exemplifies Hassam's mature style (est. $300,000-500,000). Effectively juxtaposing both the urban and rural aspects of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Hassam's practice of quick brush strokes to create a light, impressionistic touch is complemented in this work with his use of a palette knife.

Also on the block, the artist's 1900 composition Land's End, Coast of Maine characterizes his exceptional talent in rendering the fleeting effects of light and shadow through his looseness of brushstroke (est. $200,000-300,000).

Christie's May 22. 2014

Childe Hassam's stunning Impressionist work, Evening in the Rain, ( estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000) captures a picturesque moment on a rain drenched sidewalk of lower Fifth Avenue. Hassam's passion for capturing the cityscapes that surrounded him immediately found direct expression in the works he produced, and critics quickly came to associate him with New York. In order to capture the ever-changing scenes around him, Hassam often executed quick sketches while seated in a cab or standing on the street. From the vantage point of the viewer, it seems entirely likely that Hassam sketched the composition for Evening in the Rain while out on one of his many jaunts around the city. The work includes all of the hallmarks of Hassam's celebrated works from the 1890s. Reflecting his fascination with his urban surroundings and the people that he encountered, Hassam pays homage to the city and captures the spirit of the end of the century in New York.

CHRISTIE’S 23 MAY 2013

The sale will also offer a fantastic array of Impressionist works, including Childe Hassam’s In a French Garden (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000), which demonstrates the artist’s abilities at the height of his career. The work features a favorite theme of the artist, women and flowers, as he depicts a model, likely Mrs. Hassam, reading a newspaper in a lush garden. Hassam painted In a French Garden, at the summer residence of his friend Ernest Blumenthal in the Parisian suburb of Villiers-le-bel. The artist found the grounds to be wonderfully inspiring, completing several other museum-quality works there, including

Gathering Flowers in a French Garden

and Geraniums.

The vibrant palette and varied brushwork of In a French Garden demonstrate Hassam’s developing Impressionist technique and contribute to the brilliant vision of a peaceful domestic moment.

Bonhams May 31, 2014

Lot 23

CHILDE HASSAM

(American, 1859-1935)

Woman in a Doorway 10 x 6 7/8in

US$ 60,000 - 80,000

£38,000 - 50,000

€48,000 - 64,000:

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The World is An Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne

November 3, 2014, 11:27 am

≫ Next: Frederick Carl Frieseke at Auction and Exhibition

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At the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) November 1, 2014 to February 8, 2015

Beginning on November 1, 2014 the Art Gallery of Hamilton will present a landmark exhibition of paintings by French Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). The World is An Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne is the first to treat Cézanne’s revolutionary still lifes. Ranging from early paintings engaging with past masters to late works unique to him, and treating the gamut of themes, including apples, flowers and skulls, the exhibition reappraises Cézanne’s monumental achievement in the genre of still life painting.

The exhibition was conceived by Benedict Leca, AGH Director of Curatorial Affairs, and organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton in a special collaboration with the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, where the show opened to acclaim earlier this summer and broke attendance records.

Uniting 18 Cézanne paintings from around the world and another seven still lifes by his contemporaries, the exhibition features major works from acclaimed European and American museums and private collections, including the National Gallery (Washington), Musée d’Orsay, Stiftung Langmatt (Baden), Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the McMaster Museum of Art (McMaster University, Hamilton ON).

Soon after arriving in Paris in the 1860s, Cézanne created a notoriety for himself that was unprecedented in the history of French art. At the centre of this radical self-fashioning were still lifes of often glaring colours, skewed perspective, and thickly painted surfaces that unmoored objects and their meanings from conventional representation. Cézanne’s early work will first be put into context through the presentation of 4 exceptional realist still lifes from the AGH collection to show how he departed from convention.

Early Cézanne will be represented in the exhibition by three first-rate works including the masterful

Still Life with Bread and Eggs (1865) from Cincinnati.

Later, Cézanne established his distinctive style through works such as

Still Life with Fruit and Glass of Wine (c. 1877, Philadelphia Museum of Art),

Still Life: Flask, Glass, and Jug (c. 1877, . Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, )

and

Apples and Cakes (1877, Private Collection), recasting the physical and perceptual relations between people and things.

Extending their traditional meanings as symbols of abundance, vanity, or rusticity, Cézanne instead used apples, skulls or crockery to create a visual language of punning juxtapositions and poetic allusion. His paintings invite viewers to rethink the world and the place of man and objects in it.

“While he surely looked closely at nature, Cézanne self-consciously plays with colours, forms and space in a manner that invites a free association that contrasts with the fixed meanings of academic tradition,” said exhibition curator Benedict Leca. “He creates an alternative world where things can move improbably and mean variously. The traditional ‘silent life of things’ that he explodes is about containment and Cézanne is all about evasion,” affirmed Leca.

As the so-called “Painter of Apples,” Cézanne returned many times to his signature motif, working through the complexities of colour application and its effects. Cézanne’s famous apple paintings will be represented by three exceptional examples:

Seven Apples and a Tube of Color, Apples on a Chair (1878-80, Lausanne, Musée cantonal), and

Some Apples (1878-80, Stiftung Langmatt, Baden).

Also on view will be a contrasting pair of flower paintings:

The Dark Blue Vase III (1880)

from the Kreeger Museum is a small-scale, intimate work in which Cézanne explores pattern,

while the large, late

Vase of Flowers from the National Gallery in Washington exemplifies Cézanne’s late life obsessions with contours and surfaces.

Over the course of his career painting still lifes, Cézanne pushed the boundaries of meaning and form while simultaneously evolving a highly structured compositional style characterized by ever more deliberate arrangements of objects. His so-called ‘Classic’ phase of still life painting culminates in the 1890s and is represented in the exhibition by major works such as the

Musée d’Orsay’s The Kitchen Table (c. 1890) and

Fruit and Ginger Pot (1890-93) from the Stiftung Langmatt.

The latest works in the exhibition will be anchored by the two greatest paintings of skulls Cézanne ever created,

Three Skulls (Detroit Institute of Arts) and

Three Skulls on a Patterned Carpet (Kunstmuseum, Solothurn).

A prolific artist who synthesized formal problems through a close study of objects, Cézanne’s lifelong engagement with still life painting yielded what is arguably the single most innovative body of work in the genre of any artist in the Western canon. Ultimately, Cézanne set still life painting on a new course, one that completely altered its traditionally low position in the academic hierarchy of French painting and prefigured the later essays of masters from Pablo Picasso to Andy Warhol.

The exhibition closes with three important paintings by artists who keyed on Cézanne in their own engagement with still life: Vincent van Gogh, Maurice Denis, Georges Braque.

A fully illustrated, scholarly catalogue co-published by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and D Giles Limited (London) accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Benedict Leca, as well as art historians Paul G. Smith, Richard Shiff and Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmeyer, in addition to a foreword by Philippe Cézanne, great-grandson of the artist.

From a review of the same exhibition at the Barnes:

The Kitchen Table (La table de cuisine) by Paul Cezanne, 1888-1890.Musee d'Orsay/Courtesy of the Barnes FoundationPablo Picasso once said that the great 19th-century French painter Paul Cezanne was "the father of us all." Cezanne's distinctive brush strokes, and the way he distorted perspective and his subjects, influenced the cubists, and most artists who came after him. In Philadelphia, the Barnes Foundation is showing a group of still-life paintings by Cezanne.

The current special exhibition is all about naked fruit — apples, mostly. It's called "The World Is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cezanne."iJoe Rishel, of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, describes Cezanne's work as "repetitive apples with apples." But that's not to say it's boring. With Cezanne, Rishel says, "Every game is a new game." That's partly because of the idiosyncratic way Cezanne arranged his apples before he painted them.

"He would stick little wedges of any kind, sometimes fat little coins, underneath them just to prop them up," Rishel says. "Isn't that cute?"

Cezanne propped one apple higher than others, put another at an angle and pushed another into the foreground. Then he painted them. "I want to astonish Paris with an apple," he's said to have said. And, coming to town from his southern country village of Aix-en-Provence, he did astonish.

"They thought he was crazy," says Benedict Leca, the Barnes show curator and director of curatorial affairs at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. "People said he was on drugs, even. People said that he was dabbling in hashish and that he was out of his mind."

They said all that because they'd never seen brushwork like this.

"These are very short, parallel strokes, very clearly painted," says Judith Dolkart, chief curator at the Barnes. "He does nothing to ... hide his hand."

The paint is thick, almost chiseled onto the canvas. You can see the edges of each hatched stroke. And, subtly, within each paint stroke, the colors change. One has more white in it; the one next to it is darker.

Sugar Bowl, Pears, and Blue Cup (Sucrier, poires et tasse bleue) by Paul Cezanne, circa 1866.Musee d'Orsay/Courtesy of the Barnes FoundationDolkart says, "Every time he is lifting his brush, he's declaring, 'I'm a painter. This is my medium. These are my materials.'"

According to Leca, for a French viewer in the late 19th century, "an apple painted with these distinct strokes in this kind of rough-hewn manner would have been shocking."

Another excellent review: (image added)

...In the earliest still life here, “Sugar Bowl, Pears and Blue Cup,” c. 1866, the painter seems to be working his way through his influences. The fruits and ceramic ware in this canvas are described with wet-into-wet paint reminiscent of Édouard Manet’s (1832-1883) alla prima process, troweled on with a palette knife technique that brings to mind Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).

Another exploratory still life, “The Dark Blue Vase III,” c. 1880, looks informed by the Japonisme popular at the time among Impressionists. In this small, vertical canvas, stylized stems and flowers float above a china vase. The bottom edge of this picture, carefully painted to look unfinished, may give exhibition visitors pause, inviting viewers to rethink the numerous “unfinished” Cézannes as considered, complete works

Beyond studio experiments, a few magnificent loans add heft to this show. The National Gallery of Art’s “Vase of Flowers,” 1900/1903, is bumpy from layer after layer of paint application, a testament to Cézanne’s tenacity. A busy canvas from the Musée d'Orsay, “The Kitchen Table,” 1888-1890, expertly juggles a lot of information, with fruits, cloth, ginger jar, pots and a basket teetering on a table, making for an unstill still life.

“Three Skulls on an Oriental Rug,” 1898-1905, also thick with paint from multiple revisions, is a powerful painting. Recalling his apprenticeship in the master’s Aix-en-Provence studio, artist Émile Bernard said: “The colors and shapes in this painting changed almost every day, and each day when I arrived at his studio it could have been taken from the easel and considered a finished work of art. In truth, his method of study was a meditation with a brush in his hand.”

Exhibition organizers suggest Cézanne turned to this macabre motif in response to his mother’s death in 1897. In “Three Skulls on an Oriental Rug,” the skulls wear haunted expressions as they sit in a cluster on a dark, patterned cloth. With no jawbones, the frightened skulls in this affecting picture seem to make muffled screams....

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Frederick Carl Frieseke at Auction and Exhibition

November 3, 2014, 11:49 am

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Auctions

Bonhams New York 28 November 2007

Frederick Carl Frieseke, Rose Garden, Giverny.

A newly discovered and previously unrecorded oil painting by the American Impressionist artist Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939), is expected to fetch US$800,000-1,200,000 when it comes up for sale at Bonhams in New York on 28 November 2007. Specialists at Bonhams & Goodman found the painting Rose Garden, Giverny in an Australian private collection during a routine valuation.

The dreamy composition of ladies in long, white dresses, languishing in a flower garden, has since been authenticated by both Bonhams'' US Director of Fine Arts Alan Fausel, who flew out to Australia to view the work, and the artist''s grandson and editor of the Frederick C.Frieseke Catalogue Raisonnéé, Nicholas Kilmer.

A great admirer of Claude Monet, Frieseke moved to Giverny in 1906 where he painted at the art colony. While there he met Australian artists Emanuel Phillips Fox and Ambrose Patterson, who heavily influenced his work, including this particular example, to be sold by Bonhams.

Hugh Ramsay and Ambrose Patterson rented a studio in the same building as Frieseke at 51 Boulevard St Jacques, Montparnasse in Paris. George and Amy Lambert lived nearby, and the eclectic group of artists had "jolly musical soirees, drinking, eating, burning gum leaves and playing the piano in Ramsay and MacDonald''s studio," according to art historian Patricia Fullerton who has included a photograph of Frieseke and Ramsay in her book Hugh Ramsay: His Life and Work (Melbourne 1988).

In 1910, Frieseke began to include outdoor subjects in his annual exhibitions at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Art in Paris, with whom he first exhibited in 1899 and it is thought that Rose Garden, Giverny was painted no later than the summer of 1911.

In January 1912, Frieseke held his first solo exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in New York, which included a number of similar compositions featuring female figures in outdoor scenes and Alan Fausel goes as far as saying: "There is a strong possibility that there is a match between this painting, whose title has not been preserved, and the title, Roses and Pansies - one of the lost garden paintings that was included in the 1912 Macbeth Gallery exhibition - of which no image has been discovered."

The oil painting measures 32 x 32 inches and is expected to fetch US$800,000- 1,200,000.

Christie's 16 May 2012

FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE (1874-1939)

FOXGLOVES

Price Realized $2,210,500

Estimate $1,000,000 - $1,500,000

Bonhams New York May 31, 2014

Lot 16

FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE

(American, 1874-1939)

The Garden Chair 28 1/4 x 35 3/4in

Sold for US$ 962,500 inc.premium

Exhibitions

Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915

Musée d’Art Américain Giverny: April 1–July 1, 2007; San Diego Museum of Art: July 22–October 14, 2007

'Frederick Carl Frieseke, Lady in a Garden, oil on canvas, 1915. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999:52.'

FREDERICK CARL FRIESEKE: The Evolution of an American Impressionist

The Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

March 20-June 3, 2001

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis

June 23-August 19, 2001

San Diego Museum of Art

September 8-November 11, 2001

Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago

December 8, 2001-February 3, 2002

Book

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William Merritt Chase: Portraits In Context

November 4, 2014, 11:28 am

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November 8, 2013 to November 8, 2014 Parrish Art Museum 279 Montauk Highway Water Mill, NY 11976

William Merritt Chase was a much sought after portrait painter in Gilded Age America. The commissioned paintings of college presidents, society matrons, and captains of industry run well into the hundreds, but it is in the pictures of his family and students that we see his true art.

As a young man Chase left his native Indiana to attend classes in New York City at the National Academy of Design but stayed less than a year. His real training in art began in Munich at the Royal Academy, where he studied from 1872–1878, and in the picture galleries of the nearby Alte Pinakothek. There he absorbed the lessons of the great portrait painters of the past: the Dutchmen Rembrandt van Rijn and Frans Hals; the Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck; and the Spanish masters Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya. Velázquez’s famous self-portrait in Las Meninas may well have been on Chase’s mind when he painted the

Twilight Portrait of the Artist six years later.

The Golden Lady is a portrait of one of his students during a class Chase led at the Prado in 1896.

Alice Dieudonnée Chase (1887–1971), his eldest child and the subject of three portraits in this gallery, was her father’s favorite model. When asked why, he noted, ”I suppose it is because she looks so much like her dear mother.” In these three works she is not only a willing participant but an active collaborator in the staging of the scene and the affection the artist feels is strongly present.

In the summer of 1889, William Merritt Chase and his family lived in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to escape the city’s summer heat. In

Bath Beach: A Sketch,

his wife Alice is seen walking with their first child, Alice Dieudonnée, along the promenade by the water, a scene modeled after the work of the many French Impressionists he had seen during his time in Europe.

William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916) . Portrait of a Girl in Red Embroidered Jacket, c. 1896. Oil on canvas, 25 3/8 x 18 ½ inches. Parrish Art Museum

In 1902, Chase appointed Robert Henri to teach with him at the New York School of Art (founded in 1896 as the Chase School of Art). The two artists, both well-known portraitists, were unified in their admiration for Hals, Velázquez, and Manet, yet five years later the younger artist’s progressive views led to a complete rupture. Chase’s old master brushwork and refined subjects contrasted with Henri’s modern portrayals of the grittier side of urban life. Two portraits painted during this period and now facing one another in the gallery—Chase’s of his daughter Alice and

Henri’s of his wife Linda—demonstrate the contrasts and similarities between these two colleagues, who together show the changing course of American art at the turn of the twentieth century.

Also in the Museum's Collection:

John Sloan (American, 1871–1951) Hill, Main Street, Gloucester, ca. 1916. Oil on canvas, 25¾ x 39⅞ inches. Parrish Art Museum, Littlejohn Collection,

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Treasures of British Art 1400-2000: The Berger Collection

November 5, 2014, 4:57 am

≫ Next: George Bellows at Auction and Sale

≪ Previous: William Merritt Chase: Portraits In Context

Hans Eworth, “Queen Elizabeth I,” circa 1565-70.

Organized by the Denver Art Museum, the Treasures of British Art 1400-2000: The Berger Collection exhibition will feature 50 masterworks of British art by luminaries including Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, Angelica Kauffman, and George Stubbs.

The Berger Collection is one of the most impressive collections of British art in America and this exhibition provides audiences the rare opportunity to see such a significant body of paintings in this region. The Portland Museum of Art (PMA) is the first venue in this traveling show, which will be on view in Portland, ME October 2, 2014 through January 4, 2015.

With its diverse array of subjects and styles spanning six centuries of artistic practice, Treasures of British Art traces key developments in British art and culture through a chronological presentation of works.

The earliest picture, a gilded altarpiece with a Crucifixion scene from circa 1395, is also an extremely rare surviving example of late Medieval religious painting—the type of object that was systematically destroyed in England when King Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church.

Portraiture has long been an important genre in British art, and this tradition is well-represented in the exhibition from the linear, decorative style of 16th-century portraits of Tudor royals and nobility, to the loosely brushed naturalism ushered in by Sir Anthony van Dyck and found in 17th- and 18th-century portraiture, to the expressionistic 21st-century image of the artist David Hockney by Adam Birtwistle.

Marine paintings and landscapes of faraway places—including a monumental naval battle painting by Adriaen van Diest and a luminous harbor scene by John Constable—reflect not only shifting aesthetic approaches to the natural world, but also the importance of maritime life and overseas exchange in the history of the British Isles. History paintings, equestrian subjects, and other important genres of the British school in styles ranging from the traditional to modern round out the expansive breadth of the exhibition.

The Berger Collection is a major private collection largely of British art, with a small but significant group of works by artists of other schools, including the French artist François Boucher and the American Winslow Homer. The late William M. B. Berger and his wife Bernadette Johnson Berger began amassing this collection in the mid-1990s out of their dual passion for British culture and for art’s potential to educate. Now owned by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and placed on long-term loan at the Denver Art Museum, the collection continues to expand through new acquisitions. The British paintings, drawings, and art objects number approximately 200 works and span more than six centuries—from the 14th to the 21st century. The very best paintings from this extraordinary collection have been selected for the traveling exhibition to fulfill the Berger family’s mission of sharing these masterpieces with a wide public audience.

Treasures of British Art 1400-2000: The Berger Collection is accompanied by a catalogue of the same title authored by Kathleen Stuart, Curator of the Berger Collection. This catalogue includes full-color plates and detailed entries on each of the works in the exhibition.

From a review in maine today: (see the article for more information and images)

...Visitors can ponder the image of Christ nailed to the cross. (I)t was painted in a refined style with attention to the lush nature of the clothing worn by the crowd gathered below the cross, and the background appears three-dimensional, as if sculpted by a tool...

Adriaen Van Diest, “The Battle of Lowestoft,” crica 1690.

From portraits, the show quickly moves into other themes, including pastoral landscapes, seascapes, naval warfare and equestrian scenes.

George Stubbs, “A Saddled Bay Hunter,” 1786

Stubbs was considered Britain’s best horse painter because he was both an artist and scientist. In this painting, he represented a large, majestic horse with a thick neck and strong body. He placed the horse in a rolling landscape.

Stubbs endowed the horse “with such a sense of presence and personality,” Sherry said. “It’s representative of a sporting lifestyle. The horse was an important symbol of status, and this painting is just a fabulous example of that.”

... “Victory Celebrations,” a painting by Sir Claude Francis Barry from 1919, shows fireworks over London celebrating the end of World War I. Barry made this work in pointillist style, with tiny dots of paint forming the fiery spectacle ablaze in the sky above Big Ben, Parliament and the Westminster Bridge.

And finally, from 2002, we see Adam Birtwistle’s portrait of the painter David Hockney. The artist is set against a black background and shown from the waist up. Red suspenders frame his body, and Hockney grasps a pencil in his uplifted right hand. Birtwistle completed the portrait with a pink mark across Hockney’s face, a gestural stroke that is Birtwistle’s trademark.

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George Bellows at Auction and Sale

November 5, 2014, 1:26 pm

≫ Next: Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River

≪ Previous: Treasures of British Art 1400-2000: The Berger Collection

Bonhams' November 19, 2014

Lot 19

GEORGE BELLOWS

(American, 1882-1925)

Two Women 59 1/4 x 65 1/2in

US$ 1 million - 1.5 million

£620,000 - 930,000

€790,000 - 1.2 million

Bonhams' November 19 American Art auction will feature one of the last figural works by prominent early 20th century American artist George Bellows. Two Women, an allegorical work referencing a Renaissance masterpiece by Titian, is estimated at $1,000,000 – 1,500,000.

Bellows' early artistic career was hugely inspired by New York City's dynamic hustle and bustle. He studied under the avant-garde tutelage of Robert Henri where he learned to observe and portray everyday aspects modern American life - a deviation from popular academic painting and Impressionism. Bellows embraced capturing contemporary events before turning to historical and allegorical compositions.

Painted in 1924, a year before Bellows' sudden death, Two Women is an unorthodox homage to Titian's Sacred and Profane Love (ca. 1514). Titan's iconic canvas portrays a clothed woman sitting at a water fountain beside a nude Venus. Two Women's nude and clothed female subjects evoke this image, except for the fact that they are placed in the parlor of Bellows' own home in Woodstock, New York. The women—perhaps one pure and one worldly—look to their right, ignoring the viewer. Bellows includes a variety of compositional juxtapositions resulting in a successful, balanced composition in terms of color and form.

The painting has been widely exhibited at numerous galleries and prestigious museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.

The National GalleryFebruary 2014

The National Gallery in London has purchased George Bellows' 1912 painting "Men of the Docks" for $25.5 million.

The painting has resided for many years at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College in Virginia. The sale was part of a controversial decision by college leaders to deaccession certain works of art in order to shore up its finances.

Museum leaders around the country had condemned the college's decision to deaccession art for the purposes of funding other operations. The decision also riled students and some faculty at the college.

The National Gallery said Friday that money to purchase the painting came from a fund established by the late John Paul Getty Jr. -- son of J. Paul Getty -- as well as from anonymous source.

The Huntington Library April 29, 2014

George Bellows (1882–1925), Summer Fantasy, 1924, oil on canvas, 36 × 48 in. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens announced today it has purchased two major paintings by transformative 20th-century American artists: Lattice and Awning by Arthur Dove (1880–1946) and Summer Fantasy by George Bellows (1882–1925). Summer Fantasy is a late-career landscape that enhances The Huntington’s representation of Bellows’ work.

Summer Fantasy (1924) by George Bellows

George Bellows is perhaps most famous for his gritty depictions of early 20th-century New York urban life, including the iconic boxing picture A Stag at Sharkey's (represented in The Huntington’s collections by the celebrated lithograph of the subject). But he was equally adept at portraits (represented at The Huntington by a painting of his half sister, Laura) and landscapes. “In fact,” said Salatino, “Bellows is one of the greatest landscape painters in the history of American art.”

Summer Fantasy is a dream-like landscape made in the year before the artist’s premature death at the age of 42. It depicts a verdant park scene of ladies with parasols and long flowing dresses, riders on cantering horses, and a golden sun brilliantly reflected in the surface of an idealized Hudson River. Rendered in the artist’s characteristic late style, the painting is a field of riotous, highly keyed color. Its design, though constructed according to a rigorous formal system, is lively and rhythmic.

“On a deeper level,” Salatino said, “the work may be interpreted as an allegory of life. Its imagery subtly moves from birth to maturity to death, all within the confines of a pleasant day’s outing in the park. Nevertheless, Summer Fantasy is ravishingly beautiful and life enhancing, ironically a work of remarkable optimism, given that it's one of Bellows’ last paintings.”

The picture’s balanced, almost classical, compositional structure, eccentric coloring, free brushwork, and dramatic contrasts of light and shade make it a masterpiece of the artist's final years according to Salatino. A work looking simultaneously back to the great traditions of Old Master painting and forward to the modernism that would define 20th-century American art, Summer Fantasy is, said Salatino, “a summation of the artist's tragically truncated career pointing to new and fascinating directions never fully realized.”

Christie's Dec. 5, 2013

GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS (1882-1925)

EVENING SWELL

George Wesley Bellows’ Evening Swell (estimate: $5,000,000-7,000,000) is a superb example of George Wesley Bellows’ large-scale depictions of the rugged Maine coast and an important and evocative painting that demonstrates the artist at the height of his abilities. The work exemplifies the theme of struggle, which is prevalent throughout Bellows’ oeuvre, whether in the boxing ring, on the city streets or, in this case, in savage nature. Evening Swell was painted in 1911, after Bellows accompanied fellow artists Robert Henri and Randall Davey to Monhegan, Maine. His bold, vigorous brushwork, which often approaches pure abstraction, creates a complex seascape, emphasizing the forceful movement of the water against the heavily worked rocks. The drama is heightened by the inclusion of the two fishermen in a boat, who are diminutive in the face of the raw power of nature.

Price Realized $7,893,000

Estimate

$5,000,000 - $7,000,000

Sotheby's 17 MAY 2012

GEORGE BELLOWS
1882 - 1925

TENNIS AT NEWPORT

Estimate

5,000,000 — 7,000,000

LOT SOLD. 7,026,500 USD

Christie's 23 May 2013

George Wesley Bellows, Splinter Beach, crayon, ink and crayon wash over transfer lithograph, Executed in 1913
500,000-700,000

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Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River

November 6, 2014, 7:34 am

≫ Next: Edward Hopper at Auction

≪ Previous: George Bellows at Auction and Sale

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is presents Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River, a dynamic exhibition featuring 16 iconic river paintings and 50 preparatory drawings by George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879) depicting boatmen at work and play on the inland rivers, most notably the Missouri and Mississippi. The first major Bingham exhibition in more than 25 years, Navigating the West signals the importance of western rivers to the culture and economy of the developing nation in the middle of the 19th century. It also provides an unprecedented look at Bingham’s artistic process as he navigated expectations about western identity and capitalized on an expanding American art market. The exhibition is on view October 2, 2014 through January 18, 2015; admission is free.

Bingham was the first artist to live most of his life west of the Mississippi River while still achieving national acclaim and prominence. As a young boy, he emigrated from Virginia to Missouri, where he became a prolific portraitist. Bingham was self-taught and relied on drawing manuals rather than formal academic study. He became an itinerant painter, traveling to nearby counties alongside the Missouri River and painting portraits of aspiring middle-class businessmen. Bingham had an astute grasp of the concept of the self-made man and created images of westerners as they wished to be seen.

To represent a country in economic and social transition, however, in the 1840s, Bingham would adopt the western rivers, the great engines of commercial and cultural significance, as fixtures in his work. His subjects appealed to eastern audiences yearning for romantic evocations of the West, and Bingham was keen to capitalize on such interest. But rather than perpetuate the stereotype of a region that was unsettled and dangerous, he evoked stable, harmonious environments, as seen in

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845)—the artist’s most highly regarded work—

and The Jolly Flatboatmen (1846), perhaps his most recognized composition.

The first depicts a French fur trader and his Métis son bringing pelts to market downriver; the latter shows a crew of frolicking boatmen drifting downriver with a flatboat full of goods.

Bingham’s technique has never been revealed so completely as in this exhibition, which, alongside his river paintings, includes figure studies that the artist used for developing his compositions. For the first time, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity for visitors to see all of Bingham’s preparatory drawings in relation to their paintings. New technical studies undertaken for this exhibition, fully detailed and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, allowed scholars to see beneath the surface of his paintings and gain an unprecedented understanding of his artistic process. Bingham often traced his drawings directly onto his prepared canvases, and indentations and registration marks on the drawings and canvases confirm this finding. Using infrared light, conservators were also able to identify numerous pentimenti, or changes on the canvas that are not part of the final compositions. Visitors will be able to see, through digital imaging, how Bingham removed elements such as a vertical mast and billowing flag in Fur Traders Descending the Missouri in order to achieve a balanced composition for his masterpiece.

Visitors to Navigating the West will also see the last surviving panorama of the Mississippi, nearly 8 feet high. Very popular in the 19th century, these giant scrolling paintings were forerunners to 20th-century motion pictures. They toured the U.S. and Europe, offering the experience of a steamboat trip on the broad expanse of the Mississippi in just a few hours and without the inconvenience of an actual journey. This example, painted by John J. Egan about 1850, has 24 scenes. While its fragility restricts the scrolling feature, one scene depicting a steamboat charging ahead on the Mississippi will be on display; all 24 scenes will be shown on a digital monitor in the exhibition.

After closing in Fort Worth, Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River will travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Mo. (February 22–May 17, 2015) and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (June 17–September 20, 2015).

Organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, this exhibition was created by the curatorial and conservation team of: Claire Barry, director of conservation at the Kimbell Art Museum; Margaret C. Conrads, deputy director of art and research at the Amon Carter; Nancy Heugh, paper conservator at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Nenette Luarca-Shoaf, independent curator; Shirley Reece-Hughes, associate curator, paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter; Janeen Turk, assistant curator of American art at the Saint Louis Art Museum; and Andrew J. Walker, director of the Amon Carter.

Accompanying the exhibition is ahardcover companion book of the same name with contributions by Barry; Conrads; Heugh; Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Alice Pratt Brown curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Luarca-Shoaf; Dorothy Mahon, conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Turk; and Walker. Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River, co-published by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, contains four essays and 175 plates and illustrations.

More images from the exhibition:

George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, 1857
Oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum, 123:1944

George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
Raftsmen Playing Cards, 1847
Oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequest of Ezra H. Linley by exchange, 50:1934

Boatmen on The Mississippi

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Edward Hopper at Auction

November 6, 2014, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: PETER BLUME (1906-1992) at ACA Galleries

≪ Previous: Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River

Christie’s 19 November 2014

EDWARD HOPPER (1882-1967)

RAILROAD EMBANKMENT

$1,200,000 - $1,800,000 

Sotheby's November 10 2014

Edward Hopper Coast Guard Cove

Following the purchase of his first car, Hopper created Coast Guard Cove during his second visit to the village of Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth, Maine in 1929 (est. $1/1.5 million). The majority of the works Hopper completed during this period were executed in watercolor, a medium that allowed him to accurately capture the fleeting qualities of light and shadow on this unique environment.

CHRISTIE’S 23 MAY 2013

Leading the sale was Edward Hopper’smagnificent, large-scale painting Blackwell’s Island (estimate: $15,000,000-20,000,000). The work, which has never been offered at auction, has been exhibited at renowned institutions, such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute. More recently, Blackwell’s Island was included in the first major retrospective of the artist’s work at the Grand Palais in Paris from October 2012 through February 2013. An impressive five feet wide, the work was painted in 1928 and depicts what is now known as Roosevelt Island. A native of Nyack, Edward Hopper was drawn to the New York’s East River and used the banks and bridges as his subject several times between 1911 and 1935.

Also by Edward Hopper is Kelly Jenness House (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000), one of the eight watercolors the artist executed in 1932. Painted in Hopper’s signature style, the work presents a view of a Cape Cod House as one would glimpse the scene from the window of a passing car. The sense of distance and detachment in Kelly Jenness House places the painting among Hopper’s finest works.

Christie’s 28 November 2012

The sale was led by Edward Hopper’s October on Cape Cod, which presents a view of a house and small barn from across a deserted road, permeated by profound silence and stillness (pictured page 2, upper left; estimate: $8,000,000-12,000,000). Gone is the clear blue, summer sky, replaced by the subtle, gray-tinged autumn light. The artist frequently drove around the Cape in search of subject matter, often drawing and painting from his car, a practice that he undertook in various locations throughout his career as far away as the Oregon coast. This imbues his works with a sense of distance, often making the viewer feel like a voyeur, rather than a participant in the scene. Executed in 1946, this work is one of only a few of Hopper’s paintings that have remained in private hands.

Sotheby's May 17, 2012

Set in New York City's Central Park, Bridle Path masterfully exemplifies Edward Hopper's fascination with the mysterious. He imbues the image with his characteristic sense of anxiety and tension, as the three riders move toward an ominous black void under the Riftstone Arch, also magnified by the agitated stance of the white horse. The equestrian subject and focus on movement are highly unusual in Hopper's oeuvre, but the composition's sense of mystery is pure Hopper. The painting is further distinguished by its depiction of an identifiable location, with the city's infamous Dakota building in the background - a departure from Hopper's many ambiguous and universal settings.

The artist featured New York in a small number of additional works that he completed in the city - this group includes New York Movie, finished four months prior to the present work, which is currently in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Bridle Path is on offer from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and is being sold to benefit the acquisitions program

Christie’s 5 DECEMBER 2013

EDWARD HOPPER | East Wind Over Weehawken

Estimate: $22,000,000-28,000,000

As the star lot of the sale, Christie’s will offer East Wind Over Weehawken by Edward Hopper (1882-1967), a 1934 streetscape of a New Jersey suburb (illustrated page 1). The work was created shortly after Hopper’s fall 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career. With his studio based in New York City, Hopper would occasionally travel across the Hudson River to New Jersey in search of subject matter. He carried out eight preparatory sketches of the sleepy suburb of New York, along with extensive notes about color in the area, which all contributed to the finished streetscape. The perspective is as if one is looking through a car window, having come to an intersection in the residential neighborhood. The work, which sought to capture the realities of Depression-era America, is permeated by a sense of melancholy and loneliness, underscored by the gray sky and brooding colors of the buildings. This, combined with the sense of suspended narrative, is what differentiated Hopper from his Ashcan School contemporaries.

This painting hails from the prestigious collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and has not been on the market since having been acquired by PAFA in 1952. Since its creation, the painting has been exhibited at such renowned institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, São Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the Grand Palais in Paris. As announced by PAFA, proceeds from the sale of East Wind Over Weehawken will be used to support the creation of a new endowment for the purchase of artworks to expand the renowned collection of the museum and school.

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PETER BLUME (1906-1992) at ACA Galleries

November 7, 2014, 7:45 am

≫ Next: BEN SHAHN at Auction

≪ Previous: Edward Hopper at Auction

ACA Galleries has announced the upcoming exhibition, PETER BLUME (1906-1992), on view November 6, 2014 through January 31, 2015. The exhibition will feature paintings, drawings and sculpture from the artist’s estate.

Concurrent with the ACA Galleries exhibition is the first Peter Blume retrospective since 1976, Nature and Metamorphosis, organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art (PAFA), Philadelphia (November 14, 2014 – April 5, 2015).

This exhibition will travel to the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT (June 27 – September 20, 2015).

Peter Blume’s modernism embodies the clashing contradictions of the 20th Century: abstract complexities with nostalgia for a simpler past; the rush of urban living with the yearning for a lost pastoral life; the cold reality of politics with the quest for spiritual meaning in a world ravaged by two world wars and a ruinous economic depression. By embracing the irreconcilable, Blume transcends Modernist art’s conventional aspirations to re-define order in a chaotic world. His oeuvre is metamorphosis itself, a realm where paradox rules. Within that clash Blume found profound meaning and sublime beauty.

Blume’s deep knowledge of art history holds these disparate elements together. We see the elegance of Renaissance rendering, the balance and figurative perfection of Classical antiquity, the rule-breaking energy of Modernism, and the spontaneity of folk art. The latter reflects his Russian Jewish roots and his embrace of the culture of his adopted land, America. Together with his understanding of the emotional properties of color, the structural backbone of architecture, and the physicality of sculpture, Blume was able to corral these elements into a surreal narrative.

Adding richness to Blume’s already complex mix of influences was his involvement with metaphysical experimentation. His interest in Automatism and “automatic writing” found its way into his preliminary studies for paintings and his works on paper in particular, where he allowed his hand to move spontaneously across a surface. The results are dynamic works of flowing lines and exciting shapes existing in metaphysical tension, where the physical facts of the world meet the whispered secrets of the mind and spirit.

In a life that spanned nearly the entirety of the 20th Century, Blume’s art recorded not the dry facts of that century but the soul of it, its struggles against incomprehensible violence, and its triumphs of survival over man-made madness. This achievement won Blume critical acclaim throughout his career, winning a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Carnegie International Prize in the 1930s. His work is represented in major public and private collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Smithsonian Institution of American Art in D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

From the Exhibition:

Peter Blume
Cow in Pasture, 1926
Oil on canvas
18 x 20 in. (45.7 x 50.8 cm)

Peter Blume
Facade of Falling Water,
Pencil on paper
12 1/4 x 14 in. (31.1 x 35.6 cm)

Peter Blume
Study for Boulders of Avila, 1975
Oil on canvas
22 x 38 in. (55.88 x 96.52 cm)

Peter Blume
Study for Crashing Surf, 1989
Oil on canvas
20 x 50 in. (50.8 x 127 cm)

Peter Blume
Study from Recollection of the Flood, 1967
Oil on paper
7 1/4 x 7 3/4 in. (18.42 x 19.69 cm)

Satyr with Cock, 1974, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

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BEN SHAHN at Auction

November 7, 2014, 8:11 am

≫ Next: REGINALD MARSH at AUCTION

≪ Previous: PETER BLUME (1906-1992) at ACA Galleries

Bonham's December 4,

2013

BEN SHAHN

(American, 1898-1969)

Bather 13 1/2 x 9 1/2in

Sold for US$ 21,250 inc.premium

Sotheby’s May 17, 2102

Ben Shahn

Freedom of The Press

Christies, March 1, 2012

BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)

HAMILTON FISH PARK

PR.$158,500

Christies, December 1, 2010

Ben Shahn

PRISONERS OF WAR

Price Realized

$52,500

Estimate $20,000 - $30,000

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REGINALD MARSH at AUCTION

November 7, 2014, 8:18 am

≫ Next: Oscar Bluemner at Auction

≪ Previous: BEN SHAHN at Auction

Bonhams November 19, 2014

Lot 17

REGINALD MARSH

(American, 1898-1954)

(American, 1898-1954)

Off to the Movies, Love Affair is Playing! 28 x 20in

US$ 40,000 - 60,000

Swann Galleries’ June 12, 2014

Reginald Marsh’s Vaudeville Dancers on a Stage, watercolor, pen and ink, 1944, $20,000

Skinner May 17, 2013

Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954)

Dancing Couple

Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954)

Fat Men's Shop

Sold for:: $26,400

Skinner Feb 07, 2014

Sold for:: $923

Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Loco Waiting to be Junked, 1932, final state of 5 (Sasowsky, 130). Signed "Reginald Marsh" in pencil l.r. Etching with hand-coloring on paper,

FLAG

BID

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Oscar Bluemner at Auction

November 10, 2014, 7:39 am

≫ Next: Maxfield Parrish at Auction

≪ Previous: REGINALD MARSH at AUCTION

Christie’s 19 November 2014

OSCAR BLUEMNER (1867-1938)

JERSEY SILKMILLS

$2,500,000 - $3,500,000 

OSCAR BLUEMNER (1867-1938)

NRA

$700,000 - $1,000,000 

Christie’s 5 DECEMBER 2013

OSCAR BLUEMNER | Surprise (May Moon)

Estimate: $400,000-600,000

Surprise (May Moon) was executed by Oscar Bluemner in 1927 (illustrated left), a key moment in the artist’s career, as he was experiencing an important shift in his style. Following the passing of his wife the previous year, Bluemner moved his family from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to South Braintree, Massachusetts. His artworks reflected this emotionally turbulent time and he focused on motifs of suns and moons, seeing them as symbols of God or a universal creator. Surprise (May Moon) is one of a series of eighteen extraordinary works known as Oscar Bluemner’s Sun and Moon series that offer a life affirming depiction of nature and its spiritual force. Here Bluemner masterfully utilizes color to shape and stimulate mood and to convey a range of powerful emotions in a single image. These important watercolors were the successors to Georgia O’Keeffe’s Evening Star series and a precursor to Arthur Dove’s exploration of similar iconography in the 1930s.

Christie’s NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Oscar Bluemner’s Illusion of a Prairie, New Jersey (Red Farm at Pochuck), (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000), is a powerful symphony of form and color and a seminal work that was exhibited in the artist’s first one-man show at Alfred Stieglitz’s celebrated avant-garde gallery, “291.” Painted in 1915, this masterwork is also one of the earliest, large-scale (30 x 40 in) paintings to manifest Bluemner’s fully developed and highly personal visual lexicon. He masterfully employs color as expression and reduces the landscape in order to capture his emotional response to the setting. He simplifies trees, river, hills and buildings, rendering them with broad, emotive brushwork. Illusion of a Prairie, is an early triumph and a powerful, dramatic composition that manifests Bluemner’s fully developed artistic vision, one that was both thoroughly unique and decisively modern.

Sotheby's April 26, 2014

OSCAR BLUEMNER

HUDSON RIVER

Estimate

15,000 — 20,000

LOT SOLD. 15,000

Sotheby's October 2, 2014

OSCAR BLUEMNER

BORDENTOWN

Estimate

6,000 — 9,000

LOT SOLD. 9,375 USD

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Maxfield Parrish at Auction

November 10, 2014, 7:51 am

≫ Next: Sanford Robinson Gifford at Auction

≪ Previous: Oscar Bluemner at Auction

Christie’s 19 November 2014

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966)

LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE

$3,000,000 - $5,000,000 

Christie’s 23 May 2013

Maxfield Parrish, Peaceful Valley (Homestead),

oil on panel

600,000-800,000

SOTHEBY’S DEC 4 2013

MAXFIELD PARRISH 1870 - 1966

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS: THE SIX LITTLE INGREDIENTS

Estimate 250,000 — 350,000

Lot Sold 1,925,000

MAXFIELD PARRISH 1870 - 1966

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS: LIST OF CHARACTERS

Estimate 200,000 — 300,000

Lot Sold 437,000

Christie’s 28 November 2012

A highlight among the illustrations in the sale is Maxfield Parrish’s The Manager Draws the Curtain, the last of twenty-five paintings the artist made for Louise Saunder’s 1925 book, The Knave of Hearts (pictured left; estimate: $400,000-600,000). Parrish posed for the whimsical work and acts as the master of ceremonies, dressed as a thespian and welcoming the viewer into the story by dramatically drawing back the stage curtain. Influenced by the Old Master painters, Parrish often painted with glazes, a meticulous process that resulted in magnificent luminosity and intensity of color. After its completion, The Manager Draws the Curtain was gifted to Louise Saunders by Parrish and has remained in the author’s family since the late 1920s.

Christie’s May 18, 2011

Originally commissioned by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney for her Fifth Avenue mansion, Parrish’s 18-foot wide North Wall Panel is among the largest American paintings ever offered at Christie’s New York. This fanciful panorama employs a myriad of brilliant hues and patterns to create a captivating and complex multi-figural scene that blends pre-Raphaelite sentiment, Old Master technique and a playful sense of wonder, as though offering a view into an imaginary world. As was his practice, Parrish employed family and friends to serve as models for his works, and the North Wall Panel includes many recognizable faces, including his own and that of his wife’s. In total, Parrish produced four murals for Ms. Whitney, who installed them in her sculpture studio in Old Westbury, Long Island. North Wall Panel is offered from the personal collection of Ms. Whitney’s granddaughter, Pamela LeBoutillier of Old Westbury.

Sothebys' May 2013

Maxfield Parrish, Wynken, Blynken and Nod, 1902 $845,000 EST $200,000 - 300,000

Maxfield Parrish, Prometheus, 1919 $785,000 EST $400,000 - 600,000

Sotheby's December 1, 2011

MAXFIELD PARRISH
1870 - 1966

CASCADES (QUIET SOLITUDE)

Estimate

300,000 — 500,000

LOT SOLD. 782,500 USD

Sotheby's May 19, 2011

MAXFIELD PARRISH
1870 - 1966

WHITE BIRCH

Estimate

200,000 — 300,000

Christie’s December 1, 2010

Maxfield Parrish,
Autumn Brook,
oil on board, 1948

$400,000-600,000

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Sanford Robinson Gifford at Auction

November 10, 2014, 8:05 am

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Christie’s 19 November 2014

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)

MANCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

$700,000 - $1,000,000 

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880)

HOOK MOUNTAIN NEAR NYACK, NEW YORK

$500,000 - $700,000 

Christie’s 5 DECEMBER 2013

Sanford Robinson Gifford’s Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861 was among the highlights in the sale of American Art on 5 December. 2013. Gifford’s rare depictions of the American Civil War are particularly noteworthy and poignant as they are based on his firsthand experiences as a Union soldier from his three tours of duty in the spring and summer of 1861, 1862 and 1863, while most artists painted solely via observation. Estimated at $3-5 million, the work stands to set a new world auction record for the Hudson River School master.

Elizabeth Sterling, Head of American Art at Christie’s in New York, said, “One of four major large-scale paintings based on Sanford Robinson Gifford’s involvement in the War, this work is the most important work by the artist to have ever been offered for sale publicly. Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861 presents a historically accurate account of quotidian military life, as well as a glimpse into Gifford’s optimistic outlook on the Civil War and his faith in the Union troops.

Born in Greenfield, New York in 1823, Gifford formally studied at Brown University from 1842-1844 and, following his move to New York City, later trained under the tutelage of British watercolorist and drawing-master, John R. Smith. In 1846, he left the confines of the classroom and ventured to the Berkshire Hills and the Catskill Mountains to sketch from nature. This experience transformed his career, leading to his reputation as a first-rank member of the Hudson River School and arguably the father of American Luminism. In 1861, immediately following the Confederate siege on Fort Sumter, Gifford volunteered to join the Union army as a member of the Eighth Company of the Seventh Regiment, New York State National Guard, which was posted to defend Washington, D.C. As such, he was among the first 75,000 soldiers President Abraham Lincoln called to defend the capital.

Despite the demands of being a soldier, Gifford carried a sketchbook with him, capturing small vignettes of military life on his breaks. Indeed, Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861 reflects Gifford’s unique and personal observations from inside his regiment through a blended style of masterful landscape and insightful narrative. He presents a sweeping vista of a Sunday ritual in the Seventh Regiment taking place in the outskirts of America’s capitol, which can be seen in the middleground of the composition. Gifford employs the Washington monument, which was then in the process of being erected, as the vehicle for the one-point perspective that supplies the painting with unrivaled drama. The land merging into the sky beyond the Potomac River emphasizes the expansiveness of the vista and reinforces the sense of stateliness. Gifford frames the composition with trees and groups of soldiers artfully spaced across the sunlit broad grassy area. Their attention is held by the clergyman at center, whose sermon is directed towards the city of Washington and is being given at a podium decorated with the American flag. In addition to its skillful demonstration of perspective and its spiritual message of hope, the present work is also significant in that it accurately chronicles a traditional military event, down to the color of the soldiers’ dress.

The only example in Gifford’s series of four major Civil War pictures that remains in private hands, Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861 has been in the collection of The Union League Club in New York City since 1871. The work has been exhibited at such renowned institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in addition to having been hung in the Oval Office of the White House while it was on loan there, from the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 to 1989. The esteemed provenance and overall superb quality of the work make this sale a rare opportunity to acquire an icon of profound historical significance and a symbol of America’s past and present glory. In Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861 Gifford points to a new understanding of American identity as conveyed through a picture of quiet solitude, creating a deeply profound work that is a superb representation of his military experience coupled with the artistic, political and social influences of his day.

Christie’s23 May 2013

Sanford Robinson Gifford,
Tappan Zee,
oil on canvas, Painted in 1879-80

200,000-300,000

Sotheby's May 22, 2013

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD
1823 - 1880

INDIANS AT SUNSET (SUNSET IN THE WILDERNESS)

Estimate

80,000 — 120,000

LOT SOLD. 173,000

Bonham's December 4, 2013

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD

(American, 1823-1880)

The Darent, Kent, England 12 x 10in

US$ 30,000 - 50,000

SOTHEBY’S DEC 4 2013

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD 1823 - 1880

THE DESERT AT ASSOUAN, EGYPT

Estimate 80,000 — 120,000

Lot Sold 81,250

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD 1823 - 1880

THE WILDERNESS

Estimate 800,000 — 1,200,000

Lot Sold 965,000

↧

Albert Bierstadt at Auction

November 10, 2014, 8:58 am

≫ Next: ERNEST LAWSON at AUCTION

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Bonhams 19 Nov 2014

ALBERT BIERSTADT

(American, 1830-1902)

Butterfly 6 3/4 x 8 1/2in

US$ 12,000 - 18,000

SOTHEBY’S DEC 4 2013

ALBERT BIERSTADT 1830 - 1902

THE WILD WEST

Estimate 200,000 — 300,000

Lot Sold 269,000

ALBERT BIERSTADT 1830 - 1902

LAKE IN THE SIERRA NEVADA

Estimate 1,500,000 — 2,500,000

Lot Sold 2,105,000

Christie’s 28 November 2012

Seals on the Rocks, executed by Albert Bierstadt circa 1872-1873, is one of only five large-scale oils of the subject and one of three in this series that depict the rock formation known as Muir Bridge, located off the coast of San Francisco (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000). Bierstadt made multiple journeys from the East Coast to the far reaches of the Western frontier in search of a pure landscape as untouched by human presence. Among the diverse topography that inspired him during his travels was the coast of California. Bierstadt splendidly portrays the rugged coast and turbulent sea in Seals on the Rocks while imbuing the canvas with a celestial light, juxtaposing the power and sublimity of the natural world, emblematic of his greatest works.

Christie’s May 18, 2011

The Falls of Saint Anthony

Albert Bierstadt's paintings of the untamed American West are some of the most significant historical and artistic accomplishments of the 19th century. While other artists had made expeditions throughout the area as early as the 1830s, few could rival Bierstadt in his ability to convey the grandeur of this wondrous region to the American public. Painted circa 1887, The Falls of Saint Anthony depicts the only natural major waterfall on the Upper Mississippi River. Before European exploration, the falls held cultural and political significance for native tribes who frequented the area. The Dakota Indians associated the falls with legends and spirits, including Oanktehi, god of waters and evil, who lived beneath the falling water. Filled with vivid light and dramatic elements, the painting embodies Bierstadt's powerful vision of the pristine, unspoiled Western landscape.

Sotheby's April 16, 2014