American Paintings at Bonhams

Lita Solis-Cohen | November 28th, 2012

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Little Caldwell's Island, 1940, signed lower right. The 32" x 40" tempera on panel was estimated at $1,000,000/1,500,000 and sold for $722,500 to John Driscoll of Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York City. The view is of Little Caldwell’s Island from Caldwell’s Island (Knox County, Maine) at low tide. When Wyeth was 23 years old, he rendered it with minute detail, showing in the foreground kelp, clusters of mussels, periwinkles, and barnacles on an accurately textured sea ledge. According to the catalog, Wyeth wrote a letter to his sister Ann describing how he was putting all his effort into this large tempera and thought “it is going to be worth it in the end.”

Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), The Warning. The 34" x 48" mixed media on paper was done in 2007 and signed lower left. It sold for $458,500 (est. $250,000/350,000) to John Driscoll of Driscoll Babcock Galleries in the salesroom. According to the catalog notes, Wyeth painted this picture while working on his “The Seven Deadly Sins” series, a body of work depicting seagulls performing each of the forbidden acts. The gulls, which he knows well from living on the coast of Maine, provide Jamie Wyeth inspiration. Here he painted the main character coming at the viewer at an alarming angle with its wings spread and flying confidently above the swirling sea. This painting expresses Wyeth’s own voice, quite different from any work by his father, Andrew Wyeth.

Bonhams, New York City

by Lita Solis-Cohen

Photos courtesy Bonhams

At the American art sale at Bonhams in Manhattan on November 28, 2012, four works by Wyeths—two by Andrew and two by Jamie—were received with enthusiasm. The four paintings brought more than half the sale's total, which was about $2.9 million for 56 of the 98 lots offered.

"The lively bidding on the top lots secured the third- and fourth-highest prices at auction for works by Jamie Wyeth, and we were excited to see active bidding for all genres in this collecting field,” said Alan Fausel, director of American paintings at Bonhams.

This was the first sale at Bonhams for Kayla Carlsen, who headed this auction after having moved to Bonhams from Christie’s in the summer of 2012. She said that she was thrilled to see bidders “continue to chase works with fair estimates and strong provenance.”

There was good feeling in the salesroom, but the results reflected a picky market, even with a larger than usual crowd of bidders on site, plenty of bidders on the phones and on the Internet, and some substantial bids left with the auctioneer. Of the 98 lots offered, 42 failed to find buyers, for a 57% sold rate by lot. There were some good pictures among the 56 sold.

Andrew Wyeth’s 1940 highly detailed tempera painting on panel Little Caldwell’s Island, estimated at $1,000,000/1,500,000, sold for $722,500 (including buyer’s premium) to John Driscoll of Driscoll Babcock Galleries, dealers in art of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including contemporary art. The gallery recently moved to 525 West 25th Street, calling itself “Chelsea’s newest/ New York’s oldest.” The other Andrew Wyeth painting in the sale was a watercolor on paper of a pumpkin in the doorway of the Ericksons’ shed in Cushing, Maine, a picture about light and shadow. It sold for $182,500 (est. $200,000/300,000).

Both of the paintings by Jamie Wyeth sold over estimates (figured without buyers’ premiums). The Warning, a large, dramatic, mixed media painting on paper created in 2007, sold for $458,500 (est. $250,000/350,000), the second-highest price ever realized for a Jamie Wyeth artwork on paper. Dead Cat Museum, Monhegan Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1999 of a young boy standing by his sign, hoping to profit from the tourists in the background, sold on the phone for $422,500.

Among the other highlights was a large Hudson River school painting by David Johnson, On the Wallkill River, Ulster County, New York, painted in 1869, which sold for $194,500, just under its $200,000/300,000 estimate. A luminous Sunset on the Coast of Labrador by William Bradford sold for $31,250 (est. $25,000/35,000) and would have brought more if the surface of the painting were not crazed. According to a condition report by a conservator, the crackling would disappear with relining. If so, it was a very good buy. Three phone bidders competed for Jane Peterson’s The Boat Landing, an 18" x 24" gouache and charcoal on paper. It sold for $57,500 (est. $12,000/18,000).

For more information, visit the Web site (www.bonhams.com) or call Kayla Carlsen at (917) 206-1699 or Alan Fausel at (212) 644-9039.

Jamie Wyeth, Dead Cat Museum, Monhegan Island. Painted in 1999, this 60" x 40" oil on canvas is signed lower left. It sold to a phone bidder for $422,500 (est. $250,000/350,000). In the 1980’s and 1990’s Wyeth produced a number of portraits of local islanders. This one shows Kyle Murdoch trying to lure a crowd of summer tourists, who appear in the background, seemingly headed in a different direction. Because of its strongly narrative scene, a catalog note calls it “Rockwellian in scope, with a distinctive Wyeth edge.” The style of this painting embraces the illustration heritage of Wyeth’s work, looking back to his grandfather N.C. Wyeth.

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Waves, 1920, signed lower right. The 7½" x 8¾" oil on paper sold on the phone for $58,750 (est. $15,000/20,000). Painted on Martha’s Vineyard in 1920, it is related to a drawing called Waves at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, illustrated in Richard Wattenmaker’s book American Paintings and Works on Paper in the Barnes Foundation.

Anna Mary “Grandma” Robertson Moses (1860-1961), Thanksgiving, signed “Moses” lower right, dated “June 30, 1956,” and inscribed with title and “1717” on a label affixed to the reverse. The 16" x 24" oil on pressed wood sold for $40,000 (est. $40,000/60,000) to Jane Kallir of Galerie St. Etienne, New York City. According to the provenance published in the catalog, Galerie St. Etienne had owned it in 1956.

There were Grandma Moses paintings in various sizes and for various prices at all the auction houses this season. There were four at Bonhams and two sold. Christie’s sold two: one slightly larger, Watering the Horses, a 20" x 24" tempera on masonite, for $86,500; and Dark Sky, 18¼" x 24", for $60,000. Sotheby’s sold two: The Old Oaken Bucket, a 22" x 28" oil on board, for $74,500; and The Willow Mill, an 18" x 24" oil on masonite, for $56,250.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Portrait of Joseph Bangs Warner. This 24" x 19" charcoal on paper is signed lower left and dated 1913 on the lower right. The portrait sold on the phone for $40,000 (est. $20,000/30,000). The drawing was accompanied by a four-page letter by Sargent’s friend expatriate writer Henry James. In the letter to the sitter’s son Langdon Warner, James seems to have arranged the sitting (“he will with pleasure do a charcoal ‘one sitting’ (so-called) head of your Father…”) but has to explain that Sargent has recently raised his price to 70 pounds, “by reason that on the lower figure (whatever that was) he found himself so submerged in applications that he was doing charcoal heads all day long.”

Jane Peterson (1876-1965), The Boat Landing. The 18" x 24" gouache and charcoal on paper was signed lower right and inscribed with the title on the reverse. It sold for $57,500 (est. $12,000/18,000) with competition from three phone bidders.

William Bradford (1823-1892), Sunset on the Coast of Labrador. The 12" x 20" oil on canvas is inscribed on the frame “Sunset on the coast of Labrador/ Wm Bradford.” It sold for $31,250 (est. $25,000/35,000). A luminous painting, it had crazed paint, which conservators wrote in a condition report could be fixed with relining.

Portrait of a Young Lady by Charles Frederic Ulrich (1858-1908) was signed and dated 1903. The 22" x 17" oil on panel sold on the phone for $41,250 (est. $10,000/15,000) with competitive bidding in the room, from an absentee bidder, and from several phone bidders.

David Johnson (1827-1908), On the Walkill River, Ulster County, New York. The painting is signed with monogram, dated “D.J./ 1869,” and was inscribed “On the Walkill River, Ulster County, NY/ David Johnson, 1869” on the reverse prior to lining. The 28" x 44" oil on canvas sold in the salesroom for $194,500 (est. $200,000/300,000).