"Hands Up!" Goes Way Up

November 22nd, 2016

Christie’s, New York City

Photos courtesy Christie’s

Christie’s made a big bang with N.C. Wyeth’s “Hands Up!” when it sold for $4,951,500 (with buyer’s premium) at its American art sale on the morning of November 22, 2016. It established a world auction record for the artist.

The top lot of the sale, setting an auction record for Newell Convers Wyeth, “Hands Up!” was painted in 1906. It sold to a buyer bidding on the phone for $4,951,500 (est. $1.5/2.5 million). Head of department Elizabeth Beaman commented after the sale, “We weren’t surprised. Early N.C. Wyeths are incredibly rare to market; most are in museum collections.” The painting was “real magic” she added, explaining that it appealed to illustration art collectors and collectors of Western art. “There were eight bidders prepared to participate, a mix of private, trade, and institutional,” she noted. “Hands Up!” was published as a color frontispiece illustration in the August 1906 issue of McClure’s Magazine to accompany part one of C.P. Connolly’s “The Story of Montana.” When auctioneer and deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas John Hays got to this lot and gave the name of the painting, he smiled and said, “It’s a good metaphor for what we’re doing here today.”

“Everyone’s calling us now with N.C. Wyeths,” declared head of department Elizabeth Beaman in a telephone interview the following week. The signed and dated 43" x 30" oil on canvas was estimated at $1.5/2.5 million. It had been published as a color frontispiece illustration in the August 1906 issue of McClure’s Magazine to accompany part one of C.P. Connolly’s “The Story of Montana.”

The auction offered 100 lots and included many Impressionist works and totaled $36,728,000, with 75% of lots sold. Ten lots sold for more than $1 million. Moreover, auction records were set for six other artists—Frederick Carl Frieseke, Edward Moran, John Leslie Breck, Richard Edward Miller, Gaston Lachaise, and Jewett Campbell.

The Peacocks by Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935) was modeled in 1918 and cast between 1923 and 1929. It sold to a bidder on the phone with Liz Beaman for $523,500, establishing an auction record for the artist. The parcel gilt-bronze, 22 3/8" high on a ½" black marble base, 56½" long, was estimated at $250,000/350,000. Lachaise made the original bronze cast in 1922, and 13 additional casts were made between 1923 and 1929, including this one. The model is lost, and six of the casts are in public collections. The location of two of the 14 casts is unknown, according to an entry in Christie’s catalog. This cast has been given the identification number LF 315/LF 198 by the Lachaise Foundation, New York City.

This large (95" x 70½") oil painting by Edward Moran (1829-1901), Commerce of Nations Rendering Homage to Liberty, was painted in 1876 and sold in the salesroom to New York City dealer John Driscoll of Driscoll Babcock Galleries for $1,327,500 (est. $700,000/1,000,000), establishing an auction record for the artist. When Moran learned that French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi planned to design the Statue of Liberty, he supported the cause by painting this work. “Completed sometime in 1876 and acclaimed at the Palette Club reception in October, the work now served as a banner for the fledging pedestal campaign, exhibited at social and business functions of the American Committee, at an art exhibition held at New York’s Union League in 1880, and possibly at the banquet honoring Ulysses S. Grant in Paris in 1877. In 1880, Joseph W. Drexel acquired the painting at the reported price of ten thousand dollars…,” according to P. Provoyeur and J.E. Hargrove in Liberty: The French-American Statue in Art and History (1986), p. 147. The painting descended in the Drexel family.

“There’s a captive audience of underbidders,” Beaman said while discussing the Wyeth, and “it’s easier to capitalize on its success with private sales immediately after the auction.” Beaman was taking calls from collectors of Wyeths asking her to recalibrate insurance values. Moreover, she was reaching out to her list of Wyeth owners to gauge their interest in selling. She said, “We’re proactive.”

There were more Impressionist and 19th-century paintings offered in this sale and fewer Modernism works than in seasons past, noted Beaman.

“The market was ready to see some Impressionist works,” she said. “The depth of material hasn’t appeared in a while.” She also conjectured, “Maybe people want to see pretty, happy pictures.”

The Garden by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939), painted in 1913, sold to a young woman bidding in the salesroom for $2,407,500 (est. $1.5/2.5 million). The signed 25½" x 32" oil on canvas depicts Frieseke’s garden in Giverny, France and last sold at auction at Christie’s on May 21, 1998, when it was bought by Berry-Hill Galleries, New York City, for $893,500. After arriving in Giverny in 1906, Frieseke lived in artist Theodore Robinson’s former house, near Monet’s estate. The painting came from a New York private collection.

Private dealer Frederick Hill of Collisart, LLC, New York City, who was in the salesroom, bought seven lots for clients and for his own account. He said, “The market is quite alive, quite strong. There are opportunities for buyers. The American art segment is undervalued relative to others, such as contemporary art, and it’s exciting. There’s an upside from an investment point of view.”

Three Rockwell Kent paintings were offered, and two sold. Alaska Impression (Resurrection Bay) sold for $199,500 (est. $50,000/70,000) to a phone bidder.  A man in the salesroom paid $703,500 (est. $300,000/500,000) for Iceberg; Sledge Dogs, Greenland. Asked about the presence of Kent’s paintings at the Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions and at the American Art Fair, Beaman replied, “It’s fascinating. Generally, they’re hard to come by. Rockwell Kent is having a moment.”

Christie’s offered three works by Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), and two sold. Alaska Impression (Resurrection Bay), painted 1918-19, sold to a buyer bidding on the phone with Sotheby’s Liz Beaman. The buyer paid $199,500 for the signed 11 7/8" x 13 7/8" oil on panel (est. $50,000/70,000). Underbidders included New York City dealer Louis Salerno of Questroyal Fine Art and an art advisor for Citibank. The painting descended in the family from the collection of Joseph J. “J.J.” Ryan of Oak Ridge, Virginia, a friend and patron of Kent.

This work by Rockwell Kent from the collection of Kent’s friend and patron J.J. Ryan, Iceberg; Sledge Dogs, Greenland, was painted around 1935 to 1937 and 1952. It sold to a man in the salesroom for $703,500 (est. $300,000/500,000). The bidder is a broker/dealer who bought the painting for a Seattle client, said cataloger and Kent aficionado Scott R. Ferris, who sat next to the man. Kent traveled to Greenland on three occasions between 1929 and 1935. Not shown, Kent’s Frozen Falls (Alaska); Ice Curtains (est. $200,000/300,000) was passed at $170,000.

Whether dealers at the art fair offered their paintings by Kent as a result of seeing his works in the auction houses’ catalogs or they sought them from their clients, Beaman couldn’t say. “We’re a small ecosystem,” she said. “If we do well with an artist, a gallery can capture the heart of an underbidder.”

“We’re always busy,” she stated. “Things are well underway for the May sale.”

Further information is available online (www.christies.com) or by calling (212) 636-2000.

Boy with Cow by Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) was painted in 1921 and sold to a woman in the salesroom for $271,500 (est. $30,000/50,000). The 16 1/8" x 20" oil had been acquired by Samuel Lewisohn from the artist and descended to the consignors. Kuniyoshi’s works from the 1920s frequently included cows.

Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) painted Lobster Boat, Morning in 1970. It garnered attention from bidders on the phone, in the room, online, and one who left a bid with the auctioneer. A buyer bidding on the phone with Liz Beaman was victorious, paying $451,500 (est. $200,000/300,000) for the signed, dated, and inscribed oil on canvas. The 27¾" x 31¾" painting was likely inspired by the view of Penobscot Bay from Great Spruce Head Island, the Porter family’s home in Maine, according to an entry in Christie’s catalog.

Three phone bidders and one in the room vied for Maynard Dixon’s studies (one shown) for Grass Land and Ploughed Land, which were murals painted in 1938 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition at San Francisco’s Treasure Island. Estimated at $50,000/70,000 the two studies in oil on canvas, each 40" x 100", sold to one of the phone bidders for $367,500. Originally acquired by San Francisco architect Aleck Ludvig Wilson around the time of the exposition, the murals had descended in the family.

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) painted this study for Swing Your Partner circa 1945. The 8 5/8" x 13" study sold for $457,500 (est. $200,000/300,000) to a buyer bidding on the phone. Benton’s 23" x 32" watercolor Swing Your Partner, 1945, is in a private collection. The study had been acquired by the consignor from the artist between 1957 and 1961 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation.

Originally published in the February 2017 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2017 Maine Antique Digest