Art of the Americas Sale | Maine Antique Digest

Sotheby’s, New York City

Photos courtesy Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s held its “Art of the Americas” sale featuring the American West January 24 in two sessions. The sale was part of the auction house’s “Visions of America” weeklong event. Overall, the two sessions totaled $8,716,620. The first session offered 48 lots and had an 83.3% sell-through rate. The second session offered 45 lots and achieved a 93.3% sell-through rate. The combined sales had an 88% sell-through rate, according to the auction house. The total estimates were $6,823,000/10,112,000.

The auction was attended by a handful of people, including a few New York art dealers and two representatives from a Wisconsin museum who were in town for Americana Week.

The top-selling lot was this signed work by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), Hummingbirds and Gold and Purple Orchids, executed 1875-83. The 14" x 22¼" oil on canvas sold for $2,077,500 (est. $1.2/1.8 million) to a bidder on the phone with Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s vice chairman and head of Impressionist and modern art. It was property from the collection of Maude B. Feld (d. 1995) of New York City. The underbidder was on the phone with Sotheby’s chairman of North and South America, Lisa Dennison.

The top-selling lot was Hummingbirds and Gold and Purple Orchids by Martin Johnson Heade, which sold to a bidder on the phone with a Sotheby’s specialist for $2,077,500 (including buyer’s premium). The underbidder was on the phone with another Sotheby’s specialist. The signed 14" x 22¼" oil on canvas was the property from the collection of Maude B. Feld (d. 1995) of New York City, and it contributed nearly one-quarter of the overall sale total.

Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt, estimated at $700,000/1 million, sold for $780,000 to a phone bidder. The 20½" x 30¼" oil on canvas, property from a New York private collection, is signed lower right and was executed 1863-68. The painting had sold at Sotheby’s, New York City, May 21, 2003, lot 217, for $512,000 (est. $300,000/500,000), according to askART.

Henry François Farny (1847-1916) painted The Happy Days of Long Ago in 1912. The signed and dated oil on canvas, 33" x 23", sold for $780,000 (est. $500,000/700,000) to consultant Alan Miller of Pennsylvania, bidding in the room. The work was property from a private American Western collector and “boasts an exceptional provenance history, having previously resided in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s collection, and was on loan at the White House for five years between 1981 and 1986,” according to the lot entry.

Two works tied for the second-highest-selling lot: Albert Bierstadt’s Yosemite sold on the phone for $780,000 (est. $700,000/1 million); and Henry François Farny’s The Happy Days of Long Ago sold to consultant Alan Miller, bidding in the room for a client, also for $780,000 (est. $500,000/700,000).

The second session began at noon and achieved seven of the top ten lots sold.

Further information is available online (www.sothebys.com).

Frederic Remington’s iconic sculpture The Broncho Buster, copyrighted in 1895, cast by 1900, this example number 38 out of 64, sold for $576,000 (est. $250,000/350,000) to one of two phone bidders who chased it. The bronze, 23" high, is inscribed “Frederic Remington” and “Cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co N-Y 1898” and is numbered “38” on the base. The work had been offered twice before at Sotheby’s: December 5, 1996, lot 131, when it sold for $189,500, and May 24, 1990, lot 97, when it brought $143,000.

Tender Years: Moth Holes, which Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) painted for the 1957 annual issue of the Brown & Bigelow “Four Seasons” calendar, sold to a buyer who left a $450,000 bid with the auctioneer. With buyer’s premium, the signed 18" x 18" oil on canvas went for $540,000 (est. $500,000/700,000).

These two still-life oil on canvas paintings by Severin Roesen (1815-1872), property from the collection of Maude B. Feld, sold to different buyers, one bidding on the phone and one bidding online. Still Life with Flowers, signed and dated 1849, 27" x 22", with an estimate of $20,000/30,000, sold for $42,000. Fruit Still Life, signed, circa 1865, 36" x 50", sold for $38,400 (est. $30,000/50,000).

Charles Bird King (1785-1862) painted Wakechai (Crouching Eagle), A Sauk Chief in 1824. It is one of approximately 143 paintings the artist completed of prominent Native Americans between 1821 and 1837 for the federal government. The 17½" x 13¾" oil on panel, estimated at $150,000/250,000, sold to a phone bidder for $243,000. The work was property from the collection of Michael and Joan Schneeweiss, sold to benefit The Jewish Museum. The painting had sold at Sotheby’s, New York City, May 25, 1988, lot 87, for $66,000 (est. $60,000/90,000).

Two online bidders competed for Sunrise on the Matterhorn by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902). The 48" x 38" signed oil on canvas sold for $228,000 (est. $200,000/300,000). The lot was accompanied by a letter of opinion from Melissa Webster Speidel, president of the Bierstadt Foundation and director of the catalogue raisonné project of the artist’s work.

A founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936) painted Twilight, Taos Pueblo in 1913. The signed 46 1/8" x 35 1/8" oil on canvas sold to a phone bidder for $384,000 (est. $400,000/600,000). Couse first visited New Mexico in 1902 and eventually settled in Taos with his family in 1928. The work had been acquired by the consignor in 2010 from The Owings Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Apsáalooke Horse Hunters by Martin Grelle (b. 1954), 2008, which depicts members of the Apsáalooke tribe, also known as the Crow, sold to an online bidder for $192,000 (est. $120,000/180,000). The tribe’s homelands were primarily located in southern Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Grelle is a self-taught artist. The oil on canvas, 48" x 66", is signed and dated. It had sold at Santa Fe Art Auction November 12, 2011, lot 46, for $240,000 (est. $200,000/300,000), according to askART.

Long Cold Winter, 24" x 48", by John F. Clymer (1907-1989), signed, dated 1981, and inscribed with the artist’s device, had an estimate of $60,000/80,000. The work, property from a private American Western collector, sold to an online bidder for $204,000.