By Carter B. Horsley

Rita and Daniel Fraad began collecting American paintings and drawings in 1955 when their market value was still greatly undervalued and major works could be had for four figures. They concentrated mostly on late 19th Century and early 20th Century artists such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Robert Henri, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn and George Bellows.

Today their collection has climbed dramatically in value. Sotheby's estimate for this auction of 79 works ranges from $31,799,500 million to $47,809,000 million. The estimate was conservative, a tribute to the marketing value of promoting a "single-owner collection." The Fraad auction total of $65,083,400, including the buyers' premiums, was the "largest single-owner sale of American paintings to ever come to auction. When combined with the multiple-owner section of the same sale, which had a separate catalogue but the same sale number, the total American Art auction sales at Sotheby's December 1, 2004 came to $107,855,400, a remarkable figure that considerable surpassed the evening auction totals of Contemporary Art auctions this season at Sotheby's and Christie's, both of which only totalled about $92- to $93-million each.

While it is not as comprehensive as the great collections put together by Daniel Terra, which has recently been given to the Art Institute of Chicago or the Manoogian Collection, or the Warner Collection of American Fine and Decorative Art of the Gulf States Paper Corporation, it is very impressive and has numerous masterpieces.

"The Fraad collection," the catalogue stated, "is surely the most important collection of American art to appear on the market in at least a generation....Rita Rich and Daniel Fraad Jr., both born in Brooklyn, met when she was fifteen and he eighteen, introduced by her cousin. He left Brooklyn for Brown University where he majored in biology (later taking graduate courses at Yale in anatomy), and she earned her B.A. at Smith College in political science....At Dan's death in 1987, they had beenmarried for more than fifty years....Dan was a businessman, head of Allied Maintenance Corporation (later Ogden Allied Maintenance), the building services company his father founded in 1888 and which Dan expanded to include ground services to airlines....As for competition from other private collectors, there was precious little. Arthur Altschul and Herbert Goldstone in New York and Vivian and 'Pat' Potamkin in Philadelphia were the only other major collectors of American art at that time."

This last statement is untrue as they were a few private collectors in New York and Boston a decade earlier.

"The Fraads' close friends Margaret and Ray Horowitz - known today for their fine American impressionist collection - at that time were buying French drawings....," the catalogue continued.

The star of the collection, and the cover illustration of the catalogue, is Lot 7, "Group With Parasols (A Siesta)," by John Singer Sargent, a luminous pastoral scene that is radiant and extremely painterly. In a press release about the auction, Sotheby's noted that the Fraads "were true pioneers among collectors, purchasing the core of the collection between 1955 and 1965, with a handful of major acquisitions in the 1970s and 1980s." Dara Mitchell, head of Sotheby's American Paintings Department, was quoted as saying that "The Fraads would educate themselves by spending time with dealers and in such galleries as Babcock and Hirschl & Adler which specialized in American art. The Fraads acquired this Sargent in 1962 from the Hirsch & Adler Galleries. It has a conservative estimate of $9,000,000 to $12,000,000. It sold for $23,528,000 including the buyer's premium as do all the results mentioned in this article. The sale was extremely successful with more than 92 percent of the 78 offered lots selling, many considerably above their high estimate.

With his bravura technique, Sargent was an extremely popular portrait painter, but this work depicts his companions relaxing in Giomeil in the Alps. "The arrangement of men and women in relaxed repose with interwining limbs and unusual familiarity," according to the Sotheby's press release, "was a bold contrast to the social context of the age. The closely cropped landscape further emphasizes the intimacy of the subject matter, and Sargent's treatment of the surface and the handling of paint reinforce his daring and modern vision. Sargent's focus on the effects of shadows and light, combined with the richly patterned decoration, result in a nearly abstract composition."

The other big-ticket item in the auction is Lot 20, "Stage Scene," by Everett Shinn. An oil on canvas that measures 24 by 29 1/2 inches, it was executed in 1906. It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $7,848,000. Shinn's oeuvre is divided roughly into two halves: one theatrical and one street-wise. This work obviously belongs in the former category and while it shows the influence of the theater scenes of Degas it is a masterpiece. The artist kept in his personal collection for 40 years until he gave it as a gift to the Lotos Club in return for membership. The club decided to sell it in 1963 and the Fraads acquired it that year from the Hammer Gallery.

The catalogue provides the following commentary about Shinn and the Ashcan School in its description of "Stage Scene":

"As a leading figure of the Ashcan School, Everett Shinn was among the artists whose depictions of New York at the turn of the century challenged the conventions of contemporary American painting. In their unsentimental portrayals of contemporary life in New York, the Ashcan artists captured the full range of urban existence from the gritty realities of tenement living to the upper class enclaves along Fifth Avenue. Shinn was a member of The Eight, a diverse group of independent artists led by Robert Henri and John Sloan who rebelled against the academic establishment and held a revolutionary exhibition of their own work in 1908. Shinn wrote, 'The grievance that gnawed at The Eight was the intolerance of their own profession. They looked beyond the outposts of society where people were real by default of riches - to saloons where purled the dreams of change and expansion, to alleyways and gutters, train yards, night courts, dives, docks, dance halls and park benches....'"

The Fraads also have a fine example of the artist's street scenes, Lot 3, "Out of a Job, News of the Unemployed," a wash, black crayon and pencil on board that measures 13 1/2 by 27 3/4 inches. Dated 1908, it has an estmate of $125,000 to $175,000 and is a classic work of the "Ash-Can School." It sold for $176,000.

Lot 14, "Sylvester Smiling," is a great portrait of a youth by Robert Henri. An oil on canvas, it mesaures 24 by 20 inches and was executed in 1914. It is extremely painterly and striking. It was acquired by the Fraads from Hirschl & Adler Galleries in 1961. It has a conservative estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $355,200.

Lot 2, "Sketchers in the Woods" is probably the finest pastel Robert Henri of woodland scenes around 1918. It is one of his finest works and was acquired in 1958 by the Fraads from Hirschl & Adler Galleries. It has a modest estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $232,000.

The Eight consisted of Shinn, John Sloan (1971-1951), George Luks (1867-1933), William Glackens (1870-1938), Maurice Prendergast (1858-192), Ernest Lawson (1873-1939) and Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928). Their spiritual leader and mentor was Robert Henri. Shinn met Sloan, Glackens and Luks at The Philadelphia Press where they were illustrators. All would soon leave Philadelphia and continue their careers in New York.

Lot 22, "Gray Day, Jersey Coast," is an excellent coastal picture by John Sloan. An oil on canvas that measures 22 by 26 1/4 inches, it was painted in 1911 and acquired by the Fraads from the Kraushaar Galleries in 1963. It has a conservative estimate of $125,000 to $175,000. It sold for $355,200.

Lot 21, "The Cabby," is a good portrait of a carriage driver by Luks, the most raucous of The Eight. This lot has a modest estimate of $80,000 to $120,000 and in its simplicity and dash it has the hallmarks of a Frans Hals. Luks was inconsistent but at his best he was best of The Eight. It sold for $332,800.

George Bellows (1882-1925) was not an official member of The Eight but many of his works are closely aligned stylistically with the group. The Fraads have three major works by Bellows.

Lot 15 is entitled "Kids," and is an oil on canvas that measures 32 by 42 inches. It was painted in 1906 and has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $4,500,000. The Fraads acquired it in 1964 from H. V. Allison & Co. This is a classic, almost definitive "Ashcan" work. It sold for $6,168,000.

The catalogue provides the following commentary on this lot:

"...Kids is Bellows' first major painting of the working class children who lived in the tements of New York's Lower East Side. In this and other early works, Bellows applied his own brand of realism to the gritty aspects of city life, forming a compendium of scenes of New York life seldom portrayed so directly in American art up to this time."

The catalogue overstates this a bit as there existed a long tradition of genre paintings of poor children, albeit mostly rural, by such fine artists as William Sidney Mount and John George Brown, the latter who frequently depicted shoeshine boys and newspaper hawkers.

"Bellows," the catalogue entry continued, "was strongly influenced by his teacher and mentor Robert Henri, who encouraged his students to purse a modern and direct approach to their subjects. Henri had earned a reputation as something of a radical, rejecting the conventions of academic training and encouraging his students to heed their own intuition, stressing the importance of personal observation and instinct above the disciplined mastery of technique....Bellows decision to paint the tenement children who made the street their backyard and playground may have been inspired by fellow realist George Luks, whose painting The Spielers [Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Academy, Andover, Mass.]...of 1905 was recognized by critics of the time as 'one of the finest examples of contemporary art and a symbol of life in the New York slums.'....Though he never became a member of the Eight..., Bellows shared their interest in urban life at the turn of the century. The artist's success with realist subjects continued in many of his best works of this period, including River Rats [private collection, Washington] of August 1906 and Forty-two Kids [The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington] painted the following year.'"

Like Shinn, Bellows was not alienated by the upper classes and his oeuvre includes many works that portray those better off than slum "kids." Lot 31, "The Studio," for example, is a portrait of George Bellow's third-floor studio at 146 East 19th Street and shows his wife, Emma Story, posing for him, while their daughters, Anne and Jean play in the foreground by a Christmas tree, and Bellow's mother-in-law, Mrs. Story, and the family maid, Mabel, at the telephone in the background. The catalogue notes that "the figure on the landing above is probably George Miller, the printer who produced Bellows' lithographs." The painting was acquired by the Fraads in 1965 from Gerald P. Peters in Santa Fe. Bellows liked blues and greens in many of his compositions, of which this is one of the best. It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,472,000.

The best of the Fraad Bellows is Lot 13, "The Knock Out," a great pastel and ink on paper that measures 21 3/4 by 28 inches. Executed in 1907, it probably depicts a scene at Sharkey's Athletic Club on Broadway, which was across from Bellows's studio at the time. It was a favorite subject of Bellows and was acquired by the Fraads from Davis & Long Company in 1976. It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000. It sold for $5,048,000.

It is impressive that the Fraad Collection has such prime representative examples of Bellows's different interests and subjects. Similarly, it is also impressive that it has equally prime and representative examples of the work of Maurice Prendergast.

"Following his final visit to Paris in 1914, Prendergast limited his work to large-scale canvases, emphasizing the flatness of the pictorial plane with frieze-like arrangements of figures in idyllic holiday settings at the seashore or in the park. Lot 44, "Marblehead Rocks," is a very fine Prendergast pastoral coastal scene with an especially rich, albeit limited palette. It was acquired in 1963 by the Fraads from the Davis Galleries in New York. It has a modest estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $736,000.

Lot 23 is an excellent watercolor by Maurice Prendergast. Entitled "The Fountain, Boston," it measures 13 by 22 1/4 inches and was executed circa 1900-1. It was acquired by the Fraads from Hirschl & Adler Galleries in 1962. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $2,472,000.

Another lovely Prendergast watercolor is Lot 32, "Venice," which measures 18 1/2 by 15 1/4 inches. Executed in 1898, it was acquired by the Fraads from the Maxwell Galleries in San Francisco in 1963 and has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $1,352,000.

The Fraad collection is also notable for having three fine works by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), although in the case of home they are all works of young people at leisure in pastoral settings and do not include his great Civil War paintings and illustrations, his great marine paintings, his great Adirondack paintings and watercolors, or his fine Bahama watercolors.

While the Sargent painting may have the highest price-tag in this auction, the undisputed masterpiece of the collection is Lot 17, "Spring," by Winslow Homer, a fabulous watercolor and pencil on paper. It measures 11 1/4 by 8 3/4 inches and was executed in 1878 when the artist spent the summer and farm at Houghton Farm, the home of his friend and patron, Lawson Valentine, near Mountainville, New York. While the catalogue observes that this work "is a charming example of the watercolors the artist produced during this particularly prolific time," it is, in fact, a quintessential work by America's greatest artist that is a marvelous composition that raptuously hints at young love and childhood romance and the lushness of America's rich countryside. The Fraads bought this watercolor in 1966 from Hirschl & Adler Galleries and the catalogue reproduces in color two similar and beautiful, but inferior works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. This lot has a conservative estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000. It sold for $2,024,000.

Lot 39 is a very strong and bright watercolor by Homer that was executed at Prout's Neck, Maine. It was acquired by the Fraads from Hirshl & Adler Galleries in 1962. It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000. It measures 14 by 20 inches and was executed in 1887. It failed to sell.

Lot 28 is a pleasant, modest oil on canvas by Homer entitled "Green Apples." It mesaures 15 by 11 inches and was executed in 1866. It was acquired by the Fraads from Hirschl & Adler Galleries in 1962. It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. The composition and lighting and brushwork are very nice, but the boy's figure and face are bit weak by Homer's standards, but his works of this period are the most desirable. It failed to sell.

Lot 26 is an interesting and fine study of Fishermen's houses in Gloucester by John H. Twachtman (1853-1902), America's most poetic Impressionist painter. A 25-inch-square oil on canvas, it was executed circa 1900. It was acquired by the Fraads from Ira Spanierman in 1967. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $596,000.

Lot 40 is an excellent and lovely connoisseur's painting. It is a "Study for the Portrait of Miss Emily Sartain," by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). An oil on canvas that measures 24 by 19 inches, it was executed circa 1890-5. It was acquired by the Fraads from the Babcock Galleries in 1957. It has a very conservative estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $198,400, the bargain of the auction as good Eakins works are very rare.

Lot 12, "Paris Railroad Station," is a pleasant but not particularly important oil on panel by Guy Pène Du Bois, an art critic who was probably also America's best Art Deco painter. It measures 20 by 15 inches and is dated 1925. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $512,000, an auction record for the artist.

Lot 37, "Nude in a Landscape," is a pleasant buy not major oil on canvas by Arthur B. Davies. It measures 32 by 24 inches and was executed circa 1908-9. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $108,000, an auction record for the artist.

Lot 29 is an unsigned painting that the catalogue says is by Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917), America's great abstract and poetic painter whose works are very rare and vastly undervalued. This rather sketchy riverscape measures 9 by 13 inches and was acquired by the Fraads in 1955 from the Babcock Galleries. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $209,600, an auction record for the artist.