By Carter B. Horsley

This American Art auction at Sotheby's immediately follows the morning auction of the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad (see The City Review article). Although the two auctions have separate catalogues, they share the same sale number.

While the earlier Fraad auction was full of many important paintings, particularly realist works from around the turn of the 20th Century, this auction has a larger selection of earlier landscape works as well as more modern paintings.

This auction is highlighted by an exquisite and historically important, small Western landscape by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), a large, early landscape by Thomas Cole (1801-1848), a fine winter scene by George Henry Durrie (1820-1863), a rare "squirrel" painting by Joseph Decker (1853-1924), a good urban pond painting by William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), an important work by George deForest Brush (1855-1941) and a fine Indian scene by George Catlin (1796-1872).

The Bierstadt landscape, Lot 95, "Sunset in California (California Scenery, Sunset View)," is small but everything you could want in a great Bierstadt: a sumptuous sunset, a glorious scene with a waterfall and cliffs in the distance and foreground details, all bathed in exquisite light. An oil on board, it measures only 12 by 18 inches and is dated 1864, the artist's prime period. It was painted during the artist's first trip to Yosemite Valley and the catalogue notes that it "is a luminous example of the atmospheric landscapes that earned Bierstadt the reputation as one of America's most distinguished 19th Century artists."

Louis Prang (1824-1909) published a chromolithograph of this painting in 1868. The artist, according to the catalogue, was abroad when his only known American chromolithograph appeared. In the 1991 catalogue accompanying the "Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the following commentary about this painting and its chromolithograph was provided:

"The chromo's very success spelled its downfall, however. By so deliberately imitating painting, chromos sometimes fooled the eye. When Prang's chromo was exhibited alongside Bierstadt's painting of Sunset in California, gallery visitors sometimes could not distinguish between the two. This confusion, along with the proliferation of poorer-quality examples, led to a rather rapid disillusionment with the process. Increasingly, critics called chromas cheap, superficial copies that detracted from all the good that art was said to effect. Ironically, almost as soon as technical achievements permitted the lithograph to replicate oil paintings successfully, critics rejected the process. The fine-art chromolithograph, reproducing the work of critically received artists, died out almost at birth. Although Louis Prang continued to publish his excellent series of reproductions after some American artists into the 1890s, by the early 1870s Bierstadt and others had backed away from the process because of its increasingly negative reception."

This lot has a very conservative estimate of $250,000 to $300,000. The catalogue notes that "there was a 1 3/4-by-8-inch area of loss in the foreground that was repainted by a conservator replicated the chromolithograph in the Library of Congress. It sold for $1,072,000 including the buyer's premium as do all the results mentioned in this article.

George Henry Durrie is famous for his bucolic scenes of Connecticut farms and villages, usually in winter. Lot 79 is a prime example of his charming compositions and delightful palette that would become famous through Currier and Ives reproductions. Entitled "Seven Miles to Farmington," this work is an oil on canvas that measures 26 by 36 inches and is dated 1855. It has been consigned as property of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords. It has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000. It sold for $1,128,000.

Thomas Cole is America's most important landscape painter not only because he "founded" the Hudson River School of landscape painting but also because he had spectacular visions that led him to create at least two very memorable, imaginative and original series of paintings, one famously known as "The Voyage of Life" and another as "The Course of Empire." His first painting foray into the Catskills resulted in a marvelous group of very dramatic mountain landscapes executed in the late 1820s, unpopulated scenes usually in the aftermath of turbulent weather and usually with a prominent foreground broken tree trunk. Most of these works, all very consistent in style and execution, were about 29 by 36 inches. This painting, which is unsigned which is unusual for Cole, is an oil on canvas that measures 38 by 48 inches.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"At the time Autumn Landscape was rediscovered in the mid-1970s, Ellwood C. Parry III wrote, 'In my opinion, [it] is one of the most impressive American landscapes from Thomas Cole's early period (1825-1829) to have come onto the market in a long time. Moreover, besides the fact that it shows a most impressive New England landscape composition in full Fall coloring, it is also one of the largest American views Cole produced in his early style...a magnificent clear sky is one of the painting's major charms, along with its stillness and tranquility. That tranquility, on the other hand, has a special emotional edge to it. No doubt, it is evening sunset which floods across the picture space at an angle from the left distance to the right foreground. But as it does so, it silhouettes the pyramidal peak, it dramatizes the stark and dominating tree trunk, leaning away from the source of the light, and it forces the viewer's eye to encounter the solitary figure whose pose is obviously modeled on Durer's Melancholia. Like a number of other Romantic figures in British and American paintings of this period, this young man seems world-weary as well as physically tired. Yet the warm sunlight and the suggested refreshment of the waterfall suggest regeneration, even as the vegetation turns from green to autumnal splendor just before the onslaught of winter. Neverthless, the spot chosen seems deliberately remote from any human settlement or sign of civilization with all its corruptions. The underlying mood is melancholy, while praising the sublime beauty of the wilderness simultaneously."

Well, Cole's focus is almost always on "the sublime beauty of the wilderness," and his mountain landscapes almost invariably employed very strong diagonal motifs. His tree trunks, however, almost always are broken and bent, not erect, at least in works of his maturity. The painting style in this work is goopy like a few other supposedly very early works attributed to him, all of which seem highly inconsistent with his "mature" style that is dramatically finer. Artists, of course, change styles and their styles evolve but the literature does not seem to comment on so drastic a change as these "early" works indicate. Furthermore, if the work is correctly dated 1827-8, it is in distinct contrast with the style manifested in his masterpieces from the same years. It may be a considerably earlier work by Cole, or it may be a work by a different artist who was familiar with his subject matter.

This lot has an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. It sold for $652,000.

Several good works in this auction have been consigned by the CIGNA Museum and Art Collection. One of them is Lot 87, "Mounts Adam and Eve," by Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900). An oil on canvas, it measures 18 1/4 by 36 1/4 inches and is dated 1884. It has a modest estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $276,800. While it is not as flamboyant spectacular as some of Cropsey's autumnal scenes, it is a very satisfying composition and a classic Hudson River School work.

A very fine "Autumn Landscape," by Jervis McEntee (1828-1891), Lot 108, sold for $288,000, more than four times its high pre-sale estimate. The oil on canvas measures 29 3/4 by 54 1/4 inches and is dated 1867. It was also consigned by CIGNA.

Lot 106 is a very fresh and nice watercolor on paper by Winslow Homer (1836-1910). Entitled "Boys in a Boat," it measures 9 3/4 by 13 1/4 inches and is dated 1880. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $736,000. "Boys in a Boat," the catalogue correctly observes, "reflects Homer's increased preoccupation with technical concerns and experimental methods than perhaps the narrative potential of his chosen subject matter."

Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) is one of the great 19th Century American masters whose genre paintings are not as impressionistic and romantic as Homer's nor as proficient and beguiling as William Sidney Mount's, but have an indelibility that reflects the artist's earnest and long preoccupations with his subject matters. Some of his most famous series are maple-syrup gathering, picking cranberries and corn-husking. This oil on board is entitled "At The Camp - Spinning Yarns and Whittling" and measures 19 by 23 inches. It was executed circa 1864-6 and was once in the well-known collection of J. William Middendorf II. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $708,000.

This auction includes numerous Western paintings from the collection of Pierre Bergé.

Lot 134 is a very dramatic Western scene entitled "The Indian's Last Gaze," by Jesse Talbot (1806-1879). An oil on canvas that measures 22 by 27 inches, it was painted in 1860. It was acquired by Pierre Bergé, the consignor of the lot, in 1978 from Lee B. Anderson, who began collecting American paintings in the early 1950s. Not much is known about Talbot, but the sky here is as good as those by Church and Bierstadt. This lot has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $288,000.

Lot 135 is a superb scene entitled "Indian Encampment" by George Catlin. An oil on canvas, it measures 19 by 26 1/2 inches. It was acquired directly from the artist by Leopold I, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, King of Belgium, in 1859. It was subsequently given to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto by Sir Edmund Osler of Toronto. Eventually it was acquired from M. Knoedler & Co., by Pierre Bergé of New York. It has a very modest estimate of $50,000 to $80,000. Catlin, of course, is best known for his early portraits of Indian leaders, but his scenes of their lives and hunts and encampments are freer in their composition and have a more informal and more engaging painting style. This is one of the very best. It sold for $60,000.

The cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 136, "The Indian and the Lily," an oil on canvas by George de Forest Brush. This painting is deceptive as it looks monumental despite the fact that it only measures 21 by 20 inches. Executed in 1887, it has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $4,824,000.

The catalogue provides the following commentary about this work:

"In 1881, a young George de Forest Brush traveled west with his brother to the Crow reservation in Montana. While there, Brush documented all aspects of Indian life and, according to a first-hand account, immersed himself in Indian culture, participating in and at times leading ritualistic ceremonies and dances. Chief Plenty Coups allegedly said that Brush was the 'only white man who could walk and think like an Indian.' Based on his four or five year sojourn out west, Brush painted a series of works depicting life on the Crow and other reservations, some of which were featured as illustrations in Harper's and The Century Magazine. Unlike chroniclers of the American West such as George Catlin and Karl Bodmer, Brush progressively adopted a more idealistic approach. In 1885, the artist wrote, 'In choosing Indians as as subjects for art, I do not paint form the historian's or the antiquary's point of view; I do not care to present them in any curious habits which could not be comprehended by us; I am interested in those habits and deeds in which we have feelings in common. Therfore, I hesitate to add any interests here to my pictures by supplying historical facts. If I were required to resort to this in order to bring out the poetry, I would drop the subjet at once.'"

This is another property from Pierre Bergé who had acquired it from Hirschl & Adler in 1977.

Bergé's consignment also included two good Indian portraits by Charles Bird King (1785-1862). Lot 137 was of "Ottoe Half Chief, Husband of Eagle of Delight." An oil on panel it measures 18 by 14 1/2 inches and was painted circa 1821-2. It had an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000 and sold for $1,352,000.

Joseph Decker is a still-life painter whose favorite subject was Bonnie, his pet squirrel. Dr. William H. Gerdts, the estimable art critic and expert, is quoted in the catalogue as maintaining that Decker painted about six paintings of his pet squirrel. In a letter to the consignor, Dr. Gerdts noted that "your picture ranks up there with the best of Decker's work," adding that "It suggests not only Decker's knowledge and understanding of the animal, but his affection for it, creating an environment congenial to the squirrel and one with a plentiful bounty even within its humble realm.'" The lot has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It failed to sell. About a quarter of a century ago, Kennedy Galleries in New York had a lovely squirrel painting that was more square in composition and it was then priced at about $20,000.

Lot 164 is a very good scene of a woman rowing on a lake in Prospect Park, Brooklyn by William Merritt Chase. An oil on panel that measures 8 1/2 by 13 inches, it was painted circa 1886. It is quite lovely and these park scenes among Chase's best work. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $568,000. Another scene of a woman in a rowboat in Prospect Park is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The total of the sale, including the Fraad properties, came to $107,855,400, a quite phenomenal figure.