Detail
of Lot 70
The
catalogue quotes the consignor, Mr. Heston, the actor, as stating that
he owns "a Wyeth landscape I'm told once had a figure painted in the
foreground." "It's gone now," he continued, "leaving only a faint
scuff of footprint in the frosted grass. Who was it, though...where has
he gone? Why?" The entry notes that the painting
"exemplifies Wyeth's ability to impart drama and to distill an
intriguing composition form the most ordinary of scnees."
"I wanted to capture the
clean-swept character of thebegining of the winter after the
floods....I looked out and wondered, What's that blue thing" It was the
startling blue cover of a wagon. I found the car tracks rushing
toward me exciting. The wagon had been in some parade and been
dumped out there near the raceway."
The picture was illustrated in "Wyeth Since Helgas," Thomas P. F. Hoving's 1990 book on the artist.
The lot has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $5,178,000.
The auction total was $26,611,500 with about 82 percent of the 56 offered lots selling.
Lot 61, "The Garden Pool," by Frederick Carl Frieseke, oil on canvas, 25 3/4 by 32 1/4, circa 1913
Lot
61 is a masterpiece by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) entitled
"The Garden Pool." An oil on canvas, it measures 25 3/4 by 32 1/4
inches and was painted circa 1913. It has an estimate of
$1,400,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $2,290,000.
Lot 57, "Cafe de Flore," by Guy Pène du Bois, oil on canvas, 15 by 24 inches, 1954
Lot
57 is a good Parisian cafe scene by Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958)
entitled "Cafe de Flore." An oil on canvas, it measures 15 by 24
inches and was painted in 1954. It has an estimate of $180,000 to
$220,000. It sold for $200,000.
Lot
69, "Yellow sun, New York City," by John Marin, oil on canvasboard, 17
3/4 by 13 3/4 inches, circa 1934
Lot
69 is a strong and very good oil on canvasboard by John Marin
(1872-1963) entitled "Yellow sun, New York City." It measures 17
3/4 by 13 3/4 inches and was painted circa 1934.
The catalogue entry provides the following quotation from the artist:
"...the whole city is alive: buildings, people, all are alive; and the
more they move me, the more I feel them to be alive...I see great
forces at work: great movements; the large buildings and the small
buildings; the warring of the great and the small influences of one
mass on another greater or smaller mass...While these powers are at
work pushing, pulling, sideways, downwards, upwards. I can hear
the sound of their strife and there is great music being played.
And so I try to express graphically what a great city is doing."
(as cited in Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York
Galleries, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 129)
It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $634,000.
Lot 58, "Window Shopping," by Everett Shinn, pastel on paper, 10 3/4 by 13 inches, 1903
Lot
58 is a very good pastel on paper by Everett Shinn (1876-1953) entitled
"Window Shopping." The 1903 work is a fine example of Shinn's
delightful sketchy style. It has an estimate of $120,000 to
$180,000. It sold for $125,0000.
Lot 63, "Kwannon and Horse," by Hovsep Pushman, oil on board, 23 by 18 1/8 inches
Lot
63 is a good oil on board by Hovsep Pushman (1877-1966) entitled
"Kwannon and Horse." It measures 23 by 18 1/8 inches. It
has an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It sold for $22,500.
Lot 83, "Reading by the
Shore," by Charles Sprague Pearce, oil on canvas, 11 3/4 by 18 1/8
inches, circa 1883-5
Lot 83,
"Reading by the Shore," is a very fine and very lovely small oil on
canvas by Charles Sprague Pearce (1851 - 1914). It measures 11
3/4 by 18 1/8 inches and was painted circa 1883-5. It was
exhibited in 1989 and 1990 in the "American Paintings from the
Manoogian Collection" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Detroit Institute of Arts and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was also shown at
the National Gallery in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2006-7.
The woman in the
painting is the artist's wife, Antonia, but the catalogue entry notes
that "the dazzling and stylish Japanese parasol, protecting Antonia's
face from the sun, is the true focus of the piece," assing that "it is
a daring and complex compositional device, a kaleidoscope of intense
tones that push the head of the figure toward the picture plane."
The entry quotes Mary Lublin, the author of a book on the artist, as
writing "the academically modeled and dispassionately viewed figure of
Antonia is transposed in a space charged with ambiguity, invoking a
modernist sensibility."
The lot has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $298,000.
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