By Carter B. Horsley Meyer and Vivian Potamkin formed an extremely choice collection of 19th and early 20th Century American art that is highlighted in this single-owner auction by a magnificent landscape by Theodore Robinson (1852-1896), a gorgeous floral painting by John H. Twachtman (1853-1902), a great floral painting by John La Farge (1835-1910), an important urban scene by Joseph Stella (1880-1946), some impressive works by Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Marsden Hartley (1878-1943), and Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924), a large view of Niagara Falls by George Inness (1825-1894) and a fine landscape by Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919). The most beautiful work is Lot 24, a brilliant painting of "Boats at a Landing," by Theodore Robinson, shown above. The oil on canvas measures 18 1/4 by 22 1/4 inches and was executed in 1894. Rousseau is an important but uneven American Impressionist and a series of pictures he did of the Cos Cob harbor in Connecticut in 1894 including this one is among his finest work. Related pictures in this series are in the Manoogian Collection, the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz and the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Halff Jr. This is the most colorful, luminous and abstract of the series and a masterpiece of American Impressionism. It has a very modest estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $2,136,00 including the buyer's premium as do all the results mentioned in this article. This sale was highly successful with more than 91 percent of the offered lots selling. The catalogue provides the following quotation from a 1990 lecture by Doreen Bolger on "The American Artist and the Japanese Print: J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson, and John H. Twachtman": "Boats at a Landing, 1894, best exemplifies the simplification Robinson achieved through his experiments with Japanism.Whereas earlier in his career he strove to capture the transitory effects of nature- flickering sunlight or an overcast day in the French countryside - by 1894 he was tempering his observations of reality with the elegance of convention. In Boats at a Landing the strong vertical and horizontal lines of his composition - sand, bands of water and sky, the masts, the docks and pilings - are reinforced by his new, broader brushwork, a far cry from the loose, broken strokes usually seen in his work. All these features, the very 'combination of the convention and the reality,' conspire to make this austere painting a self-conscious rearrangement of observed nature." The work has been widely written about and exhibited and was illustrated on the back of the catalogue of "The Cos Cob Art Colony" exhibition that ended at the National Academy of Design in January 2002 (see The City Review article).
Lot 48 is a magnificent floral still life by John La Farge. Entitled "Roses in a Shallow Bowl," it is a 13 1/4-by-24 1/4-inch oil on canvas. Painted circa 1879, it has a very modest estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $355,200. The catalogue notes that La Farge was often compared with Fantin-Latour, the great French painter of flowers, but La Farge's background here is explosively painterly unlike the monochromatic backgrounds in many of Fantin-Latour's work.
At his best, John H. Twachtman is the most poetic of the American Impressionists and Lot 26, "Tiger Lilies" is a beautiful example of his work. An oil on canvas that measures 30 by 22 inches, it was executed circa 1890-95 and has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $433,600. The catalogue quotes Lisa N. Peters as describing this painting as "one of the artist's most powerful and vibrant images," adding that "Both the forceful paint application and the low vantage point allow the viewer to experience the painting's unfolding drama, the rising crescendo of forms." The Potamkin collection is particularly strong in early American moderns.
Joseph Stella is one of the great American modernists whose interpretations of the Brooklyn Bridge are 20th Century landmarks. Lot 4, "Telegraph Pole," is a very important gouache and ink on paper by Stella that measures 25 by 19 3/4 inches. Executed in 1917, it has a very modest estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It sold for $400,000. Stella was born in Italy and enrolled at the Art Students League in New York in 1897 before studying with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art. In 1909, he went to Europe where he met Gertrude Stein, Matisse and Picasso. He returned to the United States in 1912 and, according to the catalogue, "was struck by the transformation wrought by the increasing industrialization of American society, writing: 'Steel and electricity had created a new world. A new drama had surged from the unmerciful violation of darkness at night. A new architecture was created, a new perspective.'" On another occasion, Stella wrote that "the verse of Walt Whitman soaring above as a white aeroplane of Helpwas leading the sails of my Art through the blue vastity of Phantasy, while the telegraph wires, trembling around, as if expecting to propagate a new musical message, like aerial guides leading to immensity, were keeping me awake with an insatiable thirst for new adventures." A related, but somewhat larger work is in the Daniel J. Terra Collection.
Lot 1, "Silver Moon," a watercolor and gouache on paper mounted on board at first glance would appear to be a masterwork by Arthur Dove but in fact is by Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938). The 13 1/4-by-10-inch work was executed in 1927 and has a modest estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $254,400. The Potamkins have two excellent watercolors by Charles Demuth, Lots 2 and 38.
Lot 2 is a beautiful watercolor and pencil on paper entitled "Daisies and Tomatoes." It measures 13 3/4 by 11 3/4 inches and is dated 1925. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $366,400.
The other Demuth is Lot 38. Entitled "Rooftops," it measures 10 by 15 inches and was executed in 1918. It has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $176,000.
The cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 12, "Sail Movement," an oil on panel by Marsden Hartley. Painted in 1916, it measures 20 by 16 1/4 inches. Its palette is quite muted for the usually very intense Hartley and the composition is rather Cubist and Suprematist. The catalogue quotes Barbara Haskell as noting that "Hartley had been the last American artist of his time to leave Europe, and he understood better than anyone in America the level of abstraction Cubism had attained Hartley's Synthetic Cubist works of the Provincetown summer were not only comparable to those being executed in Europe, but they would not be equaled by another American artist for ten years." The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $355,200. A much more vibrant abstract work by Hartley is Lot 17, "Composition," a 19 1/2-by-15 1/2-inch oil on board. Painted in 1913, it has a modest estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $411,200.
Lot 15 is an important work by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) (see The City Review article on a Lawrence retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art) entitled "Ten Fugitives." The egg tempera on gessoed board measures 24 1/2 by 36 1/2 inches and is dated 1967. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $332,800.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is represented in the collection by a good watercolor, Lot 19, "House on Hill Top (House on Dune, South Truro)." It measures 14 by 30 inches and was executed circa 1930-2. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $596,000.
Maurice B. Prendergast is one of America's greatest watercolorists who also translated his gay dab style to oils. Lot 25, "Handkerchief Point," is a classic Prendergast watercolor, a rich, complex and picturesque composition. The watercolor and pencil on paper measures 14 1/4 by 20 3/4 inches and is dated 1896. It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It sold for $988,000. The catalogue observes that it is "a quintessential example of Maurice Prendergast's elaborate and highly patterned watercolors depicting colorfully dressed city dwellers enjoying a holiday afternoon at the seashore." A similar size but vertical format version of "Handkerchief Point" is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Lot 20, "East Boston Ferry," is a small but very handsome oil on panel by Prendergast. Painted circa 1907-1910, it measures 14 1/2 by 12 3/4 inches and is a very tight and strong composition showing several figures on a ferry overlooking ships and the city of Boston. It has a modest estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 and is the illustration of the back cover of the catalogue. It sold for $276,800. Another Prendergast oil on panel, Lot 21, is "entitled "Luxembourg Gardens." Painted circa 1907, it mreasures 10 1/2 by 13 3/4 inches. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 although it is not as fine a composition as Lot 20. It sold for $400,000. Lot 29 is a sweet tempera and gold leaf on gessoed panel by Prendergast. Entitled "Bounding Deer," it measures 13 1/2 by 19 1/4 inches and was painted circa 1915. It has a modest estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $54,000.
Lot 35 is a very strong portrait of two women by Alfred H. Maurer (1868-1932). An oil on canvas, it measures 21 1/2 by 18 1/4 inches and was executed circa 1929-30. It has a modest estimate of $50,000 to $75,000. It sold for $153,600.
Lot 45 is a view of Niagara Falls by George Inness. An oil on panel that measures 16 by 24 inches, it was executed in 1885 and is similar to a much larger version that is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The catalogue quotes Michael quick description of the larger work as noting that Inness "depicts the cataract in terms of shimmering veils of iridescent color," adding that "some of his views of the waterfall are among his most abstract and delicately nuanced paintings. The major landmarks are barely suggested, let along detailed." Inness is American's great Tonalist poet but this work pales in comparison with the sense of majesty in depictions of the falls by Frederick E. Church, John F. Kensett, Albert Bierstadt and Robert W. Weir. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $232,000. This is a very handsome painting.
Lot 103 is a very lovely painting by Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), "On the Susquahana River," a 12-by-22-inch oil on canvas. The 1880 work has a modest estimate of $60,000 to $80,000 and while it is not large it is a very fine example of Cropsey's artistry. It sold for $84,000.
Ralph Albert Blakelock and Albert Pinkham Ryder are American's great poets of the night, the former famous for his moonlit scenes and the latter for his marine scenes. Lot 50, "Moonlight on the Columbia River," is a fine greenish moonlit landscape painted circa 1885. An oil on canvas, it measures 22 by 36 inches. Some of his finest moonlit scenes have an deep emerald-colored sky against which trees and silhouetted and sometimes include an American Indian in an canoe. This lot has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $66,000. There is some craquelure in the center. Another good Blakelock is Lot 49, "Indian Camp," a 16 1/2-by-24 1/2-inch oil on canvas. It is an unusually spartan composition with a yellow-orange sky occupying the two three-quarters or so of the picture. Blakelock is noted for his many small night scenes of Indian encampments. This lot has an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000, which surprisingly higher than the more important and beautiful moonlight scene in Lot 50. This lot sold for $78,000.