By Carter B. Horsley

This auction of American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture at Sotheby's May 24, 2006, is highlighted by an excellent Francis A. Silva (1835-1886), two superb beach scenes by Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910), a good Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), a superb Marsden Hartley (1878-1943), a ravishing painting by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), two fine pictures of children by Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), two ravishing paintings by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939), an interesting work by Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) and two good works by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978). While there are no blockbusters, the auction is quite strong with many good works.

Francis A. Silva is an important Luminist painter and Lot 11, "On The Hudson, Nyack," is one of his masterpieces. An oil on canvas that measures 12 by 24 inches, it is dated 1871 and was included in the retrospective of the artist at the Berry-Hill Galleries in 2002. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $1,472,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. The sale was quite successful with almost 80 percent of the offered lots selling for about $60,000 and numerous lots significantly exceeding their high estimates.

Worthington Whittredge is one of the major second generation artists of the Hudson River School. He is best known for his dense forest scenes in the Northeast and scenes of the Plains, but he also produced some beautiful beach scenes of which Lot 11, "Sakonnet Point, Rhode Island," is a fine example. An oil on canvas that measures 15 by 22 1/2 inches, it was executed circa 1880. The painting is property from the Walter Knight Sturges Collection. The catalogue notes that similar views of Sakonnet Point by Whittredge are in the collections of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. It has a conservative estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $363,200.

Lot 22 is a smaller beach scene by Whittredge that was painted in 1866. Entitled "The Clam Diggers," it is an oil on canvas that measures 10 1/2 by 23 1/4 inches. It has a conservative estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $464,000.

Both works by Whittredge are similar in spirit and quality to some of the finest beach scenes by Sanford Robinson Gifford and John Frederick Kensett, his Hudson River School colleagues.

Lot 29 is a very strong composition by Albert Bierstadt entitled "Cascading Falls at Sunset." An oil on canvas, it measures 24 by 18 inches and was painted between 1863 and the 1870s. "While the painting is smaller in scale than many of the more grandiose productions, the resulting impact is one of drama and grandeur," the catalogue entry for the lot observes. The lot has a conservative estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $604,000.

A large Bierstadt work, Lot 36, "Vernal Falls," is a dramatic depiction of a waterfall, but it is not as finely painted and the composition, while good, is also inferior to Lot 29's. It is an oil on canvas that measures 30 1/4 by 21 3/4 inches. The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $520,000. The bright spot at the lower center is rather unusual for Bierstadt for it is heavily impastoed.

Lot 33 is a good "Sunrise" oil on canvas by Bierstadt that measures 26 by 36 inches. The painting was once with the Vose Galleries in Boston. It measures 26 by 36 inches and has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $553,000. The sun is rather sharply delineated in the sunset but otherwise the quality of light is impressive.

Lot 40, "Rose Garden," by Maria Oakley Dewing, is fabulous. The 24-by-40 1/2-inch oil on canvas was once in the collection of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid. The artist studied under John La Farge and married Thomas Wilmer Dewing, the artist famous for his ethereal portraits of elegant women. The painting, which has a frame designed by Stanford White, has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,032,000. It was sold at Sotheby's May 24, 2000, when it had an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000, for $1,160,750 including the buyer's premium.

John Singer Sargent is an uneven artist, but at his best he is extremely painterly and as full of authority and bravura as any artist imbued with Rubenesque passion for virtuosity. Lot 72 is not one of his supreme masterpieces, but it is very, very, very good. An oil on canvas, it is entitled "Cashmere Shawl (Dorothy Barnard and Nicola D'Inverno)" and measures 28 by 21 1/2 inches. It was executed in 1910 and has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. There is some evident craquelure in the left center and top right. It failed to sell.

Lot 139, "Storm Down Pine Point Way, Old Orchard Beach," is an important oil on masonite by Marsden Hartley. Executed in 1941-3, it measures 22 by 29 inches. Hartley was greatly influenced by Albert Pinkham Ryder, whose moonlight sailboat scenes are abstract masterpieces. Hartley is best known for these Ryderesque seascapes, his German military medal pictures, his American Indian mythological works and for landscapes: he painted in a number of different styles. This work was sold at Sotheby's December 3, 2003 for $2,360,000 when it had an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. The estimate for this auction is $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,256,200. (See The City Review article on a Hartley exhibition.)

Lot 175 is a very beautful pastel on paper by Hartley entitled "Birch Trees." It measures 18 1/4 by 12 1/4 inches and was executed in 1909. It has a very modest estimate of $25,000 to $45,000. It sold for $24,000.

Eastman Johnson is one of the nation's great genre painters and Lot 32, "Little Girl with Red Jacket Drinking from Mug," is a superb example of his painterliness. An oil on board, it measures 14 1/4 by 11 inches. The charming painting, which was once in the collection of Electra Webb Bostwick of Shelburne, Vermont, has an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $60,000.

The other Johnson, Lot 25, "The Lesson (With Page N.O.P. of the Alphabet Book)," is an oil on board that measures 21 1/2 by 19 inches. It was executed in 1874 and has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $240,000.

Enoch Wood Perry (1831-1915) was one of the finest American genre painters whose best works had extremely strong compositions and excellent light. Lot 30, "Going for a Ride," an oil on canvas that measures 15 1/2 by 22 1/2 inches, is a fine example of his oeuvre, which does not appear often at auction, and has a very modest estimate of $15,000 to $25,000. It sold for $24,000.

Lot 4 is a dramatic view of Niagara Falls with a rainbow at sunset as seen from the Canadian side by George Loring Brown (1814-1889). An oil on canvas, it measures 33 by 71 3/4 inches and was executed around 1861, a few years after Frederic Church painted his famous and similar scene now in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. The lot has a modest estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It has a scratch in the top left corner. It sold for $408,000.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was one of the most important American Impressionists whose long career embraced many quite different painting styles. Lot 48, "A Paris Nocturne," is a very pleasant oil on canvas that was executed circa 1889. It measures 27 1/4 by 20 1/4 inches and has an ambitious estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $3,152,000. It was once in the collection of Richard Manoogian of Detroit and exhibiting in the important traveling exhibition of his collection that tourned several major museums in 1989 and 1990.

Lot 52 is a much later Hassam painting in a much different style. Entitled "Easthampton Elms in May," it is an oil on canvas that measures 15 by 20 inches. Executed in 1920, it has a modest estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It is very painterly. It sold for$884,000.

Lot 63 is a very lovely oil on canvas by Willard L. Metcalf (1858-1925) entitled "Purple, White and Gold." Executed in 1903, it measures 28 by 18 inches. It will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonée on Metcalf being authored by Dr. Bruce W. Chambers, Ira Spanierman, Dr. William H. Gerdts and Elizabeth de Veer. It has a modest estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $180,000.

Edward W. Redfield (1869-1965) is one of the major Pennsylvania Impressionists and Lot 69, "Road to the River," is a quite beautiful and impressive example of his style. Executed circa 1920, it is an oil on canvas that measures 50 by 56 inches. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000 and was once in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. It sold for $744,000. The painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonée on Redfield being authored by Dr. Thomas Folk.

Large paintings of the Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella (1880-1946) are widely considered some of the most important American Modernist works of the 20th Century. Lot 143 is a good watercolor study for the series that measures 20 3/4 by 16 1/2 inches and was executed in 1922. It has a modest estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It sold for $168,000.

Lot 146, "Mask with Golden Apple," is an oil on canvas by Georgia O'Keeffe that measures 9 by 16 inches and was executed in 1921. According to the catalogue entry, it "stands as a unique example among O'Keeffe's still-life paintings" and apparently is the only African mask that she used as a subject in her paintings. The artist displayed two African masks that belonged to Alfred Stieglitz in her home that Charles C. Eldredge has observed "were among the very few artworks by others which she tolerated having in her home." The work has a modest estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $486,000.

Lot 138 is an excellent pastel on paper of an alligator pear mounted on board by Georgia O'Keeffe. It measures 12 1/4 by 10 inches and was executed in 1923 and shown at Alfred Stieglitz's Anderson Gallery the following year when it was bought by Paul Strand. The work has been shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and has been requested for a forthcoming exhibition, "Georgia O'Keeffe: Circling Around Abstraction," that is scheduled for the North Museum of Art, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The lot is the back-cover illustration of the catalouge and it has a modest estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $904,000.

Lot 125 is a very fine oil on board by Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) entitled "Keith Farm, Chilmark." It measures 21 by 29 inches and was executed in 1955. Chilmark is on Martha's Vineyard. This work is being sold by the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonée on Benton being prepared by Dr. Henry Adams, Jessie Benton, Anthony Benton Gude and Michael Owen. It has a modest estimate of $350,000 to $650,000. It sold for $1,808,000.

Frederick C. Frieseke (1874-1939) is one of the late American Impressionists who developed a distinctly colorful and radiant style and whose best works are gorgeous and very painterly masterpieces. Lot 44, "The Old-Fashioned Gown," is such a work. An oil on canvas, it measures 32 by 25 1/2 inches and was executed circa 1919. The painting will be included in Nicholas Kilmer's forthcoming catalogue raisonée on Frieseke. It has a modest estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. Renoir would have held his breath in front of this dazzling work. It sold for $363,200.

Lot 64 is another fine Frieseke that is entitled "The Parasol." An oil on canvas that is 32 1/2 inches square, it has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $620,800. While it is a good composition with a marvelous treatment of the tree leaves and bushes, it does not have the bravura of Lot 44 in which the lowered head, the revealed shoulder and the bold patterning of the wall paper envelope the viewer in a romantic reverie.

Lot 135, "South Cushing," is a strong painting of a farm horse by Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917). A tempera on panel, it measures 27 1/2 by 36 1/2 inches. Executed in 1955, it was exhibited in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Office at the White House from November 1955 to January 1956. It has an ambitious estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $4,384,000. It will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonée on Wyeth being prepared by Betsy James Wyeth.

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was a master of surreal photorealism reknown for his brilliant, enamel-like surfaces and almost psychedelic palette. Lot 46, "the Old Glen Mill," is an oil on masonite that measures 23 by 18 1/2 inches. Executed in 1950, it has an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $716,000.

Lot 45, "Homecoming Marine," by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is a major work by America's best 20th Century illustrator. An oil on canvas, it measures 46 by 42 inches and was published on the cover of the October 13, 1945 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $9,200,000. The catalogue includes four photographs taken by Gene Pelham that served as studies for the work. It also includes the following quotation from Christopher Finch, the author of "Norman Rockwell's America": "Rockwell is far from being a warlike person; he is, on the contrary, a gentleman in the literal sense of the world. Yet the war brought out the best in him and turned him toward the naturalistic portrait of home-town America which he put to good use in the decades that followed. His immediate contribution to the war effort on the home front was quite considerable. What is most important about this period, in relation to his career as an illustrator, is the fact that he was given an opportunity to prove to himself and to others that he was capable of dealing with serious subjects without abandoning the human touch which had always been his trademark."

Lot 97, "Hoodlum Street," is a more artistic work byRockwell than Lot 45. An oil on canvas that measures 26 by 54 inches, it was executed in 1947 and illustrated a story by Don Tracy in the May 1947 issue of American Magazine. It has an estimate of $700,000 to $900,000. It sold for $1,360,000.