Lot 110, "Lily Cow and the Queen," by Robert Henri, oil on canvas, 24 by 20 inches, 1915
Lot
110 is a wonderful portrait of a gypsy girl, "Lily Cow and the Queen,"
holding a doll by Robert Henri. An oil on canvas, it measures 24
by 20 inches and was painted in 1915. It exudes the joys of
childhood and is a masterpiece. It once belonged to the IBM
Corporation in Armonk, New York.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"In
the siummer of 1915, Robert Henri wanted to leave New York to get away
from all the reminders of the war. He and his wife, Linda,
accompanied George and Emma Bellows to Ogunguit, Maine, a popular
artist's colony. ...'There were plenty of children ready to earn the
money, but they were ...not inspiring.'...By August, Henri changed his
opinion after finding a settlement of gypsies who served as models,
including the present sitter, Lily "Cow" Cooper. Henri wrote to
this mother of the gypsies and the present work in particular, 'It
appears that after all out coming here and will prove a rather
good thing for I already have a few things thare ery good, particularly
of a gypsy child laughing - I think it is one of my very best of this
type of work....About capturing the attentive face of the gypsy girl
cradling her doll, the artist wrote, 'No regulat Methodist-born Maine
child caught with such freedom.'....Henri liked his model so much that
he painted her thirteen times (9 works were destroyed)....
The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It failed to sell!
It
has become customary of late to explain the high buy-in rates of recent
auctions by stating that buyers had become more focused on the higest
quality works to the detriment of merely good and nice examples by
important artists. Balderdash! Benson's wife, Robinson's
mother and child and Henri's gypsy are great paintings, worthy of any
museum and their estimates were relatively reasonable. Not every
collector is a connoisseur, obviously.
Lot 53, "At the Races," by Guy Pène du Bois," oil on canvas, 20 by 16 inches, 1939
Guy
Pène du Bois (1884-1958) was an artist and art critic and lived for
much of his life at 20 West 10th Street. Lot 53 is a very good
and bright work by him entitled "At the Races." An oil on canvas,
it measures 20 by 16 inches and was painted in 1939. It has an
estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $62,500.
Lot 129, "North Wall Panel," by Maxfield Parrish, 64 by 221 1/4 inches, 1918
Lot
129 is a huge and wondrous mural painted by Maxfield Parrish for
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney commissioned in 1909 for her New York City
home designed by Delano & Aldrich. When it was copleted in
1918, it was installed, with three other Parrish murals in her studio
building in Old Westbury, Long Island. It measures 64 by 221 1/4
inches. It is a spectacular work whose wonderful costumes and
poses are the equal of the best Italian Renaissance murals although
Parrish's Pre-Raphaelite, photorealistic style makes the images of
beautiful young people "pop."
Detail of Lot 129
The catalogue provides the following commentary on this work:"The
figures in this fanciful panorama are dressed in jewel-toned and
patterned costumes presenting a virtual symphony of color and form.
Parrish uses the dramatic gestures and compositional
symmetry to imbue the mural with tremendous visual power and belie
his life-long interest in theater....The magic and spirit of North Wall
Panel is the result of an intricate approach to painting that was
unique to Parrish. He possessed a calm and patient disposition
that was perfectly suited to the arduous and time-consuming work his
pictures demanded. This approach included the use of paper
cut-outs, photography, props and models constructed in his worshop as
well as a meticulous method of painting with glazes. Indeed every
detail from the brilliant patterning to the depiction of forms,
which provide the work compositional unity, was manipulated so as to
create an effective design."
The lot was an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It sold for $2,882,500.
Lot 56, "Paris in Winter," by Childe Hassam, oil on board, 5 3/4 by 3 1/2 inches, 1889
Lot
56 is a pleasant small oil on board by Hassam entitled "Paris in
Winter." It measures 5 3/4 by 3 1/2 inches and was created in 1889.
It is temperamentally akin to the Theodore Robinson painting
illustrated above, Lot 58. The Hassam picture has an estimate of
$70,000 to $100,000. It sold for $110,500.
Lot 21, "Celia Thaxter's Garden, Appledore, Isle of Shoals," by Childe Hassam, oil on canvas, 13 by 9 3/4 inches, circa 1890-3
Lot
21 is an exquisite and lovely and very painterly work from The Westervelt Company, "Celia Thaxter's
Garden, Appledore, Isle of Shoals," by Childe Hassam (1858-1935). An oil on
canvas, it measures 13 by 9 3/4 inches and was painted circa 1890-3.
It has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. It failed to sell. For 30 years or so, Hassam returned to this island off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire.
Lot 57, "The Picture Book," by Robert Frederick Blum, oil on panel, 6 3/8 by 10 1/2 inches, circa 1890
Robert
Frederick Blum was a leading American watercolorist who also spent some
time in Japan and did large murals for the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Lot
57 is a very fine small oil on pnael entitled "The Picture Book" that
shows a girl in a kimono lying on the floor reading. It measures 6 3/8
inches by 10 1/2 inches and was created circa 1890. It is property of
the Westervelt Company, formerly the Gulf States Paper Corporation,
which put together a very major collection of American art in the
1980s. It has an estimate of $180,000 to $240,000. It sold for $218,500.
Lot 23, "Mackerel Cove, Jamestown, Rhode Island," by William Trost Richards, oil on canvas, 26 1/2 by 47 inches, 1894
The
Westervelt Corporation's collection has many superb landscapes
including Lot 23,"Mackerel Cove, Jamestown, Rhode Island," by William
Trost Richards. An oil on canvas that measures 26 1/2 by 47
inches, it was painted in 1894. It has an estimate of $700,000 to
$1,000,000. It sold for $1,650,500.
Lot 29, "Conway Valley," by George Inness, oil on canvas, 20 by 30 inches, 1875
Another
masterpiece from the Westervelt colllectionis Lot 29, "Conway Valley,"
by George Inness, an oil on canvas that measures 20 by 30 inches and
waspainted in 1875. This majestis vista of Mount Washington, the
tallest mountain in New England, is a major masterpiece for Inness,
transitioning from his earlier Hudson River School style to his later
Tonalist style of poetic Impressionism. The quality of light, the
saturated colors and the horizontality of the composition are very
beautiful. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $602,500.
A
smaller Inness landscape from the same collection, Lot 84, is a fine
example of the artist's wonderful Tonalism. Entitled "The Sun,"
it is an oil on panel that measures 12 by 26 inches and was painted in
1886. It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It sold for $212,500.
There
are three great 19th Century American paintings of still-life: William
Harnett, John Haberle and John Frederick Peto (1854-1907). Lot
83, "Still Life with Oranges and Banana," is a small and
lovely oil on panel that measures 4 3/4 by 8 inches. It was
painted circa 1880. It once belonged to John T. Dorrance Jr. of
Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, the head of Campbell's Soups. It has an
estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 and it is unusual in that the unpeeled
orange is shown in its paper wrapper, a custom used often by William
McCloskey. It sold for $122,500. It is property of the Westervelt Company.
Lot 32, "Autumn on the Delaware," by Thomas Worthington Whittredge, oil on canvas, 18 by 28 inches, circa 1875
T.
Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) is best known for his forest scenes
but he also traveled West and some of his best paintings are of the
Plains with snow-capped mountains in the distance and indians in the
foreground. Lot 32 is a Bierstadtesque river scene that is an oil on
canvas that measures 18 by28 inches. Painted circa 1875, it is
entitled "Autumn on the Delaware." It has an estimate of $250,000 to
$350,000. It sold for $302,5000. It is one of the Westervelt paintings in this auction.
Lot 36, "Seal Rock, California," by Albert Bierstadt, oil on paper laid down on canvas, 16 by 22 inches, circa 1872
Another
fine work from the Westervelt consignment is Lot 36, "Seal Rock,
California," by Albert Bierstadt, an oil on paper laid down on canvas.
It measures 16 by 22 inches and was painted circa 1872. It
has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $794,500. Just
off the San Francisco coast near the famous Cliff House, is a dramatic
group of rocks in an around which seals frolic. Bierstadt
made several paintings of the scene including some that are much larger
than this one and which tend to engulf the viewer with an enormous
wave. Here Bierstadt's handling of difficult lighting shows off
his bravura technical abilities and while the work is relatively small
its scene dynamically engulfs the viewer with the power of the surf and
sea and the majesty of nature.
Lot 39, "The Falls of Saint Anthony," by Albert Bierstadt, oil on canvas 29 1/4 by 53 inches, circa 1887
In
Lot 39, Bierstadt encompasses the broad expanse of "The Falls of Saint
Anthony" without the aid of a very wide-angle lens. Bierstadt's
ability to create wondrous and mighty panoramas of the natural glories
of the American West at the peak of nature's lighting is legendary and
enthralling. The falls, which are on the Mississippi River, were
first published in 1680 by Father Louis Hennepin, a Catholic friar who
also first published Niagara Falls. The lot has a modest estimate
of $400,000 to $600,000. It sold for $362,500.
Lot 38, "Sunrise Landscape," by Thomas Moran, oil on canvas, 20 by 30 inches, 1897
Lot
38 is an low-key but interesting composition by Thomas Moran, Albert
Bierstadt's great rival for the title of foremost American painter of
the Manifest Destiny of the West. Entitled "Sunrise Landscape," it is
an oil on canvas that measures 20 by 30 inches and was painted in 1897.
Known as "The American Turner," Moran was not too concerned with
literal depictions of scenery and his idealized landscapes are
sensational. This lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $266,500.
Lot 28, "Near Newport, Rhode Island," by John Frederick Kensett, oil on canvas, 10 3/4 by 24 inches
Lot
28, "Near Newport, Rhode Island," is a classic Luminist beach scene by
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872). An oil on canvas that
measures 10 3/4 by 24 inches, it has a lovely calm and lyrical
abstraction. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold for $482,500.
Lot 26, "A Glimpse of the Village," by Jasper Francis Cropsey, oil on canvas, 12 by 20 inches, 1886
Jasper
Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) was known as "The Painter of Autumn" as he
gloried in depicting the colors of that season as can be seen in Lot
26, "A Glimpse of the Village." An oil on canvas that measures 12
by 20 inches, it was painted in 1886. It has an estimate of
$70,000 to $100,000. It sold for $74,500.
Lot 50, "South Truro Post Office I," by Edward Hopper, watercolor and pencil on paper, 13 3/4 by 19 3/4 inches, 1930
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is one of the few American artists whose
watercolors are often as impressive as his best oil paintings. He is
known for his rather flat, two-dimensional style and his bold lighting,
and Lot 50, "South Truro Post Office I," a watercolor and pencil on
paper that measures 13 3/4 by 19 3/4 inches, is a good example. It was
created in 1930. It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It sold
for $482,500.
Lot 6, "Composition," by Morton Livingston Schamberg, pastel and pencil on paper, 16 by 10 1/4 inches, 1916
Lot
6 is a very fine abstraction by Morton Livingston Schamberg. A
pastel and pencil on paper, it measures 16 by 10 1/4 inches and was
created in 1916. It has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $74,500.
Lot 11, "Pink Lilies and Butterflies," by Charles Demuth, watercolor and pencil on paper, 11 3/4 by 17 1/2 inches, 1928
Charles
Demuth (1883-1935) was one of the country's best watercolorists.
"Pink Lilies and Butterflies," Lot 11, is a fine example of his
skill. A watercolor and pencil on paper, it measures 11 3/4 by 17
1/2 inches and was created in 1928. It has an estimate of
$300,000 to $500,000. It sold for $290,500.