Lot 25, "Girl Dressing" by Frederick Carl Frieseke, oil on canvas, 54 by 40 inches, 1912
Lot 25
is a beautiful oil on canvas of a "Girl Dressing" by Frederick Carl
Frieseke (1874-1939). It measures 54 by 40 inches and was painted
in 1912.
It has an estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It failed to sell. It is from the May Family Collection.
It has been exhibited at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts in 1923, the Art Institute of Chicago
in 1924, Grand Central Art Galleries in New York in 1926 and the Dallas
Art Museum in 2015.
The auction's pre-sale website provided the following commentary:
"Brilliant in scale, color and form, Girl Arranging Her Hair is
an archetypical example of Frederick Carl Frieseke's paintings of women
during quiet moments of leisure. Superbly balancing sumptuous
fabrics and textures with opulent, intricate patterns and an intriguing
viewpoint, Girl Arranging Her Hair
is arguably one of the artist's most accomplished interior scenes from
this period....Frieseke's images of women are celebrated as some of the
finest achievements of American Impresssionism. His ability to
manipulate light and imbue his models with an air of psychological
independence makes him one of the most accomplished American
Impressionist painters of the female figure."
Lot 30, "The Swan Boats," by George Luks, oil on canvas, 30 by 35 inches, circa 1922-23
Lot 30, "The Swan Boats," is a
superb oil on canvas by George Lukes (1867-1933) that measures 30 by 35
inches and was painted circa 1922-23.
It has an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. It failed to sell.
It was once in the collection of the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston and was sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2018
when it had the same estimate as this auction and sold for
$1,150,000.
The catalogue provided the following commentary:
"George
Luks was a leading member of the group of artists known as The Eight
and part of a movement more broadly referred to as the Aschan School.
The group rejected the subjects of the Impressionists and chose to
instead focus on depicting scenes from modern life in New York,
fascinated by urban street life in particular. While these artists,
including Luks, are perhaps most celebrated for their often gritty
portrayals of the working class, they also captured the daily lives of
the elite. As Graham W. J. Beal, Director of the Detroit Museum of Art,
writes, “The Aschan artists truly were painters of American urban life
and took for their subject matter scenes from everyday life, which
inevitably showed a wider range of social strata than is indicated ivy
the circle’s nickname” (as quoted in James Tottis, Life’s Pleasures: The Aschan Artist’s Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925, London, 2007, p. 7). In The Swan Boats,
Luks depicts a group of these titular pontoon pleasure boats in the
pond of Boston’s Public Garden. This fleet of swan boats has been in
operation since 1877 and was already regarded as a cultural icon for
the city by the time the artist moved there in the early 1920s. While
Luks, like the other Aschan painters, had previously eschewed European
subject matter and technique, he was exposed to and influenced by the
work of Matisse and other French Fauvist painters while living and
working in the home of Boston socialite Maragrett Sargent. Not only did
he draw inspiration from their bright, vivid colors and geometric
forms, but he also began to embrace the popular European subject of
bourgeois public leisure and the technique of painting en plein air. The Swan Boats is
indicative of this European influence, with Luks’ application of small,
Impressionist-like brushstrokes of pure color to depict the scene.
Utilizing staccato brushwork and heightened color, he captures the
effects of light, atmosphere and movement of the water to create a
sophisticated city scene."
Lot 2, "Abiquiu Trees VII," by Georgia O'Keeffe, oil on canvas, 10 1/8 by 12 1/8 inches, 1950-53
Lot
2 is an abstract landscape by Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) is an oil on
canvas that measures 10 1/8 by 12 1/8 inches. It was painted
1950-53. It has an estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It
is property of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It failed to
sell.
The auction's pre-sale
website noted that other "notable examples of O'Keeffe's cottonwood
imagery" are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.
Lot 26, "Autumn," by William Merritt Chase, oil on panel, 12 by 18 1/2 inches, circa 1895
Lot 16 is a good example of the
Shinnecock, Long Island, landscapes of William Merritt Chase
(1849-1916). Entitled "Autumn," it is an oil on panel that
measures 12 by 18 1/2 inches and was painted circa 1895.
It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $239,000.
