American Art
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Cataloguer
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George S. Lowry
Chairman
Nicholas D. Lowry
President, Principal Auctioneer
924899
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Alexandra Mann-Nelson
Chief Marketing Officer
2030704
Todd Weyman
Vice President & Director, Prints & Drawings
1214107
Nigel Freeman
Vice President & Director, African American Art
Rick Stattler
Vice President & Director, Books & Manuscripts
Administration
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
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Client Accounting
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Operations Manager
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Kelsie Jankowski
Communications Manager
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19th Century
Martin johnson heade
Edge of the Woods.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1860. 220x295 mm; 8¾x11⅝ inches. Inscribed “29” in pencil, upper right recto.
Provenance: Spanierman Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John george brown
A Child Hiding in Ambush.
Oil on board, 1867. 212x150 mm; 8⅜x5⅞ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to current owner, Florida.
The present work is a small version of a larger 1866-67 oil on canvas, now in a private collection. Brown (1831-1913), the British-born American painter renowned for his genre scenes, customarily painted small paintings with similar themes and titles, not as studies for a larger work but as separate works to meet popular demand. His paintings of both childhood mischievousness and innocence were highly sought after by collectors. The model in the current work also appears in Children of the Forest, an 1866 oil on canvas sold at Sotheby’s, New York, March 28, 2018, lot 134.
We wish to thank Martha Hoppin for her assistance researching this lot.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Thomas cole
Youth.
Oil on canvas, circa 1839-40. 265x210 mm; 10¼x8¼ inches.
This work is likely a study for the red robed figure on the boat crossing the river in Cole’s (1801-1848) oil painting The Voyage of Life: Youth, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Provenance: Private collection, Birmingham, Michigan.
Exhibited: “Side by Side”, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York, October 5-December 15, 1985, page 11, catalogue number 9.
The Voyage of Life is a series of four paintings created by Cole in 1842, representing an allegory of the four stages of human life. The paintings, Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, depict a voyager who travels in a boat on a river through the mid-19th-century American wilderness. In each painting the voyager rides the boat on the River of Life accompanied by a guardian angel. The landscape, each reflecting one of the four seasons of the year, plays a significant role in conveying the story. With each installment the boat’s direction of travel is reversed from the previous picture. In childhood, the infant glides from a dark cave into a rich, green landscape. As a youth, the boy takes control of the boat and aims for a shining castle in the sky. In manhood, the adult relies on prayer and religious faith to sustain him through rough waters and a threatening landscape. Finally, the man becomes old, and the angel guides him to heaven across the waters of eternity.
The Voyage of Life was well received by both critics and the public; the United States was experiencing the religious revival sometimes known as the Second Great Awakening. The four paintings were reproduced as engravings by James Smillie (1807–1885) after Cole’s death and the engravings widely distributed in time for the Third Great Awakening, further bestowing the series the great prestige and popular acclaim it retains today.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Alexander h. wyant
Storm in the Mountains.
Oil on canvas. 158x218 mm; 6¼x8½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Wyant (1836-1892) was an American landscape painter. His early works belonged to the Hudson River School, with its direct pastoral narrative, but evolved into the moodier and more shadowy Tonalism. After a stroke which paralyzed his right arm, he taught himself to paint with his left. Born in Ohio, Wyant worked primarily in New York following his training, as well as several years in Cincinnati and Europe. After his marriage in 1880, he began to spend most of his time in Keene Valley, New York. He moved in 1889 to Arkville, New York (in the Catskills). He frequently painted in the Adirondacks, which is likely represented in this view, as well as in the Catskills. Wyant was only moderately appreciated during his lifetime, though after his death his works were eagerly sought for and are now in museums including the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville and the Dayton Art Institute.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Winckworth allan gay
Cohasset Landscape.
Oil on canvas, 1864. 305x458 mm; 12x18 inches. Signed and inscribed “Cohasset” and dated in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edgar algernon josselyn
Sunset River Scene with Fisherman.
Oil on canvas, 1881. 200x255 mm; 8x10 inches. Initialed in oil, lower left recto, and signed and dated in pencil on the stretcher, verso.
Provenance: Alexander Gallery, New York; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John henry twachtman
Festiniog (Over the Narrowest Narrow Gauge).
Oil on canvas, 1879. 200x250 mm; 8x10 inches. Incised with the artist's signature and date, lower left recto, and inscribed in oil, verso.
The current work is an early illustration design by Twachtman (1853-1902), an American painter who became best known for his impressionist landscapes, for Over the Narrowest Narrow Gauge, by William H. Bishop, which appeared in Scribner's Monthly, volume xviii, page 605.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Published: Lisa N. Peters, John Henry Twachtman Catalogue Raisonné, Greenwich Historical Society, 2021 (jhtwachtman.org), number OP.320.
The Ffestiniog Railway in Wales runs from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffesiniog on a single track. The line was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport raw materials to the port in Porthmadog. The introduction of steam locomotives and passenger carriages in the 1860s allowed the railway to become more efficient and appealing to regional tourism. Operations closed on the line in August 1946, though shortly thereafter, groups have been active in restoration of the railway, slowly reopening each station.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Imogene morrell
Rocky Coast.
Oil on board, circa 1870. 450x650 mm; 17½x25½ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, California.
Morrell (1828-1908) was born in Massachusetts and trained in Newark, New Jersey, and New York. She worked in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., and was close friends with the American academic painter Elizabeth Jane Gardner (1837-1922).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Imogene morrell
Sailing Ship at Sea.
Oil on canvas. 610x455 mm; 24x18 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Arizona.
Morrell (1828-1908) was born in Massachusetts and trained in Newark, New Jersey, and New York. She worked in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., and was close friends with the American academic painter Elizabeth Jane Gardner (1837-1922).
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Conrad wise chapman
Bathers at Low Tide, the Beach at Trouville.
Oil on panel, circa 1878. 140x220 mm; 5½x8¾ inches.
Provenance: Christie’s, New York, March 9, 2007, sale 1807, lot 61; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Conrad wise chapman
The Beach at Trouville.
Oil on panel, 1878. 140x220 mm; 5½x8¾ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John la farge
Boy Casting off a Hawk.
Watercolor and gouache over pencil on paper, circa 1884-85. 134x121 mm; 5¼x4¾ inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Moore’s Art Gallery, New York, with a partial label; private collection, New Jersey; Henry B. Holt, Essex Fells, New Jersey; Stephen M. Lovette, Washington, D.C.; William Vareika Fine Arts, Ltd., Newport, Rhode Island; private collection, Massachusetts; private collection, Chicago.
Exhibited: Moore’s Art Gallery, New York, March 26-27, 1885; “John La Farge (1835-1910) American Artistic Genius and Renaissance Man,” William Vareika Fine Arts, Ltd., Newport, Rhode Island, August 28-November 30, 2009.
Published: Yarnall, “New Insights on John La Farge and Photography,” The American Art Journal, volume XIX, number 2, 1987, page 73 (illustrated).
Many of the works in the Moore’s Art Gallery, New York, auction in 1885 were replicas of pictures that La Farge had sold the previous year in his forced sale at the auctioneers Ortgies & Co., New York. The artist considered making copies both a substitute for keeping works that he did not really want to sell and as a potential future source of income. The current work is based on a watercolor sold in 1884 at Ortgies & Co. (W. 1880.14) that dates from 1880 according to the auction catalogue. Both are based on drawings executed around 1865 as La Farge worked on illustrations for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Skeleton in Armor, a ballad set in Newport, Rhode Island. The backdrop represents Brenton’s Cove, Newport, prominently featured in the poem. La Farge’s other drawings of the subject are now in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Harvey ellis
Gleaner.
Oil on canvas, 1882. 370x460 mm; 14¾x18 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Born in Rochester, New York, Ellis (1852-1904) was an architect, painter and furniture designer, now best remembered for his work in the American Arts and Crafts movement. He worked in Rochester, New York; Utica, New York; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Joseph, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri and Syracuse, New York. Ellis’s path and that of Gustav Stickley (1858-1942), the de facto leader of the American Arts and Crafts movement, eventually crossed, for Ellis, the president of the Rochester Arts and Crafts Society, was in charge of installing Stickley’s famous, large 1903 Arts and Crafts exhibition in its Rochester venue, the Mechanics Institute. Shortly after that Ellis moved to Syracuse, New York, to join the expanding architecture department of Stickley’s United Crafts organization, where he would become responsible for designing much of the “golden age” of Stickley’s furniture.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
American school
Two Prize Cow oils.
Prize Cow, 1877. 322x400 mm; 12½x15¾ inches. Signed “G.A. McKinstry” and dated in oil, lower right recto * Lady Forrest, circa 1880. 307x433 mm; 12⅛x17 inches. Inscribed in oil, lower left recto, and signed “by G.A. McKinstry” in oil, lower right recto. Both on canvas.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Charles ethan porter
Still Life with Flowers.
Oil on canvas board. 350x397 mm; 14x15¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: The Anthony and Davida Artis Collection of African-American Fine Art, Flint, Michigan; private collection, Chicago.
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Porter (1847-1923) was a noted still life and floral painter. Porter was active from 1865 to 1915, both in New York and Hartford. In 1869, he was one of the first African Americans to study at the National Academy in New York. He later settled in Hartford where he befriended his neighbor, the famous author Mark Twain. Around 1881, after raising $1,000 from auctioning his paintings, Porter moved to Paris, where for approximately two years he enrolled at the École Nationale Superiéure des Arts Décoratifs before studying at the Académie Julian. While he unsuccessfully attempted to show his work at the Salon, his still life paintings were infused with a realism greatly influenced by Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) and by his experimentation with plein air painting.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
George cochran lambdin
Roses.
Oil on canvas, 1881. 505x350 mm; 20x14 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Ralph albert blakelock
Two watercolors with oil.
Distant Trees on card. 190x203 mm; 7⅜x8 inches * Trees Along a Stream, with additions in pencil on card. 200x205 mm; 7⅞x8 inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: The artist; thence by descent; sold Leland Little, Hillsborough, North Carolina, September 12, 2015, lot 447; private collection, South Carolina.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Ralph albert blakelock
Three landscape oils.
Path at Sunset, on panel * Grove, on board * Landscape with River, on panel. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: The artist; thence by descent; sold Leland Little, Hillsborough, North Carolina, September 12, 2015, lot 446; private collection, South Carolina.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Ralph albert blakelock
Night Scene.
Oil on canvas. 660x803 mm; 26x32 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
This painting has been reviewed by Dr. Norman Geske and is catalogued by the University of Nebraska Inventory as NBI-708, Category III (consisting of paintings whose histories are missing or incomplete and whose physical and stylistic characteristics may be partially in accord, partially divergent from the criteria of Categories I and II), with a copy of the original letter from Dr. Geske, dated March 26, 1974.
Provenance: Harry Stone; Argosy Gallery, Inc., New York, 1957; acquired from the above by Robert Bearsdley; private collection, Maine.
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Ralph albert blakelock
Landscape at Twilight.
Oil on panel. 240x409 mm; 9⅜x16 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Ralph albert blakelock
Indian Encampment.
Oil on board. 560x685 mm; 22x27 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
This painting has been reviewed by Dr. Norman Geske and is catalogued by the University of Nebraska Inventory as NBI-1425, Category IV (consisting of paintings without histories whose physical and stylistic characteristics do not agree in any way with the criteria of Categories I, II or III), with the label verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
R. j. montague
Mason’s Island.
Oil on board, circa 1880. 283x345 mm; 11¼x13½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Mason’s Island is an inhabited island at the mouth of the Mystic River, in Stonington, Connecticut. The island was named after Major John Mason who was granted the island in recognition for his military services in the 1637 Pequot War in nearby Mystic. This island remained in the Mason family for over 250 years, from 1651 to 1913. Since then, the Allyn family have been stewards of it, and most of the island is owned by the Mason’s Island Company and regulated by property deeds under the Mason’s Island Property Owners Association. The Mason’s Island Marina and the Mystic River Marina are located on the north end of the island. Mason’s Island is now connected to the mainland by a causeway.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Arthur b. davies
Mountainous Landscape.
Pastel and watercolor on green laid paper, 1889. 239x316 mm; 9⅜x12½ inches. Signed, dated and annotated in pastel, verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York, with the blue ink stamp verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as renowned for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and Rockwell Kent (1882-1971). It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach (1883-1958) to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Alfred thompson bricher
Seascape with Rocks.
Oil on canvas, circa 1890. 260x510 mm; 10¼x20¼ inches. Signed with the monogram, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bricher (1837-1908) began his career as a businessman in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at the Lowell Institute alongside fellow artists Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) and William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), and devoted himself to art professionally after 1858. He focused on maritime paintings, with attention to scenes that explore the effect of light on both coastal landscapes and seascapes. Following his move to New York in 1868, he became one of the last painters associated with the American Luminist movement, which came out of the Hudson River School. Though little-known throughout his lifetime, Bricher’s work gained more attention posthumously, and by the 1980s he came to be credited as one of the foremost American maritime painters of the 19th century.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Edmund darch lewis
Point Judith Light, seen from the north, Narragansett, Rhode Island.
Watercolor and gouache on wove card stock, 1898. 243x527 mm; 9½x20¾ inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Exhibited: “The Light Must Be Kept Burning: Rhode Island’s Light Houses, Past, Present, and Future,” Providence, Rhode Island Historical Society, November 17, 1985-January 17, 1986.
The exhibition label locates the view as seen from Bass Rocks, at the end of Bass Rock Road, Narragansett.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William st. john harper
Collection of approximately 20 pen and ink, pencil and chalk drawings, watercolors and oil studies.
Each circa 1890-1900. Includes three titled pen and ink studies of eastern Long Island; Panoramic View of Montauk, circa 1900, signed and inscribed “View Looking West from Rocky Ridge where hospitals are located/Fort Pond, Montauk/Fort Pond Bay/Montauk Station” in ink, recto * The Shores of Three-Mile Harbor, looking toward Gardiner’s Bay, 1900, signed, titled, annotated and dated in ink, recto * Long Island View, Railroad Track to Montauk; two black and white chalk drawings of Long Island coastal views; pen and ink drawing of The Lighthouse and Cliffs, South Side, Block Island, Rhode Island, titled in ink, lower left recto; as well as additional pencil studies of landscapes and interiors and watercolor and oil studies of women and landscapes. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, Ohio.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William bradford
Sand Dunes, Bradley Beach, New Jersey.
Oil on canvas, 1886. 408x506 mm; 16¼x20 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. John Powell, Los Angeles; Brand Library, Glendale, California; private collection, Chicago.
Bradford (1823-1892) was an American romanticist painter, photographer and explorer, originally from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, near New Bedford. He was a notable marine painter and was, along with his contemporaries Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), among the first American painters to portray the frozen regions of the Arctic. From 1861 to 1866 Bradford made excursions north to Labrador with Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes. With funds provided by LeGrand Lockwood, Bradford traveled to Greenland in 1869, his farthest northern excursion, reaching eventually as far as 75° north latitude aboard the steamship Panther, accompanied by photographers John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson. Thereafter, Bradford spent two years in London, promoting his explorations, and later in the 1870s established a studio in San Francisco and traveled extensively in the western United States where he painted Yosemite, Mariposa Valley and the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
Despite his far-reaching travels, focus on marine paintings and association with the American west, he was like his friend and fellow New Bedford transplant Albert Bierstadt, consistently associated with the Hudson River School, adopting their techniques and becoming highly interested in the way light touches water and how it affects the appearance of water surfaces and the general atmospherics of a painting. In 1874, he was elected to join the National Academy of Design, New York.
Bradley Beach, the subject of the current work, is now a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and became a seaside destination during the 1870s when several investors started its development. It was the first location in the United States to charge sea bathers for beach access when it began minting its own tin badges starting in 1929.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
William trost richards
Morning Surf.
Watercolor on paper, 1901. 475x700 mm; 18⅞x27½ inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of Martha Walton, Pennsylvania; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Frederick stuart church
The Three Mermaids.
Oil on canvas, 1908. 490x955 mm; 19½x37 5/8 inches. Signed, inscribed "NY" and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Grant B. Schley, New York; McQueen's West-Side Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey, 1974.
Exhibited: "Winter Exhibition," National Academy of Design, New York, December 12, 1908- January 9, 1909, number 241.
Published: "The Winter Exhibition of the National Gallery," Los Angeles Herald, January 3, 1909, page 52 (illustrated).
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John la farge
Samoan Girls Dancing the Seated Siva Dance with Pantomime and Song, Night Effect, Samoa, 1890.
Brush and ink and wash on paper, circa 1895. 330x350 mm; 13x13¾ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto, and titled in pencil, lower center margin. With the artist’s red ink stamp (Lugt 2976a, lower center recto).
According to Dr. James L. Yarnall, “This is one of several sepia copies of South Sea watercolors that La Farge prepared for use by Cecilia Waern around 1895 in her biography of the artist. Unlike the other sepia copies, it ultimately was not used by Waern, who instead reproduced the original watercolor (now in a private collection).”
Provenance: Doll and Richards, Boston, 1902-1904; Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1907; the artist’s estate, New York, 1910-1911; sold American Art Association, New York, March 29-31, 1911, lot 845; A.B. Springarn, New York, 1911-1966; John B. Lehman, New York, from 1966; private collection, New York; sold Swann Galleries, New York, June 4, 2015, sale 2386, lot 20, to private collection, Connecticut; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Century Association, New York, December 3, 1898, number 15; “Exhibition and Private Sale of Water Color Paintings by Mr. John La Farge, Mr. Childe Hassam, Miss Lucy S. Conant,” Doll and Richards, Boston, November 1902, number 15; “Exhibition of Pictures by John La Farge,” Macbeth Gallery, New York, November 27-December 12, 1907, number 7; “Exhibition of Glass, Oil and Water Color Paintings and Sketches by John La Farge, N.A.,” Knoedler and Co., New York, February 15-31, 1909, number 31; “John La Farge,” Graham Gallery, New York, May 4-June 10, 1966, number 44; “Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by John La Farge from His Travels in the South Seas, 1890-1891,” Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, February 1-May 1, 1978, number 14.
Published: “La Farge in Retrospect,” New York Times, December 6, 1907, page 5; “La Farge Sale Total $28,492. A Crayon Drawing by Artist, Made in Samoa, Brings $155,” New York Times, April 1, 1911, page 13; Henry A. La Farge, “John La Farge: A Reappraisal,” Art News, volume 65.0 (May 1966), page 30.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Julian alden weir
Portrait of Anna (the Artist’s Wife).
Oil on board, circa 1890. 485x348 mm; 19x13¾ inches.
Provenance: Spanierman Gallery, New York, with the label; offered Christie’s, New York, May 29, 1987, lot 172; offered Sotheby’s, New York, May 30, 1990, lot 101; Doyle, New York, April 17, 1991, lot 26; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Arthur b. davies
Nude.
Oil on canvas. 355x300 mm; 14x12 inches. Signed in oil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Graham Gallery, New York, with the label verso; purchased Martin Diamond Fine Arts, New York, 1976, by private collection, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Joseph henry sharp
Reclining Nude in a Landscape.
Color pastels on paper, 1890. 395x1070 mm; 15½x42⅛ inches. Signed, dated and inscribed “Paris” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, St. Petersburg, Russia; private collection, Latvia; purchased from the above by the current owner, private collection, North Carolina.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Albert herter
Woman in a Blue Dress in a Wooded Landscape.
Watercolor on card stock, circa 1900. 240x176 mm; 9⅜x7 inches. Signed and with the artist’s floral symbol in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Louis comfort tiffany
Two Figures in anArched Stairway, Venice
Watercolor on paper mounted on board, circa 1870-75. 320x245 mm; 12½x9⅝ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Estate of Pat Roberts, founder of The American Museum of Industry and Technology; private collection, Florida.
Tiffany (1848-1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements. He was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork. He was the first design director at his family company, Tiffany & Co., founded by his father Charles Lewis Tiffany. Tiffany started out as a painter, but became interested in glassmaking from about 1875 and worked at several glasshouses in Brooklyn between then and 1878.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Frederick macmonnies
Pan of Rohallion.
Bronze, 1890. 260 mm; 10¼ inches (height). With the artist’s signature and date incised on the sphere and numbered 81 on the underside. Cast by H. Rouard Foundeur, Paris, with the foundry mark on the sphere.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Published Smart and Gordon, A Flight with Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies: With a Catalogue Raisonné of the Artist’s Works, Madison, Connecticut, 1996, pages 85, 89-90, 92, 99, 106, 150, 156, 237 and 288 (other examples illustrated).
The current work is the design for a larger fountain figure by MacMonnies (1863-1937), made for the private estate “Rohallion” belonging to Howard Adams in Seabright, New Jersey. One of the artist’s most successful models, it was edited by both French and American foundries in several sizes and sold through Paris and New York art dealers, particularly Durand-Ruel and Theodore B. Starr.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Early 1900s
Edward hopper
Crucifixion Scene.
Pencil on laid paper, circa 1898-99. 250x202 mm; 10x8 inches.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 16 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 21, figure 9 (illustrated).
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
This is an early design by Hopper (1882-1967), made while he was studying to become an illustrator. According to Levin, “In 1899, after graduating from high school in his hometown of Nyack, New York, Hopper commuted to New York City daily to study illustration at the Correspondence School of Illustrating at 114 West Thirty-fourth Street. His parents had not objected to his becoming an artist, but they encouraged him to study commercial illustration which offered a more secure income. This must have seemed more practical to his father, who owned a drygoods store in Nyack and would have been familiar with advertising illustrations,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
Woman and Child.
Ink on paper, circa 1895-1900. 135x90 mm; 5⅜x3½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Edward hopper
Arab Beggar.
Ink on paper, circa 1895-1900. 140x116 mm; 5½x4¼ inches. Signed and titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Charles marion russell
Indian Head.
Bronze. 50 mm; 2 inches (height, excluding base). Incised A/P 1, lower verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Louis charles moeller
An Argument.
Oil on canvas. 357x255 mm; 14x10 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Moeller (1855-1930) was an American artist who studied painting in New York with E. M. Ward and Will Hicok Low, and in Munich with Feodor Dietz and Frank Duveneck. He exhibited with the National Academy of Design in New York and became one of the best-known genre painters of his time. Common themes in Moeller’s work included interior, domestic scenes of families and friends playing games, conversing, and dining, among other everyday activities.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
George overbury “pop” hart
Book Stall, Holland.
Oil on canvas, circa 1905-07. 405x510 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Gregory Gilbert has reviewed and verbally confirmed this work to be by the artist.
Provenance: Private collection, Virginia.
During the first decade of the 20th century, Hart (1868-1933) traveled extensively, spending time in Europe, the South Pacific, and Egypt. While in Paris in 1907 he studied at the Académie Julian for a brief period, however most of his time abroad was spent observing other cultures and recording his travels in his artwork. While he received some academic training and observed the emergent modern art movements in Paris, his style remained rooted in American tendencies. His works from this time are particularly reminiscent of the Ashcan School and their propensity to record a living experience. This work, one of approximately 28 oil paintings the artist executed during his career, depicts daily life in Holland.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
George overbury “pop” hart
Group of 5 drawings.
Tahitian Girl, watercolor on paper mounted on board, 1903. Signed and inscribed “Tahiti” in ink, lower right recto * Festival Day, pen and ink and pencil on brown wove paper, 1926. Signed twice, dated and inscribed “Mex” in pencil, lower recto * Grinding Grain, charcoal and pen and ink on paper, 1929. Signed, dated and inscribed in charcoal and titled in pencil, lower right recto * Calking Ship, pen and ink and watercolor on brownish gray wove paper, 1930. Signed, dated and inscribed “Palma” in ink and titled and further inscribed in pencil, lower recto * Buying His Lunch, pen and ink and wash on paper, 1930. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed “Palma” in ink, lower recto.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (80.1935, 165.1940, 164.1940, 162.1940, 166.1940).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Frank myers boggs
Paris from the Seine.
Charcoal and watercolor on artist board, circa 1900. 262x400 mm; 10¼x15¾ inches. Signed and inscribed “Paris” in charcoal, lower left recto.
Provenance: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Walter russell
Brooklyn Bridge and East River Harbor.
Charcoal, pastel and gouache on paper mounted on board. 650x910 mm; 25⅝x35¾ inches.
Provenance: Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Joseph pennell
Sunrise over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1900-10. 182x257 mm; 7¼x10¼ inches. Signed and annotated in pencil, lower left recto. With a James Bourlet & Sons, London, framemakers label verso.
Provenance: The New York Trust Company; possibly Thomas Colville, Connecticut, with an inscription on the frame verso; private collection, South Carolina; private collection, Chicago.
The influence of James A. M. Whistler is evident in Pennell’s (1857-1926) work with its often impressionistic line, but the artist often chose a modern subject. Born in Pennsylvania, Pennell made London his home and did not return full-time to the United States until World War I. He traveled twice to New York prior to that, in 1904 and 1908, and captured the changing character of the city with the growing number of skyscrapers, a reflection of his interest in depicting modern life through urban landscapes, factories and industry.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Arthur b. davies
California Coast.
Oil on board. 138x238 mm; 5½x9⅜ inches. Signed in oil, verso.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; Jack Tanzer Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Charles warren eaton
Sky Sunset Study.
Oil on canvas mounted on board. 265x345 mm; 10½x13¾ inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Reynolds beal
New London Harbor.
Oil on canvas, 1909. 460x610 mm; 18⅛x24⅛ inches.
Provenance: Sold Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut, October 24, 2002, lot 87; private collection, New Jersey.
Published: Bressler, Reynolds Beal: Impressionist Landscapes and Seascapes, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Cranbury, New Jersey, 1989, page 82, number 41.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Edward potthast
Canoeing.
Oil on Masonite, circa 1923. 278x355 mm; 11x14 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work in preparation by Mary Ran Gallery, Cincinnati.
Provenance: New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc., New Orleans, April 27, 2019, lot 78; sold Doyle, New York, November 6, 2019, lot 1053; private collection, Toronto.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Edward potthast
Church, Normandy, France.
Oil on artist’s board. 305x402 mm; 12x16 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Pennsylvania.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work in preparation by Mary Ran Gallery, Cincinnati.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward potthast
Woodland Scene.
Gouache on card. 340x527 mm; 13¼x20⅞ inches. Signed in gouache, lower left recto.
Provenance: Adams Davidson Galleries, Washington, D.C.; private collection, Potomac, Maryland; sold Quinn’s Auction Galleries, Falls Church, Virginia, January 30, 2021, lot 295, to current owner, private collection, Toronto.
Exhibited: “Works on Paper: From Thomas Cole to Andrew Wyeth,” Adams Davidson Galleries, Washington, D.C., April 19- June 3, 1980, number 39, with the label.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Edward Potthast
The Grand Canyon.
Oil on panel, circa 1910-15. 410x505 mm; 16¼x20 inches. Signed in oil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Cleveland; sold Wolf’s, Cleveland, September 19, 1991, lot 57; Richard Kerwin Galleries, Burlingame, California; private collection, California; private collection, Chicago.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work in preparation by Mary Ran Gallery, Cincinnati.
In November of 1910, in an effort to transform the image of the Santa Fe Railway and to stimulate tourism to the American Southwest, Cincinnati-born Potthast (1857-1927), along with four other prominent American artists (Thomas Moran, Elliott Daingerfield, Frederick B. Williams, De Witt Parshall), was invited by the Railway to journey to the Grand Canyon to recreate on canvas the unique experience of its landscape. This was Potthast’s first visit to the Grand Canyon and of significant importance for the artist. Potthast would go on to exhibit his depictions of the Grand Canyon at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1911, 1918 and 1920. Potthast’s devotion to the Southwest would also lead him to become a founder of a group called the Society of Men Who Paint the Far West, which included several of the artists who accompanied Potthast on the 1910 painting excursion.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Edward potthast
Landscape with a Farm at Twilight.
Oil on canvas. 508x622 mm; 20x24½ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work in preparation by Mary Ran Gallery, Cincinnati.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Louis eilshemius
Farm Landscape.
Oil on canvas. 210x330 mm; 8x13 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Louis eilshemius
Seascape with a Lighthouse.
Oil on board. 550x700 mm; 21¾x27½ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Louis eilshemius
Group of 5 pen and ink drawings.
Each on the artist’s letterhead, one double-sided. Each 280x216 mm; 11x8½ inches. Each signed in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Annie gooding sykes
Still Life with Pansies.
Watercolor on paper. 570x390 mm; 22⅜x15¼ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
One of several prominent women associated with the artistic life of Cincinnati at the turn of the century, Sykes (1855-1931) specialized in colorful, Impressionist-inspired watercolors. She was born in Brookline, Massachusetts; her father was a silversmith and engraver, and her mother was a gifted needleworker. Stimulated by the artistic example of her parents, Sykes studied at the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1875 and enrolled at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1878. She married in 1882 and moved with her husband to Cincinnati, at that time a flourishing cultural center dubbed the "Queen City of the West." In order to refine her artistic skills, she enrolled at the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1884. Throughout the next decade, she continued her training under such notable American painters as Frank Duveneck and Thomas Satterwhite Noble. Although she occasionally worked in oil, watercolor became Sykes' favorite medium of expression.
She was a regular contributor to the annual exhibitions of the Boston Art Club, New York Watercolor Club, Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Water Color Club and the Ohio Water Color Society. In 1892, she became a charter member of the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati. Over a three-decade-long period, Sykes exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum on forty-two occasions.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Oscar bluemner
Group of 4 marine drawings.
West Harlem River at Mott Haven, pencil on cream wove paper. Annotated in pencil, verso * Study for #12, Boats on Hudson River I, brown pen and ink on smooth cream wove paper, 1911. Signed with the artist’s monogram, dated and titled in ink, upper left recto, and inscribed “River Hackensack Bild” in pencil, upper right recto * Study for #12, Boats on Hudson River II, pen and ink on smooth cream wove paper, 1911. Signed with the artist’s monogram, dated and titled in ink, upper left recto * Harlem River, pen and ink on smooth cream wove paper, 1913. Signed with the artist’s monogram, titled and dated in ink, lower recto. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, New Hampshire.
Bluemner (1867-1938), one America’s finest Modernist colorists, was overlooked for the majority of his career. Now however his place alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Max Weber–all fellow exhibitors at Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” Gallery in New York–is understood and he ranks among the group of most modern and influential artists in America during the early 20th century.
Developing a friendship with Stieglitz around 1911, and after a drawn-out litigation to rightfully claim his recognition and compensation for designing the Bronx, New York courthouse, Bluemner decided to turn completely to painting in 1912 and embarked on a seven month European voyage. Upon his return, after exposure to works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, as well as the Fauves and Cubists, Bluemner’s work reflected a dramatic shift toward the bright, streamlined style that would define his work and parallel the developments made by other American modern artists during the early 20th century. Like Edward Hopper, Bluemner traveled widely along the east coast, in the countryside surrounding New York, and made numerous watercolor studies of landscapes and buildings, virtually all of which are devoid of human presence.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
1910s & 1920s
Oscar bluemner
Group of 4 landscape pencil drawings.
German Countryside, 1902. Dated and annotated in pencil, lower recto * Leonia, 1906. Dated and titled in pencil, lower right recto * Singac, New Jersey, 1908. Dated and titled in pencil, lower left recto, and annotated in pencil, verso * Rockaway River, Brooklyn, 1908. Signed with the artist’s monogram, dated and titled, in pencil, upper left recto, and annotated in pencil, verso. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, New Hampshire.
Bluemner (1867-1938), one America’s finest Modernist colorists, was overlooked for the majority of his career. Now however his place alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Max Weber–all fellow exhibitors at Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” Gallery in New York–is understood and he ranks among the group of most modern and influential artists in America during the early 20th century.
Developing a friendship with Stieglitz around 1911, and after a drawn-out litigation to rightfully claim his recognition and compensation for designing the Bronx, New York courthouse, Bluemner decided to turn completely to painting in 1912 and embarked on a seven month European voyage. Upon his return, after exposure to works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, as well as the Fauves and Cubists, Bluemner’s work reflected a dramatic shift toward the bright, streamlined style that would define his work and parallel the developments made by other American modern artists during the early 20th century. Like Edward Hopper, Bluemner traveled widely along the east coast, in the countryside surrounding New York, and made numerous watercolor studies of landscapes and buildings, virtually all of which are devoid of human presence.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Oscar bluemner
Harlem River, Washington Heights.
Color crayons on cream wove paper, 1911. 123x188 mm; 4¾x7½ inches. Signed with the artist’s monogram, dated and inscribed “Washington Heights” in ink, upper recto, and inscribed “Harlem River” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bluemner (1867-1938), one America’s finest Modernist colorists, was overlooked for the majority of his career. Now however his place alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Max Weber–all fellow exhibitors at Alfred Stieglitz’s “291” Gallery in New York–is understood and he ranks among the group of most modern and influential artists in America during the early 20th century.
Developing a friendship with Stieglitz around 1911, and after a drawn-out litigation to rightfully claim his recognition and compensation for designing the Bronx, New York courthouse, Bluemner decided to turn completely to painting in 1912 and embarked on a seven month European voyage. Upon his return, after exposure to works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, as well as the Fauves and Cubists, Bluemner’s work reflected a dramatic shift toward the bright, streamlined style that would define his work and parallel the developments made by other American modern artists during the early 20th century. Like Edward Hopper, Bluemner traveled widely along the east coast, in the countryside surrounding New York, and made numerous watercolor studies of landscapes and buildings, virtually all of which are devoid of human presence.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John marin
Summer.
Watercolor on cream wove paper, 1913. 394x467 mm; 15½x18⅜ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Inc., Birmingham, Michigan, with the label; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
This work was painted during the summer Marin (1870-1953) spent in Castorland, a small town on the Black River in Lewis County, New York. He wrote of Castorland to Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), the photographer and proprietor of the vanguard modern art gallery, 291, on Fifth Avenue, New York, “It is a great big rolling country, this, and I expect to be up here through September, I’ll be rolling with it or continue to roll against.”
Finding himself out of the city, Marin was able to return to vibrant, warm colors like those he had used previously during his European sojourn. Marin’s work from this summer featured simplified forms and imaginative palettes, a carefree style free from the frenetic energy of New York.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Abraham walkowitz
Cityscape.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1905. 390x560 mm; 15 3/8x22 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors with ink.
Boat, 1905. 130x185 mm; 5⅛x7¼ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower center recto * Open Window with Fruit, 1909. 126x170 mm; 5x6⅝ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Fisherman.
Watercolor and pencil, 1917. 610x305 mm; 24⅛x12 inches. Signed and dated in ink, upper left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Faces in the Crowd.
Watercolor and pencil on paper. 142x260 mm; 5⅝x10¼ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors with ink of Bathers.
Each 1911. One 138x227 mm; 5½x9 inches. Another 153x228 mm; 6x9 inches. Each signed and dated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Group of 5 watercolors of Isadora Duncan.
Each watercolor and pen and ink on paper, circa 1910-20. Each approximately 182x66 mm; 7¼x2⅝ inches. Each signed in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Hampshire.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Group of three abstract pencil drawings of Isadora Duncan.
Each 330x215 mm; 13x8½ inches. Each signed in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Untitled (Human Mountain).
Color crayons and pencil on wove paper, 1913. 410x270 mm;16⅛x10½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower recto.
With— Abstract Composition, pencil on thick wove paper, 1913. 470x290 mm; 18x11⅜ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Max weber
Reclined Figure.
Bronze, 1915. 100 mm; 4 inches (length). Incised with the artist’s signature and date on the underside.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Max weber
Mask.
Brass, 1915 (cast 1974). 160 mm; 6⅜ inches (height, including wood base). One of only 5 proofs, aside from the edition of 47. Incised with the artist’s signature and numbered “AC III/V,” lower verso. Published by Forum Gallery, New York, with the stamp verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Elie nadelman
Portrait of a Woman.
Brush and ink with pencil on paper, circa 1915. 214x151 mm; 8⅜x6 inches. Initialed in pencil, lower left recto.
Drawn on the verso of the cover page of the pamphlet Russian Diplomacy and the War by James Westfall Thompson, published by the University of Chicago under the auspices of the Germanistic Society of Chicago.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Gertude vanderbilt whitney
Bust of a Boy.
Bronze. 200 mm; 8 inches (height, excluding base). Incised with the artist’s signature and an unidentified foundry mark, verso edge.
Provenance: Private collection, Massachusetts.
Whitney (1875-1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, who was born into the wealthy Vanderbilt family and married into the Whitney family. While visiting Europe in the early 1900s, Whitney discovered the burgeoning art world of Montmartre and Montparnasse in France, which encouraged her to pursue her creativity and become a sculptor.
She studied at the Art Students League of New York with Hendrik Christian Andersen and James Earle Fraser. Other women students in her classes included Anna Vaughn Hyatt and Malvina Hoffman. In Paris she studied with Andrew O’Connor and also received criticism from Auguste Rodin. Her training with sculptors of public monuments influenced her later direction. Although her catalogs include numerous smaller sculptures, like the current work, she is best known today for her monumental works.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Henry james albright
Draped Standing Nude at Water’s Edge under a Willow Tree.
Oil on canvas, circa 1910-20. 710x560 mm; 28x21¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Mexico.
Albright was an American painter, sculptor, and potter active in Albany, New York. He studied with L. Birge Harrison and John F. Carlson. He was a friend of Gustav Stickley, and a member of the Albany Artist Group and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club. His ceramics appeared in the Georg Jensen catalog as Samara Ware.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Gustave adolph wiegand
Forest Path.
Oil on panel. 200x258 mm; 7⅞x10⅛ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Wiegand (1870-1957) was born in Bremen and later emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. He studied under William Merritt Chase in New York. Wiegand later moved to Old Chatham, New York, around where the current work was likely painted.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Emil carlsen
Landscape (Color Study).
Oil on panel, circa 1914-30. 136x153 mm; 5⅜x6 inches.
With a letter signed by Florence S. Carlsen confirming the authenticity of the current work, 1973.
Provenance: The artist; the artist’s son Dines Carlsen, Falls Village, Connecticut; the artist’s daughter-in-law Florence S. Carlsen, Falls Village, Connecticut; private collection, New York.
This work is included in the Emil Carlsen Archives. We would like to thank Bill Indursky for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.
The current work is one of approximately 350 oil sketches painted during Carlsen’s (1848-1932) prolific career.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Charles warren eaton
Lake Como, Italy.
Oil on board, circa 1913. 157x217 mm; 6¼x8⅝ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Sold Skinner, Boston, August 21, 2014, lot 1474; private collection, Berkshire, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Jonas lie
Fishing Boats.
Oil on canvas, circa 1919. 555x665 mm; 22x26 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Adamson/Duvannes Galleries, Los Angeles, with the label; private collection, Arizona; Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneer’s, Milford, Connecticut, April 26, 2018, lot 12; private collection, New York.
Exhibited “Summer Exhibition of Paintings”, Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, July 1-September 30, 1919, with the label.
Lie (1880-1940) was a Norwegian-born American painter and teacher. He often depicted the sea, channels, and ships with dramatic perspective and powerful use of color. Lie became known for colorful impressionistic scenes of harbors and coves, painted during the many summers he spent on the coasts of New England and Canada. Throughout his prolific career he painted brilliantly colored images of the rocky coves and harbors that identify the region’s dramatic shoreline.
Lie painted a landscape mural in honor of his wife, Sonia, in the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Society of Plainfield, New Jersey in 1929. It is inscribed, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.”
Paintings by Lie are held in public collections throughout the United States, including at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; the Phoenix Art Museum; the San Diego Museum of Art; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Ethel mars
Sardiniers, Breton.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1910. 215x295 mm; 8½x11¾ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Nashville.
Mars (1876-1959) was born in Springfield, Illinois, and studied at an early age at the Cincinnati Art Academy. Toward the end of 1905/beginning of 1906, Mars moved to Paris, settling permanently in France aside from some time back in the U.S. during World War I. This pencil drawing is typical of Mars’ early artistic style in France.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Maurice sterne
Balinese Women.
Oil pastels on paper mounted on board, 1912-14. 395x360 mm; 15⅝x14¼ inches. Signed in pen and ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Sold Sotheby’s PB Eighty Four, New York to current owner, private collection, New York.
Sterne (1878-1957) was born in Libau, Latvia and traveled extensively, to New York in 1904 and then to Europe, Egypt, Burma, and Java, before returning to the United States in 1914. From 1918 to 1933, he alternated time between New York and Anticoli, Italy. Sterne’s movements allowed him to explore different styles and subjects, never settling on an identity for long.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Charles burchfield
Two geometric studies.
Untitled (Circles), gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper.127x177 mm; 5x7 inches. Signed in ink, verso * Untitled (Hexagon), gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper. 185x215 mm; 7⅜x8⅜ inches. Both circa 1912-16.
Accompanying this lot is a research report completed by the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
These works are likely to have been a course assignment for a class at the Cleveland School of Art in Cleveland, Ohio where Burchfield studied from 1912 to 1916, concentrating in illustration and design.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Charles burchfield
Two pencil still life drawings.
Still Life (Book, Bottle and Bowl), circa 1912-16. 255x355 mm; 10x14 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto * Still Life (Fan, Candle and Book), 1913. 210x257 mm; 8 3/8x10 1/8 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Accompanying this lot is a research report completed by the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, New York.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
These works are likely to have been a course assignment for a class at the Cleveland School of Art in Cleveland, Ohio where Burchfield studied from 1912 to 1916, concentrating in illustration and design.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Elliott daingerfield
Study of Two Male Nudes.
Pencil on paper, 273x279 mm; 10¾x11 inches. Signed by the artist’s daughter with an estate stamp on the frame back.
Provenance: The estate of the artist, thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Daingerfield (1859-1932) was born in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1880 at the age of 21, he moved to New York and studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. Within a year, he was teaching life study classes and had discovered the work of the French Barbizon painters, who would influence his work for the rest of his career. He also became friendly with notable painters George Inness (1825-1894), Kenyon Cox (1856-1919) and Walter Satterlee (1844-1908), who greatly influenced Daingerfield. For the next several years, he studied under Satterlee and taught in his still-life classes.
In 1886, he was mesmerized by the mountains of North Carolina and subsequently he would spend most summers for the remainder of his life in Blowing Rock. In New York, Daingerfield was exhibited frequently, including in exhibitions at the National Academy of Design and the Salmagundi Club. In 1910, he was commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad to paint scenes of the Grand Canyon. He traveled west again a couple of years later, this time with his family, in 1912, to paint additional Western landscapes. One of these, Trees on the Canyon Rim, was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. Both his western landscapes and his religious scenes were highly sought after by contemporary collectors.
Daingerfield’s paintings are in numerous prominent public collections including, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina, and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Charles demuth
Provincetown.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1916. 202x330 mm; 8x13 inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Zabriskie Gallery, New York, with the label; Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Inc., Beverly Hills, with the label; Mark Borghi Fine Art, Inc., New York.
Exhibited: “American Modernism,” Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Inc., Beverly Hills, July 2-August 3, 1991; “25 Years of the Demuth: Homage and Hurrah!,” The Demuth Foundation and Museum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 15-November 30, 2006.
Demuth (1883-1935) was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and suffered an injury as a child that forced him to walk with a cane. As he was unable to be as physically active as other children, his mother gave him crayons to draw with. His parents supported his art from a young age and he attended Franklin and Marshall College, Drexel University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. After leaving school, he focused on his preferred medium of watercolor and found inspiration in flowers and plants in his mother’s garden, a subject that would preoccupy him throughout his life.
Demuth made his studio at his home in Lancaster, but traveled frequently and made many important friends in the artistic community. He traveled three times to Paris where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian, joined the avant-garde artistic scene, and admired the work of European modernists, even spending time at Gertrude Stein’s salon. He met Marsden Hartley while in Paris who later introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz and became part of his tightknit group of artists.
Demuth spent several summers at the artists’ colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts, during the mid-1910s and, in 1914, exhibited his watercolors in the Provincetown studio of modernist painter, E. Ambrose Webster.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Arthur b. davies
View of a Town on a River.
Watercolor on cream wove paper. 245x350 mm; 9¾x13¾ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Baltimore.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Hayley lever
An Ocean Liner at Dock.
Pencil and crayon on paper, circa 1910. 430x560 mm; 17x22 inches. Partial signature in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: E.G. Lowell, Encino, California; Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, Los Angeles; sold by the above to Lee D. Witkin, New York, February 8, 1978, with a letter of attestation; Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York; thence to the Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Ruth temple anderson
Fulton and Broadway, New York.
Oil on canvas, 1917. 775x610 mm; 30½x24¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto, and titled in oil on the frame back.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; sold Doyle, New York, November 11, 2009, lot 199; private collection, New York.
Anderson (1891-1957) received her initial art training from her aunt, who was an art teacher at a boarding school, and traveled with her to Europe. She then studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1905. She settled in Boston and Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she painted the beach scenes for which she is most known.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Glenn o. coleman
Two gouaches.
Jefferson Market Courthouse, circa 1929. 455x525 mm; 18x20½ inches. Titled in pencil, verso * Study for Cherry Hill, circa 1931. 335x235 mm; 13¼x9¼ inches. Both on paperboard. Both signed in gouache, lower left recto.
Jefferson Market Court Provenance: The Downtown Gallery, New York, with the label.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (123.1940 and 7.1936).
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joseph stella
Woman in Profile on a Balcony.
Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper, circa 1920. 119x162 mm; 4½x6¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Walt kuhn
Bar-room Scene (“Lady Lil”).
Ink on paper, 1928. 294x331 mm; 11¾x13 inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Walt Kuhn Gallery, Cape Neddick, Maine, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Kuhn (1877-1949) took art classes at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then worked as an illustrator. He met John Sloan and Robert Henri through his work as an illustrator and helped them organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists in April 1910. He then co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors who organized the Armory Show and was in charge of finding European artists to participate. He traveled throughout Europe with Arthur B. Davies and Walter Pach to find the avant-garde in European art, which led to the Armory Show introducing Americans to modern art.
As an artist he embraced a variety of modern styles, including Cubism and Fauvism, before developing his own style of painting single figures against dark backgrounds with a psychological and emotional intensity. He often depicted performers—clowns, burlesque dances and acrobats—referencing his lifelong interest in performance and theater.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George luks
Reading.
Charcoal on paper, circa 1929. 140x200 mm; 5½x7⅞ inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
James moore preston
Group of 4 charcoal drawings.
Interior with Armchair * Village Building * Winter Farm Scene *Buildings with a Tower. Each signed in charcoal, recto. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Laura coombs hills
Still Life with Peonies.
Oil on canvas, circa 1925. 665x530 mm; 26x21 inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Katherine shubert-kuniyoshi schmidt
Still Life with Pears.
Color pastels on tan wove paper, 1927. 382x561 mm; 15x22⅛ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Juliana R. Force, New York; thence by gift or descent to Henry Farmer, New York and Rockland, Maine; private collection, New Jersey.
Schmidt (1899-1978) began her training at the Art Students League in New York, where she met her husband Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953). Throughout the 1920s, she received critical praise for her still lifes, landscapes and portrayals of New York urban life, exhibiting frequently at prominent, modern New York galleries such as the Downtown Gallery, the Daniel Gallery and the Whitney Studio Club (of which she was a founding member and where she had her first solo exhibition in 1923). She became dissatisfied with her work from around 1939 until 1960, producing less though still participating in group exhibitions, when a crumpled paper towel on a table inspired her to explore the motif of dead leaves and discarded paper, the style of which approached “magical realism.” She is known for her impeccable technique and her elevation of everyday, overlooked subjects.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John graham
Still Life with Lemons.
Oil on canvas, circa 1925. 410x610 mm; 16x24 inches.
Provenance: André Emmerich Gallery, Inc., New York, with the label and ink stamp; Mark Borghi Fine Art, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Graham’s significant, influential career of four decades was marked by reinvention and a commitment to his vision of the endless possibilities of American Art. Born Ivan Dabrowsky in Kiev, Graham was a law student and a czarist soldier in the 1917 revolution. After imprisonment and the downfall of Nicholas II, Graham left Russia and arrived in the United States in 1920. Though it is unclear if he showed artistic inclination in Russia, Graham recreated himself as an art student in New York. He attended the Art Students League from 1922 to 1924, where he studied under John Sloan (1871-1951). In a meteoric rise to recognition, Graham’s first solo museum exhibition was organized by Duncan Philips in 1929.
Like many early career artists, Graham traveled to Paris and he came under the influence of the Surrealists and their psychoanalytical approach, however he remained dedicated to his mission of creating a new American Art. Along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964) and Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), Graham would provide a foundation for American Modernism and would be sought out by a new generation of the New York School (his watershed 1937 treatise, System and Dialectics of Art had advanced the Abstract Expressionist movement).
During the 1940s, Graham departed from his post-Cubist style, and adopted a new loosened, abstract style. At this time, he served as a mentor to younger artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky, whose works would shape the Abstract Expressionist movement. Graham was also considered influential to Lee Krasner, David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, and Mark Rothko.
In his mature career, he found inspiration in Old Master works and he approached his canvases with a measure of dignity and mysticism. His portraits are powerful, standing out boldly from their flattened back drops. Simultaneously, Graham conveyed a delicate luminosity and vulnerability; his courtesans’ askew eyes act to ground the figure in a plane between fantasy and reality. This merging of worlds characterizes not only Graham’s work but also his storied, monumental life.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edwin walter dickinson
Nude, Head First, Prone.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1920. 268x204 mm; 10½x8 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed in pencil, upper right recto, and initialed, dated and inscribed “Paris” in pencil, verso.
Exhibited: Wellfleet Art Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1974; “Edwin Dickinson Retrospective,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, August 14-September 7, 1976.
Published: Baldwin, The Edwin Dickinson Catalogue Raisonné, number 669.
Provenance: Mr. & Mrs. Howard E. Wise, Pennsylvania; private collection, New York.
Dickinson (1891-1978) settled in Paris in 1920, where he often made sketches at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, like the current work.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Boris lovet-lorski
Nude Study.
Red chalk on cream wove paper, circa 1929. 392x297 mm; 15½x11¾ inches. Signed in chalk, lower right recto.
Drawn on the verso of the justification page of Boris Lovet-Lorski, Lithographs Volume I.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John grabach
Study of Male Model.
Charcoal on cream laid paper mounted on board. 940x590 mm; 37x23¼ inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John grabach
Study of a Male Model.
Oil and pencil on panel. 253x195 mm; 10x7¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Morgan russell
Woman in Repose.
Color crayons and pencil on paper, circa 1915-20. 300x220 mm; 11¾x8⅝ inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto, and inscribed with a color notation in the key of blue-violet in Synchronism in pencil, upper left recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to the artist Mabel Alvarez, Los Angeles; Glen Bassett; gifted from the above to the current owner, private collection, South Carolina, 1990s.
Russell (1886-1953) was a modern American artist who, along with Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890-1973), was the founder of Synchromism, a provocative style of abstract painting that dates from around 1912 to the 1920s. Russell’s “synchromies,” which analogized color to music, were an early American contribution to the rise of Modernism. Synchromism was an early innovation in pure abstraction, which was developed primarily by Russell with contributions from Stanton Macdonald-Wright. Other American painters in Paris, where Russell had moved in 1911, who were experimenting with Synchromism at the time included Thomas Hart Benton, Andrew Dasburg, and Patrick Henry Bruce, all of whom were friends with Russell and Macdonald-Wright. Bruce was also friendly with Sonia and Robert Delaunay, proponents of Orphism (a term coined in 1912 by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire), another contemporaneous art movement centered around color and abstraction.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Morgan russell
Still Life Study.
Pencil on paper, circa 1929. 207x263 mm; 8¼x10½ inches. Extensively annotated with color notes in pencil throughout the composition.
Provenance: Washburn Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joseph stella
Color Study: Flowers and Sun Rays.
Color crayons and pencil on paper, circa 1920. 120x142 mm; 4⅝x5½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry leslie hoffman
Bermuda Coastline #13.
Oil on board. 305x405 mm; 12x16 inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the ink stamp, verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry leslie hoffman
Bermuda Coast.
Oil on panel. 205x250 mm; 8x9⅞ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the ink stamp, verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry leslie hoffman
Two oils.
Galapagos * Galapagos Clouds. Both 205x250 mm; 8x9⅞ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the ink stamp, verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors.
Landscape with Lake and Hills. 325x480 mm; 12¾x19 inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto * Landscape with Barns. 382x562 mm; 15⅛x22⅛ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Three watercolors of Provincetown.
Each circa 1928. Each approximately 410x488 mm; 16⅛x19¼ inches. Each signed in ink and counter signed in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Thomas mcglynn
Eucalyptus Trees.
Oil on canvas. 535x480 mm; 21x19 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
McGlynn (1878-1966) was born in San Francisco and studied at the California School of Design. He worked as a designer and teacher early on in his career. Centered in the Bay Area, McGlynn and his family would make frequent trips to the Monterey Peninsula and, in 1934, he was granted membership to the Carmel-by-the-Sea artist’s cooperative. The president of the cooperative, Armin Hansen (1886-1957) had been in the 1906 class at California School of Design with McGlynn and invited him to join the group of plein air painters in Monterey. Despite his dedication to teaching, McGlynn and his wife could not resist the offer and soon bought a home in Pebble Beach. For several years, the family made the trip on weekends and eventually they moved permanently to Monterey. McGlynn’s impressionistic landscape paintings capture the unique light of the Pacific Coast with pure and radiant color.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Jane peterson
Twilight Landscape.
Gouache, watercolor and pen and ink on paper, circa 1920. 186x261 mm; 7½x10½ inches. Signed in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Martin Kaukas Books and Prints, Manchester, Vermont; Dr. Dean Glassman, Jacksonville; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Hilaire hiler
Théoule.
Gouache on paper, 1929. 380x310 mm; 15x12¼ inches. Signed and dated in gouache, lower right recto.
Provenance: Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (A84.1935).
Hiler (1898-1966) was an American artist, psychologist and color theoretician who worked in Europe and United States during the mid-20th century. At home and abroad, he was multifaceted, working as a muralist, jazz musician, costume and set designer, teacher, and author. He was best known for combining his artistic and psychoanalytical training to formulate an original perspective on color. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and he grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. As an expatriate living in Paris in the 1920s, Hiler became friends with the literary crowd of Henry Miller, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and Anaïs Nin. After returning to the United States, Hiler was named art director of the bathhouse building at the San Francisco Aquatic Park from 1936 to 1939, under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration.
Théoule-sur-Mer, popularly known as Théoule, is a resort village in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in Southeastern France.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John graham
Portrait of McDougal.
Color crayons on cream wove notepaper, circa 1929. 270x210 mm; 10⅝x8⅛ inches. Signed and titled in pencil, upper left recto.
Provenance: Zabriskie Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Graham’s significant, influential career of four decades was marked by reinvention and a commitment to his vision of the endless possibilities of American Art.
Born Ivan Dabrowsky in Kiev, Graham was a law student and a czarist soldier in the 1917 revolution. After imprisonment and the downfall of Nicholas II, Graham left Russia and arrived in the United States in 1920. Though it is unclear if he showed artistic inclination in Russia, Graham recreated himself as an art student in New York. He attended the Art Students League from 1922 to 1924, where he studied under John Sloan (1871-1951). In a meteoric rise to recognition, Graham’s first solo museum exhibition was organized by Duncan Philips in 1929.
Like many early career artists, Graham traveled to Paris and he came under the influence of the Surrealists and their psychoanalytical approach, however he remained dedicated to his mission of creating a new American Art. Along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964) and Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), Graham would provide a foundation for American Modernism and would be sought out by a new generation of the New York School (his watershed 1937 treatise, System and Dialectics of Art had advanced the Abstract Expressionist movement).
During the 1940s, Graham departed from his post-Cubist style, and adopted a new loosened, abstract style. At this time, he served as a mentor to younger artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky, whose works would shape the Abstract Expressionist movement. Graham was also considered influential to Lee Krasner, David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, and Mark Rothko.
In his mature career, he found inspiration in Old Master works and he approached his canvases with a measure of dignity and mysticism. His portraits are powerful, standing out boldly from their flattened back drops. Simultaneously, Graham conveyed a delicate luminosity and vulnerability; his courtesans’ askew eyes act to ground the figure in a plane between fantasy and reality. This merging of worlds characterizes not only Graham’s work but also his storied, monumental life.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joseph stella
Portrait of a Man.
Silverpoint and color pencils on paper. 360x240 mm; 14⅛x9½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, South Carolina.
The technique of silverpoint drawing linked Stella (1877-1946) to the Old Masters and allowed him to attain thin, light capturing lines. The medium was rarely used, as it requires precise handling (it cannot be erased) and an abrasive ground. Stella used zinc white gouache to prepare his paper which also gave the illusion that his subjects floated in space.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
George gershwin
La Belle Hayes.
Color pencils on tan wove paper. 280x218 mm; 11x8½ inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower recto (partially faded).
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Gershwin (1898-1937) is best-known as a composer and pianist whose Rhapsody in Blue and compositions for An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess are among the most important American musical compositions of the 20th century. As an artist, he often doodled portraits of his friends while speaking to them on the telephone. The sitter of this portrait, believed to be Helen Hayes, may have been a friend of the musician as they were both influential in the theater world in the 20th century. Their paths likely crossed often and she liked to recall how he once brushed chocolates off her dress after she sat on some at a party.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Alfred h. maurer
Young Girl in Blue.
Tempera and gesso on board, circa 1918. 667x453 mm; 26¼x17⅞ inches. Signed in tempera, lower right recto, and signed with the artist’s address in crayon, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Maurer (1868-1932) was born in New York, the son of German-born lithographer, and collaborated early on with his father before studying with the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward and painter William Merritt Chase during the mid-1890s. He went on to become a leading American avant-garde painter, as evinced by this modern portrait, an early predecessor to his so-called “Girl” series of paintings.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Alfred h. maurer
Girl in a Green Coat.
Tempera on linen mounted on board, circa 1921. Signed in tempera, upper left recto, and signed in crayon, verso.
Provenance: Estate of Arthur B. Davies, New York, 1928-30, with stamp twice on the frame back; private collection, New York.
According to Judith Zilczer, in her article “Arthur B. Davies: The Artist as Patron,” appearing in The American Art Journal, Summer 1987, Davies (1862-1928) had first purchased a sketch by Maurer (1868-1932) in April 1909 from Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 in New York. Davies continued to support artists in Stieglitz’s circle, including Marsden Hartley (1877-1943).
The current work is an example of Maurer’s technique of painting on his “made” canvases. Seeking to emulate the Old Masters, Maurer began to experiment with materials in the early 1900s. To create the “made” canvas, Maurer stretched linen (or other fabric scrap) over a wood frame and cardboard, coated it with glue and set it with dental plaster. Elizabeth McCausland opined that Maurer intended these works to appear filmy, dingey, and spotted with “freckles” under the layer of gesso, only eliciting more outcries from his conservative detractors. Maurer adopted his “made” canvas technique in his Paris years and continued the practice after returning to America in 1914.
Maurer’s first paintings in his so-called “Girl” series debuted in 1921 at the Salon of Independent Artists, New York. These long-necked women are often mistakenly attributed to the influence of Amedeo Modigliani. Given that the reference frames of the artists’ careers do not match up, McCausland wrote that instead, Maurer was more likely inspired by Botticelli’s Venuses with elongated necks. Since Modigliani’s works did not reach the United States until 1920, McCausland wrote empathetically, “Let Maurer have the last word in the controversy. ‘Who is this man Modigliani?’ he is often quoted as asking.”
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Max weber
Man’s Head: Profile.
Bronze, circa 1920 (cast circa 1940). 170 mm; 6⅞ inches (height). Incised with the artist’s initials and numbered 1/3, lower verso.
Provenance: Forum Gallery, New York; Jeanne Frank Art, New York; private collection, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Arthur b. davies
Models, Dancing.
Color pastels and black chalk on gray paper mounted on card stock, circa 1920. 453x350 mm; 18x13¾ inches. With the artist’s signature ink stamp, lower right recto.
Provenance: The Collection of Gladys and Tully Filmus; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
William sommer
Three Figures in a Landscape.
Watercolor with brush and ink and lithographic pencil on paper, circa 1921. 305x240 mm; 12x9⅜ inches.
Sommer was born in Detroit and from 1878 to 1883 studied drawing locally under sculptor and lithographer Julius Melchers. After apprenticing at the Detroit Calvert Lithograph Company, Sommer worked in lithography at the Bufford Company in Boston, the Ottman Company in New York, and at the Dangerfield Brothers Printing Company in London. After studying in Munich with intermittent travels through Europe, Sommer returned to New York. Influenced by early German Expressionism, Sommer joined the American Kit Kat Club, which provided life drawing models, akin to the Whitney Studio Club. In 1907 Sommer followed his printmaking work to the Otis Lithography Company in Cleveland, where he began a friendship with William Zorach and founded the Kokoon Art Club. In 1914, Sommer and his wife Martha purchased their property in Brandywine where he set up his studio in an old schoolhouse, working as an artist, muralist, and theater production designer. Finding himself without work during the Great Depression, Sommer worked first under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the Works Progress Administration, and then the Treasury Art Project, the most notable project being a mural he completed for Brett Hall in the Cleveland Public Library.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Warren wheelock
Young Woman with Bouquet.
Oil on canvas, 1925. 537x460 mm; 21x18 inches. Signed and dated, lower left recto.
Provenance: Doyle, New York, June 7, 1991; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Chaim gross
Girl in Kimono.
Carved lignum vitae, 1929. 420 mm; 16½ inches (height). Incised with the artist’s signature and cypher on the front of the base.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Another version of this wood sculpture was sold at Swann Auction Galleries, May 5, 2009, auction 2172, lot 274.
Published: Getlein, Chaim Gross, H. N. Abrams, New York, 1974, page 32, number 24 (another example illustrated).
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
1930s & 1940s
Fairfield porter
Tiger Lilies.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, circa 1930-40. 500x360 mm; 19¾x14¼ inches. With a study of figures by a lake, verso.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Fairfield porter
Moonlit House.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1930-40. 385x575 mm; 15¼x22¾ inches.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Fairfield porter
Farm Landscape.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1930-40. 390x570 mm; 15¼x22½ inches.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Bernard gussow
Two watercolors.
Village Scene. 315x418 mm 12⅜15⅜ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto * Path with a Steeple. 290x390 mm; 11½x15 inches. Signed in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Georgina klitgaard
Woodstock.
Oil on canvas, circa 1935. 205x255 mm; 8x10 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Acquired at Frank Leonard Gallery, Los Angeles by Lee D. Witkin, New York, circa 1980; Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York; thence to the Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
Klitgaard (1893-1977) was born in Spuyten Duyvil, New York and studied at Barnard College and the National Academy of Design. In 1933, she traveled to Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship. Upon her return, she was employed by the Federal Arts Project and worked as a mural painter based in Bearsville, New York, near Woodstock. She became a part of the artists’ colony in the area, which included artists Ernest Fiene and Katherine Schmidt, among others. Also a member of the Whitney Studio Club, Klitgaard received a solo exhibition there in March 1927, followed by appearances at successive Whitney Biennial exhibitions.
Klitgaard was known for capturing the seasonal changes in local landscapes and natural phenomena such as mountain mists, sunrises, and budding fruit trees. Aside from what was described as “a woman’s interpretation of the earth,” by Art Digest in 1941, Klitgaard was also an accomplished painter of cityscapes and portraits. During her heyday in the late 1930s and 1940s, her œuvre appeared to draw influences from Peter Bruegel as well as Chinese scroll paintings and was greatly admired by critics who reviewed her several exhibitions at Rehn Galleries, New York. Lloyd Goodrich wrote that, “her details are all living, and the whole picture is pulled together by a lively sense of movement and a feeling for light and air… with a sort of cool detached lyricism, a feeling for the sharpness of autumn air… mobile, graceful, spirited.”
During her career, Klitgaard received numerous awards for her work, including the Jennie Sesnan Gold Medal in the 128th Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1933, honorable mention for landscape in the 49th Annual American Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938, and she was included in the New York World’s Fair Exhibition, “American Art Today,” presenting her “immaculately painted landscape,” In the Winter Sun.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Anthony thieme
Old Mill, Storrs.
Oil on board. 297x405 mm; 12x16 inches. Incised signature, lower right recto.
Provenance: Casson Galleries, Boston, with the label on the frame back; sold Bonham’s, New York, May 24, 2011, lot 1010; private collection, Berkshire, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Louis ribak
Plowing the Field.
Gouache on board, circa 1935. 507x763 mm; 20x30 inches. Signed in gouache, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Gustave cimiotti, jr.
Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Oil on board. 400x500 mm; 15¾x19¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Salmagundi Club Auction Sale & Exhibition, Spring 1972, with the label; private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George laurence nelson
Kent Falls, Summertime.
Oil on panel. 275x385 mm; 10¾x15⅛ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto and titled verso.
Provenance: Matt Galleries, Inc., New York; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Hayley lever
Mount Vernon, New York.
Oil on board. 190x242 mm; 7½x9½ inches. Signed and titled in oil, lower right recto, and signed in oil, verso.
Provenance: Mongerson Wunderlich Galleries, Chicago, with the label on the frame back; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Martin lewis
Sunflowers, Queensboro Bridge.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1930. 530x372 mm; 20⅞x14¾ inches. Signed in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: The estate of the artist; The Old Print Shop, New York, with the label; private collection, Toronto.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
Dong kingman
Truck Yard.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1938. 510x665 mm; 20x26¼ inches.
Provenance: Edward M. M. Warburg.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (7.1939).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Yvonne leduc pryor
Shut Down.
Oil on canvas, 1931. 1025x663 mm; 40⅜x26⅛ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and with the artist’s address in pencil on the stretcher, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Exhibited: “Navy Pier Art Exhibit by Chicago Artists,” sponsored by the Chicago New Century Committee, Exhibition Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago, July 1939.
Published: Bulliet, “Artists of Chicago Past and Present: Yvonne Pryor,” Chicago Daily News, July 1, 1939 (illustrated).
Pryor (1884-1977) was born in Chicago to French American parents traveling from New Orleans. She was raised between the two cities and attended the Kenwood Institute in Chicago and received artistic training at the Art Institute of Chicago and l’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After her return to Chicago, Pryor studied architectural design with Louis J. Millet and specialized in stained glass. Later, her career expanded to include jewelry and textile design. She exhibited her paintings through the 1930s and 1940s, at the Art Institute of Chicago and Findlay Galleries, Chicago. In the fall of 1941, Pryor showed her work at the Riverside Museum in New York in an exhibition by members of the Chicago Society of Artists. In 1952, she was made a director of the Society.
Painted in the midst of the Great Depression, Shut Down shows a desolate shuttered factory devoid of human presence. It is characteristic of Pryor’s Constructivist style as well as testifies to her prowess in geometry and mathematics.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
William sharp
View from the East River, 24th Street, New York.
Oil on canvas, 1936. 430x685 mm; 17x27 inches. Initialed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; private collection, New York
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William sharp
Park Place and Washington, New York.
Oil on canvas. 430x708 mm; 17x28 inches. With the estate ink stamp, verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; private collection, New York
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
James daugherty
Whalers.
Charcoal and pastel, circa 1935. 460x380 mm; 18¼x15 inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right recto.
The current work by Daugherty (1889-1974) is likely a study for a mural, possibly intended for the State Armory in Hartford, but never commissioned. The Connecticut State Library, Hartford, holds additional studies from the same project in its collection.
Provenance: Paul Whitney Cooley, West Hartford; with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, with the labels; thence to Jeffrey Cooley, West Hartford; sold Sloan’s Bethesda, North Bethesda, Maryland, January 22, 1999, lot 1392, to current owner, private collection, Rockville, Maryland.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Beulah stevenson
Clam Gatherers.
Oil on canvas board. 505x400 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, California.
Born in Brooklyn Heights, Stevenson (1890-1965) lived there her entire life. In New York she studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League, where her instructors included John Sloan; in Provincetown, she worked with Hans Hofmann. She was also a curator at the Brooklyn Museum for many years, and that museum holds many examples of her work, as do the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. and the New York Public Library. Stevenson maintained many professional associations during her career, among which she was president of the New York Society of Women Artists.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Johann berthelsen
Central Park.
Oil on canvas board. 460x560 mm; 18x22 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Johann berthelsen
Washington Square Arch.
Oil on canvas. 410x303 mm; 16x12 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Johann berthelsen
Trinity Church from Wall Street.
Oil on canvas board. 305x230 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Howard cook
Market Scene, Taxco.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1932. 245x335 mm; 9⅝x13¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Peggy bacon
Study for Morning Exercises.
Charcoal on thin wove paper, circa 1931. 350x425 mm; 13⅞x16⅞ inches. Signed in pencil, lower center recto and inscribed “Whose emotion is this, anyway!” in charcoal, upper right.
Preparatory sketch for Bacon’s 1933 drypoint of Leon Barzin conducting a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic (see Flint 117).
Provenance: Kraushaar Galleries, New York, with the label; Helen Farr Sloan, New York and Delaware; sold Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York, February 3, 2017, lot 4; private collection, New York.
Bacon (1895-1987) was best known for her realistic representations of everyday life and her satirical caricatures. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Bellows, and taught herself drypoint there in between drawing classes. Looking back at her time at the League, Bacon said, “The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial.” From the 1910s to the 1930s, she worked mainly in drypoint printmaking and also doing illustrations for the satirical magazine Bad News, while her later drawings appeared as illustrations in publications including The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune and Vanity Fair. She further went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote.
Bacon exhibited frequently in New York from the 1910s onward, with galleries including Alfred Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, the Weyhe Gallery and the Downtown Gallery (she had more than 32 solo exhibitions during her career), and was closely connected with other artists with ties to these galleries, including Katherine Schmidt and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Martha walter
Mosque Interior (Africa No. 67).
Oil on board, circa 1930. 260x335 mm; 10¼x13⅛ inches. Titled in ink, verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the ink stamp and the number 221 in ink, verso; thence to David David Art Gallery, Philadelphia; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Walter farndon
Sailboats in a Cove.
Oil on board. 450x355 mm; 17¾x14 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Sears gallagher
Cliffs, Seacrest, Massachusetts.
Watercolor on paper. 550x755 mm; 21¾x29¾ inches. Signed in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Sydney m. laurence
Chilkat Indian Canoe.
Oil on canvas, circa 1940. 355x460 mm; 13¾x18. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut; sold Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut to current owner, private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Bernard karfiol
In Green Chair.
Oil on canvas board, 1935. 405x300 mm; 16x11¾ inches. Signed in oil, upper right recto, and titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: The Collection of Gladys and Tully Filmus; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Bernard karfiol
Group of 8 drawings.
Two Women, pen and ink on paper, circa 1920-29 * Hilda, watercolor on paper, 1929 * Seated Nude, pen and ink on paper, circa 1930-35 * Draped Figure Seated, pen and ink on paper, circa 1930-39 * Nude at Table, pen and ink on paper, circa 1930-39 * Draped Figure Standing, pen and ink on paper, circa 1930-39 * Nude Seated on Sofa, watercolor and pen and ink on paper, circa 1930-39 * Fishing Village, watercolor and pen and ink on paper, 1932. Each signed in ink or pencil, lower recto. Various sizes and conditions.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (167.1940, 91.1935, 92.1935, 169.1940, 170.1940, 171.1940, 172.1940, 12.1936).
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Paul cadmus
Portrait of Webster Aitken.
Pencil on cream laid paper, circa 1935. 400x263 mm; 15¾x10⅜ inches. Signed and inscribed with the sitter’s name in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Private collection, North Carolina.
Aitken (1908-1971) was an American pianist who was known for performing the complete sonatas by Franz Schubert in London and New York in 1938, when they were rarely played. He studied in Europe with Emil Sauer and Artur Schnabel and debuted in Vienna before returning to the United States where he performed in major cities and taught at the Carnegie Institute, among other institutions.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Pavel tchelitchew
Portrait of Mrs. Oliver Jennings (Mary Brewster Jennings).
Brush and ink and wash on paper, double-sided. 305x260 mm; 12x10¼ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Collection of Lincoln Kirstein, New York; inherited by (Alexander) Jensen Yow, New York; private collection, New York.
The sitter, Mary Brewster Jennings (1924-1995), was the daughter of Benjamin Brewster Jennings (1898-1968) a founder and president of the Socony-Vacuum company, which became, in 1955, the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), which would later become Mobil Oil, and then merged to become part of ExxonMobil.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Theresa bernstein
Church Congregation.
Oil on canvas. 610x765 mm; 24x30 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bernstein (1890-2002) was raised in Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design). While in Philadelphia, she joined the “Philadelphia Ten,” a group of female artists who participated in exhibitions together both in Philadelphia and also along the East Coast and Midwest. She later moved to New York where she studied at the Art Students League with William Merritt Chase and took a studio near Bryant Park where she became interested in depicting the daily life of New Yorkers in the manner of the Ashcan school. She spent her summers among the Gloucester, Massachusetts art colony and produced many coastal scenes. Bernstein was married to the artist William Meyerowitz (1893-1981).
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Theresa bernstein
Still Life with Flowers.
Gouache and pen and ink on paper, circa 1930. 610x470 mm; 24¼x18½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Columbus, Ohio; private collection, Chicago.
Bernstein (1890-2002) was raised in Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design). While in Philadelphia, she joined the “Philadelphia Ten,” a group of female artists who participated in exhibitions together both in Philadelphia and also along the East Coast and Midwest. She later moved to New York where she studied at the Art Students League with William Merritt Chase (1894-1916) and took a studio near Bryant Park where she became interested in depicting the daily life of New Yorkers in the manner of the Ashcan school. She spent her summers among the Gloucester, Massachusetts art colony and produced many coastal scenes. Bernstein was married to the artist William Meyerowitz (1893-1981).
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Will barnet
Child Reaching (Child in an Interior).
Watercolor on board, circa late 1930s. 265x340 mm; 10½x13½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
The present watercolor is reminiscent of Barnet’s (1911-2012) 1940s-era woodcut, Child Reaching (see Szoke 83), exploring the themes of childhood mischievousness and play.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Will barnet
Portrait of Seymour Lipton.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1939. 185x275 mm; 7⅜x10⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner; private collection, New York.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet (1911-2012) attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1928-30. He later won a three-year scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he focused on printmaking. Throughout his career, he mastered a variety of techniques, including etching, woodcut and lithography. An extremely dynamic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly throughout his career. His earliest graphic works captured the social and economic despair which resulted from the Great Depression; during these years he also worked for the WPA, producing prints for the graphics arts division.
This is a portrait of his friend and fellow artist Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), who is known for his abstract expressionist sculpture.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Hilla rebay
Women at the Beach.
Pencil, color crayons and watercolor on paper. 360x282 mm; 14⅛x11¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Rebay (1890-1967) was born into an aristocratic family in Strasbourg (at the time a part of Germany) and studied painting in Paris, Cologne and Munich. In 1917, she moved to Berlin and was introduced to the avant-garde Galerie der Sturm, which was the center of the modern art scene in the city. While in Berlin, she also met Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953), with whom she had a lifelong relationship.
Rebay was interested in non-objective art, a form of abstraction that was rooted in esoteric religious beliefs and philosophical ideas of intuition. She believed this form of art was a cure for a world ravaged by war and the burgeoning technological innovations that fueled materialism.
In 1927, she moved to New York and was commissioned to paint Solomon Guggenheim’s portrait. She took the opportunity to encourage him to collect non-objective art and became instrumental in guiding Guggenheim’s collection. When he founded the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) in New York, she was the first curator and director of the museum and chose Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) to design the now iconic building.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Hilla rebay
Two pencil drawings of the Cotton Club, Harlem.
La Danse à eux, circa 1930. 342x270 mm; 13½x10⅝ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto * Surrealist Dancer. 355x248 mm; 14x9¾ inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Rebay was born into an aristocratic family in Strasbourg (at the time a part of Germany) and studied painting in Paris, Cologne and Munich. In 1917, she moved to Berlin and was introduced to the avant-garde Galerie der Sturm, which was the center of the modern art scene in the city. While in Berlin, she also met Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953), with whom she had a lifelong relationship.
Rebay was interested in non-objective art, a form of abstraction that was rooted in esoteric religious beliefs and philosophical ideas of intuition. She believed this form of art was a cure for a world ravaged by war and the burgeoning technological innovations that fueled materialism.
In 1927, she moved to New York and was commissioned to paint Solomon Guggenheim’s portrait. She took the opportunity to encourage him to collect non-objective art and became instrumental in guiding Guggenheim’s collection. When he founded the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) in New York, she was the first curator and director of the museum and chose Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) to design the now iconic building.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William sommer
Tame Crow.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, circa 1935. 280x412 mm; 11x16¼ inches. Inscribed with the title in pencil, verso.
Sommer’s (1867-1949) mature work typically takes on abstract characteristics, though consistently emote restlessness and spontaneity. Sommer projected influences of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne on to his thoroughly American subjects, Brandywine landscapes and local portraits.
Sommer was born in Detroit and from 1878 to 1883 studied drawing locally under sculptor and lithographer Julius Melchers. After apprenticing at the Detroit Calvert Lithograph Company, Sommer worked in lithography at the Bufford Company in Boston, the Ottman Company in New York, and at the Dangerfield Brothers Printing Company in London. After studying in Munich with intermittent travels through Europe, Sommer returned to New York. Influenced by early German Expressionism, Sommer joined the American Kit Kat Club, which provided life drawing models, akin to the Whitney Studio Club. In 1907 Sommer followed his printmaking work to the Otis Lithography Company in Cleveland, where he began a friendship with William Zorach and founded the Kokoon Art Club. In 1914, Sommer and his wife Martha purchased their property in Brandywine where he set up his studio in an old schoolhouse, working as an artist, muralist, and theater production designer. Finding himself without work during the Great Depression, Sommer worked first under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the Works Progress Administration, and then the Treasury Art Project, the most notable project being a mural he completed for Brett Hall in the Cleveland Public Library.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
William sommer
Two Dancers.
Watercolor and pen and ink on paper, circa 1935. 280x391 mm; 11x15 inches.
Sommer’s (1867-1949) mature work typically takes on abstract characteristics, though consistently emote restlessness and spontaneity. Sommer projected influences of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne on to his thoroughly American subjects, Brandywine landscapes and local portraits.
Sommer was born in Detroit and from 1878 to 1883 studied drawing locally under sculptor and lithographer Julius Melchers. After apprenticing at the Detroit Calvert Lithograph Company, Sommer worked in lithography at the Bufford Company in Boston, the Ottman Company in New York, and at the Dangerfield Brothers Printing Company in London. After studying in Munich with intermittent travels through Europe, Sommer returned to New York. Influenced by early German Expressionism, Sommer joined the American Kit Kat Club, which provided life drawing models, akin to the Whitney Studio Club. In 1907 Sommer followed his printmaking work to the Otis Lithography Company in Cleveland, where he began a friendship with William Zorach and founded the Kokoon Art Club. In 1914, Sommer and his wife Martha purchased their property in Brandywine where he set up his studio in an old schoolhouse, working as an artist, muralist, and theater production designer. Finding himself without work during the Great Depression, Sommer worked first under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the Works Progress Administration, and then the Treasury Art Project, the most notable project being a mural he completed for Brett Hall in the Cleveland Public Library.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Milton avery
Nursing Baby #8.
Pencil on paper, 1932. 280x215 mm; 11x8½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, with the label; Jan Abrams Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label; acquired Knoedler & Company, New York, with the label, by the current owner, private collection, New York, circa 1997.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Milton avery
Rocky Coast.
Gouache on black wove paper, 1939. 330x514 mm; 13¼x20¼ inches. Signed in gouache, lower left recto, and counter signed and titled in gouache, verso.
Provenance: Donald Morris Gallery, Inc., Detroit, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Joseph stella
Mountain Landscape.
Oil on canvas, circa 1930. 220x610 mm; 8¾x24¾ inches. With the artist’s estate ink stamp, twice lower right recto, and twice verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Stella (1877-1946) was born to a middle-class family in Muro Lucano, Italy. He moved to New York in 1896 to study medicine, but he quickly eschewed his medical ambitions when he discovered his passion for art, enrolling at the Art Students League and studying at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). Stella worked as an illustrator from 1905 to 1908 and was also active in the Federal Art Project during the 1930s, however it is his avant-garde works for which he is today best known, including colorful, fanciful floral studies, like the current work, ethereal landscapes, and modernist city depictions. His Futurist oil painting Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, 1913, was exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show and caused a sensation. Collector and art educator Katherine Dreier included Stella among those artists whose work she sought to promote under the auspices of her Société Anonyme, New York’s first museum dedicated exclusively to advanced contemporary art, which opened its doors in 1920 (she acquired Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras and it is now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). Like contemporary New York artists including John Marin (1870-1953) and Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Stella became fascinated with the geometric quality of the architecture of Lower Manhattan. During the 1920s he also began to make collages consisting of scraps of discarded paper, wrappers (some with the commercial logo or label still visible), and other bits of urban debris. Stella’s works from the 1920s onward, however, were problematic for the cultivation of a sustained career. Once he had ceased painting in a Futurist or quasi-Cubist mode and had finished with his period of Precisionist factory images (circa 1920), he was not aligned with any particular movement. Even his retrospective at the Newark Museum, New Jersey in 1939 failed to reestablish him and his work was underappreciated at mid-century prior to being prized again in recent decades.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Mercedes matter
Cubist Nude.
Charcoal on cream wove paper, circa 1938. 635x480 mm; 25x19 inches.
Provenance: Mark Borghi Fine Art Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Matter (1913-2001) received art training from her father, the painter Arthur Beecher Carles (1882-1952) and also studied under Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) and Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). She worked with Fernand Léger (1881-1955), who would become a close friend, in New York, on his mural for the French Line passenger ship company and again privately on another mural. Léger introduced her to Herbert Matter (1907-1984), the Swiss graphic designer and photographer whom she married in 1939. She was a formative member of the American Abstract Artists and after working for the WPA in the late 1930s, Matter became active in the New York School circle of young artists, including Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Lee Krasner (1908-1984), Philip Guston (1913-1980), Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) and Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). Matter was a driving force behind the creation of the New York Studio School in 1964, which stressed the importance of artistic development in the studio over headline-grabbing experimentation.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Luigi lucioni
The Capodimonte Cup.
Oil on canvas, 1938. 255x203 mm; 10x8⅛ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Beatrice and Walter Rumsey Marvin, Jr., New York; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Margaret brassler kane
Female Torso.
Carved Honduran mahogany, circa 1939. 594 mm; 23⅜ inches (height). Carved with the artist’s signature and inscribed “Limited Edition Robinson Galleries, Inc., N.Y.,” verso.
Provenance: Robinson Galleries, New York; private collection, New York.
Published: White, “Carving Her Way into the Smithsonian,” Greenwich, December 1991, page 91 (a bronze example illustrated).
Robinson Galleries was founded by George Robinson circa 1933 with the mission of making sculpture accessible at affordable prices. Robinson worked with well-known artists including Chaim Gross (1902-1991), John Hovannes (1990-1973), Warren Wheelock (1880-1960) and William Zorach (1889-1966), among others to create small editions until the gallery became defunct in 1943. According to a 1953 Interior Decorator article, Kane’s (1909-2006) Female Torso may have been made in an edition of no more than 15.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Saul baizerman
Lady of Leisure.
Bronze. 150 mm; 6 inches (height, excluding base). Incised with the artist’s initials on the lower rear of the dress. From The City and the People series.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Published: Saul Baizerman’s Lifetime Project: The City and the People, 1998, page 49 (another cast illustrated).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William mcgregor paxton
Standing Nude.
Charcoal and chalk on brown wove paper, 1941. 548x326 mm; 21½x12⅞ inches. Signed and dated in charcoal, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Indiana.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John storrs
Portrait of a French Girl.
Silverpoint on prepared paper, circa 1942. 185x1256 mm; 7¼x5⅛ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
David burliuk
Portrait of Raphael Soyer.
Charcoal and color pastels on cream wove paper, circa 1945. 305x223 mm; 12x8⅞ inches. Signed in pen and black ink, lower right recto, and signed by Soyer in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Raphael Soyer (1899-1974), counted Burliuk (1882-1967) as one of his closest companions, both were part of a community of primarily émigrés of the Russian Federation known as the Hampton Bays Art Group.
A similar portrait done by Burliuk of Moses Soyer (1899-1974), twin brother of Raphael was sold at Swann Galleries, New York, June 9, 2016, sale 2418, lot 85.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Reginald marsh
Portrait Studies of John Sloan.
Pen and ink on cream laid paper, 1949. 228x308 mm; 9x12⅛ inches. Inscribed “for New Yorker Magazine Profile,” dated, dedicated, and signed by the artist in ink, lower sheet edge recto, and signed and dedicated “To Doug Downie” in ink by John Sloan, lower recto.
The current work by Marsh (1898-1954) was used as a study for Sloan’s (1871-1951) profile in the New Yorker, May 7, 1949, pages 36-51, by Robert M. Coates.
Provenance: Gift of the artist and sitter to Douglas Downie, New York; thence by descent, circa 1951; sold Nye and Company, Bloomfield, New Jersey, July 20, 2022, lot 83; private collection, New York.
Douglas Downie was a newspaper editor for the New York Post and an amateur artist, participating in the Newspaper Guild of New York’s annual art shows.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Guy c. wiggins
The Empire State, New York.
Oil on canvas board, circa 1943. 305x225 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: The artist, Essex, Connecticut and New York; private collection, New Jersey.
Exhibited: “The 42nd Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings,” The Lyme Art Association, Old Lyme, Connecticut, July 17- August 22, 1943, number 105; “Exhibition of Thumb Box Sketches,” Salmagundi Club, New York, November 20- December 18, 1953, number 93, with the label verso.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Ernest fiene
June Morning, Maine.
Oil on canvas. 560x710 mm; 22x28 inches. Signed in oil, lower right, recto.
Provenance: Associated American Artists, New York, with the partial label; Skinner, Boston, March 13, 1992, lot 247; Doyle, New York, May 24, 2000, lot 102; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Cleve gray
Mountainous Landscape.
Oil on canvas, 1941. 450x610 mm; 17⅞x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Gifted by the artist to private collection; thence through descent to private collection, North Carolina.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Howard cook
Morning at Hondo.
Watercolor on paper, 1941. 340x690 mm; 13⅜x27⅛ inches.
Provenance: Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (141.1942).
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Ogden m. pleissner
Anti-Aircraft Gun Position, Elmendorf Field.
Watercolor, circa 1943. 377x531 mm; 14⅞x21 inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto, and inscribed “AA Emplacement” in ink, verso.
Provenance: The artist; William MacBeth Gallery, New York, March 1944, with the label; purchased by Dr. William R. Laird, Montgomery, West Virginia, November 1944; Estate of Sally Weld Webb, New York,1996; thence by descent to Jane and Jonathan Weld, New York, 2019; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
David burliuk
Two Men Resting by the Woods in a Mountainous Landscape.
Watercolor on cream wove paper. 280x375 mm; 11x14⅞ inches. Signed in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Phoenix.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
George renouard
Group of 5 watercolors.
White House * Mountains * Barns, 1943. Initialed and dated in pencil, lower right recto * Field with Houses, 1942. Initialed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. Each approximately 290x394 mm; 11⅜x15½ inches * House in the Mountains, 1942. 260x285 mm; 10½x11¼ inches. Initialed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Alexander farnham
Break in the Clouds, Tinicum, Pennsylvania.
Oil on canvas. 508x610 mm; 20x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Louis wolchonok
Harbor Scene.
Oil on canvas. 450x610 mm; 17¾x24⅜ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, West Hyannisport, Massachusetts; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Vaclav vytlacil
Sparkill, New York.
Tempera and pencil on card mounted to card. 203x255 mm; 8x10⅛ inches. Signed twice and titled in pen and ink and numbered “#1526-4” in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Sparkill, New York, located west of the Hudson River in Rockland County, became the location of Vytlacil’s (1892-1984) home and studio in 1940 until his death. The complex was bequeathed to the Art Students League for an artist-in-residence program, the “Vytlacil School of Plein Air Painting”, in 1995 by his sister and daughter. “The Vyt,” as the campus was known, hosted artists from 2007 to 2016.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Dong kingman
Park Scene.
Gouache on cream wove paper, circa 1945. 340x400 mm; 13⅝x13¾ inches. Signed in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nicolai cikovsky
Interior Scene with a Rocker at a Window.
Gouache and acrylic on cream wove paper, 1944. 560x410 mm; 22x16 inches. Signed and dated in ink and pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nicolai cikovsky
Summer Garden Still Life with Flowers and Fruit.
Oil on canvas. 770x615 mm; 30½x24¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Kyra markham
Linen and Glass.
Oil on canvas, circa 1940. 510x460 mm; 20x18 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Donn Duncan, Tucson; private collection, New Jersey.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John sennhauser
Untitled.
Ink and wash on paper, 1940. 258x377 mm; 10¼x15 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Dwinell grant
“Contrathemis”, Frame 2409.
Colored pencils on semitransparent wove paper, 1941. 215x280 mm; 8½x11 inches. Initialed, dated and inscribed “2409” in pencil, lower left recto and signed, titled and dated in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Grant’s (1912-1991) experimental silent film Contrathemis was created with stop-motion animation from more than 4,000 original drawings, like the present work. The drawings were individually photographed and put in order by the artist and synchronized to lighting effects created by colorized car headlights. Grant’s use of the film medium allowed him to explore the potential of shapes and color put into motion. Contrathemis, supported by Hilla Rebay (1890-1967) and the Guggenheim Foundation, was the most notable, ground-breaking project of Grant’s, of the several important avant-garde films he made between 1938 and 1941. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., holds the drawing “Contrathemis”, Frame 2401 which was used close in sequence to the present work.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John marin
The Circus I.
Color crayons on white wove paper, 1948. 253x318 mm; 10x12½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Edith Gregor Halpert, New York, with the “Halpert Collection” ink stamp on the frame back; The Downtown Gallery, New York, with the labels; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: “Arts of the Circus,” The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, October 9-November 11, 1962, with the label.
Marin (1870-1953) began to incorporate circus themes into his work in 1934, the figures often overwhelmed by whirring scenes surrounding them. During the 1940s, Marin’s circus subjects were drawn from the point of view of a spectator looking down on the abstracted figures in the rings. While Marin’s 1930s circus scenes contained hapless clowns and acrobats, usually disrobed in some form, his later works on the theme feature just a suggestion of human presence in a looser, more spontaneous style.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Henry miller
Abstract Composition (Standing Figure).
Watercolor and gouache on paper, 1947. 510x355 mm; 20x14 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Vermont.
While known as one of the most significant American writers of the 20th century, Miller (1891-1980) also painted frequently. He drew from the subconscious, blending his dreams with reality in often surrealistic and abstract compositions. These works were usually gifted to his friends and associates.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Hans burkhardt
Three Figures.
Color pastels on paper, 1948. 445x570 mm; 17½x22⅝ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Davidson Galleries, Seattle, with the label; private collection Pasadena, California; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Chaim gross
Female Acrobat.
Bronze, 1943. 137 mm; 5½ inches (height, excluding wood base). Edition of 50. Incised with the artist’s signature, verso, and stamped “0” on the right side of the base.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Chaim gross
Mother and Child.
Bronze. 268 mm; 10⅝ inches (height, excluding wood base). Incised with the artist’s signature and numbered 5, lower edge verso. Cast by Bedi-Makky, New York, with the foundry mark, lower edge.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
1950s & 1960s
Eugene berman
Two drawings.
Seated Woman, brush and ink with gouache on blue marbleized laid paper, 1940. 310x157 mm; 12¼x6¼ inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto * Road to the Bridge, pen and ink and wash on cream wove paper, 1949. 305x228 mm; 12x9 inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to private collection; thence by descent to the current owners, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Eugene berman
Two drawings.
Melancholy (with Statue), pen and ink and watercolor on blue laid paper, 1941. 315x240 mm; 12⅜x9⅜ inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto, and dedicated “To Ana” in ink, upper center recto. With an ink sketch verso * Melancholy (with Crescent), pen and ink on pink laid paper, 1950. 310x240 mm; 12⅛x9⅝ inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to private collection; thence by descent to the current owners, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Gershon benjamin
Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Color pastels and pen and ink on card, circa 1950. 153x227 mm; 6x9 inches. Signed and titled in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
After attending the Canadian Royal Academy of Arts, Ontario and working as an artist in Montreal, Benjamin (1899-1985) moved to New York in 1923 and attended classes at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the Educational Alliance Art School while working as a commercial artist for the New York Sun newspaper, where he would work for the next 25 years. Benjamin received instruction from Joseph Pennell, John Sloan and Yasuo Kuniyoshi and became close friends with Milton and Sally Avery. As part of the artist circle surrounding Avery and the studios in the Lincoln Arcade, a building at 65th Street and Broadway later torn down to build Lincoln Center, Benjamin became acquainted with French modernists such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia as well as other New York artists including Stuart Davis and Mark Rothko. Benjamin’s formal training and his close association with French and American modernists created a stylistically blended œuvre that incorporated minute details with dynamic, sweeping lines and colors, which became more abstract as his career progressed. During the Great Depression, Benjamin moved from Lincoln Arcade to East 59th Street, though still kept close ties with the Avery family, accompanying them to Gloucester, Massachusetts during the summers. Rather than appeasing critics who called for a thoroughly American art genre to be consumed by the masses, Benjamin held to his idea that art should convey personal emotions and feelings rather than conforming to a strict dogma as in Social Realism, though he painted much of the same subjects.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Robert gwathmey
Clearing.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1956. 565x377 mm; 22¼x14⅞ inches. Signed in pencil, upper right recto.
Similar figures are found in Gwathmey’s (1903-1988) circa 1945 oil on canvas, The Woodcutter, in the collection of the Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville and in the 1978 lithograph, Hoeing (see Williams 21).
Provenance: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
August mosca
Cubist Nude.
Oil on canvas, 1950. 740x615 mm; 29⅜x24¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey, 2011; private collection, Connecticut, 2015.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Will barnet
Tom.
Charcoal on vellum, circa 2010. 448x286 mm; 17⅝x11¼ inches.
This work is related to a same-titled screenprint by Barnet (1911-2012), 2010. Tom was the named of Barnet’s cat.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Will barnet
The Wave.
Gouache on imitation vellum, 1959. 237x202 mm; 8⅝x8 inches. Signed in crayon, lower right recto.
With a Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, label.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Attilio salemme
Study for “Verge on the Wonderful”.
Ink and gouache on paper, 1952. 215x280 mm; 8½x11 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
This work is a study for the 1953 oil Verge on the Wonderful.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Salemme (1911-1955) was born in Boston and joined the Marines at age 16 in 1927. After his military service, he intended to study science, but instead decided to become an artist while working as a framer in 1942 at the precursor to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Non-Objective Art, New York. Salemme died suddenly of a heart attack at age 44, after a short-lived but creatively inspired artistic career.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Byron browne
Abstract Still Life.
Gouache and watercolor on paper, 1950. 665x506 mm; 26¼x20 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Browne (1907-1961) studied at the National Academy of Design from 1925 to 1928. He was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists (1936) and worked most of his career in a semi-abstract, neo-Cubist style. Browne created murals under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration for the Chronic Disease Hospital and the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In 1940, he married fellow artist Rosalind Bengelsdorf. Browne taught painting at the Art Students League of New York from 1948 through 1959 and went on to teach at New York University.
Browne’s work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Byron browne
Nocturne.
Gouache and watercolor on paper, 1954. 510x660 mm; 20¼x26¼ inches. Signed and dated in gouache, lower left recto.
Provenance: Harcourts Gallery, San Francisco, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Browne (1907-1961) studied at the National Academy of Design from 1925 to 1928. He was one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists (1936) and worked most of his career in a semi-abstract, neo-Cubist style. Browne created murals under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration for the Chronic Disease Hospital and the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In 1940, he married fellow artist Rosalind Bengelsdorf. Browne taught painting at the Art Students League of New York from 1948 through 1959 and went on to teach at New York University.
Browne’s work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
William thon
Roman Forms.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1950. 475x690 mm; 18¾x27¼ inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto. With another study in watercolor verso.
Provenance: Midtown Galleries, New York; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Rolph scarlett
Two works on paper.
Untitled, watercolor on card. 410x640 mm; 16⅛x25¼ inches. Signed in ballpoint pen and ink, lower left recto * Untitled, gouache and pen and ink on card. 195x282 mm; 7⅝x11⅛ inches. Signed in pen and ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: (the first) Weiss Auctions, Lynbrook, New York, June 15, 2016, lot 1442; (the second) Treadway/Toomey Auctions, Oak Park, Illinois, September 12, 2004, lot 840; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Charimon von wiegand
Collage #107 Ascending.
Paper collage and acrylic on card, 1954. 269x107 mm; 10½x4¼ inches. Signed in pen and ink, lower left recto and signed, dated, titled, and inscribed in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Wiegand (1896-1983) was a New York based abstract painter, writer, collector, benefactor and art critic. She started to paint in 1926 while receiving psychoanalytic therapy and encouragement from her friend and painter, Joseph Stella. Wiegand was in Moscow as a journalist from 1929 to 1932, where the Fauve paintings in the Morosof Collection inspired her imagination and desire to paint seriously. When she returned to New York in 1932, she became part of the cultural avant-garde and developed a close circle of friends such as John Graham, Carl Holty, Hans Richter, Joseph Stella and Mark Tobey, all artists who similarly shared a belief that art should be made from physical beauty and spirituality. She became an associate member of the American Abstract Artists in 1941, a full member in 1947, exhibited with them from 1948, and later even became its president from 1951 to 1953.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John von wicht
Untitled.
Oil on paper, circa 1950. 612x884 mm; 24¼x35 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Von Wicht (1888-1970) was born in Germany and studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar. He immigrated to the United States in the 1930s, settling in New York and working under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration alongside artists such as Stuart Davis (1892-1964) and Byron Browne (1907-1961). By the 1940s, Von Wicht was among the first wave of New York-based artists to embrace Abstract Expressionism, to which he adhered throughout the remainder of his career.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John levee
Untitled.
Oil on paper, 1953. 237x529 mm; 9½x21 inches. Signed and dated in ink, upper left recto.
Provenance: Possibly Paul Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, or Esther-Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, with a partial label; private collection, Chicago.
Levee (1924-2017) received a master’s degree in philosophy from UCLA and subsequently became an aviator in World War II. After the war he decided to stay to work as a painter in Montparnasse, Paris. He later studied art at the Art Center School, Los Angeles and at Académie Julian, Paris from 1949 to 1951.
His early painting, like the current work, was inspired by the New York School of abstract expressionism, which included Franz Kline (1910-1962), Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967), Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) and Philip Guston (1913-1980), among others. After a period of hard-edge painting based on geometric abstraction through the 1960s, Levee returned to his more spontaneous abstract expressionist style, often using collage elements with loose brush work typical of lyrical abstraction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John hultberg
Roofs.
Oil on canvas, 1952. 820x1000 mm; 32½x39½ inches. Signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Hultberg (1922-2005) was born in Berkeley, California and studied at Fresno State College, graduating in 1943, before serving in the Navy during World War II. After the war, he studied at the California School of Fine Arts under Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. He gained success early in his career in the 1950s and won first prize at the Corcoran Biennial in Washington, D.C., in 1955. Though initially he was associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement, he also worked in the Abstract Expressionist style as well as Surrealism and Realism. In 1971, he moved to Monhegan Island, Maine and much of his work from that period reflects his time there. His work is included in the permanent collections of major museums such as the Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Stanley meltzoff
Untitled (Pipeline).
Oil and gesso on panel, circa 1955. 575x765 mm; 22½x30 inches.
Likely a draft for an advertisement or promotional illustration commissioned by the United Engineers & Constructors, Inc., with their label and the inventory number “05190,” verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the inventory number “30” in ink and crayon and incised on a medallion, verso.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Nell blaine
Still Life with Flowers.
Watercolor on paper, circa 1961. 230x310 mm; 9x12¼ inches. Signed and dedicated in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nell blaine
Still Life with Pitcher.
Watercolor on paper, 1957. 950x143 mm; 3¾x5⅝ inches. Signed, dated and dedicated “For Dilys with love, NY 1961” in ink, lower sheet edge recto.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York, 1961; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Nell blaine
Mykonos.
Watercolor on paper, 1959. 550x460 mm; 21¾x18¼ inches. Signed, dated, dedicated and inscribed with the title in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. The current lot was created during her stay in Mykonos, where Blaine contracted polio. She returned to New York for treatment and eventually settled in a studio on Riverside Drive.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Louisa matthiasdottir
Model in a Butterfly Chair.
Oil on canvas board, circa 1960. 202x252 mm; 8x10 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: The artist Nell Blaine, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Matthiasdottir (1917-2000) was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and studied in Copenhagen and Paris before moving to New York in 1942. She likely met Nell Blaine while studying with Hans Hoffman alongside Larry Rivers, Robert De Niro, Sr. and Jane Freilicher. Jane Street Gallery hosted her first solo exhibition in 1948. During the 1960s she honed her characteristic manner of rendering landscapes, figures and interior scenes with broad bands of color and brushstrokes, paring the forms down to their elemental shapes. Her works are found in the collections of Reykjavík Municipal Art Museum, Kjarvalstaðir, Iceland, the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nell blaine
Self Portrait.
Pen and ink and wash on paper, 1958. 302x227 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed, dated and dedicated in ink, lower recto, and inscribed “Self Sketch” in ink, verso.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Nell blaine
Dilys Reading.
Lithograph, 1961. 215x330 mm; 8½x13 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dedicated and inscribed “artist’s proof” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Nell blaine
Santorini.
Brush and ink on paper, 1959. 226x301 mm; 9x11⅞ inches. Signed, titled, dated and dedicated “For Dilys” in ink, lower edge recto.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Nell blaine
Beach at Malcesine.
Watercolor and color pastels, 1984. 460x610 mm; 18⅛x24 inches. Signed, dated, and inscribed “Malcesine” in pencil, lower left recto, and signed, titled, dated, and inscribed in ink, verso.
Provenance: Corporate Art Directions, Inc., New York; private collection, New Jersey.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Nell blaine
View from Tarr and Wonson’s, I (Gloucester).
Watercolor, 1980. 457x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto, and signed, titled, dated and inscribed in ink, verso.
Provenance: Fischbach Gallery, New York, with the label; Chesbrough-Pond’s Art Collection, Greenwich, Connecticut, with the label; Christie’s, New York, September 8, 2004, lot 138; (with) Tibor de Nagy, New York, 2012; private collection, New Jersey.
Exhibited “Nell Blaine, A Glowing Order,” Tibor de Nagy, New York, September 6- October 13, 2012, with the label.
The Tarr and Wonson Paint Factory, located at the end of Horton Street in Gloucester, Massachusetts manufactured the first copper bottom paint in 1863 for use on boat hulls. The factory closed in 1980 and the building remained vacant until it was purchased by the Ocean Alliance for its headquarters in 2008.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Nell blaine
Gloucester.
Watercolor on paper, 1963. 150x227 mm; 5⅞x9 inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: The artist, New York; Dilys Evans, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, New Mexico.
Blaine (1922-1996) became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1944 at the age of 22. Known for creating colorful works in a carefree, lighthearted manner and her strong personality, she thrived in the New York art scene of the 1940s. Toward the end of the decade, she decided to leave the city, which resulted in a period of seclusion. After contracting polio in 1959, Blaine was told she would never paint again, but she managed to continue her creative output by drawing and painting with watercolors.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Fairfield porter
A Shaded Garden Walkway.
Watercolor on paper. 380x577 mm; 15x22¾ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Maine.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Leon kroll
Tree Study, Central Park, New York.
Oil on Masonite, circa 1950. 617x300 mm; 24x11¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Milch Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $4,000
Fannie saperstein
Two watercolors.
Canal. 560x702 mm; 22x27¾ inches. Signed in watercolor, lower left recto * Chapel in the Forest. 702x560 mm; 27¾x22 inches. Signed in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Saperstein (1896-1995), daughter of Russian immigrants, was a New York artist and a public school teacher. Primarily self-taught, Saperstein was represented by Argent Gallery, New York where her first solo exhibition was held in December 1950.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Vaclav vytlacil
Mountain Landscape, Colorado Springs.
Color pastels and gouache on paper, circa 1950. 530x608 mm; 21x23⅞ inches. Signed in gouache, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, with the ink stamp, verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
David burliuk
Surrealist Portrait of Leo Manso.
Pastel, charcoal and gouache on cream wove paper, circa 1950. 390x273 mm; 15¼x10¾ inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to Leo Manso, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Burliuk (1882-1967) and abstract artist Leo Manso (1914-1993) may have first crossed paths in New York in the late 1940s, where they moved in the same artist circles. They both participated in a group show at the Downtown Community School’s December 1947 fundraising exhibition, alongside Milton Avery, Dorr Bothwell, George Constant, Harry Gottlieb, Louise Nevelson, Marguerite and William Zorach, and Moses and Raphael Soyer, among others. Burliuk had settled on Long Island and Manso in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1947, though there were crosscurrents between the two communities as artists summered in both locations. Late in Burliuk’s career, from 1951 to 1965, he was represented by the Provincetown Tirca Karlis Gallery, the same firm that represented Manso through the 1960s.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Jane freilicher
The Straw Hat.
Charcoal on cream laid paper, circa 1958. 417x345 mm; 16⅜x13⅝ inches. Signed in blue ballpoint pen and ink, lower right recto, and inscribed “#6” in pencil, verso.
This work has been reviewed by the Estate of Jane Freilicher and would be considered for inclusion in a future catalogue raisonné.
The Straw Hat charcoal drawing was completed contemporaneous to or after the same-titled 1958 oil on linen self-portrait.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Ben shahn
Accordion Player.
Pencil on parchment. 165x195 mm; 6½x7⅝ inches. Indistinctly annotated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Baltimore.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Max weber
Bust of a Man.
Bronze, 1959. 215 mm; 8½ inches (height). Incised with the artist’s signature and date, and the Roman Bronze Works, New York, foundry mark on the underside of the base.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Max weber
Woman Holding a Mirror.
Color pastels on grayish rose paper, 1950. 375x298 mm; 15x12 inches. Signed and dated in pastel, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Nyack; private collection, Chicago.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Leon kelly
Damas en Budoar.
Conté crayon on heavy wove paper, 1958. 1580x2035 mm; 62x80 inches. Signed and dated in crayon, lower right recto, and titled in crayon, left edge recto; and counter signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Julien Levy, New York and New Haven; Jean Farley Levy, Julien Levy’s widow, Connecticut; The Jean and Julien Levy Foundation for the Arts, Newtown, Connecticut; private collection, Chicago.
Kelly (1901-1982) was born in Philadelphia and studied at the School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), Philadelphia, and with Arthur Beecher Carles (1882-1952) at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. He was an avid student and also sought out instruction outside of formal art school. He was granted permission to study anatomy at the Philadelphia School of Osteopathy where he dissected a cadaver and perfected his knowledge of the human figure. He also met and studied etching with the Philadelphia printmaker Earl Horter (1881-1940). During the mid-1920s, Kelly traveled to Paris and became acquaintances with Henry Miller, James Joyce and the critic Félix Fénéon as well as copying frequently at the Louvre. He is most well-known for his contributions to American Surrealism, but his work also encompassed styles such as Cubism, Social Realism and Abstraction. Reclusive by nature, a character trait that became more exaggerated in the 1940s and later, Kelly’s work reflects his determination not to be limited by the trends of his time.
Kelly married Helen Horter, the ex-wife of his mentor Earl Horter, in 1941, his second marriage after a brief marriage with a French woman, Henriette D’Erfurth, during the 1930s had dissolved. In 1940, Helen Horter had contacted Julien Levy, a Harvard classmate of her brother-in-law Paul Vanderbilt, to propose an exhibition of drawings by Kelly. Levy’s gallery, The Julien Levy Gallery on 57th Street in New York was at the forefront of innovation and Surrealism. His stable included Salvador Dalí, Arshile Gorky, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp. Levy was impressed by Kelly’s work and began representing him. His first show was an exhibition that traveled to the Art Alliance in Philadelphia in 1941. A one-man show followed in March 1942 in New York. In 1943, the magazine View printed nudes by Kelly and Pablo Picasso that resulted in the banning the issue in the United States. In 1944, Kelly had a second one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Raphael soyer
Seated Model in the Studio.
Oil on canvas, circa 1960. 358x255 mm; 14x10 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection Provincetown, Massachusetts; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New Jersey.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top realist painters of the 20th century.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Raphael soyer
Seated Nude.
Watercolor and charcoal on paper, 1972. 520x396 mm; 20½x15⅝ inches. Signed, dated and dedicated in charcoal, lower right recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top realist painters of the 20th century.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Chaim gross
Kneeling Female Nude.
Bronze. 595 mm; 23⅜ inches (height, excluding wood base). Incised with the artist’s signature and cipher, lower right recto.
Provenance: Liman Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, with the label; private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John wilde
Self-Portrait.
Pencil with chalk heightening on tan laid paper, 1961. 481x576 mm; 19x22¾ inches.
Provenance: Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Wilde (1919-2006) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and studied at the University of Wisconsin where he was influenced by American Surrealist artists such as Marshall Glasier (1902-1988) and Karl Priebe (1914-1976) as well as the Magic Realists including Jared French (1905-1988). He served in World War II, where he designed camouflage patterns, but during this time fell into a depression and used art as a creative outlet. After the war, he finished his Masters of Art degree at the University of Wisconsin, focusing on Max Ernst (1891-1976) and writing in defense of nonsense, wit and the irrational in art. His own artistic output furthered his interest in the surreal—many of his works play fancifully with scale, creating fantastical, humorous compositions.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Charlotte howard
Study in Black, White, and Red.
Oil on canvas, 1954. 610x356 mm; 24x14 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and titled with the artist’s address in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Howard (1919-1998) was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from England and Belgium. After her mother died when she was a child, she lived with her maternal aunt’s family. She lived and worked in New York, studying for many years at the Art Students League and producing printed works at Atelier 17 from 1952-54. She executed structured still lifes, portraits and scenes of everyday life, which sometimes show the influence of Surrealism.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Bruno lucchesi
Two terracotta relief sculptures.
Mother and Child on a Bicycle, circa 1967. 390x210 mm; 15¼x8¼ inches * After Shopping, circa 1980. 330x220 mm; 13x8¾ inches. Both signed lower right.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Bruno lucchesi
Standing Bather with Ponytail.
Bronze, circa 1960. 254 mm; 10¼ inches (height). Incised with the artist’s signature, upper part of the base.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Warren brandt
Morning with Tina.
Oil on canvas, 1964. 253x410 mm; 1x16 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto, and titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
241
Stanley meltzoff
Birth of Autumn.
Oil on gessoed panel, circa 1960. 695x1215 mm; 27¼47¾ inches. Signed and titled in ink, verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist.
This work was inspired by Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, which Meltzoff (1917-2006) saw while in Italy during World War II. It depicts the cycle of life, including its highs and lows and birth and death. Meltzoff depicted himself laying on the forest floor being tended to by his wife.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Dong kingman
Central Park, New York.
Brush and ink and wash on paper, 1961. 405x510 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto, and signed, dated, and dedicated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Paul resika
The Hill at Amity.
Oil on canvas, 1965. 1220x1520 mm; 48x59⅞ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Peridot Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Resika (born 1928) is an American painter born and raised in New York. He is a former student of Hans Hofmann. He chaired the Parsons School of Design MFA program, New York, from 1978 to 1990 and is a member of the National Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Amity is a hamlet in the town of Warwick, New York, United States. It is located between Edenville and Pine Island, near the New Jersey state line.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Paul starrett sample
Another Day.
Oil on canvas, 1961. 517x613 mm; 20x24 inches. Signed, titled and inscribed with the artist’s address in ink, verso. With the artist’s original frame.
Provenance: The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, with the label; Frank Leonard Gallery, Los Angeles, with the label; Estate of Evelyne Z. Daitz, New York.
Sample (1896-1974) was an American artist who portrayed life in New England in the mid-20th century with a style that showed elements of Social Realism and Regionalism. Born in Louisville, he studied architecture at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and graduated in 1921 after a year in the Naval Reserve during World War I. Sample studied drawing and painting under Jonas Lie at Saranac Lake, New York, and studied at the Art Students League of Los Angeles and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. In 1926 Sample joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in the school of architecture, where he remained until 1938. In 1938, he returned to New Hampshire to become the artist in residence at Dartmouth College, a position which he held until 1962. In addition to his social and regional paintings, Sample produced artwork for various magazines during World War II.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Gershon benjamin
Winter Trees V.
Oil on paper. 915x610 mm; 36x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: private collection, New Jersey.
After attending the Canadian Royal Academy of Arts, Ontario and working as an artist in Montreal, Benjamin (1899-1985) moved to New York in 1923 and attended classes at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the Educational Alliance Art School while working as a commercial artist for the New York Sun newspaper, where he would work for the next 25 years. Benjamin received instruction from Joseph Pennell, John Sloan and Yasuo Kuniyoshi and became close friends with Sally and Milton Avery. As part of the artist circle surrounding Avery and the studios in the Lincoln Arcade, a building at 65th Street and Broadway later torn down to build Lincoln Center, Benjamin became acquainted with French modernists such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia as well as other New York artists including Stuart Davis and Mark Rothko. Benjamin’s formal training and his close association with French and American modernists created a stylistically blended œuvre that incorporated minute details with dynamic, sweeping lines and colors, which became more abstract as his career progressed.
During the Great Depression, Benjamin moved from Lincoln Arcade to East 59th Street, though still kept close ties with the Avery family, accompanying them to Gloucester, Massachusetts during the summers. Rather than appeasing critics who called for a thoroughly American art genre to be consumed by the masses, Benjamin held to his idea that art should convey personal emotions and feelings rather than conforming to a strict dogma as in Social Realism, though he painted much of the same subjects.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Joseph cornell
Monkey.
Paper collage on board, circa 1962-67. 305x230 mm; 12⅛x9 inches. With the artist’s original frame.
Provenance: The artist’s sister, Elizabeth Benton; private collection, New York.
For the current work, Cornell (1903-1972) reappropriated a printed image of a Sothern Song Dynasty ink on silk work attributed to Mao Song (active 1127-50) currently in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, Japan.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Eugene berman
The Sphinx.
Pen and ink and wash on paper, 1967. 337x514 mm; 13½x20¼ inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto.
Provenance: Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Exhibited: “Eugene Berman,” the University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, November 15, 1970-January 3, 1971.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Lester johnson
Group of 4 ink drawings.
Grove, on paper mounted to board. Signed in ink, lower right recto. * Abstract Composition, 1960. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto * Abstract Composition, with oil and gouache. Signed in pencil, lower right recto * Paintings and Drawings by Lester Johnson at the Zabriskie Gallery. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William zorach
Upraised Hands.
Bronze, circa 1960. 412 mm; 16¼ inches (height, excluding painted bronze base). Edition of 6. Inscribed with the artist’s encircled initials and stamped 3/6 on the edge of the base.
Provenance: Purchased from The Zorach Collection, May 1979; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Born in 1887 in Lithuania, William Zorach immigrated to Cleveland, with his family at age 4. He worked as both a sculptor and watercolorist at the vanguard of American modernism, after briefly studying in Paris in the early 1910s. While Zorach initially practiced painting, his interests in sculpture, which took root in 1917, soon eclipsed all other media. By the 1930s, Zorach was regarded as one of America’s premier sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Charmion von wiegand
Collage #264 The Mountain Way.
Paper collage with acrylic on card, 1963. 255x235 mm; 10x9¼ inches. Signed, titled, and dated in ink, lower edge recto and signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Marilyn Pearl Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Exhibited: “Charmion von Wiegand Collages,” Noah Goldowsky, Inc., New York, March 25- May 3, 1975, number 23.
Von Wiegand (1896-1983) was a New York based abstract painter, writer, collector, benefactor and art critic. She started to paint in 1926 while receiving psychoanalytic therapy and encouragement from her friend and painter, Joseph Stella. Wiegand was in Moscow as a journalist from 1929 to 1932, where the Fauve paintings in the Morosof Collection inspired her imagination and desire to paint seriously. When she returned to New York in 1932, she became part of the cultural avant-garde and developed a close circle of friends including John Graham, Carl Holty, Hans Richter, Joseph Stella and Mark Tobey, all artists who similarly shared a belief that art should be made from physical beauty and spirituality. She became an associate member of the American Abstract Artists in 1941, a full member in 1947, exhibited with them from 1948, and later even became its president from 1951 to 1953.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Harold rome
Joe and Judy Discussing the Sad State of the Theatre.
Oil on canvas, 1960. 460x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and signed, dated and titled in ink, on the stretcher verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Rolph scarlett
Untitled.
Oil and ink on paper. 215x278 mm; 8½x11 inches. Signed in pen and ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Karl schrag
Living Water.
Watercolor and gouache on wove paper, circa 1960. 390x560 mm; 15⅜x22 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Kraushaar Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
1970s & Later
Vaclav vytlacil
Two Crucifixion studies.
Both gouache, pastel and pencil on cream wove paper mounted on thick wove paper with prepared white ground, 1970-75. Both 330x252 mm; 13x10 inches. Both signed and dated “1970” or “1975” in gouache, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Herbert kallem
Three Dancing Figures.
Bronze, 1976. 530x520x200 mm; 20¾x20½x7¾ inches. Incised with the artist’s signature and the date, on the base.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William dickey king
Standing Woman.
Bronze, circa 1960. 695 mm; 27½ inches (height, excluding stone base). Inscribed with the artist’s asterisk on the base.
Provenance: Terry Dintenfass, New York, offered Sotheby’s, New York, July 30, 1993, lot 352; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Gershon benjamin
A Couple on a Boat at Sea.
Watercolor on wove paper, 1975. 560x765 mm; 22x30 inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Fletcher martin
Two works on paper.
Toreador, gouache on cream wove paper. 610x460 mm; 24x18⅛ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto * Odalisque (Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement), pencil on cream wove paper, 1978. 460x610 mm; 18⅛x24 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed “de Delacroix” in pencil, upper left verso and signed and titled in felt-tip pen and ink on the back mat.
Provenance: Jean Sigsbee Wexler (Jean Arnold), author and wife of the artist, Sarasota, Florida, 1979; thence by bequest to private collection, 2010; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John b. lear
Urn with a “U”.
Watercolor on illustration board, 1987. 392x507 mm; 15½x20 inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto.
Provenance: Pearl Fox Gallery, Philadelphia, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Robert bliss
Two oils.
Boy in Yellow Shirt. 356x257 mm; 14x10¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto * Lacrosse Player, 1962, 910x610mm; 36x24 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection Massachusetts; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Robert bliss
Baseball Field.
Oil on board. 405x608 mm; 16x24 inches.
Provenance: Private collection Massachusetts; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Robert bliss
Beach Scene (Nocturne).
Oil on board, 1956. 450x765 mm; 17¾x30 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection Massachusetts; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, Massachusetts.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Peggy bacon
Poor Old Farm.
Watercolor and ink on paper, 1972. 370x555 mm; 14½x22 inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Kraushaar Galleries, New York; private collection, Massachusetts.
Bacon (1895-1987) was best known for her realistic representations of everyday life and her satirical caricatures. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Bellows, and taught herself drypoint there in between drawing classes. Looking back at her time at the League, Bacon said, “The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial.” From the 1910s to the 1930s, she worked mainly in drypoint printmaking and also doing illustrations for the satirical magazine Bad News, while her later drawings appeared as illustrations in publications including The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune and Vanity Fair. She further went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote.
Bacon exhibited frequently in New York from the 1910s onward, with galleries including Alfred Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, the Weyhe Gallery and the Downtown Gallery (she had more than 32 solo exhibitions during her career), and was closely connected with other artists with ties to these galleries, including Katherine Schmidt and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Will barnet
By the Sea.
Watercolor on paper. 360x465 mm; 14⅛x18¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Will barnet
Study for “Old Man’s Afternoon”.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1978. 492x760 mm; 19⅜x30 inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto.
This work is a study for the oil painting Old Man’s Afternoon, sold at Wright, Chicago, October 1, 2020, lot 117.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Will barnet
Self Portrait.
Charcoal and pencil on vellum, circa 1990. 472x413 mm; 18½x16¼ inches. Signed in charcoal, lower right recto.
A study for the 1990-91 oil on canvas, Gramercy Park (there also exist other later paintings of the same subject). In 2012, Gramercy Park was created as a color lithograph published by The Print Club of New York.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Will barnet
Cat.
Charcoal and pencil on vellum, 1984. 455x575 mm; 18x22¾ inches. Signed and dated in charcoal, lower right recto.
This work is a study for the 1984 oil on canvas The Blue Thread, in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. It also relates to an earlier 1980 oil painting The Golden Thread illustrated in Will Barnet, Robert Doty, Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York, 1984, page 146. It depicts the artist's cat with the hands of the artist's wife, Elena Barnet, knitting.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist by current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Howard rackliffe
Arabesque.
Gouache on paperboard, circa 1970. 438x445 mm; 17¼x17½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto, and titled in ink, verso.
Gifted by the artist to the current owner, private collection, Connecticut.
Rackliffe (1917-1987) was a self-taught artist who left school as a teenager to dedicate himself to the development of his art. He lived between New York and New Britain, Connecticut, adopting an abstract style that gained him popularity. In addition to his work in the visual arts, he pursued poetry, musical composition and modern dance. In 2017, the New Britain Museum of American art celebrated his centenary with a retrospective of his work.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Melvin schuler
Untitled (Wall Construction #29).
Painted metal collage. 280x354 mm; 11x14 inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Gamps Gallery, San Francisco; private collection, Chicago.
Schuler (1924-2012) was born in San Francisco and graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He began his esteemed teaching career in 1947 at Humboldt State University and later became a Professor Emeritus. Schuler is best remembered for his large abstract sculptures using old growth redwood carved into abstract forms clad in copper and fastened with bronze nails. His work is in numerous major public institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Palm Springs Art Museum; and the Storm King Art Center, Orange County, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Werner drewes
Untitled (Collage #125).
Watercolor and color paper collage, 1973. 97x120 mm; 4x4¾ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, recto, and counter signed, titled and dated in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Aaron Galleries, Chicago, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Richard haas
The Potter Building.
Oil on canvas, 1974. 405x510 mm; 16x20 inches. Signed, dated and titled in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
The Potter Building, erected in New York’s downtown Financial District, was designed by architect Norris Garshom Starkweather and completed in 1886. The building, named for its real estate developer, Orlando B. Potter, became a New York City designated landmark in 1996 and in 2005 was designated as a contributing property to the Fulton-Nassau Historic District, on the National Register of Historic Places.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Fairfield porter
Figure Seated on a Porch.
Pen and ink on paper. 278x356 mm; 11x14 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Fairfield porter
Group of 4 pencil drawings.
House and Yard * Study with a Mantel * House along the Shore *House Nestled among Trees. Various sizes and conditions.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Fairfield porter
Group of 5 drawings.
Rocky Beach, pencil on paper * Garden Landscape, pen and ink on paper * Shore with Cottages, pen and ink on paper * Landscape with a Figure Walking along a Path, pencil on paper * Cottages Along the Path, pencil on paper. Various sizes and conditions.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Fairfield porter
Group of 4 figural drawings.
Seated Man in a Hat, pen and ink on paper, circa 1972-73 * Woman in a Polka Dot Skirt, pencil on paper * Seated Girl with Flowers, pencil on paper * Seated Woman, pencil on paper. Various sizes and conditions.
Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Fairfield porter
Leon.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1975. 310x410 mm; 16x12⅛ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto, and titled, signed and dated in pencil, verso.
Leon Fairfield Porter is the eldest grandchild of the artist, the son of Laurence Porter.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; thence to Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York; The Molly and Walter Bareiss Family Collection of Art; private collection, New York.
Published: Joan Ludman, Fairfield Porter: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 2001, pages 355-56, number L1203 (illustrated).
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Leland bell
Self-Portrait.
Charcoal, 1979. 655x505 mm; 25¾x19⅞ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Romare bearden
Beach, St. Martin.
Watercolor on cream wove paper, circa 1980. 121x206 mm; 4¾x8⅛ inches. Signed in pencil, upper left.
Provenance: Aaron Payne Fine Art, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Wolf kahn
Lucy Bump’s Barn.
Oil on canvas, 1981. 735x1322 mm; 29x52 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto, and dated and inscribed “#81” in oil, verso.
Provenance: Purchased at Kornbluth Gallery, Fair Lawn, New Jersey by current owner, private collection, New Jersey.
A smaller 1981 oil on canvas of the same composition (numbered “#65” verso) sold at Christie’s, New York, July 9-21, 2021, lot 166.
Bump’s stables, located in Guilford, Vermont, were close-by to Kahn’s (1927-2020) farm in West Brattleboro, where he and his family began to summer in 1968. Kahn’s paintings of hillsides, meadows, barns, and southern Vermont’s environs were emblematic of the Kahn’s New England color field paintings of this period.
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Francis cunningham
Back of Wattles’ Cottage, Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
Oil on canvas, 1990. 760x585 mm; 30x23 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Collection of the artist; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Dorothy dehner
Polychrome Composition.
Watercolor and pen and ink on cream wove paper, 1985. 145x232 mm; 5¾x9¼ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Dehner (1901-1994) initially came to New York by way of California, to pursue acting and dance, which she studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. She enrolled at the American Academy of Art in New York, but her travels in 1925 throughout Europe, where she was introduced to works by Picasso and Matisse, convinced her to change course and pursue a career as an artist.
She studied for several years at the Art Students League and there met the American modernist sculptor David Smith, whom she married in 1940. She exlpored more progressive art forms similar to Smith’s interests, adhering to abstract and cubist tendencies rather than representational imagery.
The couple moved to Bolton Landing, in upstate New York, where, gradually Dehner’s art became secondary to her duties as a wife (her painting series Life on the Farm and a group of black ink drawings she called the Damnation Series, mid-1940s, serves as a psychological reflection of the mundanity of her life then). Their marriage was deteriorating at Bolton Landing; they separated in 1950 and divorced a year later. Subsequently, Dehner fully resumed her career as an artist, studying printmaking at Atelier 17 and returning to painting and sculpture with renewed creative energy.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William c. barron
Dead Birch.
Oil on canvas, 1987. 1215x1760 mm; 48x69¼ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto, and signed and dated in oil, verso. With the artist’s studio label, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William c. barron
Rest Stop.
Oil on canvas, 1987. 1140x1782 mm; 45x70 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William c. barron
Evening Walk.
Oil on canvas, 1987. 1500x1780 mm; 59x70⅛ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and signed and dated in oil, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William c. barron
Wet Summer.
Oil on canvas, 1992. 905x1515 mm; 35⅝x59⅝ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William c. barron
Quiet Pasture.
Oil on canvas, 1987. 1215x1840 mm; 48x72½ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower let recto, and signed and dated in oil, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William c. barron
Fall Fields.
Oil on canvas, 1989. 1230x2005 mm; 48⅜x79 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and titled in ink, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joreen benbenek
Untitled (Maine Harbor).
Oil on canvas, 1987. 760x912 mm; 29⅞x35⅞ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Hansen mulford
Where the Juniper River Enters Lake George, New York.
Oil on canvas, 1992. 580x1530 mm; 23x60¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Sherry French Gallery, Inc., New York, with the label.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
James d. butler
Damp River Air.
Oil on canvas, 1990. 665x1020 mm; 26x40 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and signed, titled and dated in ink, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Richard bunkall
Cityscape.
Oil on canvas, circa 1980. 1235x1780 mm; 48⅝x70⅛ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William herman
Statuary Building.
Acrylic on panel, 1993. 453x2085 mm; 18x82⅛ inches.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
William herman
Two acrylics on panel.
Used Car Lot #1. 600x1650 mm; 23⅝x65 inches * Used Car Lot #2. 500x2650 mm; 19⅝x104⅜ inches. Both 1993.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Walter hatke
Two oils on linen.
Erie Canal, Lock #7, 1993. 505x763 mm; 20x30 inches. Signed in oil, left recto * Futures, 1993. 915x685 mm; 36x27 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Babcock Galleries, New York, with the labels.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Peter w. rogers
Bascule Bridge.
Oil on canvas. 1220x915 mm; 48x36 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Wendell castle
Sea Clock.
Polychrome jelutong, walnut burl veneers, poplar and quartz movement, 1995. 752 mm; 29½ inches (height, including burlwood base). Carved with the artist’s signature and date, on the edge of the base recto.
This work is given the Wendell Castle studio inventory number 2881.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Exhibited: “Works by Wendell Castle,” Atlanta Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, November 17, 1995- January 31, 1996; “Wendell Castle: New Furniture,” Gremillion & Co., Houston, September 19- October 20, 1996.
Published: Carroll, “Sculptor Wendell Castle’s Exhibition Opens at ACA,” The Observer (New Smyrna Beach, Florida), November 17, 1995; Stewart, “Sculptor Blurs Line Between Art and Craft,” The Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, December 3, 1995; Stewart, “Woodworker’s Art Showcased in ACA Exhibit,” The Daytona Sunday News-Journal,, December 3, 1995; McDermott Hamm, “Man’s Artful Home Can Be His Castle,” Houston Chronicle, September 12, 1996; Eerdmans, Wendell Castle: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1958-2012, page 280, number IV. 129 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Gil beamsley
Pleasant Street.
Acrylic on canvas, 1989. 605x1270 mm; 23⅞x50 inches. Signed and dated in acrylic, lower right recto.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Gil beamsley
Farm on Rich Road.
Acrylic on canvas, 1995. 615x1040 mm; 24¼x41 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joseph keiffer
Somesville.
Oil on canvas, circa 1995. 460x915 mm; 18x36 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto, and signed in oil and additionally signed and titled in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Chuck forsman
Teton Remains.
Oil on Masonite, 1994. 1183x2050 mm; 46⅝x80¾ inches, irregular. Signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Altoon sultan
Winter Scene.
Oil on canvas, 1990. 200x250 mm; 8x10 inches (oval). Signed and dated in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Altoon sultan
The Mill Pond, Pawlet, Vermont.
Oil on canvas, 1987. 632x507 mm; 25x20 inches. Titled in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Max ginsburg
Waiting for the Bus.
Oil on canvas. 870x1030 mm; 34¼x40½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Harbor Gallery, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, with the label; the Collection of Gladys and Tully Filmus; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Penelope jencks
Eleanor Roosevelt.
Bonded bronze, 1993. 375 mm; 14¼ inches (height). Incised with the artist's signature and copyright, dated, titled, and numbered 7/25, along the base verso.
One of twenty-five casts of the maquette for a monument to Eleanor Roosevelt erected in Riverside Park at 72nd Street, New York, November 1996.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Bo bartlett
Study of Jo.
Oil on panel, circa 1986-87. 405x245 mm; 16x9⅝ inches.
Provenance: Private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Richard macdonald
I Am.
Bronze, 1993. 565 mm; 22¼ inches (height, excluding base). Incised with the artist’s signature, date and numbered 14/70, lower verso.
Provenance: Private collection, London.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Daniel maffia
Self Portrait.
Oil on canvas, 1975. 340x530 mm; 25x21 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Newark.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Daniel maffia
Untitled (Kneeling Nude in Flower Garden).
Oil and watercolor on paper, 2013. 760x560 mm; 30x22 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Newark.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,000
Keith mayerson
River Phoenix.
Oil on linen, 2003. 512x405 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John alexander
Monkey Claus.
Oil on canvas board. 302x225 mm; 11⅞x8⅞ inches.
Provenance: Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Daniel chaffee
Major Circulation.
Oil on polyester, 1994-95. 2185x1725 mm; 86x68 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto, and signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
Provenance: Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, with the label verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Daniel chaffee
Wind Shear.
Oil on linen, 1995-98. 930x1350 mm; 36⅝x53⅛ inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto, and signed, titled, and dated in oil, verso.
Provenance: Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John brosio
Gust Front.
Oil on canvas, 1996. 910x1215 mm; 35⅞x47⅞ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Leedy-Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, with the label.