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Skinner Hosts American and European Paintings & Prints Sale
BOSTON, Mass. August 20, 2008 www.skinnerinc.com – Skinner, Inc., one of the nations leading auction houses for antiques and fine art, today announced that its fall painting and print sale will take place on September 12th at Skinners Boston gallery. The prints and photography portion of the sale, comprised of 339 lots, begins at noon. Then, at 4 p.m., more than 550 lots of paintings and sculptures will be offered. Aside from a broad selection of still lifes, portraits, and landscapes, the sale is rich with contemporary works as well.
Prints & Photography
Prints from American artists include a number of works from Thomas Hart Benton (lots 31-37, estimates ranging from $700 on the low end to $3,000 on the high) with titles such as Haystack; Cradling Wheat; White Calf; and Prodigal Son. Representative of a similar time are three prints by Alfred Heber Hutty (lots 138-140, each estimated at $3/5,000), entitled Pounding Rice; Days End, Carolina; and Toward a New Day, edition of 75. Also of note is Old Tom (lot 27, est. $8/12,000) by Frank Weston Benson.
Warhols works of interest include General Custer, Indian Head Nickel; and Teddy Roosevelt all from COWBOYS AND INDIANS, each editions of 250 plus proofs (lots 285, 286, 287, respectively; each estimated at $10/15,000).
For collectors of Picasso, the sale will offer a number of impressive works, including ceramics. Sold to benefit the Harvard Art Museum, from the estate of Mary Gershinowitz, is Cphale tue par mgarde sa femme Procris from LES METAMORPHOSES DOVIDE (lot 227, est. $1,5/2,500). Other Picassos expected to draw interest include Le Vieux Roi (lot 228, est. $2/4,000); a vase with two high handles (lot 230, est. $3/5.000); and an oblong earthenware dish entitled Tte de chevre de profil (lot 231, est. $8/12,000). Several works by another Spanish artist, Joan Mir, will be of interest to bidders, including La Japanaise (lot 192, est. $2/3,000); La Femme arborescent (lot 190, est. $18/22,000); and LOiseau destucteur (lot 189, est. $12/18,000).
Highlights in photography include an interesting Edward Clark photo of Graham Jackson, Navy Bandsman, at President Roosevelts Funeral (lot 311, est. $5/700) as he wept while playing Goin Home. The photo appeared in the April issue of LIFE magazine and became an emblematic image of the grieving nation.
Work by Christopher Burkett includes serene, natural shots from around the country such as Cottonwood and Light, Utah (lot 306, est.1,5/2,500); Flowering Beech and Rock Wall, Virginia (lot 307, est. $8/1,200); Red Woodbine, Vermont (lot 309, est. $8/1,200); and Spring Aspen and Lavender Rock, Colorado (lot 310, est. $8/1,200).
Photography by Harold Eugene Edgerton will also be represented in the sale. Scientist, artist, and educator Harold Doc Edgerton taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he invented the stroboscope, high-speed and stop-action photography. Up for sale is 30 cal Bullet Cuts a Card/Cutting the Card Quickly (lot 312, est. $5/7,000); Densmore Shute Bends the Shaft (lot 314, est. $3/5,000); lot of two images of divers (lot 315, est. $2,5/3,500); and lot of two golf images (lot 316, est. $1,8/2,400).
Paintings
Session II of the sale offers great works by American masters. Highlights include Wash Day at the Cabin (lot 497, est. $25/35,000) by William Aiken Walker, who was born the son of a cotton agent in Charlestown and was largely self-taught; Albert Smith Bigelowe Coach (lot 532, est. $25/35,000) by Alexander Pope, who was also self-taught and primarily featured animals, with his later works incorporating figures; and Cabin Through the Trees (lot 606, est. $15/25,000) by Elizabeth Quale ONeill Verner, who lived and worked in Charlestown, South Carolina and devoted her career to the depiction and preservation of its people and buildings.
The cover lot is Newell Convers Wyeths That Endless Stream Across the Dubuque Ferry was Flowing on Ahead of Me, and the Fast-Going Part of it Was Passing Me Every Hour Like Swift Schooners Outstripping a Slow, Round-Bellied Square-Rigger (lot 559, est. $150/250,000). Wyeth viewed himself as both a painter and illustrator, and struggled with dichotomy of the two roles throughout his career. At the encouragement of Pyle, with whom he studied, Wyeth headed west to Colorado and New Mexico in 1904 and began to display interest in authentically portraying the West. This work was an illustration for Herbert Quicks Vandemarks Folly, which was published in Ladies Home Journal over the course of six months, 1921-1922. Another important illustration to be featured is School for Dollies (lot 942, est. $30/50,000) by Elizabeth Shippen Green. Greens first illustration was published in The Philadelphia Times on her 18th birthday. She studied with preeminent illustrator Howard Pyle, at Drexel University, where she became close friends with fellow female illustrators Jessie Wilcox Smith and Violet Oakley. The three women, with their close friend Henrietta Cozens, moved in to the Red Rose Inn and were thus dubbed the Red Rose Girls. There they lived and worked together, each enjoying a successful career during Americas golden age of illustration. Green produced images for Harpers, Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post.
John Whorf works include The Bowsprit and Sea Swell (lots 647 and 675, respectively, both estimated at $12/18,000). Whorf was born in Winthrop, MA and was strongly drawn to the sea, as his ancestors had been fishing captains, coastal traders, and shipbuilders from Cape Cod. When Whorf was only fourteen years old he went to Provincetown to study art, a burgeoning art colony filled with artists from all over the world including Max Bohm, George Elmer Browne and Charles W. Hawthorne. He later studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and at various schools in France. Watercolor was his favored medium.
Two other Impressionist pieces being featured include Bermuda Coast (lot 664, est. $10/15,000) by Impressionist Will Howe Foote, who is most closely associated with Old Lyme, Connecticut, but traveled extensively to warm climates including the Caribbean, Mexico and the American Southwest; and City in Winter, Probably a View of the Third Avenue El, New York (lot 778, est. $25/35,000) by Arthur Clifton Goodwin, who incorporated elements of the Ashcan School into his unique Impressionist style, using color and light to capture the vibrancy of the city streets.
One European highlight worthy of note is Bords dune riviere avec deux clochers emergeant des arbres (lot 453, est. $60/80,000) by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Corot was a seminal figure in 19th century landscape painting, producing works that inspired both contemporary and future artists, in particular, the Impressionists. Corot produced works that included elements of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and the Barbizon School. His carefully balanced compositions feature soft feathering strokes and subtle tones. Other European works to be featured include Bernard de Hoogs Tending to Baby (lot 442, est. $12/18,000) and Edgar Degas Femme Sortant du Bain/Women Getting Out of the Bath (lot 741, est. $150/250,000). Degas work in clay and wax began as early as 1865, and by 1880 he worked with it almost exclusively. Degas frequently used the female nude as the subject of his sculptural work, and in these pieces he explored elements of movement and form. This work was modeled between 1896 and 1911. Degas did not have any of his works cast in bronze during his lifetime. Between 1919 and 1921 the Hebrard Foundry cast seventy-two of the seventy-three bronze sculptures that Degas produced.
Rounding out the European offerings is Panoramic View of Portofino, Italy (lot 688, est. $10/15,000) by Michele Cascella. Though Cascella painted a variety of subjects from still lifes to landscapes, he is best known for his scenes of Portofino. This work comes to Skinner from the estate of Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton. A longtime executive of the insurance conglomerate American International Group, Manton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England for charitable contributions to the Tate Gallery in London a $6.5 million endowment.
Contemporary Works
Finally, the sale is rich with great contemporary offerings. Of interest are works from the collection of Dr. Frank Stanton, one of the television industrys founding fathers, who served as president of CBS for 25 years, longer than any other network TV head. Throughout his tenure at CBS, Stanton was an eloquent and successful defender of the First Amendment and the initiator of the first modern presidential debates. Stanton passed away in December of 2006. Most notable from his collection is Mediterranean Sculpture I [Orphic Dream] (lot 886, est. $75/125,000) by Jean Arp. Beginning in the late 1930s, Arp moved away from a belief in the accidental incident of Dada and toward experimentation with the principles of organic growth and conscious control. He began to call his sculptures concretions which signified the natural processes of condensation, hardening, coagulation, thickening, growing togetherthe mass of the stone, the plant, the animal, the man. Though the present work is not explicitly referenced as a concretion, it is a successor to these works in that it is still concerned with a blurring of the boundaries separating animal, vegetable, and mineral, and a conflation of life and death.
Also featured in the sale are two Romare Howard Bearden works, Soldier at the Door (lot 797, est. $15/25,000) and Christ Taken by a Soldier (lot 798, est. $30/50,000); Henry Moores Mother and Child: Paleo (lot 881, est. $20/30,000); and Auguste Rodins La Danseuse en Position Attitude sur Demi Pointe (lot 811, est. $20/30,000), coming from the collection of Mrs. Emily Crane Chadbourne daughter of Richard Teller Crane, founder of Crane Company and Crane Elevator Company by descent within the family. Within the stylistic chronology of Rodins drawings, the present work is characteristic of his late period (roughly 1895-1915), representing a style that was more visual and linear.
Other collections that comprise three or more contemporary works include pieces by Jason Berger and Marilyn Powers; the Florida Highwaymen; Wayne Beam Morrell; Peter Robert Kiel; Miguel Berrocal; and Commercial illustrations ads, book covers, story illustrations from the 1940s-1980s
Special Event
On Thursday September 11th at 6:30 p.m., Skinner will host a lecture entitled Collecting 20th Century Art & Design presented by speaker Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at RISDs Museum of Art. Those interested in attending should R.S.V.P. to Skinners Boston gallery at 617-350-5400.
Preview, and catalog information
Previews for the auction will be held from 12 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 10th, 12 to 7 p.m. Thursday, September 11th, and 9 to 10:30 a.m. Friday, September 12th. Illustrated catalog #2422 is available by mail for $35 ($42 for foreign requests) from the subscription department at 978-779-6241 x240. It is also available at the gallery for $32. Prices realized will be available at www.skinnerinc.com during and after the sale. For more information, visit www.skinnerinc.com. Skinner’s site also allows users to view all lots in the auctions, leave bids, and order catalogs online.
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About Skinner
Skinner, Inc. is one of the nations leading auction houses for antiques and fine art. With expertise in over 20 specialty collecting areas, Skinner draws the interest of buyers from all over the world and its auctions regularly achieve world record prices. Skinner provides a broad range of auction and appraisal services, and it is widely regarded as one of the most trusted names in the auction business. Skinners appraisal experts regularly appear on the PBS-TV series, Antiques Roadshow, and its specialty departments include American Furniture & Decorative Arts, American & European Paintings & Prints, European Furniture & Decorative Arts, 20th Century Design, Fine Ceramics, Fine Jewelry, Couture, Fine Musical Instruments, Asian Works of Art, Fine Wines, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Science & Technology, Oriental Rugs & Carpets, American Indian & Ethnographic Art, Fine Judaica, Antique Motor Vehicles, Toys, Dolls & Collectibles, and Discovery. Skinner galleries are located in Boston and Bolton, Mass. For more information on upcoming auctions and events, visit Skinner’s web site https://www.skinnerinc.com.
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