Joseph Francis Kernan (1878-1958), Boy and his Dog, This Week cover, September 6, 1936. Courtesy Heritage Auctions. Estimate: $5/7,000 SOLD: $27,500Dallas, TX
Heritage AuctionsIllustration Art
October 15
$2.7 million
Heritage Auctions’ October 15 Illustration Art sale in Dallas, Texas, had a superb sell through rate of 97.5 percent. Undeniably the top lot in the sale, Frank Frazetta’s peak period piece Child of the Sun paperback cover, 1972, achieved $495,000, putting the total for the sale at above $2.7 million.

Other top American lots in the sale include Boy and his Dog, This Week cover by Joseph Francis Kernan, which sold for $27,500 (est. $5/7,000) and Walter Beach Humphrey’s Memories, which sold for $26,250, breaking its high estimate of $15,000. Ten bidders fought vehemently for a painting by Gil Elvgren for a car polish advertisement, Pin-Up in Turquoise Bikini, which sold for $81,250. 

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Otis Dozier (American, 1904-1987), Koshari Corn Dancers, 1955. Oil on Masonite, 26 x 36 in. Courtesy Heritage Auctions. Estimate: $12/18,000 SOLD: $18,750Dallas, TX
Heritage AuctionsTexas Art
November 2
$449,731
A rare self-portrait by noted Texas artist David Bates climbed to $68,750 during Heritage Auctions’ Texas Art Auction held on November 2, bringing it to $449,731 in total sales.

“This was an excellent auction,” says Atlee Phillips, Heritage Auctions Texas Art director, “one that showed the continuing growth of interest in Texas abstract expressionists and contemporary artists.”

Multiple bidders also went after Otis Dozier’s Koshari Corn Dancers, 1955, which topped its presale estimate of $18,000 when it sold for $18,750. The painting is another example of straying outside the norm by an artist who was a member of a group of Texas regionalist artists known as “the Dallas Nine,” a group that helped put Dallas on the art map in the 1940s. 

Dorothy Hood’s oil Genies, 1956, more than doubled its low pre-auction estimate of $8,000 when it finished at $16,250. The painting comes from an artist considered one of the first abstract surrealist painters, blending Mexican synthetic surrealism and the American Color Field School.

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Granville Redmond (1871-1935), California landscape with poppies and lupine. Oil on canvas, 20¼ x 25¼ in., signed lower left: ‘Granville Redmond’. Courtesy John Moran Auctioneers. Estimate: $150/200,000 SOLD: $200,000

Monrovia, CA
John Moran Auctioneers
California & American Fine Art
November 3
John Moran’s California & American Fine Art auction saw strong results for works by 19th- and 20th-century plein air artists. The sale featured numerous works by California artists portraying Californian and American landscapes that continue to capture the attention of collectors. One of these artists is Granville Redmond—his California landscape with poppies and lupine is one of the top works by the artist that John Moran Auctioneers has ever handled, ultimately selling for $200,000 off an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. Another work that draws inspiration from springtime is John Marshall Gamble’s Wild Verbena, Near Palm Springs, a colorful oil on canvas sold to a phone bidder for $50,000. Hanson Duvall Puthuff’s oil on canvas Where Hill and Valley Meet nearly doubled its high estimate of $15,000 when it sold for $28,125.

A number of selections of American fine art are already slated for John Moran’s next California & American Fine Art sale, which will be held this spring. 

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Jose Arpa (1858-1952), San Antonio Near Calaveras. Oil on canvas 18 x 24 in., signed lower right: ‘Jose Arpa, San Antonio, Texas’. Courtesy David Dike Fine Art. Estimate: $75/125,000 SOLD: $174,000

Dallas, TX
David Dike Fine Art
Fall Texas Art Auction
November 9
$1.89 million
The top two selling historic American lots for David Dike Fine Art’s fall rendition of its Texas Art Auction were Untitled, Leadbelly and the Artist, a circa 1943 oil on canvas by Michael G. Owen Jr. that soared past its $150,000 high estimate when it sold for $228,000, and San Antonio Near Calaveras by Jose Arpa, an oil that also rose past its high estimate of $125,000 when it hammered at $174,000.

Overall, the November 9 sale saw impressive results: 84.5 percent of lots sold, totaling $1.89 million in sales across the sale, which more than 350 people attended. 

Portrait of Governor James Pickney Henderson by Solomon Salomon sold for $16,800 (est. $12/15,000). In addition, Texas modernist Robert Preusser had two lots in the sale-his oil Mayan Antiquity, 1954, sold for $60,000, an auction record for the artist. The early Texas abstract expressionist Ben Culwell had two paintings in the sale as well. Culwell’s Untitled work, number 56-II, created between around 1958 to 1977, also achieved an auction record for the artist when it sold for $30,000, doubling its $15,000 high estimate. 

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Maud Earl (1864-1943), In The Slips, Two Black and White Greyhounds. Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in., signed lower right: ‘Maud Earl’. Courtesy Brunk Auctions. Estimate: $12/18,000 SOLD: $29,520

Richmond, VA
Brunk Auctions
Premium Auction
November 9
$1.84 million
Brunk Auctions’ inaugural Richmond, Virginia, sale realized $1,843,275 with a stellar sell through rate of 95 percent. Bidders and buyers came to the November 9 sale from 11 countries across five continents. The auction, which offered a wide range of diverse items, achieved strong results in the categories of coins and currency, jewelry, American furniture as well as American fine art.

Maud Earl’s oil In The Slips, Two Black and White Greyhounds achieved $29,520 off an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. Other American lots in the sale broke their high estimates as well, including an oil of an old house in St. Augustine, Florida, by Frank Henry Shapleigh that sold for $10,455 (est. $7/10,000) and Mauritz Frederik Hendrick de Haas’ Gloucester that sold for $19,680 (est. $12/18,000).

“We were happy to have received such a warm welcome in Richmond and were very pleased with a solid sale with good results across numerous categories,” says Andrew Brunk, president of Brunk Auctions. “We look forward to connecting more with new faces and old friends as we continue to bring the best to Richmond.”

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John Marin (1870-1953), Stonington Harbor, Deer Isle, Maine, 1924. Watercolor, 17 x 21 in. Courtesy Grogan & Co. Estimate: $20/40,000 SOLD: $97,600

Boston, MA
Grogan & Co.
The Fall Auction
November 17
$2.57 million
The top fine art lot at Grogan & Co.’s Fall Auction was Wolf Kahn’s Fog Bank, an oil on canvas painted between 1997 and 2006. Estimated at $50,000 to $70,000, the painting ultimately achieved $97,600.

“We are incredibly impressed by the continued growing enthusiasm and confidence we see from private collectors, whether from around the corner, across the country and throughout the world. The energy and excitement we felt from the bidders in our Beacon Hill gallery during this auction was unparalleled,” says fine art director Georgina C. Winthrop. With a curated selection of nearly 500 lots, the Fall Auction realized over $2.5 million.John Marin (1870-1953), Boat and Gull, 1945. Watercolor, 14 ½ x 20 ½ in. Courtesy Grogan & Co. Estimate: $20/40,000 SOLD: $79,300

Collectors were drawn to the sale’s offering of Maine-inspired paintings, including works by John Marin, Richard Estes and Alex Katz, all of which saw successful results. All four of Marin’s watercolors sold to private collectors, while two private collectors in the bidding room fiercely contended for Estes’ oil Mount Desert VI, which ended up selling for $61,000.

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Selden Connor Gile (1877-1947), Fall’s Beginning, 1927. Oil on canvas, 30¼ x 36 in. Courtesy Bonhams. Estimate: $150/250,000 SOLD: $187,575

Los Angeles, CA
Bonhams
California and Western Art
November 25
The leading lot of Bonhams’ California and Western Art sale on November 25 was Fall’s Beginning by Selden Connor Gile from The Collection of Robert H. Aichele. Painted in 1927, this explosion of primary colors exemplifies why the group known as the Society of Six, of which Gile is the best known, were so influential as colorists in their lifetime and to later generations of modern artists. The painting achieved $187,575 from an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.

Other highlights in the fall sale include Joe Duncan Gleason’s The Schooner Race, Endymion versus Amorilla, off Catalina Island, an oil on canvas from The Collection of The Kelton Foundation and Joseph Raphael’s Mr. Wiggin’s Fish Pond, an oil on canvas from The Collection of John H. Garzoli, renowned art dealer and scholar.  —

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