Market reports

What WE’RE Hearing from galleries, auction houses and museums across the country

Driscoll Babcock
John Driscoll, President
Kate Kamp, Director

We have experienced real and renewed interest in the market for American 19th- and 20th-century art in the last year, particularly the last six months. Our regular clients and new collectors are in the market for top-quality artworks across genre, with period-quality and art historical significance being the prime considerations.

We have sold exceptional examples by American modernist artists—Hartley, O’Keeffe, Marin, Kent and others—as well as artists like Edgar Levy, Samuel Halpert and Tony Nell who are accessible for many collectors and museums but whose names may not be as well known. We are finding that as long as the quality is very high, people are interested. We have also seen an uplift in the market for choice Hudson River School works—Bierstadt, Hill, Duncanson, Kensett and others.

Private collectors as well as curators are interested in female artists and African American artists, and we were pleased to place a wonderful watercolor by Antonia “Tony” Nell (1881-1960), a female artist active in the first few decades of the 20th century, and a superb Robert Duncanson, both with leading American museums recently. We also just placed a portrait bust by Jonathan Scott Hartley with a major southern museum. —

Driscoll Babcock
22 East 80th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10075
www.driscollbabcock.com