Spring Gems

Sotheby’s next American art sale will feature prominent works across many categories

May 19

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On May 19 Sotheby’s will present its spring American Art sale in New York City. The auction, which will feature around 70 major works, will include important works from Thomas Hart Benton, Francis Augustus Silva, Fairfield Porter, Guy Pène du Bois and many others.

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Noon, 1939. Tempera and oil on board, 22 x 28 in. Estimate $700/1,000,000

The Benton, which comes from the collection of Marylou Whitney, is expected to be one of the stars of the sale. The work, titled Noon, was created by the famous regionalist painter in 1939 and shows a farmer going about his daily chores on a half-tilled section of farmland. Two mules or horses are hitched to a tiller underneath a tree, with a distant farmhouse barely visible over Benton’s famous swooping hills. The painting, tempera and oil on board, is estimated at $700,000 to $1 million. Francis Augustus Silva (1835-1886), A Midsummer Twilight, 1881. Oil on canvas, 24 x 44 in. Estimate: $300/500,000

“It’s an incredibly dynamic composition, with the figure and the two horses and a really wonderful background and landscape. It includes all the elements you are looking for with a Benton,” says Sotheby’s American art specialist Charlotte Mitchell. “It really comes to life when you see it, especially the undulating hills, remarkable clouds and the flowers in the foreground.”

Also from the Whitney collection is Herbert Haseltine’s Counter-point with First Flight and Foal, a gilt bronze from 1954 showing three horses. The work shows one of Whitney’s favorite subjects: racehorses. Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958), Conversation in a Crowd, 1932. Oil on canvas, 201/8 x 161/8 in. Estimate: $150/250,000

Dubbed the “Queen of Saratoga,” Whitney discovered horseracing while married to her second husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt “Sonny” Whitney, the son of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the artist and art patron whose name is now on the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Gertrude’s art and philanthropy, as well as the continued work of her son, would also play an important role in the founding of the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. After Sonny died in 1992, Marylou continued supporting the Wyoming museum in his honor. She also supported a number of organizations and endeavors near her homes in Kentucky and Sarasota Springs, Florida. Marylou died in July 2019, and a number of works in her collection have been featured at Sotheby’s sales in the last year. Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), Harbor Beach, 1968. Oil on canvas, 28 x 32 in. Estimate: $150/250,000

Also being offered in the sale is Silva’s 1881 oil A Midsummer Twilight, a luminist work showing several boats silhouetted by a fading sunset on a body of water with a magnificent reflective quality to the surface. Estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, the work encapsulates many of Silva’s most sought-after subjects, especially boats on the water in captivating light. “It’s exquisite in person. Painted in 1881, it was exhibited at the National Academy of Design,” says Mitchell. “It’s quintessential luminism, which Silva had fully mastered by the 1880s. It’s all light and atmosphere in this serene landscape.”

Sotheby’s holds a number of auction records for Silva’s work, including his top three world records: $2.6 million in 2008, $1.4 million in 2006 and $1.3 million in 2007. Herbert Haseltine (1877-1962), Counter-point with First Flight and Foal, 1954. Gilt bronze, 10 x 29 in. Estimate: $100/150,000

The Pène du Bois work being offered, 1932’s oil Conversation in a Crowd, features nearly two dozen loosely painted figures as they seemingly walk toward the viewer. The two main figures in the foreground turn toward each other, frozen mid-sentence with a crowd gathered behind them. “This is one of my favorite works committed to the sale,” says Mitchell. “The eye is immediately drawn to the two figures in the front. You can almost envision this scene with the two people walking down a street in New York. This is something that collectors will see and know. We’re expecting a lot of interest.” The work is estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.

Also available is Porter’s Harbor Beach (est. $150/250,000), a 1968 oil that shows a coastal scene with several boats and a rocky shoreline. The work, with strong abstract qualities, shows a Maine landscape, which Porter was fond of painting throughout his career.

Interested bidders are encouraged to check on the status of the sale at www.sothebys.com. —