Art Market Updates

Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825), Peaches Covered by a Handkerchief, 1819. Oil on panel, 12½ x 18 in. framed: 20¼ x 25¾ x 2½ in. Made in Philadelphia. Gift of the McNeil Americana Collection, 2015 (2015-1-2). Image courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2021

New Galleries at Philadelphia Museum of Art
The opening of new gallery spaces at the Philadelphia Museum of Art creates opportunities for a fresh look at the museum’s superb holdings of American art. On May 7, the museum unveils its new Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Galleries dedicated to American art from 1650 to 1850 with an emphasis on Philadelphia artwork, including Raphaelle Peale's Peaches Cover by a Handkerchief. The galleries, which make up a total of 10,000 square feet, will be mirrored by another range of galleries, equal in size, and dedicated to the display of modern and contemporary art.

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Nancy Maybin Ferguson (1872-1967), Girls Love Tea Dresses. Signed ‘Nancy Maybin Ferguson’ and titled verso. Sold at Eldred’s Paintings at Auction sale on January 28 for $12,500.

Women in the Arts Auction
Eldred’s Auction Gallery in Dennis, Massachusetts, is set to hold a Women in the Arts Auction this October, featuring a wide array of esteemed American women artists working in a varitey of mediums. Art surveyed in the sale ranges from 19th-century works to contemporary pieces and will include approximately 250 lots. An expansive auction catalog will also be available including essays and biographies. Absentee, phone and online bidding will be available through Eldreds.com, Invaluable.com and LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Ellsworth Kelly Sketchbooks
Twenty-five sketchbooks of designs by color field and minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly were recently donated to the Museum of Modern Art by the late artist’s longtime partner, Jack Shear. The sketches delve into Kelly’s artistic process and provide an intimate look at his thinking, beginning all the way back to the 1940s.

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Lawrence Painting Rediscovered
A long-lost painting by Jacob Lawrence was recently located in the holdings of a resident living in New York’s Upper West Side. The piece, titled Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820-1840—115,773, is panel 28 of Lawrence’s 30-work series Struggle: From the History of the American People. The Peabody Essex Museum, which last year organized a major traveling exhibition of Lawrence’s work, is looking to find the three works from the series that are still missing.

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Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), Study for The Cello Player, 1896. Oil on canvas, mounted on board, 24 x 203/8 in.. Museum Purchase, Heckscher Trust Fund, Stebbins Family, Priscilla de Forest Williams, George Wilhelm, and Acquisition Fund. 1969.3.

Heckscher Museum Celebrates 100 Years
A large-scale exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, follows the museum’s history over the past 100 years and into the future. Organized chronologically, the exhibition includes 185 paintings and sculptures in 1920 to 2,300 modern-day works, exploring the formative artwork that contributed to the development of the museum’s permanent collection.

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Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Vertical Foliage, 1941. Sheet metal, wire and paint. Calder Foundation, New York. © 2021 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy of Calder Foundation, New York/Art Resource, New York.

Calder-Picasso Exhibition
A summer exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, features more than 100 works by Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso, two of the 20th century’s most influential artists. The touring exhibition Calder-Picasso, having originally debuted at the Musée National Picasso-Paris, reveals the radical innovations of the two artists through a massive selection of paintings, sculptures and works on paper spanning their careers. The exhibition is on view June 26 to September 19. —