The Jackson Hole Art Auction returns to Wyoming on September 16 and 17, promising to bring top Western, wildlife, sporting and landscapes works to bidders of all kinds. The 300-lot sale will take place practically in the shadow of the Grand Teton Range, which adds a unique dynamic to the nature-focused sale.
Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874), Indian Shooting a Cougar. Oil on canvas, 24 x 19¾ in. Estimate: $500/700,000
Kevin Doyle, a partner and the managing director at the Jackson Hole Art Auction, says that top-quality artwork by the best artists is always key with a successful sale, including this year’s sale. “When the work is great the demand is always there,” he says. “Whether it’s in Scottsdale or in major sales in New York City, the quality of the work is always key. And that’s what’s exciting about our sale, and what makes us optimistic, is the material we’re getting is really, really strong.”
Highlights in this year’s sale include Alfred Jacob Miller’s Indian Shooting a Cougar, an action scene from one of the earliest Western painters. Miller’s paintings are in major collections around the world, and works of this magnitude are rare to the market. The auction will offer it with estimates of $500,000 to $700,000. The last time the piece was on the market was at the 2014 Jackson Hole Art Auction, “so we’re happy to once again offer this to collectors,” Doyle says.
William Gollings (1878-1932), Summer Camp, 1931. Oil on canvas, 29 x 22 in. Estimate: $200/300,000
Another important piece available to bidders is William Gollings’ 1931 oil Summer Camp, a work estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. Gollings’ cowboy and Native American paintings have had a hot streak at auction, and it looks to continue with this marvelous example with its incredible light and subject matter.
Frederic Remington (1861-1909), Register Rock, Idaho, 1891. Oil on canvas, 17 x 27¾ in. Estimate: $200/300,000
John Clymer (1907-1989), When Evening Comes, 1980. Oil on canvas, 24 x 48 in. Estimate: $150/250,000
Wildlife always plays a strong role in the sale, and this year will be no exception with major works by a number of important wildlife artists. Several Bob Kuhn highlights include African subject matter in Screening the Big Bull (est. $25/35,000), bighorn sheep in Settlin’ In (est. $35/55,000) and A Walk on the Tundra – Grizzly Bears (est. $100/150,000). Kuhn is more of a contemporary wildlife painter, but his works are more frequently entering historic collections due to his superb paint quality and lively compositions that present exceptional poses of his subjects. Other wildlife works include Wilhelm Kuhnert’s A Stern Glance (est. $20/30,000) and Carl Rungius’ moose painting Challenge (est. $70/100,000). Kuhn, Kuhnert and Rungius are a trifecta of wildlife heavy hitters that can be found in many collections all around the West. “As with previous years of the sale, we are certainly strong in wildlife,” Doyle says. “Surrounded by all this great wildlife in Wyoming, this is an amazing place to buy these kinds of works.”
Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936), The Eagle Dance. Oil on canvas, 24 x 29 in. Estimate: $150/250,000
Clark Hulings (1922-2011), Sicilian Light in Giulia, 1996. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. Estimate: $20/30,000
James Bama will have three great examples in the sale: the portrait Descendent of Black Elk (est. $30/50,000), the still life work Old Army Colt (est. $15/25,000) and the Western scene Ox Team Driver (est. $20/30,000). Bama, a longtime Wyoming resident, passed way in April. His career took him from pulp magazines in the 1960s to Western illustration and then eventually Western fine art. Another Wyoming painter featured in the sale is illustrator John Clymer, whose 1980 easel work When Evening Comes will be offered with estimates of $150,000 to $250,000. Another illustrator-turned-artist in the sale is Dean Cornwell, who will be represented in the sale by Confrontation (est. $15/25,000), showing a group of men an instant before violence erupts.
Bob Kuhn (1920-2007), A Walk On The Tundra – Grizzly Bears and Ptarmigans. Acrylic on board, 20 x 30 in. Estimate: $100/150,000
Elsewhere in the sale is Frederic Remington’s Register Rock, Idaho (est. $200/300,000), an untitled Tom Lovell work showing a mountain man and Native American dancers (est. $40/60,000) and Eanger Irving Couse’s The Eagle Dance (est. $150/250,000).
In addition to artwork, the auction will also be offering decorative objects and furniture, including an impressive collection of Thomas C. Molesworth furniture.
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