Freeman’s December 4 American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists auction features The Collection of Charles and Virginia Bowden from San Antonio, Texas. This striking selection of Ashcan works is led by Robert Henri’s 1924 Spanish Gypsy. Henri’s model for this painting belonged to a band of Gypsies living on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain, where Henri worked during the summer of 1912. Other works in his series of gypsy portraits have fetched figures in the mid-six figures, 36% more than its estimated value.
Robert Henri (1865-1929), Spanish Gypsy (Dolores). Oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in., signed bottom left.Estimate: $250/400,000
George Bellows (1882-1925), The Journey of Youth. Oil on canvas, 20½ x 52 in. Estimate: $60/100,000
Henri is joined by an allegorical composition by his colleague George Bellows with a high-end estimated value of $100,000. Although Bellows was largely know for his paintings of boxing match figures, lithographs and, later, scenes of New York life, auction piece The Journey of Youth is a series from a commission to illustrate “The Wind Bloweth,” a novel by Irish author Donn Byrne that tells the story of a young boy’s search for adventure and beauty.
Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Venice Canal. Oil on board, 17¾ x 18 in., signed bottom right. Estimate: $60/100,000
The sale also features vibrant figural scenes by Jane Peterson and William Glackens. The sale will also mark the auction debut of N.C. Wyeth’s The Father Kept the Children Near Him, a rare work with a forecasted sale price of $120/200,000. Women artists feature prominently in the sale’s Pennsylvania impressionists section, with Mary Elizabeth Price’s Hollyhock and Delphinium Screen—an Art Deco jewel from 1925—sure to be a highlight expected to exceed its $60,000 low-end estimate.
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), The Father Kept the Children Near Him, but Always Young Olaf Looked with Tragic Eyes Toward the Slope Where Padfoot Waited, 1923. Oil on canvas 241/8 x 44 in., signed ‘N.C. Wyeth’ bottom right. Estimate: $120/180,000
Mary Elizabeth Price (1877-1965), Hollyhock and Delphinium Screen. Oil with gold leaf and silver leaf on Masonite, 39½ x 29½ in., signed bottom center right. Estimate: $70/100,000
William Glackens (1870-1938), Afternoon in Provence (Woman and Child on Donkey). Oil on canvas, 23¼ x 31 in. Estimate: $60/100,000
The following day, on December 5, Freeman’s presents an equally exciting auction titled A Beautiful Reality: The Fine Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Rifkin. The collection boasts important late 19th- and early-20th century American art amassed by longtime Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania residents Arnold and Sandy Rifkin. Many of the sale’s highlights are works by important names linked with the Ashcan School and its legacy, including William Glackens, John Sloan, George Luks, Reginald Marsh and renowned landscape watercolorist, Charles Burchfield. The collection is led by Afternoon in Provence, a jewel-like French scene by Glackens, one of the Ashcan School’s founders, that clearly shows the influence of the likes of Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir on the artist. Prior auction results show that Glackens’ paintings have a track record of more than doubling their estimated value.
George Bellows (1882-1925), Portrait of August Lundberg. Oil on canvas, 38 x 30 in., signed upper right; also titled on upper stretcher verso. Estimate: $60/100,000
Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), Garden Path. Watercolor, pen and pencil on paper, 11 x 8½ in, signed with artist’s monogram and dated bottom left. Estimate: $40/60,000
Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968), Tulips and Lilies. Oil on canvas, 6 x 20 in., signed bottom right, Estimate: $25/40,000
A Beautiful Reality also features a piece by George Bellows, this one a striking portrait of August Lundberg, an arresting work executed in a harmony of limited blacks, browns and maroons revealing Bellows’s ties with the Ashcan School. Works by George Luks, Jerome Myers, Arthur Davies, Leon Kroll and Ernest Lawson will complete the Ashcan portion of the sale, promising to delight collectors waiting for a healthy return of such artists on the marketplace. Next to such examples will be works by Charles Burchfield, Thomas Hart Benton, Reginald Marsh and a floral by Marguerite Zorach with gold-and silver-leaf accents with an estimated value near $100,000. A Beautiful Reality is an occasion to pay tribute to the refined, impeccable taste of the Rifkins and to offer unparalleled American art collecting opportunities.
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