Tried & True

Bonhams Skinner starts their fall auction season strong with their classic American art sale selling all but three of 74 lots

Grandma Moses (Ann Mary Robertson Moses) (1860-1961) stole the show at Bonhams Skinner’s American auction on September 21, with two of her pieces selling for a grand total of $177,149. May, Making Soap, Washing Sheep crested its high estimate of $90,000 to reach a sale price close to $114,000; while Beyond the Lake came close to reaching its high estimate of $70,000.

Grandma Moses (1860-1961), May, Making Soap, Washing Sheep, 1870. Oil on Masonite, 7¼ x 24 in., signed, dated and numbered lower right: ‘MOSES’ and ‘...1945/March 28th...1033’; on the artist’s label, affixed to the reverse: ‘G- 2264/#30’; and further identified on labels from the Galerie St. Etienne and exhibition labels. Estimate: $70/90,000 SOLD: $113,775

Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Harbor at Istanbul, oil on canvas, 24 x 28 in., signed lower left: ‘JANE PETERSON’, and titled on a label from Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York. Estimate: $70/90,000 SOLD: $176,775

Although marketing her works was the furthest possible idea from Grandma Moses’ mind, her arrival in the art market couldn’t have been better. On the heels of the depression and at the outbreak of World War Two, her images of simple, country life appealed to viewers, and lifted their spirits, at a moment when current events were overwhelming. Perhaps the same remains true today. Another auction highlight was the sale of Andrew Wyeth’s painting His Boot. The 1951 drybrush on paper depicts a beach in Teels Island, Maine, and fetched $94,875, over the high estimate of $70,000. The lot was accompanied by a handwritten letter from Andrew Wyeth to the family who purchased the watercolor in 1959. Also accompanying the lot is other correspondence with the Delaware Art Museum regarding the loan of the watercolor to the exhibition.

Grandma Moses (1860-1961), Beyond the Lake, tempera on Masonite, 177/8 x 237/8 in., signed, dated and numbered in lower right: ‘MOSES’ and ‘...1946 June/1122/...’. Estimate: $50/70,000 SOLD: $63,375

Joseph F. Kernan (1878-1958), Into the Net! Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in. Signed lower left: ‘J-F/KERNAN’. Estimate: $30/$50,000 SOLD: $40,695

Jane Peterson’s Harbor at Istanbul, inspired by a 1924 trip to what was then Constantinople, marked another exciting moment in the sale when it nearly doubled its high estimate when it went to the highest bidder for $176,775.

Joseph F. Kernan (1878-1958), Bad Moment for a Tangled Line! Oil on canvas, 30 x 24¼ in., signed lower left: ‘J-F/KERNAN’.
Estimate: $30/$40,000 SOLD: $40,695

Two sporting works by Francis Kernan (1878-1958), an artist and illustrator whose nostalgic and humorous artworks incorporated his love for fishing and hunting, also brought pleasing results landing squarely toward the high end of their estimated values.