On May 25 in New York City, Bonhams will offer its seasonal American art sale featuring major works from many categories throughout the American art market, including Golden Age Illustration, landscapes and cityscapes from New York.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Me and My Pal: Fishing Raft, 1954. Oil on canvas, 14 x 13 in., signed lower right: ‘Norman / Rockwell’. Estimate: $500/700,000
One of the early favorites is Norman Rockwell’s 1954 work Me and My Pal: Fishing Raft. A small piece, measuring just 14 by 13 inches, is estimated at $500,000 to $700,000. Those estimates show how Rockwell’s market has strength amid continuous high sales at auction.Another illustrator represented in the sale is N.C. Wyeth, whose work A Man of a Certain Probity and Worth, Immortal and Natural will be available with estimates of $200,000 to $300,000. The 1936 work was originally created as a color illustration for the book Men of Concord by Henry David Thoreau.
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), A Man of a Certain Probity and Worth, Immortal and Natural (New England; The Wood Sled), 1936. Oil on Renaissance panel, 36 x 32 in., signed lower left: ‘N. C. Wyeth’. Estimate: $200/300,000
The Brandywine Museum of Art also notes: “The artist’s income tax notes for 1939 contain reference to this painting as Oxteam in Snow, and suggest that the painting hung at the Macbeth Gallery exhibition of December 1939, despite the fact that it was not listed in the catalog. A photograph of the family, grouped in front of the painting hanging on the gallery wall, verifies its inclusion. In the same income tax note, the artist also clearly annotated the title ‘painted in 1934’ and it is possible that this is the second of two almost identical paintings. Houghton Mifflin apparently approached the artist in January 1934 with the possibility of illustrating Men of Concord. Wyeth may have painted the first picture as a response to these early overtures. Two years later, with the commission definitely headed to press, Wyeth may have transferred the design onto a Renaissance panel. The Brandywine River Museum holds a lantern slide of an outline drawing of the composition that would have aided him in the transfer.”
Edward Henry Potthast (1857-1927), Rockaway Beach, ca. 1910. Oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in., signed lower left: ‘E. Potthast’. Estimate: $100/150,000
Elsewhere in the sale is Edward Henry Potthast’s 1910 oil Rockaway Beach with estimates of $100,000 to $150,000. The work, which primarily focuses on the sky and atmosphere, shows beachgoers and the waves gently lapping onto the sand. In a different work that shows a strong sky is Asher B. Durand’s 1950s High Point Shandaken Mountain, showing a gentle creek as it winds into a magnificent landscape.
Asher B. Durand (1796-1886), High Point Shandaken Mountain, ca. 1853. Oil on canvas, 18 x 241/8 in. Estimate: $30/50,000
Another work in the sale is the 1950 tempera on panel Lady Wrestlers, by Robert Riggs, estimated at $50,000 to $70,000. The work, which has fantastical elements in it, including children in outfits and adults with horrified faces, is a slightly surreal version of Stag at Sharkey’s by George Bellows.Powered by Froala Editor
