Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), A Bend in the River, 1892. Oil on canvas, 12½ x 20½ in., signed and dated. Courtesy Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers. Estimate: $30/50,000

Milford, CT
Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers
April 27
Fine Art Auction
Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers hosts the spring 2023 edition of their Fine Art Auction on Thursday, April 27 at 6 p.m. ET. The sale will feature close to 200 lots including examples in fine painting, sculpture, prints and drawings. Headlining the sale are fresh-to-market works by American modernists. Among these is preeminent modernist painter George Tooker’s The Watchers, depicting three figures staring wide-eyed with their mouths agape. This rare piece, painted around 1962, has a presale estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. 

The auction house will also offer four works on paper by Lynne Mapp Drexler, following the previous season’s successful sale of a Drexler oil for $450,000. Each of these vibrant watercolors will be sold individually and estimated at $30,000 to $50,000 each. A fourth work is more experimental, composed of a wax resist with a colored ink wash. This work will be offered at $20,000 to $30,000. 

In addition, the Spring Fine Art Auction features a rare beach scene in Boston by Maurice Prendergast, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, as well as quality Hudson River School paintings like Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Bend in the River (est. $30/50,000).

Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865-1940), Mount McKinley. Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in. Courtesy John Moran Auctioneers. Estimate: $20/30,000

Los Angeles, CA
John Moran Auctioneers
May 9
California & American Fine Art 
A fresh selection of fine art from private collections throughout California, the Southwest and beyond will be offered during the spring edition of John Moran Auctioneers’ biannual California and American Fine Art sale. Especially prominent in the May 9 auction are pieces by early American artists Sydney Mortimer Laurence, Thomas Hill, Edgar Alwin Payne and John Marshall Gamble. More contemporary highlights include works by Millard Sheets and Romero Britto. 

A highly anticipated lot is landscape painter Laurence’s Mount McKinley, estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000. Other highlights include Crescent Lake – Yosemite Valley by Hill, Brittany Boats in Harbor by Payne and Wild Lilac – Santa Barbara by Gamble. All three pieces have estimates of $20,000 to $30,000. 

Ernest Martin Hennings (1886-1956), The Corral. Oil on canvas, 13½ x 13½  in., 19 x 19 x 15/8 in. (framed), signed lower right: ‘E.M. Hennings’. Courtesy Santa Fe Art Auction. Estimate $12/18,000

Santa Fe, NM
Santa Fe Art Auction
May 17-18
Art of the West
Santa Fe Art Auction’s annual Art of the West sale returns to the block May 17 to 18. The sale will feature more than 400 lots of classic to contemporary American paintings and sculpture. Among the early 20th-century artists to be featured in the sale include such important names as Raphael Lillywhite, Ernest Martin Hennings, Carl Von Hassler and George Elbert Burr. 

Additionally, the auction house will once again be featuring a single-owner collection of more than 50 original Edward Curtis photogravures, as well as a fine orotone, plus a rare group of stained glass landscapes from the personal collection of renowned New Mexico glass artist and instructor, Connie Sanchez.

Noteworthy lots include Hennings’ oil on canvas The Corral, which is expected to bring in between $12,000 and $18,000, as well as Curtis’ orotone photograph Out of the Darkness, estimated at $8,000 to $10,000.

Powered by Froala Editor