Diverse Mediums

Swann Auction Galleries’ American Art auction saw successful sales from Edward Steichen, March Avery and more

Swann Auction Galleries kicked off the fall season with its highly anticipated sale of American fine art this past September. This sale featured a wide array of works in a diversity of mediums like oil paintings, watercolors, sculpture and pencil/charcoal drawings spanning the 19th and 20th centuries—including a number of dynamic works by early 20th-century American modernists Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley, Walt Kuhn, William Zorach, John Marin and many others.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Child Seated in a Garden, 1905. Oil on canvas, 21 x 25 in., signed and dated in Roman numerals in oil, lower right recto. Estimate: $30/50,000 SOLD: $37,500

March Avery (b. 1932), Resting Models, 1976. Oil on board, 14 x 18 in. Estimate: $10/15,000 SOLD: $23,750

The highest selling lot was Edward Steichen’s oil on canvas, Child Seated in a Garden. Painted in 1905, the piece achieved $37,500, against a low estimate of $30,000. Woman with a Fur-Collar Jacket * Man with a Pipe Seated on a Stool in Tyrolian Costume, a pencil on cream wove paper by Hopper, broke well past its $10,000 high estimate when it sold for $23,750. A double-sided piece, on one side is a sketch of a woman, and on the other is a man. A March Avery piece titled Resting Models, depicting two women seated on a blue floor, sold for $23,750 against a presale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. The work, which comes from a private collection in New York, is accompanied by a letter of authentication from The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York.

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Woman with a Fur-Collar Jacket * Man with a Pipe Seated on a Stool in Tyrolian Costume, ca. 1900-10. Pencil on cream wove paper, double-sided, 13 x 9 in. The drawing of the woman initialed in pencil, lower center. Estimate: $7/10,000 SOLD: $23,750

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), Youth and Old Age, 1926. Watercolor and pencil on cream wove paper mounted on illustration board, 91/8 x 12¼ in., signed and dated in ink, lower right recto. Estimate: $15/20,000 SOLD: $15,000

Additional highlights in the September 21 sale include Moonlight, a brush and ink and wash on cream wove paper by Charles Burchfield, which sold for $20,000, more than three times its high estimate of $6,000. Marin’s watercolor New York, Afternoon * Landscape Study (est. $10/15,000) sold for $18,750, coming from a private collection in New Hampshire; and Will Barnet’s pencil and charcoal piece Woman and Cats (est. $4/6,000) reached $13,750. Rockwell Kent’s Youth and Old Age (est. $15/20,000) landed just within estimates at $15,000.

A list of Swann Auction Galleries’ upcoming sales can be found on their website.

Top 10 Sales
Swann Auction Galleries, American Art, September 21, 2023 (including buyer’s premium)

Artist | Title | Low/High ESt. | SOLD

Edward Steichen | Child Seated in a Garden | $30/50,000 | $37,500

Edward Hopper | Woman with a Fur-Collar Jacket… | $7/10,000 | $23,750

March Avery | Resting Models | $10/15,000 | $23,750

Charles Burchfield | Moonlight | $4/6,000 | $20,000

John Marin | New York Afternoon *Landscape Study | $10/15,000 | $18,750

Leon Kroll | Study for Cape Ann | $25/35,000 | $19,500

Roy Lichtenstein | Sheet of Native American Studies | $15/20,000 | $17,500

E. Ambrose Webster | Summer Garden, Provincetown | $15/20,000 | $17,500

Rockwell Kent | Youth and Old Age | $15/20,000 | $15,000