A rich and vibrant cross-section of American art history will be available November 17 in Dallas during Heritage Auctions’ seasonal American Art Signature Sale. That diversity of genre and category is intentional and helps tell a larger story about American art history, according the auction house.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Lake in Sunset, ca. 1882. Oil on board, 14 x 20 in., signed lower right: ‘ABierstadt’. Estimate: $250/350,000
Jared French (1905-1988), Painting & Sculpture, 1949. Egg tempera on gessoed panel, 21 x 11¼ in. Estimate: $250/350,000
“Our goal is to create these little vignettes, sub-categories within the sale to show our capabilities. They represent every category of American art,” says Aviva Lehmann, Heritage’s senior vice president of American art. “We’re seeing spectacular collections arrive in this sale, including some wonderful Hudson River School paintings, which is having a comeback because it’s classic and traditional American art.”
Among the Hudson River paintings are works by Asher B. Durand and Albert Bierstadt, who will be represented by two works: Mountain Lake at Sunset (est. $250/350,000) and Evening, Owens Lake, California (est. $150/250,000). “Mountain Lake at Sunset is really special because the collector is a stickler for condition, so it is in marvelous condition,” Lehmann says of the painting.
Asher B. Durand (1796-1886), Lake George, 1867. Oil on canvas, 16 x 24 in., signed and dated lower left: ‘A.B. Durand / 1867’. Estimate: $40/60,000
J.C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), Red Cross Letter, The Saturday Evening Post, October 24, 1914. Oil on canvas, 30 x 21 in. Estimate: $100/150,000
Other important landscape works include William Trost Richards’ Conanicut Island, Rhode Island (est. $50/70,000), Homer Dodge Martin’s View of Housatonic (est. $40/60,000), Durand’s 1867 painting Lake George (est. $40/60,000), Alfred Thompson Bricher’s Shoreline (est. $12/18,0000) and two works by William Bradford, Icebound Sealer Under Winter Sun (est. $120/180,000) and Off the Coast of Labrador (est. $70/100,000). “The Bradfords are in two different palettes. One is a cool grey and the other is a warmer sunset. They are beautiful paintings,” Lehmann adds.
Edgar Payne, known for his later landscape works in the 20th century, will be represented in the sale by two impressive pieces: Italian Boats at Chioggia (est. $40/60,000) and Grindewald Landscape, Switzerland (est. $30/50,000).
Elsewhere in the sale will be several prominent Western works, including a small Oscar E. Berninghaus painting, A Pueblo Indian and his Ponies, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, and an evocative Olaf Wieghorst piece, Canyon Ranch (est. $25/35,000), showing a rider discovering an abandoned ranch house.
William Bradford (1823-1892), Sailing in the Arctic. Oil on canvas, 18 x 30 in., signed lower left: ‘Bradford’. Estimate: $120/180,000
Alissa Ford, Heritage’s dedicated Western specialist, says she is very excited to bring six Birger Sandzén pieces to the market, each one from a different period of the artist’s career, and each one priced for different segments of the market. “We have one that is estimated at $200,000 to $300,000 and then others that range in price below that point. And then we also have works from every decade he was active—one from 1919, one from the 1920s, one from 1930s and one the 1940s,” she says. “Whatever you want, we have it when it comes to Birger Sandzén. And we have had great luck with him, because he’s the Van Gogh of the Western world.”
Another piece Ford is thrilled to offer is Gerard Curtis Delano’s Navajo Ponies, estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. “It’s very Maynard Dixon-esque. And it’s just stunning in person,” she adds. “It’s certainly one of our highlights.”
William Trost Richards (1833-1905), Conanicut Island, Rhode Island, 1885. Oil on canvas laid on panel, 15 x 26 in., signed and dated lower right: ‘Wm T. Richards 1885’. Estimate: $50/70,000
George Tooker (1920-2011), Tree, 1965. Tempera on panel, 20 x 20 in., signed lower right: ‘Tooker’. Estimate: $200/300,000
Heritage frequently gets great examples from Golden Age Illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, and this sale is no exception with two noteworthy examples: Red Cross Letter (est. $100/150,000) and Benjamin Franklin (est. $60/80,000), both of which appeared on covers of the Saturday Evening Post. N.C. Wyeth will be represented by Good-bye, Mistress Friendly-Soul!, the frontispiece of the 1914 book The Witch. The work is estimated at $250,000 to $300,000. The sale will also include a piece by N.C.’s oldest daughter, Henriette Wyeth, and a piece by Michael Hurd, Henriette’s son with artist Peter Hurd.
The more contemporary segment of the sale will include Jared French’s Painting and Sculpture (est. $25/350,000) and George Tooker’s Tree (est. $200/300,000).
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