Auction Reports

New York, Thomaston

Romare Bearden (1911-1988), The River Merchant’s Wife, 1954. Oil on canvas. Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries. Estimate: $100/150,000 SOLD: $118,750

New York, NY
Swann Auction Galleries
October 19
African American Art
$2.8 million

Swann Galleries’ October 19 sale of African American art proved consistent among new contemporary artists and auction house favorites. Leading the sale was a 1979 draped canvas painting by Sam Gilliam, which sold for $197,000. The work came to auction with a strong provenance, having once been in the ex-collection of noted printmaker Lou Stovall after being acquired directly from the artist.

Other abstract highlights include Romare Bearden’s 1954 oil The River Merchant’s Wife, which brought in $118,750, besting its $100,000 low estimate. Alma Thomas’ 1968 acrylic on paper Etude sold for $161,000, and her 1965 watercolor Transcendental achieved $149,000. An acrylic on canvas by Alvin D. Loving, titled Janice, earned $149,000. Early works that saw significant success include Edward M. Bannister’s At “Smiths Palace,” Narragansett Bay, painted around 1881, which achieved $137,000 and Henry Ossawa Tanner’s study Untitled (Flight Into Egypt), circa 1923, that sold for $112,500.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), The Peony Girl, 1888-89. Oil on canvas, 12¾ x 9¾ in. Courtesy Bonhams. SOLD: $622,800

New York, NY
Bonhams
November 6
Barbara Walters: American Icon
$5 million

Bonhams’ sale of the estate of national broadcaster Barbara Walters achieved an astounding $5 million across two sales—a live auction on November 6 and an online version from October 29 to November 7. Both sales saw competitive bidding and net proceeds of the sale benefit charities that were important to the late Walters, who was a committed philanthropist.

The two top lots in the sale were The Peony Girl, an oil by Childe Hassam that sold for $622,800, and William Merritt Chase’s oil The Tenth Street Studio that achieved $508,500.

The 135-lot live sale ended up at 99 percent sold and achieved the highest number of registrations for a United States sale in 2023. The 238-lot online sale was 100 percent sold.

John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872), View of Mount Monadnock from Hillsborough, NH, stone arch bridge over foreground Contoocook River. Courtesy Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. Estimate: $20/30,000 SOLD: $38,400

Thomaston, ME
Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
November 10-12
Autumn Majestic
$1.3 million

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries hosted its Autumn Majestic sale on November 10 to 12, bringing in just over $1.3 million in total sales. The auction was led by an impressionist painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir, which achieved $78,000 against a presale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. Top American highlights in the sale included a view of Mount Monadnock (New Hampshire) by John Frederick Kensett that beat its $30,000 high estimate when it fetched $38,400, as well as George Inness’ depiction of a sunset over a riverbank, which sold right at its high estimate of $30,000.

The eclectic November sales also offered a menagerie of antiquities from across the world, including a Chinese Qing Dynasty jade cup, a 19th-century Russian silver-gilt and cloisonne enamel kovsh, and several game bird decoys by Massachusetts carver Joseph Whiting Lincoln (1859-1938).

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ next major fine art and antique sale will be held February 23 to 25.