The excitement in Morgan Martin’s voice is palpable when he talks about the star of Bonhams’ November 19 American Art sale and rightly so. Norman Rockwell’s 1940 oil A Scout is Loyal, on the market for the first time since 2013 when it sold for just over $4 million to a private collector in a Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, is expected to fetch a similar sum.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), A Scout is Loyal, 1940. Oil on canvas, 39 x 27 in., signed lower right: ‘Norman Rockwell’. Estimate: $3/5 million
The piece, rich with the iconography of American patriotism, was painted during Rockwell’s most significant period of creative output against the backdrop of World War II. Martin, Bonhams’ head of American art, says, “A Scout is Loyal is a tour de force by the artist and was created at the height of his influence on American culture, as the work was painted 1940 and reproduced on the cover of Boy’s Life in 1942. The iconographic elements of the work are particularly representative of the time when it was created, as World War II was on our doorstep and patriotism was at an all time high. Works like this rarely come to market, so clients are quite eager to see it and we expect it to sell for the seven figures.”
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), Unknown (Coastal Scene with Apple Tree in Foreground), 1936. Oil on canvas, 48½ x 40 in., signed indistinctly lower left. From the Estate of Linda L. Bean. Estimate: $1.2/1.8 million
The Rockwell shares the spotlight with a 1936 landscape by N.C. Wyeth from the estate of Linda L. Bean. “Linda was a prolific collector of works from the Wyeth family of artists (of which we have seven represented in our November sale) and painters native to her beloved Maine,” says Martin. “She had a fantastic eye for quality and it is such a rare opportunity to works by so many members of the family in one sale.” N.C. Wyeth’s Unknown (Coastal Scene with Apple Tree in Foreground), otherwise known as Jetty Tree (Port Clyde, Maine), has a high estimate of $1.8 million.
“The works by N.C. Wyeth we have in the sale represent just how deep and astounding his capabilities as a painter truly are,” continues Martin. “[The aforementioned] is a superb example of his ability to render landscapes and imbue them with subtle storytelling.” Other works by N.C. Wyeth in the sale include the illustration Hungry But Stern and a charismatic self-portrait. “When seen together, one gets a much greater sense of his accomplishment and depth as a painter, not just an illustrator, but storyteller himself,” adds Martin.
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Island Dawn. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 29 in., signed lower left: ‘Andrew Wyeth’. Estimate: $120/180,000
Martin is particular fond of a piece in the auction by another Wyeth, Andrew’s Island Dawn, with estimates of $120,000 to $180,000. “As with all great works by Andrew Wyeth, there is a psychological element to the work that makes it seem otherworldly and a bit unnerving,” he says. “The boat in the foreground gives a sense of foreboding as it is bathed in the moonlight from the faint crescent moon hanging overhead. It is ethereal in a sense but also troubling in a way I cannot fully describe, though if there were one work I would gladly hang in my home and see every day, it would be this one.”
Other highlights in the sale include The Native Gift by Ernie Barnes, William McGregor Paxton’s Portrait of Louise Converse, and a 1918 landscape by Marsden Hartley executed while the artist was living in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico.
William McGregor Paxton (1869-1941), Portrait of Louise Converse (Mrs. Junius S. Morgan III), 1915. Oil on canvas, 52¾ x 42¾ in., signed and dated lower left: ‘PAXTON / 1915’. Estimate: $50/70,000
Many 19th- and 20th-century movements will be represented in the roughly 100-lot sale, including important works of Illustration art, modernism, the Ashcan School, American Impressionism, tonalism, portraiture, Hudson River School and more. “There is truly something for every collector in this sale, regardless of style or budget,” says Martin.
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