Bob Kuhn (1920-2007), The Cougar, acrylic on illustrator’s board, 17 x 25½ in. Courtesy Copley Fine Art Auctions. Estimate: $30/40,000 SOLD: $49,200

On July 11 and 12, Copley Fine Art Auctions held its Sporting Sale, which achieved $2 million. Consisting of 459 lots, the auction brought the firm’s total sales close to the $100-million-dollar mark.

The top painting lot of the Sporting Sale was an acrylic depiction of giraffes by Bob Kuhn, which reached $49,200 against a high estimate of $40,000. An oil on canvas by Massachusetts painter George Browne, titled Canvasbacks on the Nanticoke River, sold for $39,600, just barely under its $40,000 high estimate. Watercolors of upland birds by Aiden Lassell Ripley also performed well, with Three Partridges in a Pitch Pine landing at $21,600 within its estimates.

East Dennis, MA
Eldred’s 
July 24-25
Summer Sale

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Sailors on the wave. Oil on canvas mounted to board, 9 x 10 in., signed lower right: ‘A. Bierstadt’. Courtesy Eldred’s. SOLD: $100,800

Eldred’s two-day Summer Sale included a variety of 19th- and 20th-century artwork. Among the top lots was an oil on canvas by Albert Bierstadt, titled on Sailors on the wave, featuring a group of seafarers navigating tumultuous, stormy waters. The painting sold for $100,800. In addition, a 1930 woodcut by Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), Star Phlox, sold for $42,840. The colorful abstract piece features a series of florals and geometrics shapes.

East Dennis, MA
Eldred’s 
August 9
Marine Sale

Jack Lorimer Gray (1927-1981), Dares’ Point, Herring Fishing Near Nova Scotia. Oil on canvas, 30 x 50 in., signed lower right: Jack Gray’, titled on verso. Courtesy Eldred’s. Estimate $30/40,000 SOLD: $36,540

The 650-lot Marine Sale on August 9 featured close to 100 paintings, ranging from 18th-century British and Continental artists to 19th- and 20th-century American artists, as well as leading contemporary marine painters. A fishing scene by Jack Lorimer Gray titled Dares’ Point, Herring Fishing Near Nova Scotia bested its $30,000 low estimate when it sold for $36,540. Additionally, Fred Pansing’s depiction of a Nantasket Beach Steamboat Company vessel achieved $12,600 against a low estimate of $10,000. 

Eldred’s holds its biannual Marine Sale every summer and winter.

Los Angeles, CA
John Moran Auctioneers
August 13
Art + Design
$1.6 million

Agnes Pelton (1881-1961), Flowering, 1929. Oil on canvas, 24 x 19 in. Courtesy John Moran Auctioneers. Estimate: $300/500,000 SOLD: $571,500

The star of John Moran Auctioneers’ Art + Design sale was an extremely rare oil painting by American modernist Agnes Pelton. Painted in 1929, Flowering sold for $571,500 against a presale estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. The auction house notes that “only a handful of canvases by Pelton’s desirable ‘transcendental desert’ period have come to market in the last 50 years.” 

In total, the August 13 Art + Design sale achieved $1.6 million and included lots by a number of highly prominent 20th-century artists like abstract expressionist Alice Baber and the late Frank Stella. 

John Moran Auctioneers’ next historic art sale, California and American Fine Art, will be held Tuesday, November 12, at noon. 

Detroit, MI
DuMouchelles
September 13
Live Sale

Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), Country City, 1988. Etching and aquatint in colors on Somerset paper, 21.8 x 31.8 in. Courtesy DuMouchelles. Estimate: $12/18,000 SOLD: $27,900

Detroit, Michigan-based auction house DuMouchelles held its live auction on September 13, offering an array of fine art, including significant works from the estate of Marianne and Alan E. Schwartz, the Anthony and Davida Artis Collection, Grand Rapids Art Museum and the James and Anita Terry Collection. The online-only sale was held the following day on September 14. 

The sale had a robust turnout for their September auctions, resulting in strong bidding activity across multiple days. Sales exceeded expectations, with 245 lots surpassing their high estimates. Among the highlights are Wayne Thiebaud’s etching Country City, which broke past its high estimate of $18,000 when it sold for $27,900, as well as Richard Mayhew’s watercolor Solstice Series #10, which achieved $41,925 against a presale estimate of $15,000 to $25,000.

New York, NY
Swann Auction Galleries
September 19
American Art
$633,673

Letta Crapo-Smith (1862-1921), Home of Madame H, ca. 1909. Oil on canvas. Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries. SOLD: $42,500

Swann Auction Galleries’ American Art sale achieved a total of $633,673 with a 72 percent sell-through rate by lot. 

The top lot of the sale was March Avery’s Dark Inlet, painted in 1980, which achieved a record for the artist when it sold for $47,500. Additional artist records included Letta Crapo-Smith’s circa 1909 Home of Madame H at $42,500 and Arthur Okamura’s 1961 Fog in the Valley at $8,125. 

“Aside from setting auction records for three artists, we continue to be among the leaders in sales results for Rockwell Kent and Will Barnet works on paper,” says auction specialist Meagan Gandolfo. “I was curious how our buyers would respond to some atypical or early works from Robert Henri, Marsden Hartley and Thomas Hart Benton in the sale, and they all sold very well, proving that there is a robust market for these types of experimental works…I hope to build on this success next year.” 

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