Encompassing nearly every major area of American art, the November 15 American Art Signature sale at Heritage Auctions offers a little something for everyone. In approximately 80 top quality lots, collectors can expect to find masterpieces in the following categories: Hudson River School, impressionism, modernism, Western and Golden Age illustration—where Heritage leads in the market.
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Fisk Tire advertisement, 1919. Oil on paper laid on board, 24 x 52½ in. Estimate: $800/1,200,000
“At Heritage, we pride ourselves on listening closely to our clients and collectors, ensuring that we meet the demands of today’s art market,” remarks Aviva Lehmann, senior vice president and director of American art at Heritage. “The various schools of American art are intertwined with key moments in U.S. history and pop culture, which is why this field is increasingly appealing to collectors of historical artifacts—even U.S. coins. Few things evoke American history more powerfully than a stunning depiction of the Catskill or Western mountains painted during the era of expansion...”
Also important to the sale are 25 carefully selected works from the Boy Scout Settlement Trust collection, including outstanding pieces by Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker. “Beyond these icons, the auction will showcase remarkable works by luminaries like Maxfield Parrish, Ernie Barnes, Howard Terpning, Paul Manship, Willard Leroy Metcalf and many more,” Lehmann says. “This auction truly offers something for every collector.”
Ernie Barnes (1938-2009), Playin’ the Net. Oil on canvas, 18 x 36 in., signed lower right: ‘Ernie Barnes’. Estimate: $70/100,000
One of the highest estimated pieces in the American fine art category, is the Parrish oil on paper, There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (est. $800/1,200,000). The artist, highly regarded in illustration, created compositions that “frequently featured classical themes, mythological subjects and idyllic settings, characterized by sweeping vistas and intricate architectural elements,” reads the Heritage catalog. “Parrish’s work as an illustrator was singularly significant in the 1910s, when he became a sought-after artist for advertisements. His illustrations not only conveyed aesthetic appeal but also captured the burgeoning spirit of consumerism in American society.”
There Was an Old Woman is the fifth piece in a series that was never published as an advertisement for Fisk Tire Company. “[This piece] breathes new life into the old nursery rhyme by imbuing it with Parrish’s particular strain of dreamy, visual delirium, and it leverages the prose as a marketing tool by substituting the namesake shoe for a Fisk tire,” says representatives. “In those days, tires were called shoes…”
Jack Levine (1915-2010), The Banquet, Part of Election Night, 1954. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in., signed lower right: ‘J. Levine’. Estimate: $20/30,000Another top lot is the oil painting Playin’ the Net (est. $70/100,000) by Ernie Barnes (1938-2009), who studied art history on a full scholarship for football. Barnes’ distinct grasp on the reality of strenuous, striving athletic movement is palpable in Playin’ the Net,” says Heritage. “The figures exhibit his signature elongated limbs, sometimes stylistically described as neo-mannerist…The appreciation of the elegance of human anatomy at its extreme limits is that of an elite athlete, and the hand to have composed the image is clearly that of an educated and technically sophisticated master painter. No wonder Ernie Barnes was once described as the finest expressive sports painter since George Bellows, and the first professional American athlete to garner artistic acclaim.”
Aldro Thompson Hibbard (1886-1972), Snowy Mountain Stream. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., signed lower right: ‘A.T. Hibbard’. Inscribed on the reverse: #106. Property from the Nelkin Collection. Estimate: $8/12,000
The American Art Signature sale at Heritage—opening for bids on Friday, November 15 at 2 p.m. Central Time—also features top American fine art lots like The Banquet, Part of Election Night, 1954 (est. $20/30,000) by Jack Levine (1915-2010); and Snowy Mountain Stream (est. $8/12,000) by Aldro Thompson Hibbard (1886-1972).
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