On April 30, Bonhams will bring roughly 90 lots of significant historic American art to the market, including works by renowned 19th- and 20th-century artists N.C. Wyeth, Thomas Moran, Paul Manship and a rare early painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Bidding begins at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
With a presale estimate of $500,000 to $700,000, Manship’s 1921 bronze Diana is the star lot of the auction, a piece Bonhams specialist Aaron Anderson describes as, “a tour de force within the artist’s oeuvre that resides prominently between the frontier of modernism and traditions of archaic design.” The piece depicts a moment in the myth of Diana and Actaeon, as told in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. While hunting, Actaeon accidentally sees the goddess Diana bathing naked. To punish him, she fires an arrow that turns him into a stag, to eventually be killed by his own hounds.
Paul Manship (1885-1966), Diana, 1921. Bronze with brown and verdigris patina, 36 in., inscribed and dated on the base: ‘PAUL MANSHIP / © 1921’; and inscribed with foundry mark along the base: ‘ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N.Y.’ Estimate: $500/700,000
Another important lot is Wyeth’s “Who’s afraid of his guns?” shouted McFarlane. “He daren’t shoot in a square fight!” (Colts 45), a 1912 illustration published in McClure’s Magazine for Edith Ronald Mirrielees’ story, “The Shooting at Raeder.” The piece, featuring a Western gunman in a cell with two pistols at the ready, has a low estimate of $250,000.
N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), “Who’s afraid of his guns?” shouted McFarlane. “He daren’t shoot in a square fight!” (Colts 45), 1912. Oil on canvas, 34¼ x 25 in., signed upper left: ‘N.C. WYETH’. Estimate: $250/350,000
Thomas Moran (1837-1926), Venice (The Splendor of Venice), 1899. Oil on canvas, 201/8 x 30¼ in., signed and dated lower left: ‘TMoran. / 1899.’ Estimate: $150/250,000
Bidders can expect works by all the Wyeths in the sale, as Bonhams continues to represent the estate of Linda L. Bean. Bean was a passionate collector of art by the Wyeth family, and notable works represented in this sale include a watercolor by Andrew Wyeth from 1937 titled Rockweed on Monhegan and a study by N.C., Andrew’s father, for First Farmer of the Land executed in 1945. It was the last painting N.C. Wyeth worked on before his tragic death in 1945.
Also of note is an exceptional 1899 painting of Venice by Thomas Moran anticipated to achieve between $150,000 and $250,000. “Venice (The Splendor of Venice) excels at capturing the physical and picturesque details of the city while also expressing Moran’s own poetic and dream-like feelings about the city,” says Anderson.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Lazy Life Around the Old Sub-Treasury of Morocco, at Tangier, ca. 1872. Watercolor and graphite on paper laid down on board, 27 x 40 in., signed lower right: ‘Louis C. Tiffany’. Estimate: $40/60,000
Although he would become famed for his stained glass work, Tiffany’s first artistic training was as a painter, studying under second generation Hudson River School tonalists George Inness and Samuel Colman. Bonhams is excited to have an example of Tiffany’s on offer in their spring sale, Lazy Life Around the Old Sub-Treasury of Morocco, at Tangier from 1872, several years before he turned his artistic pursuits toward glassmaking. Anderson notes, “This work stands as one of Tiffany’s major early works and a depiction of a place that deeply resonated with his aesthetic interests found in North Africa and Moorish Spain.” The piece is expected to garner between $40,000 and $60,000; as is a prime example from American surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie, whose popularity in the market has been soaring. —
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