Featuring around 250 lots, John Moran Auctioneers’ fall California & American Fine Art sale will take place on November 18 at the auction house’s headquarters in Monrovia, California. The sale will feature a dynamic and fascinating collection of work that will speak to the strength of the genre.
Elmer Wachtel (1864-1929), In the Shadow of the Cliffs - San Juan Coast, ca. 1898, oil on canvas, 19 x 28 in. Estimate: $30/50,000
“The California market really struggled back 20 years ago, but the category is doing really well. Our spring sale was strong with a great selection of material, and we’ve also had some really strong single-owner sales that included California plein air,” says Katherine Halligan, the director of fine art at John Moran Auctioneers. “Overall, we’ve had a very strong six months across all categories, which has defied the doom and gloom that is coming out of some of the big New York houses.”
For the November sale, the auction house has a stunning work by Elmer Wachtel, In the Shadow of the Cliffs - San Juan Coast (est. $30/50,000) and a lovely Edgar Payne painting, Mammoth Lake Country, Sierra (est. $7/9,000). “The Wachtel has a great title and it comes from longtime private collection, which is wonderful,” says Halligan. “What sets the Wachtel apart is that it was on the cover of the book Loners, Mavericks & Dreamers, which was about California art before 1900. Not only that but the work was also in the seminal exhibition of the 1990s on California art at the Laguna Art Museum.”
William Alexander Coulter (1849-1936), Windjammers and other commercial sail in the San Francisco Bay. Oil on canvas, 19½ x 28¾ in. Estimate: $25/35,000
Alson Skinner Clark (1876-1949), The Coffee House (View of the State Street Bridge, Chicago), 1915. Oil on canvas, 35 x 46 in. Estimate: $20/30,000
Other works in the sale include William Alexander Coulter’s harbor painting Windjammers and other commercial sail in the San Francisco Bay (est. $25/35,000) and Alson Skinner Clark’s 1915 Chicago painting The Coffee House (View of the State Street Bridge, Chicago) (est. $20/30,000). Although Clark didn’t paint the work in California, he is widely known for his California paintings. “The Clark comes at a really wonderful period of his career. He has really been pigeonholed as a California plein air painter, but he was an American Impressionist, and this work shows that,” Halligan says. “It’s called The Coffee House because that is the part of Chicago where coffee was roasted in these big factories. The smell must have permeated in the air.”
Edgar Payne (1883-1947), Mammoth Lake Country, Sierra. Oil on canvas laid to board, 9¾ x 11½ in. Estimate: $7/9,000
Other artists represented in the sale include Birger Sandzén, Robert Spencer, Cornelius David Krieghoff, Hanson Duvall Puthuff, Mabel Alvarez, Frank Cuprien, Thomas Hill, Millard Sheets and many more.
Bidding will take place live and also on three online platforms, including John Moran’s bidding platform accessible through the website. —
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