Norman Rockwell, Two Plumbers, 1951. Estimate $5,000,000–7,000,000.
"My life work – and my pleasure is to tell stories to other people through pictures… I try to use each line, tone, color and arrangement; each person, facial expression, gesture and object in my picture for one supreme purpose – to tell a story, and to tell it as directly, understandably and interestingly as I possibly can.” –Norman Rockwell
Oscar Bluemner, Violet Tones, 1934. Estimate $2,000,000–3,000,000.
“Landscape painting speaks to the soul like a poem or music more intimately than any other kind of painting. I present a surprising vision of landscape by the daring new use of color.” –Oscar Bluemner
Thomas Hart Benton, Across the Curve of the Road. Estimate $1,000,000–1,500,000.
Across the Curve of the Road is an exceptional example of Thomas Hart Benton’s aesthetic and his interpretation of the Regionalist style. It is based on a sketch the artist made during in Arkansas during the summer of 1938; he uses contour lines for the ridges of the earth and the curves of the clouds, capturing the unique yet familiar landscape of the region.
Marsden Hartley, Landscape, New Mexico, 1923. Estimate $800,000–1,200,000.
This work is one of the largest, most beautiful and best preserved of Marsden Hartley’s important New Mexico Recollections paintings. Executed in Berlin during 1923 and 1924, this series of works reference the profound artistic and emotional impact of Hartley’s previous experience with the American Southwest just few years prior, and signal his artistic and spiritual evolution towards American subject matter.
Maxfield Parrish, Lady Violetta and the Knave, 1924. Estimate $900,000–1,200,000.
This work belongs to a series of images Maxfield Parrish created to illustrate Louise Saunder’s 1925 book, The Knave of Heart. Exquisitely detailed, they are considered today among the artist’s finest achievements in book illustrations. Parrish achieved the rich color and striking luminosity that characterizes each work from the series by meticulously applying numerous layers of translucent glazes onto board.
John Singer Sargent, John Alfred Parsons Millet, 1892. Estimate $2,500,000–3,500,000.
John Singer Sargent painted this portrait of his godson, John Alfred Parsons Millet, the youngest child of American painter Frank Millet and his wife, Lily, in 1892. Sargent made two drawings of the child soon after his birth and continued to take an interest in him, painting this amiable and richly detailed portrait when the boy was four years old.
N.C. Wyeth, So the Change was Made, and They Went Forward as Briskly as They Durst on the Uneven Causeway (Crossing the Fens), 1916. Estimate $500,000–700,000.
So the Change was Made, and They Went Forward as Briskly as They Durst on the Uneven Causeway (Crossing the Fens) is one of seventeen illustrations the artist produced for Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, a story of adventure and romance set in fifteenth century England during the War of the Roses. This painting not only epitomizes Wyeth’s achievements in the field of illustration but also showcases his technical precision and attention to detail.
Rockwell Kent, Blue Day, Greenland, 1935-37. Estimate $400,000–600,000.
Rockwell Kent painted Blue Day, Greenland during his final trip to Greenland, where he traveled three times between 1929 and 1935. It is a rare and important example of the distinctive vision with which Kent captured the transcendent beauty of this exotic and remote locale.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Turkey Feathers and Indian Pot, 1941. Estimate $1,000,000–1,500,000.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s oeuvre prominently displays her preoccupation with nature, focusing on series of enlarged and abstracted elements including flowers, leaves, bones, shells and feathers. In Turkey Feathers and Indian Pot, she presents a still life subject from her unique perspective, tilting the picture plane and framing the elements within adobe walls.
Francis Cropsey, Indian Summer on the Susquenhana, 1861. Estimate $300,000–500,000.
Painted in 1861 when Jasper Francis Cropsey was living in London, Indian Summer on the Susquehanna is one of about thirty canvases that the artist produced of the Susquehanna region. The vibrant tones of his American autumnal landscapes appealed greatly to his English clientele, who were mesmerized by the full array of reds, oranges and yellows.
The American Art sale presents a wonderful selection of works by the most significant American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries including Norman Rockwell, Marsden Hartley, Thomas Hart Benton, Jonn Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe and many others. Click ahead to see a selection of highlights to be offered at auction on 23 May in New York.
American Art
23 May | New York