: Christie's auction of American paintings, drawings and sculpture
on December 2 totaled $24,561,420, and was 85 percent sold by
both lot and value.
Leading the sale were works by Childe Hassam and Georgia
O'Keeffe. Eric Widing, senior vice president, specialist head of
department for American paintings, said, "We are delighted with
the strong results across the board - among them our continued
successes with Childe Hassam and Georgia O'Keeffe. We saw
particular strength for American works on paper, highlighted by
world auction records for drawings by John Singer Sargent and
Winslow Homer. This auction further builds on the success of our
May sale, and completes a solid year for the American paintings
department working within a robust market."
Selling for $2,471,500 to Spanierman Gallery LLC was "Mrs Hassam
in the Garden" painted by Childe Hassam in 1896. It had hung in a
Park Avenue apartment for the last 35 years, never before on
public view and fresh to the market. The rediscovered masterwork
is representative of Hassam's best garden paintings. Depicting
Hassam's wife in the act of trimming lilac blooms, the painting
is characterized by a fluid naturalism with assured brushwork and
a refined sense of color, demonstrating his maturing
Impressionist technique.
Georgia O'Keeffe's "The Red Maple at Lake George," 1926, was
estimated at $600/800,000, but the early oil on canvas example of
her vibrant, simplified abstracted images of natural imagery that
were central to her signature style brought $2,191,500, going to
an American private buyer.
"The Red Maple at Lake George," Georgia O'Keeffe, $2,191,500.
A historically significant oil, "Equestrian Portrait of
George Washington" by Rembrandt Peale, an early example of his
imposing equestrian portraits of the first president, fetched
$1,071,500. Celebrating the hero of the Revolution, the work
depicts Washington as leader of the Continental Army, typically
serene as a battle rages in the background.
And setting a new world auction record for the artist was the
$724,300 realized for John Singer Sargent's, "Portrait of Carolus
Duran," an ink and pencil on paper.
Rounding out the sales top ten lots were: Norman Rockwell, "The
Rewards of Patience (Man on Dock Fishing)," oil on canvas, 1921,
$701,900; Winslow Homer, "Sailing a Dory," watercolor, pencil and
gouache on paper, 1880, $679,500; Winslow Homer, "The Return of
the Gleaner," oil on canvas, 1867, $545,100; Georgia O'Keeffe,
"Road to the Ranch," oil on canvas, 1964, $545,100; Maxfield
Parrish, "Birches in Winter," oil on Masonite, 1952, $545,100;
and Albert Bierstadt, "Campfire Site, Yosemite," oil on canvas,
circa 1873, $522,700.
Prices reported include buyer's premium.
