:While not the top lot of the auction at Shannon's on Thursday
evening, October 20, the W. Herbert Dunton oil on canvas was the
lot that created the most interest prior to the auction and the
most conversation after. The painting, a simplistic
Impressionistic Western oil depicting a cowboy on horseback,
carried a modest presale estimates of $20/30,000, yet hammered
down to a phone bidder at $179,250, more than five times the high
estimate.
"He is the darling of the auction and of the Western artists
right now," stated Gene Shannon after the sale. A Taos artist and
illustrator, virtually all of Dunton's works are known and housed
in either institutions or private collections.
The top lot of the sale came as a surprise as the two highest
estimated lots in the auction failed to find buyers. The
monumental William Trost Richards took up the slack, however,
with "Mountain Lake" surpassing the $60/80,000 estimates to sell
in the room for $215,100.
A complete review will appear in a future issue.
-DSS
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