Martin Johnson Heade's Still Life Blooms To $402,000 At Skinner

BOSTON, MASS.

:Thirteen phone bidders and one in the room chased the Martin Johnson Heade oil on canvas "Still Life with Cherokee Roses" to $402,000 at Skinner's American and European paintings sale on November 18. Bidding opened at $35,000 and bounced around the room before selling to a dealer on the phone. The painting, which came from a Massachusetts library, depicted creamy white roses against a deep red velvet drape. It was accompanied by a letter of discussion from Heade authority Theodore E. Stebbins Jr, who will include the picture in his next book.

A beautiful Nineteenth Century Italian picture, "Hearing the News of the Day" by Gerolamo Induno, sold for $237,000. The subjects were bathed in a fine mellow light through a window. Induno was a Milanese artist and the picture is going home. After a lively competition that maxed out the 13 available phones and exhausted several bidders in the room, it sold to a dealer from Milan who was bidding in the room. Estimated at $10/15,000, the picture came from the same Massachusetts library as the Heade. The same library was the source of a number of highly desirable pictures throughout the sale. English and European paintings attracted wide international bidding, with all available staff grabbing phones to take bids. The Seventeenth Century oil on canvas, "Venus and Mars," that was attributed to Simone Pignone sold in the room for $41,125 ($3/5,000).

An Orientalist picture by Austrian artist Rudolf Ernst, "Winding Yarn/A Harem View," opened at $60,000 against the estimated $15/25,000, and after a flutter of phone bidding sold for a substantial $171,000. An oil on canvas, "Trader with Camels on the Shore," by Boston artist Edwin Lord Weeks was painted in Tangier in 1878 and went for $9,400.

A Nineteenth Century "Interior View with a Woman" by French artist Benjamin Constant came from the unidentified Massachusetts library and sold on the phone for $30,550, ten times the low estimate.

Bidding on a Nineteenth Century Italian oil on canvas that was signed "G. Abbati figlio" opened at $2,400 and engaged two phone bidders until one prevailed at $21,150. Three Neapolitan paintings attracted strong interest, the Nineteenth Century oil on canvas "Safe Passage/A Neapolitan Genre Scene" by Giuseppe Laezza drew $15,275; "Bay of Naples" an oil on board by Giuseppe Carelli fetched $6,463; and Carelli's "Fishing, Bay of Naples," estimated at $800-$1,200, drew $8,813.

The watercolor "Shoeing" by Enrico Coleman was signed and inscribed "E Coleman Roma" and sold for $9,988.

"Night Shore, Long Island" by the French-born artist Leon Dabo was one of many little surprises sprinkled throughout the sale. Bidding on the picture, estimated to bring $4/6,000, opened at $21,000 and went to $25,850 from a buyer in the room. William M. Hart's "River Cascades" opened at $6,000 and ended at $24,675.

Of a selection of paintings of pugs that the catalog described as "From the estate of a renowned philanthropist, equestrian and canine advocate," the highlight was easily English artist Wilson Hepple's 1898 "The Swarland Pugs," which sold for $58,750. The painting depicts the five pugs owned by Mrs Hugh Andrews of Swarland Hall in Northumberland. It was estimated at $6/8,000.

The painting "A Pugnacious Pupil" by German artist Lucia Mathilde von Gelder bore labels from Cooling Galleries in London and sold for $12,925. "Five Pug Puppies" an 1888 oil on canvas by American artist Franklin Whiting Rogers was estimated at $1,5/2,000 and brought $11,750.

Of a selection of sporting paintings, the highlight was "The Chase of the Fox" that was unsigned but attributed to English artist James Seymour and sold for $7,638. The picture was alive with action as hunters followed the pack across a fence and up a hill. A portrait of the hunter "Diamond" that was signed and dated "J.N. Sartorius 1810" was $6,463.

Three oil on panel marine paintings by English artist Thomas Luny were well-received. The 1821 "Shipping off Teignmouth" was $8,813 and "Teignmouth, Devon" drew $3,819 from the same buyer. "Shipping off the North African Coast" brought $5,875 and the marine painting "Tending the Sails" by American artist William Edward Norton fetched $14,100.

A Nineteenth Century American School picture that was attributed in the addendum to Pennsylvania-born artist John F. Francis, "Still Life with a Basket of Cherries," brought $35,250. The 101/2-by-131/4-inch painting was mounted on board and may have been cut down from a larger work.

An American oil on canvas view of Lake George by Nicolay Tysland Leganger stimulated bids and went for $11,750.

An 1889 view of the Wald Tower in St Augustine, Fla., by William Staples Drown was estimated at $1/1,500 and sold for $36,425, while Arthur Vidal Diehl's "Florida River View" may have been a record at $34,075. Diehl spent significant time painting in St Augustine and also maintained studios in such disparate locations as Providence, R.I., Boston, Cape Cod, Connecticut and New Jersey. His 1922 signed and dated oil on board "Cape Cod Dunes" elicited $3,173.

William Lester Stevens' Gloucester picture, "At the Docks," brought $23,500 from a phone bidder, while ten phone bidders vied for Anthony Thieme's view of Main Street in Rockport that drew $21,150. Another New England seacoast picture, "Main Coast, Ogunquit" by William Henry Lippincott, was $22,325.

Charleston artist William Aiken Walker's oil on panel "Yes Sah, I Boads Dar" was of interest and was more than double the estimate at $14,100. "Sharecropper's Cabin" an oil on canvas in the manner of Walker was $2,115.

It was a good sale for works by Jane Peterson. "Reading at a Café" took unexpected flight and brought $38,188, while the tropical looking watercolor and gouache "Wild Grape Vines" fetched $14,100 and the signed "Pink Zinnias in a Blue Jug" was $11,163. "At the Table/A Self Portrait" sold for $18,800. A Boston dealer was extremely interested in the oil on canvas "A Quiet Bridge in Venice" and was seen leaving the saleroom immediately after it sold for $17,625.

Peterson's evocative "Essex Marshes" a symphony of lily pads also fetched $18,800, while her "Sailing Vessels in Lifting Fog" was $11,750.

Texas bluebonnets were the subject of two paintings that commanded bidder interest. An oil on canvas by the English-born Texas painter Robert Wood brought $6,463 and "Texas Bluebonnets" by Alice Chilton sold on the phone for $7,638.

The Twentieth Century American abstract painting by Richard Poussette-Dart, "Eye of the Square," brought $55,813. Another American painting of interest was the 1881 "Jackrabbit on a Woodland Path" by New York artist Jervis McEntee that drew strong competition between bidders on the phone and in the salesroom and went to $44,063 against the estimated $1,5/2,500.

"Autumn Tree, 1962" by English artist Ivon Hitchens was also favored selling for $45,825. Hitchens was part of the London Group of the 1930s, which included Henry Moore, whose 1956 bronze "Seated Woman One Art" realized $44,063.

A 1965 abstract by Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor sold for $17,625, nearly six times the estimate.

A particularly interesting and vibrant watercolor by Cady Wells, "New Mexico Landscape" was estimated at $2/3,000 and sold for $9,988 to an absentee bidder.

All prices quoted reflect the buyer's premium of 17 ½ percent of the final price up to $80,000 and ten percent thereafter. For information, 978-779-6241 or www.skinnerinc.com.