This sailor’s valentine with a bouquet of flowers in a Nantucket basket by Sandy Moran (Massachusetts, 1944-2020), 9 by 9 inches, led the auction at $14,080 ($600/900).
Review by Carly Timpson
EAST DENNIS, MASS. — For this year’s edition of its Annual Women in the Arts Auction benefitting We Can, a local nonprofit founded to empower women, Eldred’s offered 170 lots by female artists predominantly from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries on March 18. The selection on offer spanned works by painters, potters, printers, sculptors and textile artists among others, all from Eldred’s regular consignment streams and curated over the course of the year. The auction realized just under $166,000 and had a sell-through rate of 82 percent with bidding from more than 550 registered on Eldred’s website, absentee, phones and third-party platforms.
Cheryl Stewart, Eldred’s head of marketing, shared, “This year marks our fifth annual Women in the Arts Auction, held during Women’s History Month. Since its inception, We Can has been our designated charitable partner.”
“The auction was borne from the idea that, as children, the first artist we know is often a woman — our school art teachers, or our mothers who drew for us, or our neighbor who painted for local art shows — but despite this, women are hugely underrepresented in the art world,” she continued. “Only 13 percent of art in American museum collections is by a female artist, and art made by a woman represents only about two percent of the billions of dollars spent each year at auction. Our annual Women in the Arts auction was a small step we could take toward rediscovering Nineteenth and Twentieth Century female artists the market may be overlooking and providing a new sales channel for established contemporary artists looking to expand their reach.”
“Portrait of Barbara Gabard (Padowicz)” by Françoise Gilot (France/New York, 1921-2023), 1955, mixed media on paper, 27½ by 22 inches framed, brought $11,520 ($6/8,000).
Making quite an impression on bidders was an octagonal sailor’s valentine crafted by Sandy Moran. Framed within the wooden shadowbox frame was a small Nantucket basket with an overflowing bouquet of flowers. The flowers, along with the many that made up the background, were all made from meticulously arranged shells. Signed faintly to the reverse, the 9-by-9-inch valentine blossomed well beyond its $900 high estimate to achieve the sale-high price of $14,080. Stewart explained, “Sandy Moran was a local woman who had a big following at the time of her death, but I think she mostly sold mostly privately via custom orders. Since then, the pieces have that have come on the auction market have all performed quite well. I would say the estimate on this valentine was pretty conservative, but we were all pleasantly surprised by such a strong sale price. A few very determined phone and online bidders really went at it. It finally sold online to a private collector in New York.” Another octagonal valentine by Moran, this example centering a heart of light pink shells, measured 12 by 12 inches and closed at $5,760.
A 1955 mixed media “Portrait of Barbara Gabard (Padowicz)” by Françoise Gilot also exceeded estimates and became the auction’s second-highest earning lot. According to the catalog notes, the two women were friends in Paris. This portrait was especially enticing to historians because of the sitter’s backstory. “Gabard, from a wealthy Jewish family in Lodz, Poland, escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Brazil, then the United States. She penned the 1942 best-seller Flight to Freedom that chronicled her dramatic escape from Europe, the first book published about a war refugee’s plight,” noted the catalog. The work, addressed “Pour Barbara Gabard très affectueusement F. Gilot 1955” to the lower left, was owned by Gabard and descended through her family until it sold at Eldred’s, for $11,520.
Rising to $9,600 was Anna Duchesne’s (Russian Federation, 1891-1992) 36-by-36-inch oil on canvas painting of a girl in a town square ($400/600).
The auction’s leading painting was Anna Duchesne’s “Girl in a Town Square.” Showing a young girl dressed in black seated on wooden boxes with the populus square in the background, the oil on canvas work easily exceeded its $600 high estimate, finishing at $9,600. “The Anna Duchesne painting was very striking, which may account for its sales price,” said Stewart. “According to the databases I just reviewed, it seems to have shattered her world record. It sold online to a Connecticut collector.”
Bidders may have had their sights set on spring, as several of the top results featured light florals and lush landscapes. While it was titled “Autumn Arrangement,” Jean G. Lightman’s still life of white, yellow and green flora in a light green vase still seemed appropriate. Signed, titled and dated “2002” to the reverse, the oil on canvas painting hung for $7,680.
Martha Farham Cahoon’s oil on Masonite “Fantasy Beach” had been handled by Eldred’s previously. This time around, it brought $5,760. The oval painting depicted a family — a uniformed man and woman talking off to the side and several children playing along the shore — and a topless mermaid seated on rocks in the water. Signed and dated to the lower right, the 1983 work had provenance to the 14th Annual Cotuit Arts Festival in August of that year, then to a private collection, before it went to Eldred’s in 2015 and made its way to the consignor.
“Fantasy Beach” by Martha Farham Cahoon (Massachusetts, 1905-1999), 1983, oil on Masonite, 20½ by 24 inches framed, finished at $5,760 ($6/9,000).
Cleverly titled “Mer-Monets,” another mermaid painting realized $4,800 against a $700/900 estimate. The artist, Jayne Shelley-Pierce, created this work at the request of the women’s painting group Twenty-One in Truro (Mass.). The ladies, painted with easels under umbrellas along the distant shoreline of the Corn Hill Cottages, were, in turn, being painted by a mermaid, surrounded by other mermaid artists, underwater in the foreground. The split-scene work was signed to the lower right, signed and titled to the stretcher and had labels from an exhibition at the Cahoon Museum of American Art (Cotuit, Mass.) as well as an artist’s note on the reverse.
Another seasonable outdoor scene was Josephine Paddock’s “April Rain, Central Park.” Despite a catalog note that reported its condition as “Soiled and would greatly benefit from a cleaning. Canvas board is slightly bowed backwards in the center,” bidders took a liking to the pastel-toned view, which was housed in a labeled Newcomb-Macklin frame, and pushed it well past its $600 high estimate to $5,120.
New York City was also the setting of a bustling café scene painted by Dorothy Eaton in 1931. Signed to the lower right, the work served up a $5,120 result.
Each with a charming Cape Cod image, the five framed prints by Elizabeth Mumford (Massachusetts, 1950-2020), 13½ inches square, realized $4,800 ($400/600).
A set of five prints by Elizabeth Mumford sold for $4,800. Each depicted a local Cape Cod, Mass., vignette, framed with a clever adage, including lyrics from sea shanties or nursery rhymes: “I see the moon and the moon sees me. The moon sees somebody I want to see”; “The road to a friend’s house is never long”; “Cape Cod girls, they have no combs, they comb their hair with codfish bones”; “Cape Cod boys, they have no sleds, they slide on dunes with codfish heads”; and “Cape Cod dogs don’t chase cars, they like to pick up girls in bars!”
Also by a local Massachusetts artist was a contemporary folk art scene of ships and whales in a harbor, signed “Melinda” for Melinda Kirkpatrick. Estimated $800-$1,000, the acrylic on board work, framed under glass, went out at $3,200.
Ultimately, Stewart commented, “The auction provides an opportunity for us to give back to this important organization by donating a portion of our proceeds. It also allows us the opportunity to share the important work they are doing with our wide base of clients, and it gives buyers the opportunity to ‘bid for good,’ knowing that some of the purchase price they are paying helps support the organization.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.eldreds.com or 508-385-3116.
