“Spring at Leete’s Island” by Willard Leroy Metcalf (American, 1858-1925), 1908, oil on canvas, signed, 26 by 29 inches, hit the sale-high price of $187,500 ($150/250,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
MILFORD, CONN. — Autumn is for football, apple picking, pumpkin carving, spooky movies and the annual Fall Fine Art Auction conducted by Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers. This year, the festivity was celebrated by bidders from 14 countries and 40 states on October 29 with 207 lots that spanned paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, and realized $2.7 million.
Sandra Germain, owner of Shannon’s, reported, “We had fine examples of artworks in every category. A museum-quality Eastman Johnson dated 1866, an American Impressionist masterpiece by Metcalf from 1908, the modernist Lam figure from 1939, to name just a few highlights. The sale covered nearly 200 years of fine art, and we are excited to kick off the fall fine art season with great results.”
Both private collectors and institutions were active bidders, especially when it came to American paintings. The auction’s leading lot was Willard Leroy Metcalf’s 1908 landscape “Spring at Leete’s Island.” As the catalog noted, there was a near perfect line of provenance for the painting, leaving the artist’s estate, traveling East to West and ultimately reaching the consigner who was based in Florida and acquired the work by descent. Further adding to its draw, the landscape was listed in the artist’s oeuvre compiled by researcher Bruce Chambers, and it was illustrated in Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard Leroy Metcalf by Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle (1987). The Connecticut shoreline scene was taken to $187,500, selling to a private collector.
“Personnage 1” by Wifredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), 1939, oil on card on canvas, signed and dated, 36 by 23¼ inches, reached the leading price of $187,500 ($150/250,000).
While not American, the same price was achieved for a modern work by Wifredo Lam. Painted in 1939, “Personnage 1” was created not long after the artist met Pablo Picasso and was inspired to blend elements of Picasso’s Cubism into his own work. This influence was strong and presented clearly in the “Personnage” paintings. Depicting a nude body, the painting sold to a collection in Paris.
Other modern works included Henrietta Mary Shore’s “Beach Flower,” a vibrant and large painting of an almost-abstract blossom that resembled a shell. The painting is said to relate to those by the artist’s contemporary Georgia O’Keeffe, and its provenance included the Martin Gallery (Scottsdale, Ariz.), the Antique Centre in Scottsdale, circa 1990, and a private collection in the United Kingdom. When it sold at Shannon’s, it earned $50,000.
Works by Bob Ross have been on the rise as of late, and one included in this sale was taken to $127,000, heading to a private collector in Pennsylvania. Enthusiastic bidding ensued for the circa 1992 “Autumn Palette,” a version of which was painted on Season 42 of The Joy of Painting. This example was created during a fundraising event in West Virginia and has stayed there ever since.
Though this “Autumn Palette” by Bob Ross (American, 1942-1995), circa 1992, oil on canvas, signed, 24 by 30 inches, was not painted on television, it still soared to $127,000 ($50/75,000).
Several paintings of New York City proved to be of geographical interest, as works depicting the metropolis from various eras all performed well. Leading the selection was a contemporary photo-realistic panorama of the “Approach to Holland Tunnel with 75 Varick” by Rackstraw Downes. The 1989 cityscape showing a line of cars passing by skyscrapers rose to $87,500.
A Laurence A. Campbell painting titled “Broadway in Winter” sold for $38,100. In his recognizable style, Campbell painted the wintry city rush, just a blur on the street beneath American flags. Other notable New York City results included a nocturne view of “The Radiant Tower (The Radiator Building,” which went well past its $4/6,000 estimate to achieve $13,750, as well as the world auction record result for Charles Vezin, set when his “Brooklyn Bridge, Winter” reached $25,400 on the same estimate.
Also soaring past estimates was a circa 1961 study for “Street Scene” by Lennart Anderson. The pastel and charcoal illustration depicted three gesticulating women, seemingly reacting to something on the street ahead of them, though out of frame. The piece more than doubled its $25,000 high estimate when it closed for $53,975.
“The Bride” by Henry Koerner (Austrian-American, 1915-1991), 1950, casein on canvas, signed and dated, 56½ by 40 inches, met its match at $125,000 ($100/150,000).
Another woman in motion was the focus of Henry Koerner’s “The Bride,” a 1951 casein work marking the moment a stone-faced bride passes through a doorway with her new husband. The large-format work measured 56½ inches tall by 40 inches wide and was originally given to a friend of the artist in California. A private collector in Minnesota had it since then, and it was exhibited several times. As described in the auction catalog, “The painting is done with remarkable detail characteristic of the artist and of Magical Realism. The etched glass on the door is finely painted and the shimmery satin on the bridal gown is skillfully rendered. The threshold depicts 317 State Street in Brooklyn, where the artist was living at the time.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Shannon’s Winter 2027 Online Fine Art Auction will be January 28. For information, www.shannons.com or 203-877-1711.
