A Monday night auction at Clarke Auction galleries was lit up by a large Beauford Delaney painting that established record price paid at auction when it sold for $176,250. The Expressionist city scene executed with Delaney’s thickly laid brush strokes and subtle contrasting colors went to a private collector bidding on the phone on October 27.
Copious advertising drew prospective buyers from around the area †New Jersey, Connecticut and New York City †to the gallery. There was also Internet bidding and many phones at Clarke’s fifth annual fine art sale, which was 92 percent sold. It was “our best sale ever,” stated auctioneer Ron Clarke.
“We knew there was a lot of interest, we had many calls on the Delaney before the sale,” commented Clarke. “Swann and Christie’s had set an auction record for Delaney recently at $102,200, but, given the market, we set the estimate at $50/80,000.”
Delaney (1901‱979), an African American artist long associated with the Harlem Renaissance, spent his later years in Paris, where he was an early practitioner of Abstract Expressionist painting. The 47-by-36-inch oil came from a private Harlem apartment where it had been for decades; it was signed and dated, lower left.
The same estate also provided a Delaney charcoal portrait of a black woman wearing a cloche, believed to be the first work to come to auction dating from Delaney’s 1929 arrival in Harlem. The work, estimated at $3/5,000, sold at $6,462.
A rescued Alexander Calder drawing for a sculpture (the finished piece is in the Detroit Art Institute) came to light as Clarke and his associate Tom Curran were cleaning out an estate. “I happened to flip through some papers and there it was,” Curran said. This unassuming red pen on paper sketch, “Sketch for ‘The X’ and its Tails,” with Calder’s notes, was illustrated and documented in the exhibition catalog of the Terese and Alvin S. Lane Collection. A collector from California competed against a left bid from the art institute to win the drawing at $2,350. When the collector learned that his competitor was the museum, he indicated that the drawing would eventually end up at the art institute.
Another attention-grabber was a Fabio Fabbi (Italian, 1861‱946) oil on canvas of an Orientalist scene. The circa 1890 “Harem Dancers” had phones, Internet and gallery bidders vying for it, and sold to the phone at $70,500. “It is going to a gallery in North Africa,” said Clarke, “which is probably where the setting of the painting is.”
Attracting a great deal of attention from print dealers in the room was a drypoint by Martin Lewis. It had been purchased in the 1940s by the father of the consignor. An evening scene of shoppers at an open-air market under the el train, titled “Yorkville Night,” 1947, the 8½-by-11½-inch piece sold for $22,325, well above its $10/15,000 estimate.
A box lot of loose Claire Mairs prints sold for $5,640. A classic Reginald Marsh girl on carousel realized $3,760 from an in-house bidder who had the piece taken out of the frame before the sale so he could inspect the margins.
Other paintings included a Jose Guerrero oil on canvas, “Black Cross” circa 1960, that had a Betty Parsons gallery label on the back with a price of $100 amended to $150. Estimated at $2/3,000, it went to a phone bidder at $11,162.
A Cristobal Toral (Spanish, b 1941) oil measuring 45½ by 531/3 inches had been consigned from the estate of Clive Wilson. Finishing at $18,800, above the high estimate of $15,000, the painting is returning to Spain.
Clarke offered many pieces by well-known artists, such as Max Weber, Larry Rivers and Henri Matisse. The small Weber still life “Chinese Sugar Bowl,” an oil on cardboard, circa 1910, signed with Weber’s name on the front and address on the back, was estimated at $2,5/3,500; it sold for $4,750.
The large Larry Rivers (1923′002) painting of his mother-in-law “Berdie” with a male nude, was classic Rivers, although Clarke said, “While it is similar to works recently featured at an East Hampton exhibition, perhaps it’s too provocative for the market.” It came from the estate of the theatrical figure shown in the painting, a friend of Rivers, and sold for $41,125.
Several works by Jane Freilicher were offered from the same collector. One, an oil on canvas summer scene, painted in 1953, was estimated at $8/12,000 and sold for $22,325.
Other interesting lots included a Mary Cassatt pencil on paper of a young woman. It had an oval stamp “Collection Mary Cassatt Mathilde X” and was in a lovely giltwood frame by Lowy. The drawing did not reach its estimate, but sold for $5,287. “A good buy,” Clarke said.
The surprise of the night came when a determined bidder put up his hand and kept it there, waving his bids to Ron. He was bidding on a Jacques Zucker double-sided oil: on the main side was a pensive girl in a red blouse writing a letter; on the other side were two figures and a white dove with a harbor scene in the background. With a $600/900 estimate, the gallery bidder had to fight against phone and left bids to walk out at the end of the night with the 15-by-19-inch work for $6,462.
All prices given include the 17½ percent buyer’s premium.
Clarke Auction Galleries next fine art auction will be in May. For more information, www.ccauctiongallery.com or 914-833-8336.
