NEW YORK CITY — An April 19 evening session titled “The Spirit of America: The Wolf Family Collection” kicked off a series of sales Sotheby’s conducted that continued through April 24. Bringing $6,079,500 and a new world record for the artist was “Bar Island and Mount Desert Mountains from Somes Settlement” by Fitz Henry Lane (American, 1804-1865) that Erik Ronnberg and Sam Holdsworth with the Fitz Henry Lane Online Catalogue Raisonné said “must have been one of Lane’s earliest Maine paintings.” The 20-1/8-by-30-1/8-inch oil on canvas, which had been painted in 1850, had a detailed publication and exhibition history as well as provenance that could be traced from its acquisition by the Wolfs from Hirschl & Adler in 1981 back to the artist. It was the top lot of a 58-lot sale that was 100 percent sold by lot and achieved $38,743,700 overall, with several other notable results. At press time, the tally for the Wolf Family Collection sessions was $66,227,897, a value that stood to change with another 260 lots in two sessions still to sell.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. A more extensive recap of all of the Wolf Family Collection sessions will be discussed in a future issue.