GENESEO, N.Y. — John F. Kensett’s (American, 1816-1872) oil on canvas painting, “Singing Beach & Eagle Rock, Magnolia, Massachusetts,” tripled its high estimate at Cottone Auctions’ September 18 sale, realizing $1,080,000, including buyer’s premium. The firm’s Matt Cottone said that the price was among the highest by the artist and “a record for an item we’ve sold.” The 22-by-36-inch oil on canvas was signed and dated “J.F. K. ‘68” lower left and came from the collection of Mr and Mrs Roy W. Doolittle Jr, Buffalo, N.Y., by bequest. Catalog notes included quotes regarding the painting, including a letter by John K. Howat, assistant curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Mrs Adrian W. Smith, a previous owner, on May 25, 1965, stating “The Kensett strikes me as being a very fine one. The arrangement and colors are very clear and forceful — a good sign in Kensett’s work. The silence of these spare Kensetts is very impressive.”

More recently, Susan Crane, associate curator, Albright Knox Art Gallery in a 1983 letter to the Doolittles, said, “Your Kensett was an important element in the success of the show — it really made the room glow. Several art historians, in fact, commented on its excellence. It really does rank with the most magnificent of his works, and we are grateful to have been able to show it in the context of his ‘peers.’”

Cottone said the painting was won by a private collector bidding on the phone. “There was a lot of action on this, much more than the two or so bidders that you normally see, and it was that way even north of $750,000.” Watch for a more extensive review of this sale in an upcoming issue.