PHILADELPHIA — An auction record was set for American illustrator Stevan Dohanos at $252,000 when Freeman’s sold his “Tying Flies,” a 1950 oil on Masonite completed for the Saturday Evening Post, on December 5. The artist would complete 125 covers for the Post between 1942 and 1958, this work featured on the March 4, 1950 cover, exactly centered during his tenure with the magazine.

“It came from a prominent collection in California well-known for illustration art,” head of sale Raphael Chatroux said. “It was a bit of a battle between the phones and online. People liked it a lot. If you think about it, the style of Dohanos was close to Rockwell, they worked with one another, and I think this painting was one that reminded collectors of Rockwell — the old-man-working-in-his-shop scenes. That helped for sure.”

The American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists sale saw other high-flying results, including $390,600 paid for Daniel Garber’s “Sycamores,” a widely exhibited signature painting that was one of the artist’s last large scale works, completed in 1923.

Watch for a full review in a future issue.