Nearly 250 lots of fine art crossed the auction block at Shannon’s auction of fine American and European paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture during a sale that was passionately received by bidders from around the world. The October 29 auction grossed an impressive $3.6 million and posted a sold rate of 76 percent.
Terming it a “record-setting auction fueled by enthusiastic bidders from 41 states and ten countries,” the auction house reported establishing 11 record prices paid at auction.
“There were things for everyone,” stated Gene Shannon in the days following the sale. “Not everything was high price, but everything was good quality,” he said.
The top lot of the auction came as a newly rediscovered Colin Campbell Cooper was offered. Consigned from a private Midwest collection where it had remained in the same family since the 1930s, the painting caused quite a stir †especially on the West Coast. Cooper, who held the painting in high regard, was aided by reviews such as one that appeared in 1927 in the Los Angeles Times : “Colin Campbell Cooper, one of the Santa Barbara group, has two canvases of California flowers in the present exhibition. He is one of the best known painters in the West. His California canvases when displayed in the East opened to him the sacred portals of the ‘N.A.’ [National Academy].”
The large and colorful 36-by-46-inch oil on canvas, signed in the lower left and dated 1927, was titled “The Terrace, Samarkand.” Estimated at $200/300,000, the painting had six telephone bidders, all from California, registered; a private collector claimed the lot at $456,000 after a fierce bidding battle. The painting established a record price paid at auction for a California painting by the artist.
A Harlem River winter scene by Ernest Lawson, “Boathouses Along A River,” circa 1910, was one of two paintings by the artist sold. The 21-by-26-inch painting listed an extensive provenance, including an exhibition at Gerald Peters Gallery in Manhattan. A transitional painting that exhibits the Impressionistic period for the artist, it sold at $120,000. “Winter Connecticut,” also painted in 1910, had been exhibited at the Flint Institute of Arts, and listed a provenance of Babcock Galleries in New York City and David David in Philadelphia. The painting sold just below estimate at $45,600.
Greenwood Lake in northern New Jersey has been described as Hudson River School painter Jasper Cropsey’s “favorite and most important subject.” Cataloged as a rare vertical view, “Autumn View, Greenwood Lake,” signed and dated 1888, listed a long provenance and will also be included in the catalogue raisonné being compiled by the Newington-Cropsey Foundation. “With its gestural brush strokes, luminous colors and grand point of view, ‘Autumn View’ stands as evidence to the creative evolution of Cropsey’s landscapes and, in particular, those of Greenwood Lake,” stated the catalog. The handsome painting brought $132,000.
Other Hudson River School paintings included a small George Inness selling for $36,000, and a rare James Hart realizing $60,000.
In American Modernism, Rolph Scarlett was the talk of the auction, with six paintings selling for strong prices. The first of the lots to be offered would set the tone for the evening, with “Abstraction,” a 39-by-36-inch oil on canvas, garnering the most attention. Consigned from a Woodstock, N.Y. estate, the painting soared past the $15/25,000 estimate to bring a record price paid at auction of $78,000. From the same estate came another Scarlett abstract oil, with this one bringing $50,400. Another of the Scarletts to be sold was an untitled abstract paining that realized $28,800.
“Winter Scene,” a watercolor by Charles Burchfield that depicted a small snow-bound rural town, brought $43,200.
European works filled up the phone lines. The Italians were active, buying a view of Venice by Vincenzo Caprile for $78,000, a genre work by Luigi Chialiva at $72,000 and a Modernist collage by Conrad Marca-Relli for $31,200.
Two Orientalist works by the Polish artist Stephan Bakalowicz provided energy to the sale as they flew to a Russian buyer for $43,200 and $72,000.
There were 19 works consigned by a prestigious corporate collection and they all sold well, including an Eastman Johnson of the “Boyhood of Lincoln” going to an American museum for $90,000. Other lots from the collection included an early William Merritt Chase still life that was knocked down at $66,000, a classic Gari Melchers depicting a mother and child sold at $43,200, as did a scene with a wheel barrow of flowers by George Cochran Lambdin.
Bronze sculpture was quite popular, with two Western castings by Cyrus Dallin selling for $50,400 each, an Edward McCartan group brought $28,800, and two rare female figurative works by the master Paul Manship went out at $28,800 and $31,200.
Still life paintings by Levi Wells Prentice are always a favorite at Shannon’s and the two offered did not disappoint. Raspberries with a tin dish garnered $48,000, and “Pineapples and Currants” weighed in at $45,600.
Impressionism commanded the attention of American collectors, with a Walter Launt Palmer winter scene selling at $45,600, an early Charles Courtney Curran of a woman with colored yarn bringing $48,000, a small Dwight Tryon sunset scene selling for $31,200, and an Ernest Lawson winter landscape running up to $45,600.
There was something for everyone at this sale and not all were at high prices, and the quality was obvious in modest price ranges. A set of four Rockport oils by Antonio Cirino sold for $6,600, a variety of New York winter scenes by Johann Berthelsen ranged between $3,000 and $9,000, a Guy C. Wiggins landscape brought $10,800, a watercolor by Fairfield Porter made $4,200, a Charles Gruppe Dutch harbor scene was $3,000, a large Irene Rice Pereira realized $4,800, a Francois Regis Gignoux vista fetched $3,600, and a Francisco Zuniga sold for $4,800.
Shannon’s next auction is April 29. Consignments are accepted through the end of February. For further information, www.shannons.com or 203-877-1711.
