EUROPEAN, AMERICAN, MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
Auction
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 11amCONSIGNMENTS ARE CURRENTLY
BEING ACCEPTED
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Anne Cohen DePietroDirector, American Paintings
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Including Property From
A New Jersey EstateCollection of Candice Bergen
Estate of a Private Collector
Estate of a Titled Lady
Estate of Barbara Weiden Schwartz Fischler
Estate of Eleanor Kingsbury
Estate of Jacqueline Arango
Estate of John M. and Harriet D. Cuddihy
Estate of M. Michael Eisenberg
Estate of Robert C. Graham, Sr.
Estate of Sonny Turner
Estate of Sydney L. Shaper
Estate of William Bedford Lloyd
Property from a New York City Collection
Property is being sold to benefit the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation
Property of a Private Collector
Property of a Prominent Philadelphia Collector
The Joanne Melniker Stern Collection
The Keith Irvine Collection
The Marilyn & Michael Gould Collection
RELATED ARTICLES
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James Abbott McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903 White and Pink (The Palace) Signed with the artist's butterfly...
/carousels/1823/849276.jpgSold for $650,500
PASTEL BY WHISTLER SELLS FOR A RECORD $650,500 AT DOYLE NEW YORK'S AMERICAN ART AUCTION ON MAY 9, 2012
World Auction Record for a Work on Paper by Whistler
View of a Venetian Palazzo on the Grand Canal Had Descended in the Family of Louisine and Henry O. Havememer
We Invite You to Contact Us for a Complimentary Auction Evaluation of Your American Art
Doyle New York's auction of American Art on May 9, 2012 offered important paintings and sculpture by American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
With competitive international bidding from buyers in the salesroom, on the telephones and via the Internet, the sale totaled $1,426,719 surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $687,300-1,038,200 with an exceptional 88% sold by lot and 96% by value.
Highlighting the sale was an important pastel by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903) titled White and Pink (The Palace) that depicted the façade of a Venetian palazzo on the Grand Canal. Estimated at $100,000-150,000, the work sold to a bidder in the salesroom for a staggering $650,500 – setting a new world auction record for a work on paper by Whistler.
Whistler first visited Venice in September 1879 and fell in love with the city. He created one hundred pastels, which he described as being "totally new and of a brilliancy very different from the customary watercolor." In 1881, the prominent American collector Louisine Havemeyer (Mrs. Henry O. Havemeyer) visited Whistler in his studio and purchased a number of Venetian pastels. White and Pink (The Palace) was consigned to the sale by a descendant of the Havemeyers.
Exceptional prices were also achieved for works by Guy Pene du Bois, Dale William Nichols, Paul Kelpe and Ilya Bolotowsky, in addition to an auction record being set for the artist Edward Gay.
All prices include the Buyer's Premium.
NEXT AMERICAN ART AUCTION: FALL 2012
Doyle New York's next auction of European Art is scheduled for Fall 2012. Consignments are currently being accepted. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection. For information, please call Ann DePietro at 212-427-4141, ext. 249, or email paintings@DoyleNewYork.com
Images and interviews are available upon request.
MEDIA CONTACT
Louis LeB. WebreSVP, Marketing & Media
212-427-4141, ext 232
Louis@DoyleNewYork.com
| Lot 341 James Abbott McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903 White and Pink (The Palace) Signed with the artist's butterfly device (rc) Chalk and pastel on gray paper 7 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches Provenance: Louisine and Henry O. Havemeyer, by descent to their daughter Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen, by descent to her son The Honorable Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen, by descent to his son Peter Frelinghuysen Exhibited: London, The Fine Art Society, Venice Pastels, Jan.1881, no. 15 (as The Palace; white and pink) Boston, Copley Society, Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings - Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Feb. 1904, no. 123 (as The Palace - Pink and White New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, Mar. 27-Jun. 20, 1993, no 518 Literature: Godwin, E. W. "With Whistler's Critics," British Architect, 25. Feb. 1881, pp. 98-99 St. James's Gazette, 9 Feb. 1881 Way, T. R., Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, illus. facing p. 52 Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art, Part II, Paintings and Pastels, Collections of the Havemeyer Family, privately printed for Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1931, p. 439 Weitzenhoffer, Francis, The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America, New York, 1986, p. 159 Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., The Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, exhi. cat. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993), cat. no. 518, pp 383-84, illus. p. 383. Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonne, New Haven and London, 1995, pp. 277, 278, M. 758, illus. Margaret F. MacDonald, Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001, p. 105, illus. James Abbott McNeill Whistler first visited Venice in September, 1879, bankrupt but hoping to restore his reputation and his fortune by completing a commission for twelve etchings. He fell in love with the city, especially its backwater canals and decaying palazzi, and remained for fourteen months. While there Whistler completed fifty etchings-far more than the number for which he had been commissioned-as well as one hundred pastels, which he described in a letter to his dealer as being "totally new and of a brilliancy very different from the customary watercolor." Described by Whistler's friend, E. W. Godwin, as "a bright sunny bit of an old palace," [Glasgow University Library, Whistler Collection, as quoted in Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonne, p. 277] White and Pink (The Palace) is alive with color and spontaneity. It depicts the facade of a Venetian palazzo, with gondolas awaiting passengers at the water's edge. On the reverse is the merest wisp of a sketch. In 1881, the prominent American collector Louisine Havemeyer visited Whistler in his studio and purchased a number of Venetian pastels that she eventually gave to the Detroit collector, Charles Lang Freer. These are now included in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It is not known if the present work was acquired on that occasion. It was first exhibited in London in 1881 and was certainly owned by Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Haveyeyer by 1904, when it was lent by H. O. Havemeyer, Esq. for exhibition in Boston, then identified as The Palace - Pink and White. Margaret F. MacDonald described the frames for his exhibition of fifty-three pastels at the Fine Art Society: "Whistler designed the frames, with slim bands of reeding either side of a flat fillet, in three shades of gold (yellow, pink and green): 'now "old gold" and now gold of almost a silvery complexion, to suit the scheme of color adopted in his pictures.' The Palace; white and pink, for example, suited a warm gold frame, while a yellow gold frame set off the cooler color of Fishing Boats." [Margaret F. MacDonald, Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, p. 99] It is conceivable that the frame on the present work, which corresponds so closely to the description, may be original to the piece. C Sold For $650,500 A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A WORK ON PAPER BY WHISTLER |
