|
A
SELECTION OF AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
|
THOMAS NAST (1840-1902)
Shortly after it was exhibited in Chicago in 1866, The Halt (also exhibited as The Drink of Water) by Thomas Nast was vividly described in The Chicago Tribune: A pleasant farm-house, shaded with vines; a tired soldier, leaning upon his gun, taking a cup of water from the farmer's wife - the children looking on in youthful wonder; you can not see their faces, but you know how they look. A little farther on a soldier sitting down tantalizing a dog; a splendid distance and background, with a baggage-wagon and soldiers, beautifully drawn foliage, and delicious bits of sky. Such is Thomas Nast's Soldier's Halt.
Dressed in a uniform identifying him as a member of the 1st Division of the VI Army Corps, the soldier wears what appears to be a New York State jacket, piped around the collar in sky blue, the branch color for infantry. His weapon appears to be an early model US martial percussion musket; weapons such as these were carried by members of the regular US Army Invalid Corps or Army Reserve Corps.
Today remembered as the father of the American political cartoon, Thomas Nast painted The Halt (The Drink of Water) at the age of twenty-four, while working as a battlefield artist and correspondent for Harper's Weekly during the Civil War. Careful to document details of the war, Nast filled sketchbooks with drawings of officers and enlisted men, and saved carte-de-visite photographs of camps and battlefields. First hired by Harper's Weekly in 1862, Nast drew several thousand cartoons for the magazine over a period of twenty-five years. By the end of the war, his sketches of life at the front and his political caricatures would make him a nationally known figure. A Radical Republican and an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause, he employed allegory and melodrama to convey his message. In September 1864, one month following the completion of The Halt (The Drink of Water), Nast enlisted as a private in the Seventh "G" Company of the Seventh Regiment of New York (7th Regt. NYNG) in September 1864; he was discharged in September 1871.
As The Halt (The Drink of Water) makes clear, Nast was a serious artist whose work reflects his studies with the history painter Theodore Kaufmann and at the school of the National Academy of Design. His canvas Departure of the Seventh Regiment for the Seat of War hangs in the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City. Other Civil War subjects by Nast are included in the permanent collections of the Chicago Historical Society, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Union League Club, New York, N.Y.
We are most grateful to James McElhinney for his thorough analysis of the military dress so carefully rendered by Nast.
|
|
|
Lot 1231
Thomas Nast
American, 1840-1902
The Halt (The Drink of Water), 1864
Signed Th: Nast and dated 8/64 (lr)
Oil on canvas
26 1/8 x 36 inches
Provenance:
Private Collection, New York
The Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons
Exhibited:
Chicago, 1866 (cf. Harper's Weekly, 30 June 1866, Vol. X, No. 496, 1)
Picturing History: American Painting, 1770-1930 (circulated by the American Federation of Arts to the IBM Gallery of Science and Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami; the Phoenix Art Museum, September 1993 - November 1994)
Morristown, New Jersey, Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, Thomas Nast & The Glorious Cause, February 4 - May 5, 1996
Literature:
Harper's Weekly, 30 June 1866, Vol. X, No. 496, 1, illustrated (as The Halt)
The Chicago Tribune, as cited in Harper's Weekly, 30 June 1866, Vol. X, No. 496, 1
Harold Holzer, Thomas Nast & The Glorious Cause, Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, Morristown, New Jersey, 1996 (as The Halt)
Estimate: $60,000-80,000
Sold for $252,000
A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
|
|
JESSIE WILCOX SMITH (1863-1935)
Renowned for her idyllic images of childhood, Jessie Wilcox Smith achieved widespread success during the golden age of illustration, illustrating over forty children's books and working for publications such as Century, Collier's Weekly and Scribner's Magazine. Preferring to work with the children of her friends rather than professional models, she portrayed them with keen sensitivity to mood and expression. Briefly pursuing a career as a kindergarten teacher in Ohio, she evidently had a great affinity for children, although she never married and never had children of her own.
Discovering a love of drawing, Smith commenced studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying there with Thomas Anshutz, Thomas Eakins and Robert Vonnoh. Her first published illustration appeared in May 1888 in St. Nicholas Magazine, while she was still a student. Graduating the same year, she accepted a position in the advertising department of the Ladies Home Journal. Further studies at Drexel Institute in 1894 with the accomplished illustrator Howard Pyle led to a commission to illustrate Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as well as lifelong friendship and professional collaboration with classmates Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley.
From 1917 through 1932, Smith illlustrated covers exclusively for Good Housekeeping Magazine. Little Mother appeared on the cover of the June 1922 issue. The painting was reproduced the following year in A Very Little Child's Book of Stories, which was reissued in 1990. Endearing images such as this composition, capturing the quintessential moments of childhood, contributed to Smith's tremendous popularity. S. Michael Schnessel writes, "In her life and in her work, it was the ideal that predominated, and the ideal child is the legacy left us by this remarkable artist."
|
|
|
Lot 1248
Jessie Willcox Smith
American, 1863-1935
Little Mother, circa 1922
Signed Jessie Willcox Smith (ll), inscribed with artist's name and title on two old labels affixed to reverse of frame
Oil and charcoal on board
19 x 16 inches
Literature:
Good Housekeeping Magazine, June 1922, cover illustration
Ada M. Skinner and Eleanor L. Skinner, comps. A Very Little Child's Book of Stories. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1923, reissued in 1980 by Children's Classics, illustrated
S. Michael Schnessel, Jessie Willcox Smith, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, 1977, no. 81, p. 120, illustrated
Estimate: $70,000-90,000
Sold for $132,000
|
|
|
Lot 1279
Robert Henri
American, 1865-1929
Boulevard Montparnasse - The Cloud, 1898
Numbered 57/72 and inscribed Robert Henri on the reverse; further inscribed Robert Henri/19 Gramercy Park/New York City on the back of the frame; and Robert Henri and Cloud Bd. Montparnasse and Paris/Evening on Bd. Montparnasse on the stretcher; and Evening Cloud Effect Bd. Montparnasse, Paris/Robert Henri/58 W. 57 N.Y. city on the stretcher
Oil on canvas
25 3/4 x 32 1/8 inches
Provenance:
Amy Vanderbilt
Exhibited:
New York, The New York Cultural Center in Association with Fairleigh Dickenson University, Robert Henri: Painter-Teacher-Prophet, October 14 - December 14, 1969
Literature:
Alfredo Valente, Robert Henri: Painter-Teacher-Prophet, The New York Cultural Center in Association with Fairleigh Dickenson University, October 14 - December 14, 1969, p. 20, illustrated
Estimate: $25,000-45,000
Sold for $78,000
|
|
|
Lot 1242
David Howard Hitchcock
American, 1861-1943
Sunrise Glow on Mount Loa from Waialua River, Hilo
Signed D. Howard Hitchcock and inscribed H.I. (ll); inscribed
indistinctly on an old label affixed to the stretcher Sunrise Glow ...n M... Loa/from Waialua River,/Hilo
Oil on canvas
14 1/4 x 20 1/8 inches
Estimate: $20,000-30,000
Sold for $72,000
|
|
|
Lot 1287
William H. Johnson
American, 1901-1970
Untitled (Street in Cagnes-sur-Mer)
Oil on canvas
28 x 23 1/8 inches
Estimate: $60,000-80,000
Sold for $48,000
|
|
|
Lot 1272
Reynolds Beal
American, 1867-1951
Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, 1930
Signed Reynolds Beal and dated 1930 (lr)
Oil on masonite
23 3/4 x 30 inches
Provenance:
Beacon Hill Fine Art, New York
Exhibited:
Montclair, New Jersey, Montclair Art Museum, Reynolds Beal, January 9 - February 13, 1972
Literature:
Bressler, Sidney. Reynolds Beal: Impressionist Landscapes and Seascapes, 1989, cat. no. 43, illus. p. 156.
Property from the Estate of Ernest Shapiro
Estimate: $30,000-50,000
Sold for $48,000
|
|
|
Lot 1222
Albert Bierstadt
American, 1830-1902
Portion of the Jungfrau from Grindelwald, 1867
Signed ABierstadt. (ll); inscribed as titled and dated 1867 on an old label affixed to the stretcher
Oil on paper laid down on canvas
19 3/8 x 13 3/4 inches
Provenance:
Marbella Gallery, New York, as Mountain Landscape
Estimate: $25,000-35,000
Sold for $30,000
|
|
|
Lot 1216
Rembrandt Peale
American, 1778-1860
Portrait of Miss Pratt, 1835-36
Oil on canvas
35 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches
Provenance:
Commissioned by the artist from John Pratt
Schneider Estate
Sold, Parke-Bernet, October 14, 1953, lot 64
Exhibited:
Boston, Massachussetts, Harrison Gray Otis House (before 1953)
Literature:
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, Sale Catalogue 1453, October 14, 1953, lot 64, p. 25, illustrated
Estimate: $8,000-12,000
Sold for $28,800
|
|
|
Lot 1273
Jonas Lie
American, 1880-1940
Central Park Bridge in Winter
Signed -JONAS LIE- (lr)
Oil on canvas
25 1/8 x 36 inches
Estimate: $20,000-30,000
Sold for $24,000
|
|
|
Lot 1244
Charles Ethan Porter
American, 1847-1923
Carnations and Roses in a Glass Vase
Signed C.E. Porter (lr)
Oil on canvas
16 x 12 inches
Estimate: $7,000-9,000
Sold for $21,600
|
|
|
Lot 1234
Charles Dormon Robinson
American, 1847-1933
Yosemite Valley, 1886
Signed with monogramed first initials CD Robinson, inscribed and dated
Yosemite 1886 (lr)
Oil on canvas
38 1/2 x 64 inches
Estimate: $4,000-6,000
Sold for $21,600
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
