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A
SELECTION OF AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
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ROBERT BLUM
A visit by Robert Blum to the Japanese Pavilion at the Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition of 1876 sparked his interest in Japanese art. In
1890 he became one of the earliest American artists to visit Japan, when
he was commissioned by Charles Scribner and Sons to provide
illustrations for Scribner's Magazine to accompany articles by Sir Edwin
Arnold. After completing his assignment, he remained there, pursuing
his own work from March 1891 until the autumn of 1892. The important
body of work he created during this period established his reputation.
Blum was elected to membership in the National Academy of Design after
The Ameya (Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art) was well received
in its 1893 annual exhibition. Dating from the same period, The Silk
Merchant is included in the permanent collection of The Cincinnati Art
Museum, the largest public repository of Blum's work.
Painted in 1892, Cherry Blossoms appeared as an illustration in "An
Artist in Japan," a three-part article by Blum about his Japanese
sojourn that appeared in Scribner's Magazine the following year. A
symphony in pastels, the painting was exhibited the following year in
the fifteenth annual exhibition of the Society of American Artists.
In a review of the exhibition dated April 24, 1892, an anonymous
reviewer for The New York Times observed, "It is impossible to be long
in the galleries of the Fine Art Society examining the present show of
the American Impressionists without coming to the conclusion that the
Neo-Impressionist movement in France has been of benefit to painting..
It may have cost the followers of Monet the respect of their former
teachers and exposed them to the hootings of critics. But the net
results of the movement are certainly advantageous to painting in
general, because it has widened very greatly the scope of painting, and
widened it in a way that offers a chance for the play of sunlight and of
vivid colors in shadows as well as in sunshine itself." The writer
singled out the "extremely clever Japanese pictures of Mr. Robert Blum.,
" such as Flower Market, Tokyo and Cherry Blossoms, praising his "color
values and pleasing crisp drawing,. the novel scene and excellent
characterization of the people."
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Robert Blum
1857 -1903
Cherry Blossoms, 1892
Signed Blum (lr)
Oil on canvas
28 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches
Provenance:
The artist
Estate of the artist
Miss Flora de Stephano (later Mrs. William F. Mullins), 1903
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., until 1957
Private Collection
Berry-Hill Galleries, New York
Private Collection
Exhibited:
New York, Society of American Artists, Fifteenth Annual Exhibition, April 17 - May 13, 1893, no. 62
Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute, First Annual Exhibition, November 5, 1896 - January 1, 1897, no. 24
New York, Berlin Photographic Company, Memorial Loan Exhibition of the Works of Robert Frederick Blum, February 1913, no. 59
Pittsburg, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, An Exhibition of Works by Robert Blum, 1857-1903, January - February 18, 1923, no. 5.
New York, Hollis Taggart Galleries, American Artists in Japan, 1859-1925, May 21 - June 29, 1996, no. 25
Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, :'Impressionnisme Americain, 1880-1915, June 7 - Ocotober 20, 2002, no. 4
Literature:
William H. Gerdts, "Introduction" American Artists in Japan, 1859-1025, New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 1996, p. 7
Bruce Weber, Robert Frederick Blum (1857-1903) and His Milieu, Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 356, 358-359, 398; illustrated vol. 2, p. 718, fig. 280
Charles H. Caffin, Robert Frederick Blum,, International Studio 21 (December 1903), p. clxxxvii; illustrated.
Robert Blum, An Artist in Japan, Scribner's Magazine 13 (May 1893), p. 731, illustrated
Estimate: $500,000-700,000
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ANDREW NEWELL WYETH
The first side of this double-sided watercolor was completed at the farm
of Andrew Wyeth's Chadds Ford neighbor and friend, Adam Johnson.
Johnson and his farm were both favorite subjects for the artist.
Wyeth's watercolor, Mending Fences, 1960, depicts the farmer making
repairs on his property, and the painter also included him along with
friends and neighbors Karl and Anna Kuerner, Helga Testorf, Bill Loper,
and Allan Lynch in his iconic painting, Snow Hill (1989).
This important double-sided work presents a rare opportunity to acquire
a study by Wyeth for a major painting. The majority of his studies
remain in the possession of the Wyeth family. Study for Man and the
Moon depicts the ghostly, nude figure of Jimmy Lynch, a friend of the
artist, standing in the moonlight. The watercolor is an ode to their
friendship, inspired by the artist's recollections of youthful outings
through the countryside on warm summer nights.
The final tempera painting of Man and the Moon relates closely to the
watercolor, but also includes a glimpse of the rising moon at lower
right and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, headlight blazing. It is a
promised gift of the Crosby Kemper Foundations to the Kemper Museum of
Contemporary art in Kansas City, MS.
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Image available
upon request
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Andrew Newell Wyeth
b. 1917
Adam Johnson's Gatepost and Study for Man and the Moon: A double-sided work, executed in 1990 and 1991 respectively
Signed Andrew Wyeth and inscribed Study for Tempera (lr) [recto]; also inscribed 1988 13C (ul) [recto]; signed indistinctly Andrew Wyeth (ll) [verso]
Watercolor on paper
23 x 30 inches
Provenance:
Private Collection, Malvern, Pennsylvania
Private Collection, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Estimate: $250,000-350,000
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ALFRED THOMPSON BRICHER
This roseate light-infused seascape capturing a transcendent sky at
sunset relates closely to other works by Bricher dating between 1885 and
1891. While the inscription on the stretcher identifies the scene
depicted as Plymouth, it may actually be a composite image, a practice
not unusual for the artist. The composition, with an outcropping of
boulders in the foreground, a luminous body of water at center, and a
lighthouse perched on a spit of land in the distance, is characteristic
of his work. Lighthouses appear in numerous seascapes by Bricher
depicting the New England coastline at Scituate and Cohasset,
Massachusetts, as well as the coast of Maine. The Shattuck metal
stretcher wedges, patented by the artist Aaron Draper Shattuck and
commonly used by Bricher, bear the dates 1883 and 1885, supporting a
date of execution after those years.
We are grateful to Bricher scholar Jeffrey R. Brown for his assistance
in placing this seascape within the broader context of the artist's
work.
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Alfred Thompson Bricher
1837-1908
Afterglow, Low Tide, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Signed with conjoined initials ATBricher (lr); inscribed on the stretcher Afterglow/Low Tide - Plymouth/Mass. AT Bricher New York and dated indistinctly ...1
Oil on canvas
15 x 33 inches
Exhibited:
Portland, Maine, Baridoff Galleries, Painters of the Hudson River School, August 1983, no. 412.
Estimate: $50,000-70,000
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RAYMOND JONSON
Born in 1879 in Atchison, Kansas, Vera White Jonson was raised and
educated in Chicago. She was a member of Maurice Brown's Chicago Little
Theatre Company, where she met Raymond Jonson, who had moved to Chicago
in 1910 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute, and
had taken a position as the avant-garde company's art director. During
his four-year tenure at the theatre company from 1913-1917, Jonson
became internationally known for innovations in lighting.
Vera and Raymond Jonson wed on December 25, 1916. Painted within the
couple's first year of marriage, this is a lover's portrait. Dressed in
virginal white, the auburn-haired Vera lounges on tousled sheets, a
brilliantly hued bed throw and pastel-striped background providing
visual relief in an otherwise monochromatic composition. The minimal
aesthetic Jonson first expressed in experimental set design is reflected
in the present work.
In 1924, the Jonsons moved to Santa Fe, where Vera became known for her
poetry, theatrical activities and music, but especially for her musical
compositions, which included piano compositions for children.
We thank Shelley Sims, Jonson Gallery, University Art Museum, University
of New Mexico, Albuquerque for her assistance with research.
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Raymond Jonson
1891-1982
Portrait of Vera Jonson, 1917
Oil on canvas
40 x 60 inches
Signed and dated lower right: "Raymond Jonson 1917"
Inscribed and dated on verso: "Arrangement Harmonious/Oil 1917 40 x 60"
Provenance:
Private Collection, Tucson, Arizona
Exhibited:
United States Ambassadorial residence, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2001 - 2005
(organized by Art in Embassies Program, U.S. State Department).
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, "Art and Fashion:
Marie Antionette to Jackie Kennedy," May 28 - August 13, 2006.
Literature:
Art and Fashion: Marie Antionette to Jackie Kennedy (Roslyn Harbor, New
York: Nassau County Museum of Art, 2006), 46 (illus.).
Estimate: $30,000-50,000
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DAVID BURLIUK
After settling in America in the autumn of 1922, David Burliuk resided
in he section of New York City known today as the East Village. His
various studios there served as an important meeting place for many
artists, including Joseph Stella, Arshile Gorky, Raphael Soyer, Moses
Soyer, John D. Graham, Louis Lozowick and Stuart Davis. From 1923-1940,
Burliuk made his living as a proofreader and art editor for the New York
daily Russian newspaper Russkii Golos.
Painted four years after Burliuk became an American citizen, the scene
in Corner of 4th and the Bowery, may well have been observed from his
studio window. Here the artist employs the dazzling palette and
energized brushwork that would become his hallmark in America to
describe the hurly-burly vitality of the Lower East Side. In an
exquisite dialogue between past and present, carefully rendered
apartment buildings and storefronts abut a ramshackle colonial home, and
a horse-drawn delivery wagon shares the road with a small sedan as local
residents and shopkeepers fill the street.
Three other urban views by Burliuk were included in an April 1939
exhibition of his work at Boyer Galleries. In her essay for the
exhibition, Martha Davidson wrote: ". in the street and waterfront
scenes of New York, we have a homely, humorous genre, peopled by
gnome-like figures that are the creatures of Burliuk's world. Face and
hands, the most expressive parts of the human body, are made effectively
eloquent and individualized by their enlarged size and exaggerated
features and gestures. These figures, as the buildings, are solid three
dimensional forms existing in a changing atmosphere and deep space. On
the surface of these canvases Burliuk displays a harmony of vibrant hues
in which the scene is completely immersed. At other times he paints in
patches of dissonant colors, the synchrony of which is at once dynamic
and explosive. Distortions of form, heightened by the use of thick
impasto projecting in parts as relief, frequently lend fantasy to these
pictures that recall Russian folk art." (Burliuk, Boyer Gallery, New
York, 3 to 22 April 1939.)
Around 1940 Burliuk moved to Long Island, making his home in the hamlet
of Hampton Bays.
We thank Dr. Bruce Weber, Senior Curator, 19th Century Art, National
Academy Museum, New York, NY for generously sharing information about
Burliuk's life.
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David Burliuk
Russian/American, 1882-1967
Corner of 4th and the Bowery, 1934
Signed D. Burliuk (lr) and titled on an old label affixed to the stretcher
Oil on canvas laid to canvas, possibly by the artist
39 1/2 x 47 1/4 inches
Literature:
Salpeter, Harry. Burliuk: Wild Man of Art, July 1939, illus. p. 65
Dreier, Katherine S., Burliuk, 1944, illus. p. 121
Estimate: $80,000-120,000
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Frederic Remington
American, 1861-1909
The Potato Race
Signed Frederic Remington/Troop A (lr)
Wash on paper
13 1/2 x 10 inches
Estimate: $30,000-40,000
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Patrick Henry Bruce
1881-1937
Flowers, circa late 1909 - early 1910
Signed Bruce (ll)
Oil on canvas
14 7/8 x 18 inches
Provenance:
The artist
Mrs. Helen Kibbey Bruce
Collection of B.F. Garber, Marigot, St. Martin, circa 1960
Literature:
William C. Agee and Barbara Rose, Patrick Henry Bruce, American Modernist: a Catalogue Raisonne, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1979, no. B7, p. 159, illustrated
Estimate: $30,000-40,000
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Edward Lamson Henry
American, 1841-1919
Mr. and Mrs. Brett in a Surrey, 1889
Signed E.L. Henry and dated 1889 (ll)
Oil on canvas
29 1/4 x 39 inches
Estimate: $15,000-20,000
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Louis Henry Charles Moeller
American, 1855-1930
The Flaw in the Title
Oil on canvas
19 x 24 1/4 inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent to the present owner
Estimate: $25,000-35,000
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Aaron Harry Gorson
American, 1872-1933
Mills at Night: A Double-Sided Work
Signed A.H. Gorson (ll) and inscribed as titled on the reverse
Oil on canvas
28 1/2 x 36 1/4 inches
Estimate: $20,000-30,000
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Walter Williams
American, 1920-1998
A Quick Nap
Signed Walter Williams and dated '52 (lr)
Oil on canvas
24 x 30 inches
Estimate: $15,000-20,000
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Louis Comfort Tiffany
American, 1848-1933
Village Scene
Signed Louis C. Tiffany (lr)
Oil on canvas laid to panel
11 x 15 1/2 inches
Estimate: $15,000-25,000
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Charles Gifford Dyer
American, 1851-1912
Cairo - The Return of the Mahmal from Mecca
Oil on canvas
38 x 27 inches
Estimate: $10,000-15,000
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Grandma (Anna Robertson) Moses
American, 1860-1961
The Spirit of the Cider Barrel, 1940
Signed Moses. (ll); titled The Spririts of the Cider barrel and inscribed Moses 1940 on the reverse Oil on canvas laid to board
7 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches
Provenance:
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, no. 166
Literature:
Otto Kallir, Grandma Moses, New York, 1973, no. 100, illustrated
Estimate: $10,000-15,000
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Will Hickok Low
American, 1853-1932
Watering the Garden
Signed Will H. Low with conjoined middle and last initials, and dated 1890 (ll) Oil on canvas
21 x 28 1/4 inches
Estimate: $10,000-15,000
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Franz Josef Kline
American, 1910-1962
Studio with Easel (Alonzo Gasparo), 1941
Signed Franz Kline and dated 41 (ur) and signed on back with monogram and dated 41 and inscribed Alonzo Gasparo by Franz Kline
Oil on canvasboard
10 3/4 x 9 1/8 inches
Exhibited:
The Vital Gesture: Franz Kline in Retrospect, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art
Museum, November 27, 1985 - March 2, 1986; San Francisco, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, April 17, 1986 - June 8, 1986; Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, June 26, 1986 - September 28, 1986, cat. no. 3.
Estimate: $8,000-12,000
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Julian Onderdonk
American, 1882-1922
Sailing at Shinnecocke
Signed Julian Onderdonk (lr)
Oil on panel
5 5/8 x 8 3/4 inches
Estimate: $7,000-9,000
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