On Friday, May 12, Heritage Auctions showed real muscle and its own evolution in the American Art category with a tightly curated event that brought a frenzy of bidders and broke auction records for a handful of beloved artists.
“We took risks this season, getting out of our comfort zone by expanding into areas that are not traditionally in our wheelhouse,” says Aviva Lehmann, Heritage’s Senior Vice President of American Art. “And we did not disappoint. We continue to demonstrate our commitment to the American Art field, and this sale is just the beginning of great things to come.”
Proving its growth, Heritage’s average lot value in its American Art Signature events is now just under $100,000. On Friday, Diverse Visions: Important Works by American Masters Signature® Auction brought in $6,105,750. It took more than two hours to sell just 68 lots, with more than 500 bidders engaged. Works by familiar American greats, revisited stars, and increasingly desirable sleepers shaped an event that included Ernie Barnes, Arthur Wesley Dow, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Joseph Leyendecker, Charles White, and more.
Artists’ auction records are headline-makers, and Heritage broke three in one event. The painter George Tooker’s Sleepers I, from 1951, a tour de force of Magic Realism informed by canny neoclassical techniques (while remaining unequivocally modern) brought in $615,000 – a record for the artist. Arthur Wesley Dow’s 1912 painting Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona saw an auction record for the artist at $375,000. Dow’s surprising and dazzling work invokes his expansive trip out to the American West in 1911; he unveiled the Grand Canyon group in New York in April 1913. Emerson Burkhart’s 1943 painting Life of the Spirit is Elevated by Pain brought a new record for the artist at $68,750, and Roger Norman Medearis’ 1947 painting Milking Time brought $118,750, his second-highest auction price, missing his record by a hair.
The top lot in the sale was Theodore Robinson’s painting Normandy Mother and Child, from 1892. It stems from Robinson’s “Giverny period” – considered the timeframe of his strongest works – and melds a classic French Impressionist style with the American-favored subject of Normandy peasants. The hammer came down on that one at $645,000. Also bringing $645,000 was Ernie Barnes’ highly touted painting Quintet, circa 1989. Barnes’ work is increasingly sought-after for good reason. Quintet was originally exhibited in the fall of 1990 at New York’s Grand Central Art Galleries as part of Barnes’ solo exhibition The Beauty of the Ghetto.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, born on the Flathead Indian Reservation in St. Ignatius, Montana, in 1940 and of Salish, French-Cree, and Shoshone ancestry, is having a market moment (not to mention a current exhibition at the Whitney). Two of her paintings were top performers in the Friday auction: Her Night Catches Day from 1985 brought $447,000, and her Paper Doll from 1986 saw $337,500. Unsurprisingly the paintings are headed to a major American institution.
Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s cheeky summer of 1911 cover for The Saturday Evening Post titled Fourth of July brought $275,000, and Holocaust survivor Henry Koerner’s fascinating painting The Showboat, from 1948, sold for $262,500.
Other highlights of the March 12 event included Nicolai Fechin’s charming and intimate painting Taos Studio Interior, which sold for $237,500, and Hughie Lee-Smith’s oil-on-Masonite Seascape, from 1954, which sold for $206,250. Birger Sandzén had two standout moments in the event with Sea and Rocks, 1924, which went for $100,000, and Lake at Moonrise, Estes Park, Colorado, 1949, which brought $93,750.
“Bidder collectors from every arena participated in our American Art event on Friday,” says Lehmann. “Seasoned collectors, new collectors, institutions, and advisors from all across the country joined us to celebrate American Art at its best. We are thrilled to be considered a permanent presence on the American Art scene through our continuous offering of American Art at every price point and through our passion, expertise, scholarship, and record-breaking prices. We continue to solidify our position as a strong leader in the field, and we look forward to our June Showcase online auction, followed by another strong brick-and-mortar sale in November.”
Complete results on this event can be found at HA.com/8113.
