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SCOTTSDALE, AZ SCOTTSDALE ART AUCTION JANUARY 19-20 Leanin’ Tree Museum Collection
This January 19 and 20, Scottsdale Art Auction will bring to market an unprecedented grouping of artwork in its Scottsdale, Arizona, showroom for the Leaning Tree’ Museum Collection sale.the auction, featuring more than 500 lots, is the chance for collectors to acquire museum-quality work from the recently closed Leanin’
Tree Museum of Western Art of Boulder, Colorado. The museum’s collection, put together by founder Ed Trumble, was last seen by the public on Labor Day, the last public exhibition day for the now-shuttered museum that opened in 1974 as part of the Leanin’ tree greeting card company, which will continue operating. In March, the then-92-year-old Trumble sent a letter to his friends and patrons indicating the museum would be closed and the collection sold.
Major highlights in the sale include Gerard Curtis Delano’s Dineah, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.
The image, richly colored with Delano’s smooth and consistent brushstrokes, shows two Navajo riders amid a desolate desert scene. “this is a very special painting.
Even the artist thought it was one of his very best,”
Brad Richardson, partner of Scottsdale Art Auction, says of the work.
A major grouping of works will be available from Kenneth Riley, whose Leanin’ Tree pieces represent some of his major masterpieces, including works such as Dance Progressions (est. $75/125,000), Ceremonial Regalia (est. $75/125,000) and Homage to Catlin (est. $75/125,000), which shows painter George Catlin painting a Native American chief inside a teepee with several onlooking Native figures.
The James Reynolds works should also attract attention, with a Native American group of riders featured in The Board of Directors (est. $45/65,000) and a solitary cowboy with several horses in The Loner
(est. $30/50,000).
BOSTON, MA SKINNER, INC. JANUARY 26 American & European Works of Art
Skinner, Inc. will host its American & European Works of Art sale on January 26 featuring two distinct sessions of artwork: one dedicated to prints and a second for paintings and sculpture.
The prints segment is highlighted by a collection of eight lithographs by Aschan School artist George Bellows, who began making prints in 1916. One of his most common and popular subject matters is boxing scenes, with three included in this grouping. Of the highest estimated lot, the auction house writes, “preliminaries of 1916 is one of his earliest boxing subject lithographs and is the only one to include women. It is also one of the few that takes the focus off of the boxers and turns it onto the audience.the central figure is elegantly attired in a long gown and stares out directly at us. Her companions, both male and female, are well heeled, and the setting is Madison Square Garden in Newyork.” the work is estimated at $15,000 to $25,000.
Leading the paintings category is an illustration by N.c. wyeth titled Wallace draws the King’s sword, which was done for the Scribner’s classic The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.the works were created around 1921 for the first edition of her novel. this particular piece, estimated to achieve $150,000 to $250,000, was once in the collection of Charles Scribner’s sons and descended within the family of the publisher to its current owner.
In the catalog essay, the auction house shares, “The scene depicts a pivotal moment in the life of Sir William Wallace, a Scottish knight and leader during the Wars of Scottish Independence, who defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge September 1927.The dramatic scene shows Wallace, faced with the splintering alliance and betrayal of fellow Scottish chieftans who mean to take him prisoner, drawing the sword he had captured from Edward I at Stirling, and shouting,‘ he that first make a stroke at me shall find his death on this Southron steel! This sword I made the arm of the usurper yield to me; and this sword shall defend the regent of Scotland.’”
CHARLESTON, SC COPLEY FINE ART AUCTIONEERS FEBRUARY 16 Winter Sale
On February 16, decoy and sporting art auction house Copley Fine Art Auctions will hold their annual Winter Sale at the American Theater in Charleston, South Carolina. The sale, which happens concurrently with the Southeastern Wildlife Exhibition, will offer paintings and fine bird carvings. Included are important paintings and works on paper, such as a pair of hunting dog oils by Gustav Muss-arnolt; etchings by Frank W. Benson from the Ernest Kramer Collection of American Prints; and exemplary works by sporting art masters George Browne, Robert K. Abbett and ornithological painter Francis Lee Jaques, among others.
The auction will take place at 11 a.m.
Benson’s offering, Candlelight, is one of the most intimate and rare of his etchings and drypoints. Though many of his prints are of waterfowl and hunting settings, this work captures his close observation of a gentle family interior scene. Benson’s dynamic investigation of intaglio print technique is apparent, and Adam E. M. Paff, author of the Benson print catalogue raisonné, notes, “The subject is Benson’s wife Ellen combing her hair in their bedroom at Wooster Farm on North Haven Island, Maine.” The piece, which was done in 1915, has a presale estimate of $10,000 to $20,000.