The Old West
Western works from icons of the genre are among highlights of the 34th annual Coeur d’alene Art Auction on July 27
July 27, 2019
Coeur d’alene Art Auction Grand Sierra Resort & Casino 2500 E. Second Street
Reno, NV 89595 t: (208) 772-9009 www.cdaartauction.com
Western art in all its varieties— cowboys and cavalry, Native Americans, wildlife and expansive landscapes of the West—returns July 27 for the annual Coeur d’alene Art Auction at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, Nevada.the auction
house, which has produced more than $300 million in sales over the last 15 years, is bringing collectors a stunning variety of major Western works at a high point for the market.
“The market seems very solid this year based on everything we’ve seen in the spring sales. Right now there’s nothing on the horizon that has given us any pause, which is a great place to be in before our sale,” says auction partner Mike Overby.“and the works are really something else.this is the best sale we’ve put together in a decade—just a really nice sale.”
Three prominent collections featured in this year’s sale are the John J.“jack” Mitchell Collection; a private collection focused mostly on Taos, New Mexico; and the William P. Healey Collection of John Fery paintings, which will get its very own dedicated sale that begins at 10 a.m. before the main sale on July 27. Mitchell, a cofounder of United Airlines, started acquiring Western artworks in the 1930s. He died in 1985, and Overby has been working with his estate for a number of years to get several key pieces from the collection. Two major highlights from the Mitchell collection come from Western art’s most iconic artists: Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington.the Russell is a 1911 watercolor and gouache titled Creased, estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, and features a hunter who has
shot at and only knicked, or “creased,” a charging bull elk.whatever calamity happens next is entirely up to the viewer.
“It vividly demonstrates Russell’s skill as a watercolorist in full control of his medium as he creates another heartpounding action painting.a wounded elk’s dying lunge is the subject, and Russell’s dynamic composition reinforces the inherent drama,” Russell scholar Brian W. Dippie writes in the catalog. “He organizes his picture’s elements in the form of a wedge. Its left side is a diagonal slash created by a chain of interlocked figures receding into space, reaching from the foreground and the elk, seen from the rear, fallen literally at the feet of the hunter who, rocked backwards by its final charge, faces forward, his expression registering his close brush with death, while his frantic horse behind, staked to the ground when the hunter dismounted to take his shot, recoils from the frenzied action.the right side of the wedge is created by the packhorse dragged towards the turmoil by its lead rope tied to the hunter’s saddle horn. Every element in the picture is integrated to maximize its impact–– even the mountain range stretching serenely across the background…from conception to execution, Creased is a masterful achievement.”
The Remington piece is Casuals on the Range, also estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, and was painted the year of Remington’s death in 1909.“It’s not often you get a full-color oil come to the market like this, especially one with this date. By 1905 and 1906, Remington had moved away from illustrative work and was purely doing easel work,” Overby says.“to find one of these later impressionist-period works is very rare.” Remington scholar Peter H. Hassrick writes in the catalog on the piece:“this oil is one of about 20 narrative paintings Remington completed in his final year of life. It was a canvas that he created expressly for a client in Chicago,winfield Scott Thurber, who ran an art gallery by that name and was possibly a childhood friend of Remington’s…the style and technique employed in this work show Remington at his mature best.the backdrop of sage prairie and bluffs is broadly brushed in a muted, impressionist mode, which makes the vigorously articulated figures stand out.their forms literally vibrate on the canvas, a result that pleased Remington greatly in these years and that lends vivacity and drama to what might otherwise be regarded as a
somewhat mundane narrative.”
Other noteworthy subjects include New Mexico and many of its most popular destinations, especially in the private collection that focuses on materials related to Taos. One highlight isvictor Higgins’ Taos in Winter, an oil estimated at $400,000 to $600,000.
The dramatic winter painting shows Higgins’ modernist approach to the Taos landscape and the weather that could accumulate above it in extraordinary formations. Joseph Henry Sharp will be represented by three major works, including the teepee scene Crow Encampent, estimated at $300,000 to $500,000.The other Sharp paintings are Autumnal Tepees, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, and At a Pueblo Window, estimated at $60,000 to $90,000.
Other Taos works include Laverne Nelson Black’s Taos (est. $100/150,000), Eanger Irving Couse’s Spirit of the Pool (est. $100/150,000),Walter Ufer’s The Song of the Olla (est. $80/120,000), three exceptional pieces by E. Martin Hennings ranging in estimates from $30,000 to $90,000, and Theodore
Van Soelen’s Adobe, Snow and Sunshine (est. $50/75,000). Overby adds that, although the estimate is modest, the Van Soelen work is one of the best pieces to come to auction from the artist in many years and the auction house has already seen significant interest in the 1926 painting.
The auction will also feature Rosa Bonheur’s Bison in the Snow – Migrations de Bison Amerique, estimated at $300,000 to $500,000.The French artist never traveled to the United States, but painted this bison scene after becoming friends with Buffalo Bill Cody, who was touring through Europe with his Wild West show.“she would have surely painted it with input from him,” Overby says.“not only are we seeing interest for this painting in the United States, but also internationally as well.” Additional key works are Frank Weston Benson’s Down the Rapids (est. $60/90,000), Edgar Payne’s Riders in Canyon de Chelly (est. $200/300,000), Carl Rungius’ Near Summit Lake, British Columbia (est. $250/350,000), and
Leon Gaspard’s Market in Russia (est. $60/90,000).