A Full Spectrum

Above-estimate sales and new auction records mark a $19 million American art sale at Sotheby’s

On May 21 Sotheby’s held its annual spring American art sale in New York City, a sale that generated $19 million and saw the setting of numerous new auction records.

The top lot was A Lake Twilight from Hudson River School painter Sanford Robinson Gifford.the dramatic luminist work, with subtle reflections on a lake’s surface and a figure with a boat in the foreground, had a high estimate set at $1.8 million, an estimate that was easily smashed as the piece soared to $2.9 million, breaking a 14-year auction record for the 19th-century painter. Noman Rockwell had two works within the top 10 sales: Little Boy Writing Letter (est. $1/1.5 million) that sold for $1.7 million, and Christmas Homecoming (est. $400/600,000) that sold for $800,000, which set a record for a Rockwell work on paper.

Two other noteworthy record breakers were Jacob Lawrence’s The Carpenters (est. $500/700,000), that sold for $980,000, breaking a record for a work on paper by the Newyork artist; and Hale Woodruff ’s Picking Cotton (est. $600/800,000) sold for $764,000, more than tripling a 2018 record for a Woodruff piece. Lawrence

and Woodruff, both prominent black artists from the mid-20th century, also commanded significant places in the list of top 10 lots at the fourth and eighth slots. Other works that performed stronger were Milton

Avery’s Two Figures on Beach, estimated at $1.2 million to $1.8 million.the modern piece, made with essentially half a dozen different colors and forms, sold for $1.94 million. Georgia O’keeffe’s Waterfall No. 2, Īao Valley (est. $500/700,000) sold for $932,000, and Maxfield

Parrish’s vibrant landscape scene Village School House

(est. $700/1,000,000) sold for $884,000.

Additional top lots were by Francis Augustus Silva, N.c.wyeth and Grant Wood. “The top prices in today’s sale demonstrate a demand for fresh-tomarket property, whether emerging from exceptional estate collections such as Milton Avery’s Two

Figures on Beach formerly in the collection of Elaine Attias, or tucked away for decades in distinguished private collections such as Norman Rockwell’s

Little Boy Writing Letter,” says Kayla Carlsen, head of Sotheby’s American art department.“we were especially pleased to see 19th-century landscape pictures perform well today, led by the record-setting work by Sanford Robinson Gifford that was the highlight of a distinguished group of Hudson River School paintings.we are also encouraged to see a number of participants new to our category acquiring top works, across the full spectrum of genres.”

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880), A Lake Twilight, 1861. Oil on canvas, 161/8 x 28 ¼ in., signed and dated lower right: ‘SR Gifford.’, ‘1861’; inscribed in another hand on label affixed to stretcher: ‘Twilight In the Green Mountains. Vt. by/s.r Gifford New York’. Artist World Auction Record. Estimate: $1.2/1.8 million SOLD: $2.9 million

Hale Aspacio Woodruff (1900-1980), Picking Cotton, ca. 1926. Oil on Masonite, 36 x 72 in. Artist World Auction Record. Estimate: $600/800,000 SOLD: $764,000

Milton Avery (1885-1965), Two Figures on Beach, 1950. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., signed and dated lower right: ‘Milton Avery’,‘1950’; inscribed in another hand verso: ‘TWO FIGURES on Beach/by/milton Avery/1950’. Estimate: $1.2/1.8 million SOLD: $1.94 million

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Little Boy Writing Letter, 1920. Oil on canvas, 261/8 x 231/8 in., signed lower right: ‘Norman/ Rockwell’. Estimate: $1/1.5 million SOLD: $1.7 million

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), The Carpenters, 1946. Gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper, 19½ x 25½ in., signed and dated lower right: ‘Jacob Lawrence’, ‘1946’. Estimate: $500/700,000 SOLD: $980,000