The Wild and the West
Important examples of wildlife andwestern art will be offered at the Jackson Hole Art Auction on September 13 and 14
Top Western art once returns to Jackson Hole,wyoming, the home of the Jackson Hole Art Auction.the annual sale, which arrives near the end of the city-wide Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, will again bring stunning Western, landscape, wildlife and sporting art to collectors.
This year nearly 500 works will cross the auction block, including many important examples of wildlife art.“this year’s sale is shaping up beautifully. I can say unequivocally that this is the strongest selection of wildlife art we’ve ever had, and wildlife art is our signature category. It’s really an astonishing collection of artwork,” says auction partner Roxanne Hofmann Mowery, who adds that many of the works are coming from three highly curated private collections that feature many works fresh to the market.
“The first session should be a lot of fun because it will have some great pieces there for emerging collectors, including some really amazing pieces with estimates below $25,000. And, of course, the second session has some pieces that are sure to be very exciting.” Mowery adds that the first session of the two-day sale will be offered with
no reserves.
Within the wildlife category, highlights include several major Carl Rungius paintings, the likely top lot being Alaskan Wilderness, a 40-by-50inch image of a moose amid fallen logs and a moss-covered boulder. It is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000. “Even though Rungius was born in Germany he became the most famous artist painting North America wildlife.this first one is just gorgeous with a really great provenance. It was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1924, and then in 1925 it was an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,” Mowery says.“it’s really a superlative example of some of his most mature, more impressionist style of work. It’s one of the masterworks of his career.”
The other highlight from the artist is the 1907 work A Mountain King, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000. Another wildlife work is Wilhelm Kuhnert’s Steppen brand, estimated at $70,000 to $100,000, that shows an elephant fleeing a brushfire as dark smoke dramatically fills the sky.
The American cowboy is another prominent category in the sale, and this year will be headlined by Thomas Hart Benton, the famous regionalist who captured American subjects throughout much of the 20th century. His 1931 work on paper, Cowboys at the Corral (est. $400/600,000), is likely to spark some fireworks, Mowery says.“this one is extremely rare. In 1930 he traveled to Wyoming because he was looking for inspiration in the West. He snuck into the Fourth of July rodeo posing as a reporter from the Denver Post and for several days he spent time sketching the cowboys he saw. He was fascinated with that part of the American West,” she says.“benton worked throughout the Great Depression, but unlike so many artists of the time, he didn’t seek support from the WPA simply because he achieved so much success, even during the Depression.” A second Benton piece in the sale is his 1950 oil Study for ‘Desert Still Life with Skull,’ estimated at $75,000 to $125,000.
Other works that will interest collectors include the Thomas Moran watercolor A Rock Strewn Coast (est. $20/30,000); Clark Hulings’ Mexican village scene Puerto Vallarta (est. $125/175,000);W.H.D. Koerner’s An Evening in Ironville (est. $20/30,000); Albert Bierstadt’s small work Grand Tetons (est. $20/30,000) and Oscar E. Berninghaus’ Riders – Taos, Early Spring (est. $70/100,000).