Into the Wild
Wildlife and Western works shine bright at the annual Jackson Hole Art Auction
On September 13 and 14, the Jackson Hole Art Auction returned to Wyoming for its 13th annual sale. Hosted by Trailside Galleries and Gerald Peters Gallery, the sale realized more than $5.6 million in sales, with an 84 percent sell-through rate. The top lot was Carl Rungius’ Alaskan Wilderness, a work of a moose on top of a bare ridgeline with a terrific view out over the valley below it.the painting was estimated at $400,000 to $600,000, and surpassed those numbers when it closed at $642,500. It is now the second-best selling piece by Rungius to come up for auction—his top lot was set in 2006 at $952,000.A second Rungius that performed strongly was Timber (est. $150/250,000), another moose scene, which sold for $105,300. Additionally, a number of Rungius etchings, highly collectible by wildlife enthusiasts, all sold well with multiple bidders for each lot. A number of Bob Kuhn pieces sold within the top
10, including The Look Before the Leap (est. $100/200,000) that sold for $180,000 and Cat on the Qui Vive (est. $150/250,000), which sold for $175,500.
Other standouts were William R. Leigh’s Faithful (est. $200/300,000), which sold for $175,500, and Charles M. Russell’s Christmas-themed The
Three Wise Men, which sold for $169,650, just below its $200,000 low estimate. Additionally, Olaf Wieghorst’s The Last March, sold for $93,600, well above its $75,000 high estimate. Other artists represented in the sale included William Gollings, Leon Gaspard, Oscar Berninghaus, Gerald Cassidy, Joseph Henry Sharp, Edgar Payne, albert Bierstadt and William Bradford.
Auction partner
Roxanne Hofmann Mowery says that attendance and participation in this year’s sale was high, and shows promising signs to continue that trend. “attendance continues to grow as the auction is a signature of the Jackson Hole Fine Arts Festival and the two-day event is a definitive destination auction,” she says. “this year we added our own Jackson Hole Art Auction app. with this clients could bid remotely, and because of this, we saw a surge of new buyers that had not previously bid and bought at the auction. very exciting!”