High Demand
Christie’s American Art sale
Although the fall auction season looked very different in Newyork City this year, the art was as exceptional as ever with noteworthy works from many categories of American art, from landscape and still life to Western and regionalism.as a result, Christie’s American art sale on October 28 achieved more than $3.7 million.
The top lot was Andrew Wyeth’s Crescent, a tempera work from 1987.The work, which could be displayed upside down as well, was estimated at $600,000 to $800,000. It sold just over those estimates at $810,000. Interest in the work was considerable since tempera works by Wyeth are somewhat rare at auction. Frederic Remington’s bronze The Mountain Man, one of the Western artist’s most famous sculpture pieces, sold for $400,000, well over its $250,000 high estimate. Another bronze in the top 10 lots was Elie Nadelman’s 1974 work Tango (est. $250/350,000) that sold for $250,000. Augustus Saint-gaudens had two major works in the sale: The Puritan (Samuel Chapin) (est. $200/300,000) that sold for $200,000 and the bas relief Robert Louis Stevenson (est. $120/180,000) that sold for $125,000.
The landscape category
saw three works sell: Daniel Garber’s June ($250/350,000) sold for $225,000, Fairfield Porter’s High Tide (est. $100/150,000) sold over estimates at $162,500 and Jasper Francis Cropsey’s Autumn on the Hudson River (est. $200/300,000) sold for $125,000. Other noteworthy lots were James Edward Buttersworth’s Hudson River Sloop Phillip R. Paulding (est. $250/350,000) that sold for $250,000, and works by Henry Farny, Grandma Moses, Milton Avery and studies by Norman Rockwell and Thomas Hart Benton. “In our October 28 American art auctions at Christie’s, we were delighted to see continued demand at all levels of the market. Following the fantastic results of The Legend of the West: Iconic Works from the T. Boone Pickens Collection earlier in the day, our various owner sale was led by Andrew Wyeth’s Crescent, which sold for $810,000 after competitive bidding drove the price above the pre-sale high estimate.
Depth of bidding in the sale remained strong, particularly for the genres of Western art, american modernism and illustration,” says Paige Kestenman, american art specialist at Christie’s. “we were very happy to once again welcome clients to Rockefeller Center to view the lots in our October auctions in person. In addition, we found that the enhanced digital features developed at Christie’s this year allowed many collectors to feel comfortable participating in the sales even if they were unable to visit Newyork City to see the lots as they usually would. From an interactive, online version of the presale exhibition, to superzoom and 360-degree photography and video content, our goal is to provide as immersive an experience as possible for online browsers. these initiatives have proven to be successful during this unusual year, and I believe will remain vitally important even as travel once again becomes more comfortable for collectors.”■