Scottsdale Art Auction
Scottsdale, AZ
Like most auction houses, the Scottsdale Art Auction has seen an upward tick when it comes to online bids, and this year will likely be no exception to that rising trend. But auction partner Brad Richardson, who is thrilled to see more bidders getting comfortable with online bidding, also offers this word of advice: nothing beats being in the room during an art auction.
“When you’re buying an important painting or sculpture, you want to see it in person, and we see that over and over again with some of our best collectors—they just want to be in the room to see it all happen,” he says. “And when you add 500 other bidders in the room, it can get very exciting very quickly.”
It’s that excitement that has made the Scottsdale Art Auction one of the must-see events in the Western art world. The auction room is full. The seats are filled. People pace nervously in the back waiting for their lots. There are gasps when a flurry of bids come in. And applause when records are broken. Sometimes the artists show up, and cheer along as their works are sent off to their new owners. Midway through there are cookies.
All of this returns on April 4 when the
Scottsdale Art Auction offers 377 Western lots across two sessions— Session I starts at 9 a.m. and Session II at 12:30 p.m. This year’s sale will once again feature a variety of artwork across many categories— cattle and cowboys, Native American, landscapes, sporting and wildlife—from artists of all kinds, including many of the Western greats who command huge numbers at auction.
“We have a great number of amazing works of art this year, including some really important works from artists like Maynard Dixon, as well as the artists of Taos, New Mexico,” says Richardson. “This year we had to really put the brakes on the works we were bringing in because we took in too many. But we kept
getting these great pieces. It’s hard to turn them down when they’re all so amazing.”
Richardson says the Dixon works are especially noteworthy for this year’s sale, and they come from all around the country from multiple consignors. Important highlights include Neolithic Afternoon, showing two figures perched atop a cluster of boulders in the afternoon sun. The figures—one appears to be female, and both are nude—have a slumped shape to their forms and blend into the composition in such a way that not every viewer of the painting will see the figures at first glance. “Neolithic Afternoon is truly a very important piece. It’s simply stunning,” Richardson says. “It will join some other Dixon works—13 in all—including drawings, watercolors and illustrations. We have something from every period of Dixon’s career.”
Other Dixon works include the oil Arizona Desert (est. $100/150,000), the watercolor Saddle Stock (est. $45/65,000) and Trail Herd (est. $400/600,000), which shows a cowboy and horse leading a herd of cattle through the dust. Some of the works coming to the auction are a direct result of the Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West’s hit Maynard Dixon
exhibition that opened in 2019. Scottsdale Art Auction sponsored the exhibition.
A number of important Western bronzes will also be available to bidders, including a lifetime cast of Frederic Remington’s The Cheyenne. The work, showing a Native American rider galloping, is Roman Bronze Works’ Cast No. 11 of the important bronze and is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000.
Low-number casts like this one tend to fetch huge numbers, with Cast No. 4 bringing in $3.1 million at Christie’s in 2007. Other bronzes include Henry Shrady’s Monarch of the Plains (est. $75/100,000) and Charles Schreyvogel’s The Last Drop (est. $40/60,000). Additionally, a lifetime Roman Bronze Works cast of Charles M. Russell’s Where the Best Riders Quit will also be available with estimates of $300,000 to $500,000.
The auction will once again feature a fantastic collection of works from members of the Taos Society of Artists, including E. Martin Hennings’ Rabbit Hunters (est. $70/100,000), showing two Native American figures in a vast plain at the foot of a mountain in northern New Mexico, and Bert Geer Phillips’ portrait Uncas (est.
$25/35,000). Joseph Henry Sharp will be represented by two works: Interior of a Buffalo Hunter’s Teepee (est. $100/150,000) and February Chinook, Crow Reservation (est. $100/150,000). The works show two of Sharp’s most celebrated themes and compositions: single Native American figures in interior scenes and large teepee scenes from Montana. Other Taos artists include Oscar E. Berninghaus, Walter Ufer, Eanger Irving Couse and an impressive landscape from Ernest L. Blumenschein, Rock of Fire–morning, Ghost Ranch, estimated at $250,000 to $350,000.
Additional lots include William R. Leigh’s Pony Express (est. $600/900,000), Henry Farny’s Indian Plains (est. $100/150,000), Frank Tenney Johnson’s nocturne cowboy Tejon – My Palomino (est. $80/120,000) and Castle Rock, a coastal painting by Thomas Moran that is estimated at $250,000 to $450,000. Alfred Jacob Miller, one of the earliest Western painters, will be represented by Two Arapaho, estimated at $60,000 to $90,000.
Joining the historic artists will be works from a number of top contemporary Western artists, including Ed Mell’s Across the Desert (est. $28/38,000), Kyle Polzin’s Spirit of the Plains (est. $10/15,000), Mark Maggiori’s Arizona Wonders (est. $25/35,000) and Logan Maxwell’s Hagege’s Wherever the Wind Might Go (est. $60/90,000).
While many of the pieces that will likely soar to huge numbers will be in the second session of the sale, the first session could certainly see some fireworks with quality works from Frank Mccarthy, George Phippen, Martin Grelle, Charlie Dye, Morgan Weistling, C. Michael Dudash and many others. The first session will also offer a high number of works with no reserves or low reserves, which has generated considerable interest at previous auctions.
Expectations for the sale are strong, Richardson says, adding that the economy is certainly helping that. “With a strong economy, that will favor us and our April sale,” he says. “Only time will tell, but the timing is great because the economy is only getting stronger.”