History in the Making
Grogan & Company’s annual Spring Auction uplifts during uncertain times.
This year’s Spring Auction for Grogan & Company is sure to delight with its newest additions of Western and American fine art. There are approximately 200 lots in the sale, including jewelry, silver, decorative arts and fine arts by many remarkable artists.
The highlights of the sale include a Jane Peterson gouache painting, Campo Santa Margherita (est. $15/30,000); a Guy Wiggins oil, Winter at the Library (est. $20/30,000); a John Demott oil, Beaver Men ‘n Whiskey, (est. $3/4,000); and Gustave Baumann’s colored woodcut Grand Canyon (est. $5/7,000), which is the standout piece among a selection of other Baumann woodcuts.
Among these highlights are favorites mentioned by fine art director Georgina Winthrop. “I’m particularly drawn to the John Singer Sargent pencil sketch of Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon,” she says. “With just a few pencil strokes Sargent so deftly captures her elegant pose, drawing the viewer’s eye to her stately figure.”
The piece titled Preparatory Sketch: Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon Kedleston is estimated to sell between $10,000 and $15,000, and is a fascinating example of
Sargent’s preparatory process for oil portraits. This sketch was used as the final oil portrait Sargent completed before his death.
“I’m also excited about two very different works depicting Native Americans,” continues Winthrop. “The first is a richly hued gouache by Henry Francois Farny that depicts a woman with a child on her back. The breadth of Farny’s color work is impressive…with the primary red of the mother’s blanket contrasting with the sandy pinks of the landscape behind her. There is a sense of calm and intimacy in the painting that makes me return to it again and again.”
“The second work,” says Winthrop, “features a three-volume folio edition (1836-18421844) of Thomas L. Mckenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (est. $15/30,000). The 120 striking hand-colored lithographs included in the books are particularly significant as the majority of the paintings of which they were based were destroyed in the 1865 fire at the Smithsonian.”
Another notable sale favorite is a gouache and watercolor on grisaille piece by Frederic Remington, titled Circuit Rider. Winthrop adds, “The work depicts a distinguished gentleman atop a horse drinking from a stream and has been handed down within a Massachusetts family. It was reproduced in Harper’s Weekly in 1894.” The painting has estimates between $30,000 and $50,000.
“Finally, each time I walk past it in the gallery, I am drawn to Philip Shelton Sears’ Stepping Stones,” says Winthrop. The 44-inch bronze, estimated to sell between $10,000 and $15,000, depicts an athletic male balancing on two stones with his arms outstretched, and is considered one of Sears’ finest pieces.
Winthrop says, “The figure’s taught muscles and outstretched arms recall the forms of classical sculpture, while his pursed lips and furrowed brow give the work a more modern twist. The work has been in the same family since Sears created it for them in 1923.”
Grogan anticipates a continued enthusiasm for high quality, fresh-to-market work. They’re also offer online bidding at www.grogan.com, Invaluable, Bidsquare and Liveauctioneers.
On March 17, Bonhams hosted its auction at its showroom in Los Angeles to robust bidding from buyers in-house, on the phone and online. The day’s action resulted in more than $2.6 million in sales, with a number of lots hitting or exceeding presale estimates. Scot Levitt, director of fine arts at the auction house, says given the California stay-at-home orders that were about to go into place, the sale performed well and there were multiple people vying for many works.
Among the star lots of the auction were three iconic Frederic Remington bronzes coming to market from the estate of Barron Hilton, who was the chairman, president and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation. The pieces—the Broncho Buster, The Rattlesnake and The Cheyenne— are considered to be the stars of Remington’s three-dimensional oeuvre and all capture the action of the West. The works, which had resided in Hilton’s living room in his home in Beverly Hills, California, all sold within presale estimates after enthusiastic bidding.