Bonhams & Butterfields Rocks Records with California & American Paintings

Friday, 31 August 2007 00:38

New buyers and seasoned collectors filled Bonhams & Butterfields’ galleries in San Francisco and Los Angeles for the opportunity to bid on works by legendary California and American masters on 7 August, 2007. Over $5.4-million sold and sets 15 new records. The standing room only salerooms played host to highly competitive bidding both on the telephones and in the rooms for American Impressionist works, Colorist and Plein Air paintings, Western and American landscapes, seascapes and still-life paintings, among others.

Simulcast between Northern and Southern California, the highly competitive sale garnered 15 new auction world records for well-known artists such as: E. Charlton Fortune, Alson Skinner Clark, Benjamin C. Brown, Mary DeNeale Morgan, Paul de Longpre, Frank Cuprien, Ross Dickinson, Emil Kosa, Jr., Annie Lyle Harmon, Paul Grimm, Charles Chapel Judson, John Ottis Adams, Rachel Hartley and contemporary artists Robert Clunie and Standish Backus Jr.

The marquee lot of the sale was an oil on canvas board painting titled Mending Nets by artist E. Charlton Fortune. The work depicts a French harbor scene -- unusual subject matter for a work by an American artist. “The sale of this painting for $480,000, not only establishes a new auction world record for the artist, but solidifies the place of California and American artists in the global art market,” said Vice President and Fine Arts Department Director Scot Levitt.

 Working in obscurity for most of her career, Fortune utilized the ‘E.’ to disguise her female gender. “Fortune’s works, although rare to public auction, are becoming highly sought after. Collectors are looking for her early works, such as Mending Nets, as well as later examples,” continued Levitt. The color pallet and the brush strokes of this impressionist work are exquisite, greatly differing from Fortune’s later body of work which is composed mainly of portraiture and religious compositions. The painting has been a part of several museum exhibits, the earliest in 1989 at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art.

Much like Fortune’s Mending Nets, Bridge Builders by Alson Skinner Clark also depicts a European scene. Achieving a new auction world record at $204,000, the impressionistic painting was debuted in 1906 as part of a large show at the Art Institute of Chicago. The work infuses the canvas with graceful color and a sense of movement. One author wrote that the artist received the highest compliment when his former teacher William Merritt Chase purchased this work for his own collection.

“The market for American master Maynard Dixon continues to be strong. Bonhams & Butterfields sold each Dixon oil painting offered during the August sale above its high estimate,” said Levitt. Along with the bountiful offering of traditional Dixon watercolors and rolling Western landscapes, a pair of gouache mural studies by the artist attracted collector interest. Utilizing Dixon’s strong desert pallet, the two works depict human forms within ethereal Egyptian and classical scenes.

Dynamic bidding was seen for Maurice Prendergast’s Two Women Seated with Parasols in a Park. “Typically associated with auctions held in the East, the artist [Prendergast] was well received at Bonhams & Butterfields on the West Coast. The unframed watercolor has a rich and striking composition. Detailed facial expressions from both of the seated ladies are distinct, along with folds in clothing and accessories in the ladies’ possession. Initially estimated to fetch as much as $50,000, Two Women Seated with Parasols in a Park brought $204,000.

Additional post-sale highlights of the August auction include: Granville Redmond’s A Field of California Poppies which brought $420,000; Moonlight Reflections also by Redmond sold for $204,000; Lake in the Sierras by Edgar Payne surpassed its high estimate of $150,000 selling for $264,000 and John Marshall Gamble’s Wild Heliotrope near Laguna Beach brought $144,000. Strong prices were also seen for contemporary Plein Air, watercolors and Southern California artists such as Robert Clunie and Harley Brown.

The next sale of California and American Painting and Sculpture will held at Bonhams & Butterfields in December 2007. The auction will feature an assortment of important Western scenes, Plein Air, Society of Six, genre painting, land and cityscapes by established California and American artists including Maynard Dixon, Frank Tenny Johnson and John Marshall Gamble, among others.