New York City - Today at Sotheby’s, the sale of American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture achieved a total of $65,198,200 (est. $44,990,000/67,820,000). The top lot of the sale was lot 36, Norman Rockwell’s Gary Cooper as “The Texan,” which sold for $5,921,000 (est. $1.5/2.5 million).

All the mythological elements of The West converge in the Rockwell painting. The subject is actor Gary Cooper, being made up and decked beyond realism in cowboy garb for his role in The Texan, 1930. The illustrator was Norman Rockwell, turning his mythologizing skills to the romanticizing of the cowboy archetype that came to dominate America's image of The West.

Also by Rockwell, River Pilot, lot 125, fetched $2,617,000 (est. $1/1.5 million) and The Checkup, lot 70, sold for $1,385,000 (est. $800,000/1.2 million). Thirteen works by Rockwell were offered today, and all found buyers, indicating the strength of the market for the artist.

Two watercolors by Winslow Homer achieved great prices today: The Fishergirls, lot 8, sold for $4,521,000 (est. $4/6 million); and Portrait of a Lady, lot 15, sold for $2,169,000 (est. $2/3 million). Another highlight of the sale was N.C. Wyeth’s Indian Love Call, lot 39, which achieved a price of $1,833,000 (est. $800,000/1.2 million).

Several artist records were set today, including a record for a work by Milton Avery, whose The Reader and the Listener, lot 18, sold for $2,505,000 (est. $700/900,000), surpassing the previous record of $992,000. The record for Charles Burchfield was broken when his A Dream of Butterflies, lot 49, sold for $1,329,000 (est. $500/700,000), exceeding the previous record of $856,000. Additional artist records were set for Hovsep Pushman, whose Narcissa, lot 140, fetched $541,000 (est. $80/120,000) and for Stanton MacDonald-Wright, when his Synchromy, lot 29, sold for $2,281,000 (est. $400/600,000), more than three times its high estimate.

Many works in today’s sale more than doubled their estimates. Henry F. Farny’s His Favorite Wife, lot 157, sold for $1,105,000 (est. $500/700,000) and John Singer Sargent’s portrait of John Ridgely Carter, lot 143, sold for $1,833,000 (est. $600/800,000).