Los Angeles, CA - As California’s oldest and largest auctioneers, Bonhams & Butterfields has established a reputation as a preeminent source for California and American works of art at auction.  Following the success of the winter sale, which boasted 10 new works auction records, the firm is pleased to announce the April 8, 2008 sale of California & American Paints and Sculpture.  
 
The marquee lot of the spring auction is an exceptional fresh-to-market work entitled Sunset in the Foothills by William Herbert Dunton (est. $150/200,000).  Typical of Dunton’s technique, the 16x20-inch oil on canvas work is a reduction of shape to vital geometric form thus creating recurring patters pleasing to the eye of the viewer.
 
Anxious from the pressures associated with being a commercial illustrator, Dunton relocated to Taos, New Mexico in 1914.  He became head of Taos Fish and Game Conservation Group after 1915.  In 1920, the artist’s health began to fail and he was relegated to “dry” hunt, producing landscape sketches in a variety of sizes in the mediums of paint and pencil.  “Many of his later sketches, including Sunset in the Foothills are by far the most sought after of Dunton’s works.  It is by far one of the artists most abstract and ornamental sketches.  We are pleased to offer such a rare and fresh-to-market work in April,” said Scot Levitt, Director of California & American Painting and Sculpture at Bonhams & Butterfields.
 
Additional highlights for the April sale include three works by Granville Redmond.  A rare nighttime painting entitled Nocturnal Marsh Scene (est. $80/120,000); a highly sought after subject by collectors titled Poppy (est. $100/125,000; and an Antelope Valley landscape (est. $125/175,000) will be offered.  Similar in its subject matter to the Redmond works, a large piece by William Wendt entitled View to the Valley (est. $200/300,000) will also be featured during the sale.  This work is one of the largest Wendt compositions to come to auction in recent years and, according to specialists, will undoubtedly be one of the top works in the sale.  Other works on offer include Spring Rue (est. $125/175,000) by Joseph Raphael and Maurice Braun’s Lake Hodges (est. $40/60,000).  
 
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further seven throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com .