Christie’s American Art auction on November 19 will offer fresh to the market works from various private collections, with artists including Norman Rockwell, Thomas Moran, Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Frederick Remington, George Bellows, and Milton Avery, among others.
In addition, Christie’s Digital Sales will host America Illustrated: Norman Rockwell and his Contemporaries, which runs November 13 – 24, and offers a wonderful variety of 20th century American Illustration, from holiday-themed works to images of America’s favorite pastimes, with estimates ranging from $400 to $100,000.
ILLUSTRATION
The top lot of the American Art auction on November 19, will be
Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, estimated at $10-15 million. This major, large-scale work belongs to an important series of works Norman Rockwell completed for The Saturday Evening Post at the height of his career in 1946. The painting is being sold by the National Press Club Journalism Institute, with the approval of the National Press Club, and the proceeds from the sale will benefit both nonprofit organizations.
Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on May 25, 1946. It was subsequently gifted to the National Press Club, an occasion later commemorated when Rockwell spoke at the Club on July 25, 1967. For the better part of the past seventeen years, the National Press Club Journalism Institute has kept the painting on public display in the space that it shares with the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The work has also been loaned often and generously as part of the Club's stewardship, and most recently was on long-term loan to a museum.
Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor depicts a scene at the Monroe County Appeal, a small town newspaper founded in 1867 and located in Paris, Missouri. The painting is among Rockwell’s series of pictorial reports capturing the artist visiting various places, including a country school, the doctor, and the country editor. A highly complex composition, the work depicts nine characters, each uniquely articulated with Rockwell’s signature charm, bustling in the offices of the newspaper. The paper’s editor, Jack Blanton, is seated at the typewriter and at the far right of the composition Rockwell is seen striding through the door with his portfolio firmly wedged under his arm.
Christie’s Digital sale of Illustration art features an exciting and diverse array of works with highlights from Charles E. Sigety’s renowned collection, from important artists such as Norman Rockwell, Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell, Ludwig Bemelmans and John Falter.
COLLECTIONS
Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Davenport, Jr.
This collection of 14 lots includes fresh to the market examples of 19th century, American Impressionist and Modernist works, including important examples by William Merritt Chase, Martin Johnson Heade, George Wesley Bellows, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, and Edward Hopper, among others.
Property from the Collection of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Dr. Gabrielle Reem
In addition to the 17 lots offered in American Art, the collection also includes works in the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day sale on November 11 and the Impressionist & Modern Art sales on November 12-13. American artists represented in this sale include Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, Arthur Dove, Max Weber, John Marin and O. Louis Guglielmi, among others.
Stuart Davis (1892-1964) Ways & Means Oil on canvas 24 x 32 in. (61 x 81.3 cm.) Painted in 1960 Estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000
Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Carrefour, signed ‘Stuart Davis’ (lower right), oil on canvas, 15 x 21 3/4 in. (38.1 x 55.2 cm.), Painted in 1928. Estimate: $700,000–1,000,000,. © Estate of Stuart Davis/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Fernand Léger (1881-1955) Le vase noir Oil on canvas 28.1/2 x 36 in. (72.4 x 91.4 cm.) Painted in 1938
Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000“
Inadvertent Collection II: Property from the Doris Bry Trust
An icon of the American Art community, Doris Bry was the leading authority on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz and she wrote monographs on the two artists. Bry began working with O’Keeffe when she was 26 years old and she became integral to the sale of O’Keeffe’s artworks and the creation and organization of her record binders. Works on paper by O’Keeffe comprise a large portion of this collection of 27 works, many of which were gifted to Bry and appear on the market for the first time. In addition to O’Keeffe, artists in the collection include Alfred Stieglitz, Arthur Dove, and Joseph Stella. The sale of this group, with estimates for works on paper by O’Keeffe beginning at $8,000, presents an exceptional opportunity for admirers of the artist to begin a collection.
WESTERN ART
Thomas Moran (1837-1926)
Jupiter Terrace, Yellowstone oil on canvas
20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1893
Estimate: $4,500,000 – 5,500,000
Thomas Moran was awestruck by the magnificent and rugged topography of the West and through his splendid paintings of Yellowstone, such as Jupiter Terrace, Yellowstone, was able to captivate the American public by transcending the limitations of written language to convey in his art the majesty and grandeur of the place. Moran’s field studies proved to be invaluable not only to the painter, but also to the nation, as they were instrumental, along with the photographs of his fellow traveler William Henry Jackson, in Congress' decision to make Yellowstone America's first National Park on March 1, 1872.
Frederic Remington (1861-1909)
Ghost Stories
oil on canvas
20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66 cm.)
Painted circa 1905-06
Estimate: $1,500,000 – 2,500,000
Frederic Remington is the story teller of the American West at the turn of the century. Ghost Stories characteristically conveys the drama of the old West, and is representative of his mature abilities as a painter.
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