On December 8, Freeman’s will hold its highly anticipated biannual American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists auction. As ever, the sale will feature works by distinguished American artists including illustrators N.C. Wyethand Norman Rockwell, Hudson River School painters Jasper Cropsey and Louis Rémy Mignot, as well as Philadelphians Mary Cassattand William Glackens. Also on offer will be works by famed Pennsylvania Impressionists Daniel Garber, Fern Coppedge and Edward Redfield.
Sale Highlights
An undeniable frontrunner of the auction will be N.C. Wyeth’s Rebel Jerry and Yankee Jake,(Lot 62; $200,000-300,000) a 1931 oil depicting a ferocious knife fight between two twin brothers. The painting served as an illustration for John Fox, Jr.’s The Little Shepherd from Kingdom Come, a best-selling novel published by the renowned publishing company Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1903. Set in the vast Kentucky mountains during the American Civil War, the oil captures the highly anticipated fight between the Dillon brothers, who grew estranged as one embraced the Union’s side, and the other chose to remain a Rebel and fight alongside the South.
Another notable highlight from the Pennsylvania Impressionists section of the sale is Daniel Garber’s By the River(Lot 138; $200,000-300,000), a dazzling view of the Delaware River executed in 1929. Long unrecorded, the work resurfaces from a collection in Arkansas with a prestigious provenance. It represents a pivotal work for the artist and an importantstylistic change in Garber’s career, marked by a new level of sophistication in his use of color and light, and by a bold taste for highly structured compositions.
Among the many 19th century pieces on offer, the sale will also showcase a sizable section of Modern works from the mid-20thcentury, including a surrealist scene
by Peter Blume (Lot 87; $60,000-100,000), and a portrait of Mercedes Matter by Hans Hoffman, which the artist executed in Gloucester in 1934(Lot 83; $50,000-80,000).
Of particular note amongst several works by Romare Bearden is New York Scenes, a series of 23 watercolors depicting various views of New York City, completed in 1979 for John Cassavetes’ film Gloria.
Other highlights include an imposing view of a sailor by
John George Brown(Lot 24; $15,000-25,000),
a quintessential beach scene by Edward Henry Potthast(Lot 45, $30,000-50,000),
two exceptional watercolors by Charles Demuth, Cyclamen(Lot 73; $60,000-100,000)
and Zinnias(Lot 74; $60,000-80,000), both from the prominent collection of Philip A. Bruno.
In addition, the sale will feature an oil study for a painting by
William Glackens entitled Nude Drying Hair(Lot 33; $15,000-25,000).
