Island Funeral, composition drawing by N.C. Wyeth
On Wednesday, March 12th, Bonham’s Skinner hosted one of their American art sales, primarily featuring paintings and sculptures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the lots available were works by Thomas Hart Benton and Milton Avery. However, the auction got things started with a bang as works by members of the Wyeth family crossed the block. There were ten works total by N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and grandson Jamie Wyeth. One, however, drew a great deal of attention. A charcoal drawing on paper called Island Funeral measures an impressive 43 by 50.5 inches, showing a bird’s-eye view of a small island upon which a small building, possibly a church, is hosting a gathering as seen by the small crowd of figures assembled just outside. More people are arriving on the island by boat. The work is one of several drawings and sketches made in preparation for Wyeth’s later painting of the same name, which has been at the Brandywine Museum of Art since 2017. It was inspired by Wyeth’s time in Maine, where, in 1935, he witnessed a parade of small boats filled with people on their way to the funeral of a local man named Rufus Teel. Until then, Wyeth was primarily known as an illustrator and used the finished painting as the focal point of an exhibition to rebrand himself as a serious artist. The drawing offered at Bonhams was estimated to sell for no more than $35K. However, to a serious collector, it is an incredibly important work representing a major turning point in the artist’s life. Several interested parties drove the final price up more than eleven times the high estimate, hammering at $400K (or $508.5K w/p).
The Old Wharf, Ironbound by John Singer Sargent
Bonhams did not anticipate any of the lots to go for more than $120K, meaning that after Island Funeral, the top lots significantly dropped in hammer price. Next up was a watercolor by John Singer Sargent. Like the Wyeth, this work was also inspired by a vacation in Maine. Sometime in the early 1920s, Sargent visited the home of his friend and fellow artist Dwight Blaney on Ironbound Island in Frenchman Bay between Winter Harbor and Bar Harbor. The artists created works showing an old pier near Blaney’s home. The two paintings show their respective artists’ different styles and use of color, yet they are undoubtedly the same subject. Sargent gifted his painting to Blaney, and they have stayed with the Blaney family until now. Both were featured in the sale, one after the other. While the Blaney painting sold for slightly above its $5K high estimate at $7K, Sargent hammered at $60K (or $76.7K w/p), slightly below its $70K low estimate.
Copley Square by Thomas Adrian Fransioli
And finally, a pair of surprises came in joint third place. First was the 1948 painting Copley Square by the Massachusetts artist Thomas Adrian Fransioli. Fransioli was originally trained as an architect, bringing detail and precision to his early twentieth-century cityscapes. Copley Square is one of the few Fransioli paintings that includes figures. The other work in joint-third is Ernest Lee Major’s The Shower of Gold: Danaë, showing the scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses where Zeus impregnates the titular Greek princess as a shower of gold. Both paintings sold for $44K hammer (or $56.3K w/p), far above their respective estimate ranges. The Fransioli was initially predicted to sell for no more than $8K, meaning it sold for 5.5 times its estimate. Meanwhile, Bonhams assigned a presale high estimate of only $5K to the Major, giving it a ‘surprise factor’ of a little less than 9.
The Shower of Gold: Danaë by Ernest Lee Major
Skinner’s American Art sale was a success in some ways but fell slightly short in others. Of the one hundred twenty-two available lots, thirty sold within their estimates, giving Bonhams an accuracy rate of 25%. The greatest share of lots sold under their estimates, amounting to forty-one lots (34%). With another twenty-three lots (19%) selling over, Bonhams achieved a 77% sell-through rate. Some unsold lots included the 1974 Andrew Wyeth drawing Walking in Her Cape Coat (est. $80K to $120K) and the 1897 Frederic Remington ink drawing Fire and Sword in Cuba (est. $50K to $70K). This was another example of how a single lot could make or break a sale. N.C. Wyeth’s Island Funeral drawing really carried the auction up and over its total estimate. Had the drawing sold for just its high estimate of $35K, the sale as a whole would not have achieved its total low estimate of $664K. However, the Wyeth lifted the total up to $989.2K.
Bonhams Skinner American Art
Island Funeral, composition drawing by N.C. Wyeth
On Wednesday, March 12th, Bonham’s Skinner hosted one of their American art sales, primarily featuring paintings and sculptures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the lots available were works by Thomas Hart Benton and Milton Avery. However, the auction got things started with a bang as works by members of the Wyeth family crossed the block. There were ten works total by N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth, and grandson Jamie Wyeth. One, however, drew a great deal of attention. A charcoal drawing on paper called Island Funeral measures an impressive 43 by 50.5 inches, showing a bird’s-eye view of a small island upon which a small building, possibly a church, is hosting a gathering as seen by the small crowd of figures assembled just outside. More people are arriving on the island by boat. The work is one of several drawings and sketches made in preparation for Wyeth’s later painting of the same name, which has been at the Brandywine Museum of Art since 2017. It was inspired by Wyeth’s time in Maine, where, in 1935, he witnessed a parade of small boats filled with people on their way to the funeral of a local man named Rufus Teel. Until then, Wyeth was primarily known as an illustrator and used the finished painting as the focal point of an exhibition to rebrand himself as a serious artist. The drawing offered at Bonhams was estimated to sell for no more than $35K. However, to a serious collector, it is an incredibly important work representing a major turning point in the artist’s life. Several interested parties drove the final price up more than eleven times the high estimate, hammering at $400K (or $508.5K w/p).
The Old Wharf, Ironbound by John Singer Sargent
Bonhams did not anticipate any of the lots to go for more than $120K, meaning that after Island Funeral, the top lots significantly dropped in hammer price. Next up was a watercolor by John Singer Sargent. Like the Wyeth, this work was also inspired by a vacation in Maine. Sometime in the early 1920s, Sargent visited the home of his friend and fellow artist Dwight Blaney on Ironbound Island in Frenchman Bay between Winter Harbor and Bar Harbor. The artists created works showing an old pier near Blaney’s home. The two paintings show their respective artists’ different styles and use of color, yet they are undoubtedly the same subject. Sargent gifted his painting to Blaney, and they have stayed with the Blaney family until now. Both were featured in the sale, one after the other. While the Blaney painting sold for slightly above its $5K high estimate at $7K, Sargent hammered at $60K (or $76.7K w/p), slightly below its $70K low estimate.
Copley Square by Thomas Adrian Fransioli
And finally, a pair of surprises came in joint third place. First was the 1948 painting Copley Square by the Massachusetts artist Thomas Adrian Fransioli. Fransioli was originally trained as an architect, bringing detail and precision to his early twentieth-century cityscapes. Copley Square is one of the few Fransioli paintings that includes figures. The other work in joint-third is Ernest Lee Major’s The Shower of Gold: Danaë, showing the scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses where Zeus impregnates the titular Greek princess as a shower of gold. Both paintings sold for $44K hammer (or $56.3K w/p), far above their respective estimate ranges. The Fransioli was initially predicted to sell for no more than $8K, meaning it sold for 5.5 times its estimate. Meanwhile, Bonhams assigned a presale high estimate of only $5K to the Major, giving it a ‘surprise factor’ of a little less than 9.
The Shower of Gold: Danaë by Ernest Lee Major
Skinner’s American Art sale was a success in some ways but fell slightly short in others. Of the one hundred twenty-two available lots, thirty sold within their estimates, giving Bonhams an accuracy rate of 25%. The greatest share of lots sold under their estimates, amounting to forty-one lots (34%). With another twenty-three lots (19%) selling over, Bonhams achieved a 77% sell-through rate. Some unsold lots included the 1974 Andrew Wyeth drawing Walking in Her Cape Coat (est. $80K to $120K) and the 1897 Frederic Remington ink drawing Fire and Sword in Cuba (est. $50K to $70K). This was another example of how a single lot could make or break a sale. N.C. Wyeth’s Island Funeral drawing really carried the auction up and over its total estimate. Had the drawing sold for just its high estimate of $35K, the sale as a whole would not have achieved its total low estimate of $664K. However, the Wyeth lifted the total up to $989.2K.