Taos on Top

Works by Taos Society of Artists founders bring in big numbers at Christie’s fall American Art sale in New York.

It was windy and cold on the streets of New York City on November 20, but inside Christie’s at Rockefeller Center images of the Southwest warmed up collectors. The American Art sale, which had a significant offering of Western lots, realized $21.8 million.

The top Western lot was Eanger Irving Couse’s 1918 oil Flute Player at the Spring, which soared past it’s $350,000 high estimate when it sold for $435,000. “With its impressive scale and vivid color palette, Flute Player at the Spring imbues the American Indian with the dignity and quiet spirituality that Couse appreciated in his subject—qualities that inform the best of his art throughout his career,” the catalog notes. “The characters in Flute Player at the Spring appear undisturbed as they go about their ritual with quiet intention, reflecting the artist’s genuine attempt to depict his subjects in a direct and honest way.”Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936), Flute Player at the Spring, 1918, oil on canvas, 46 x 35” Estimate: $250/350,000 SOLD: $435,000

Couse, one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, was joined by other founders within the top lots: Joseph Henry Sharp’s Jerry of Taos (est. $80/120,000) sold for $100,000 and Oscar E. Berninghaus’ In the High Aspens (est. $60/80,000) sold for $112,500. Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Jerry of Taos, oil on canvas, 23¾ x 15¾” Estimate: $80/120,000 SOLD: $100,000

Coming in just behind the Couse work was Alfred Jacob Miller’s Trappers around a Campfire with the Wind River Mountains of the Rockies in the Background (est. $200/300,000), which sold for $423,000. The work, painted around 1839, is a very early example of the American West. “In 1837, Alfred Jacob Miller accompanied Scottish nobleman Sir William Drummond Stewart on an expedition to Fort Laramie, Wyoming,” the catalog notes. “As a result of this trip, his only one to the West, Miller gathered sufficient ideas to pursue a lifelong career painting images of American frontier life. The present work, painted for his patron shortly after their trip, features Stewart himself visible in the distance, holding a spyglass and wearing his usual buckskin outfit. Other members of the expedition, Antoine Clement, Bill Burrows and Pierre, prepare dinner around the campfire in the foreground.”Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874-1952), In the High Aspens, oil on canvas, 25¼ x 30” Estimate: $60/80,000 SOLD: $112,500

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Harvest Moon (Young Lovers on a Hay Rick), ca. 1920s, oil on canvas, 34 x 21” Estimate: $1/1.5 million SOLD: $975,000Two iconic Frederic Remington bronzes sold during the American Art sale, and each exceeded estimates: a 1906 version of The Broncho Buster marked as cast No. 53 (est. $150/250,000) sold for $399,000, while a 1918 version of The Rattlesnake (est. $100/150,000) sold for $200,000.Frederic Remington (1861-1909), The Rattlesnake, modeled ca. 1908, cast after 1918, bronze with brown patina, 22½” Estimate: $100/150,000 SOLD: $200,000

Elsewhere in the sale was Norman Rockwell’s Western-leaning Harvest Moon (Young Lovers on a Hay Rick) (est. $1/1.5 million) that sold for $975,000, and two Albert Bierstadt landscapes, Pass Into the Rockies (est. $70/100,000) that sold for $131,250 and Lander’s Peak (est. $80/120,000) that sold for $75,000.

Other noteworthy artists with works in the sale were N.C. Wyeth, Georgia O’Keeffe, Winslow Homer, Thomas Hart Benton and Thomas Hill. —