This year’s Spring Auction for Grogan & Company is sure to delight with its newest additions of Western and American fine art. There are approximately 200 lots in the sale, including jewelry, silver, decorative arts and fine arts by many remarkable artists.
The highlights of the sale include a Jane Peterson gouache painting, Campo Santa Margherita (est. $15/30,000); a Guy Wiggins oil, Winter at the Library (est. $20/30,000); a John DeMott oil, Beaver Men ‘n Whiskey, (est. $3/4,000); and Gustave Baumann’s colored woodcut Grand Canyon (est. $5/7,000), which is the standout piece among a selection of other Baumann woodcuts.
Gustave Baumann (1881-1971), Grand Canyon, woodcut in colors, 12½ x 12½” Estimate: $5/7,000Among these highlights are favorites mentioned by fine art director Georgina Winthrop. “I’m particularly drawn to the John Singer Sargent pencil sketch of Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon,” she says. “With just a few pencil strokes Sargent so deftly captures her elegant pose, drawing the viewer’s eye to her stately figure.”
The piece titled Preparatory Sketch: Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon Kedleston is estimated to sell between $10,000 and $15,000, and is a fascinating example of Sargent’s preparatory process for oil portraits. This sketch was used as the final oil portrait Sargent completed before his death.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Preparatory Sketch: Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston, pencil on paper, 10¾ x 9 in. Estimate: $10/15,000
“I’m also excited about two very different works depicting Native Americans,” continues Winthrop. “The first is a richly hued gouache by Henry Francois Farny that depicts a woman with a child on her back. The breadth of Farny’s color work is impressive…with the primary red of the mother’s blanket contrasting with the sandy pinks of the landscape behind her. There is a sense of calm and intimacy in the painting that makes me return to it again and again.”
Frederic Remington (1861-1909), The Circuit Rider, watercolor, 23 x 18” Estimate: $30/50,000
“The second work,” says Winthrop, “features a three-volume folio edition (1836-1842-1844) of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (est. $15/30,000). The 120 striking hand-colored lithographs included in the books are particularly significant as the majority of the paintings of which they were based were destroyed in the 1865 fire at the Smithsonian.”
Thomas L. McKenney (1785-1859) and James Hall (1793-1868), History of the Indian Tribes of North America, hand colored lithographs Estimate: $15/30,000
Another notable sale favorite is a gouache and watercolor on grisaille piece by Frederic Remington, titled Circuit Rider. Winthrop adds, “The work depicts a distinguished gentleman atop a horse drinking from a stream and has been handed down within a Massachusetts family. It was reproduced in Harper’s Weekly in 1894.” The painting has estimates between $30,000 and $50,000.
“Finally, each time I walk past it in the gallery, I am drawn to Philip Shelton Sears’ Stepping Stones,” says Winthrop. The 44-inch bronze, estimated to sell between $10,000 and $15,000, depicts an athletic male balancing on two stones with his arms outstretched, and is considered one of Sears’ finest pieces.
Winthrop says, “The figure’s taught muscles and outstretched arms recall the forms of classical sculpture, while his pursed lips and furrowed brow give the work a more modern twist. The work has been in the same family since Sears created it for them in 1923.”
Grogan anticipates a continued enthusiasm for high quality, fresh-to-market work. They’re also offer online bidding at www.grogan.com, Invaluable, Bidsquare and LiveAuctioneers.
Spring Auction
June 14, 2020, 11 a.m.
Grogan & Company, 20 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114
(617) 720-2020, www.groganco.com
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