Sold!

Highlights of recent sales in the Western art market.

Starting with a bang in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Every year the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival chooses a poster artist who creates an image used in the marketing and promotion of the annual event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The artwork is then sold at the quickdraw auction toward the end of the festival. This year’s artist was Gary Lynn Roberts, who painted a scene of the historic Wort Hotel near the town square in Jackson Hole. Not only did the work sell for an astonishing $66,950, it also was the top lot by a large margin at the quickdraw auction.

+++

Elizabeth Dryden’s jackalope painting sells quickly at her gallery

Just days after arriving to her gallery, Elizabeth Dryden’s newest creation, Hare Raiser, a colorful piece of a rider on a jackalope, had found a collector and was sold. Dryden and her gallery, Texas Treasures Fine Art Gallery in Boerne, Texas, were thrilled. “I had promised the gallery that I would paint a jackalope and that’s what
I came up with,” the artist says. “Since then I’ve decided to paint a whole series—all 60-by-48-inch paintings—of cowboys riding random Western animals.” Texas Treasures also mentioned that the piece sold to a movie producer who lives in Austin, and it was their first time setting foot in the gallery.

+++

William Alther work helps Western Visions soar to nearly $400,000 in sales

In September, Western Visions opened at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The popular art exhibition and sale would realize nearly $400,000 in sales. One of the works that sold, and won the Trustee Purchase Award, was William Alther’s Her Elegancy, showing a deer in a moody and mysterious light that seems to be fading into the evening. More than 68 percent of the artwork at the show sold, an increase from the 2020 show.

+++

Western art performs well during Heritage’s illustration sale

Heritage Auction’s somewhat regular illustration sales are a great place to hunt down rare and iconic Western imagery, and the October 4 illustration sale was no exception. Though the quantity of Western art usually varies, the sales almost always have cowboy artwork that originated in comics, pulps or magazines. One of the highlights from the most recent sale was Hugh Joseph Ward’s cover for the December 1931 issue of Wild West Stories. The action scene, showing two Western figures in a deadly brawl, sold for $4,500. —

+++

Interested in having your SOLD! stories featured in the pages of Western Art Collector magazine? Email executive editor Michael Clawson at mclawson@westernartcollector.com to find out how you can share your recent sales and successes.