On April 26, Bonhams in Los Angeles will present a new sale devoted to Western art.
Highlights of the sale include Frank Tenney Johnson’s Close of Day, showing two riders admiring the last moments of sunlight as it dips beyond the horizon. The work is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. “Frank Tenney Johnson is so adept at showcasing a unique American Western narrative of romance, individuality, isolation and the natural beauty of the vast landscape in his work,” says Katherine Halligan, Western art specialist at Bonhams. “In Close of Daythese ideas are captured in a warm twilight color palette of deep shadows and late-day sunlight. The composition focuses on a central Navajo couple paused astride their horses in a scrubby landscape set against swirling white clouds and distant red cliffs.”
Frank Tenney Johnson (1874-1939), Close of Day, oil on canvas, 16 x 20” Estimate: $30/50,000
Halligan also notes the inclusion of New Mexican Mountain Landscape by Andrew Dasburg, one of the great modernist painters to settle in Northern New Mexico in the 20th century. The watercolor on paper is estimated at $5,000 to $7,000. “This Taos modernist landscape by Andrew Dasburg really shows the influence modern masters Morgan Russell, Henry Matisse and Paul Cezanne had on the artist’s work,” she says. “Layers of saturated watercolor painted in dynamic zigzags and dots painted in confident and decisive strokes form the chaparral foreground and peaked mount ranges indicative of the Taos region.”
Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), Abandoned House, Contra Costa Co., Cal., oil on canvas laid to Masonite, 25 x 30” Estimate: $60/80,000
Andrew Dasburg (1887-1979), New Mexican Mountain Landscape, watercolor on paper, 10½ x 14¼” Estimate: $5/7,000
The sale will include another landscape, Conrad Schwiering’s Spring Highlights, estimated at $12,000 to $18,000.
Finally, two Maynard Dixon works will be available: You’ll Have to Grow Wings to Catch Me and Red Eagle, a watercolor, pastel and charcoal on paper estimated at $25,000 to $35,000, and Abandoned House, Contra Costa Co., Cal., an oil estimated at $60,000 to $80,000.
Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), You’ll Have to Grow Wings to Catch Me and Red Eagle, gouache, watercolor, pastel and charcoal on paper, 21 x 13½” Estimate: $25/35,000
“Maynard Dixon’s painting You’ll have to Grow Wings to Catch Me and Red Eagle, illustrated in Clarence E. Mulford’s novel Hopalong Cassidy, is a humorous and playful depiction of the title character Hopalong Cassidy astride his horse. The mixed media painting has great action and light,” Halligan says. “[In Abandoned House, Contra Costa Co., Cal.]…this rural Contra Costa County California landscape relates to other Depression-era subjects Maynard Dixon explored that focused on forsaken property and down and out figures. Despite the bucolic setting of layers of grassy fields that guide the eye toward distant foothills and mountains, a sense of abandonment and isolation is palpable.” —
Western Art
April 26, 2023, 2 p.m.
Bonhams, 7601 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 850-7500, www.bonhams.com
Powered by Froala Editor
