A wide array of offerings will be available to bidders on May 12 in Dallas during Heritage Auctions’ upcoming sale, Diverse Visions: Important Works by American Masters. The sale marks an important milestone for Heritage, which is seeing renewed interest in its dedicated American art sales.
“We are definitely having a moment,” says Aviva Lehmann, senior vice president and director of American art at Heritage Auctions. “We have seen very strong success in this category, so much that we are seeing serious growth. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to handle it all.”
Birger Sandzén (1871-1954), Lake at Moonrise, Estes Park, Colorado, 1949, oil on Masonite, 217⁄8 x 24” Estimate: $30/50,000The sale will feature fewer than 100 lots, including some fantastic Western examples, one being Arthur Wesley Dow’s Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona, an oil on canvas from 1912. Estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, the work has a long exhibition history and has appeared in several books on the artist. “The Dow is a beautiful image. Even though it shows the Grand Canyon, I wouldn’t call the artist a Western painter. He’s more a mystical modernist. It’s a powerful piece and massive,” Lehmann adds.
Also available is Joseph Henry Sharp’s Crow Lodge – Foot of Custer Battle Fieldfrom around 1923. The work is representative of Sharp’s extensive painting on the Crow Agency in Montana. It shows a single figure standing by a teepee amid an open field with snowy hills in the distant background. It’s estimated at $50,000 to $70,000.
Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Crow Lodge – Foot of Custer Battle Field, 1923-24, oil on board, 16 x 19¾” Estimate: $50/70,000
Sharp also famously lived in Taos, New Mexico, not far from Nicolai Fechin, who will have one work in the sale, Taos Studio Interior. The piece has never been on the market. It’s expected to fetch $150,000 to $250,000.
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), Cosmic Cities, Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1912, oil on canvas, 60 x 78” Estimate: $300/500,000
Nicolai Fechin (1881-1955), Taos Studio Interior, oil on canvas, 20 x 24” Estimate: $150/250,000
Birger Sandzén will have several lots, leading with Lake at Moonrise, Estes Park, Colorado, an oil from 1949. Sandzén, who was born in Sweden, spent much of his time in America in Kansas where he was a teacher and a prominent advocate for the arts. This piece is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. —
Diverse Visions: Important Works by American Masters
May 12, 2023
Heritage Auctions, 2801 W. Airport Freeway, Dallas, TX 75261
(877) 437-4824, www.ha.com
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