Coeur d’Alene Art Auction partner Mike Overby likes to rave about every sale he puts together. But, he admits, every now and again there are very special years for the annual sale that defy every expectation, and 2023 is shaping up to be one of those banner years.
“We had probably the best spring we could imagine,” he says. “We were seeing great piece after great piece come out to us. Just one after another. From top artists, and then masterpieces on top of that. We knew this year’s sale would be special early on as the quality proved to be very high across the board.”
Maynard Dixon (1875 - 1946), The Pony Boy, 1920, oil on canvas, 36 x 72” Estimate: $2/3 million
The historic lineup of material will be available to bidders on July 15 in Reno, Nevada.
One piece that came to the auction house early was Howard Terpning’s 2008 oil Paper That Talks Two Ways – The Treaty Signing. The work is featured in the artist’s book, Tribute to the Plains People. “A gathering of Cheyenne and Sioux men meet to hear an orator express his distrust of the words of the peace commission that have been translated to him. The title comes from the Indian expression that the treaty always said one thing to the white man and quite another to the Natives. The scene is loosely patterned after the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868,” artist Harley Brown writes in the book. “Each face, each individual, around the speaker is engaged, some more than others. The focus of the painting is on the Native people, so we see only the corner of a table and the shoes of the commissioner.
William Herbert “Buck” Dunton (1878-1936), The Race to the Chuck Wagon, oil on canvas, 34 x 51” Estimate: $500/750,000
The breaks and sags in the canvas tenting help frame the background figures against the sky and mirror the shape of the ground below. The leaning pole at left gives movement, breaking up the group in shadow. That angle is echoed by the light-clothed figures in the lower left, bringing the eye into the painting. Howard’s works are always broader than what is seen; people look beyond the painted image, and figures enter at the edges. Even the small stick on the ground was carefully placed. Note the angle and high key of the central figure’s hand—a patch of light against surrounding darkness as it points towards the documents.”
Henry Farny (1847-1916), The Trail Over the Pass, 1910, oil on canvas, 16 x 24” Estimate: $400/600,000
The painting, estimated at $2 million to $3 million, comes from the Terpning collection. “I gifted this painting to my wife, hence the two hearts painted in the lower corner. Each of us painted one of the hearts,” Terpning says of the work.
The sale will feature three other Terpning works: Blood Man (est. $60/90,000), Time Stood Still (est. $250/350,000) and Traveling in Good Company (est. $300/500,000), that is being deaccessioned from the Autry Museum of the American West.
Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935), A Dangerous Moment, oil on canvas, 24 x 33” Estimate: $200/300,000
Another major work in the sale is Maynard Dixon’s The Pony Boy, a large 72-inch-wide oil from 1920. It is cited by many as one of the iconic masterpieces by the painter. “It’s certainly my favorite painting that Dixon ever did,” Overby says. “I think it’s also his most important painting, one that changed his career. There was pre-Pony Boy for Dixon and then post-Pony Boy. It was when he was experimenting with the modernist movement when this piece was made. This work really sets the tone for what his artwork would like moving forward.” The piece is estimated at $2 million to $3 million.
Howard Terpning, Paper That Talks Two Ways – The Treaty Signing, 2008, oil on canvas, 57 x 70” Estimate: $2/3 million
Numerous works from the Taos Society of Artists will be available, with Overby adding that this year is “by far the strongest lineup of Taos material in a decade or more.” Three highlights will be coming from William Herbert “Buck” Dunton, whose painting at last year’s sale was the top lot and a milestone record-breaker that pushed Dunton’s work above $1 million for the first time. This year’s offerings include Two Braves (est. $300/500,000), a dramatic vertical paintings with Native American subjects; The Night Guard (est. $70/100,000), showing a nocturne cowboy; and The Race to the Chuck Wagon (est. $500/750,000), a 51-inch-wide action scene showing cowboys dashing back to camp in a cloud of dust. The Race to the Chuck Wagon is not only a significant work by the artist, it also comes from the original owners, which should make it very desirable for collectors.
Thomas Moran (1837-1926), The Rock of Acoma, New Mexico, 1902, watercolor on paper, 14 x 20” Estimate: $400/600,000
Overby credits the quality of this year’s Dunton paintings to last year’s sale. “When you have a painting like we did last year, and have it do so well, it inspires others to sell their work,” he says.
Other Taos works include Eanger Irving Couse’s Indian Drinking (est. $50/75,000), Oscar E. Berninghaus’ Taos Siesta (est. $70/100,000), Bert Geer Phillips’ Taos Hunter (est. $70/100,000) and two works by E. Martin Hennings, Riders in the Taos Foothills (est. $300/500,000) and Two Indian Riders (est. $150/250,000). Two rare Montana-themed images from Joseph Henry Sharp will also be available—The Young Chiefs (est. $300/500,000) and Winter Squaw Dance, Crow Reservation, Montana(est. $300/500,000)—as well as two Taos-based paintings.
Jeremy Winborg, Fierce Protector, oil, 48 x 24” Estimate: $20/30,000
Henry Farny will be represented with two major paintings: the gouache Crow Country from 1895, estimated at $150,000 to $250,0000, and the oil work The Trail Over the Pass from 1910, estimated at $400,000 to $600,000. Also represented by two works is Thomas Moran, whose lots are Hopi House, Grand Canyon, Arizona (est. $150/250,000) and The Rock of Acoma, New Mexico (est. $400/600,000).
E. Martin Hennings (1886-1956), Riders in the Taos Foothills, oil on canvas, 22 x 24” Estimate: $300/500,000
Edgar Payne’s Desert Sky, a strong cloudscape with riders framed against sunny cliffs, will be available with estimates of $250,000 to $350,0000. It will join two Russell watercolors, one of them being Pablo Buffalo Hunt, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. A friend of Russell’s, Philip R. Goodwin, will have numerous sporting and wildlife scenes in the sale, including The Law of the Wilderness, showing a bear family raiding an overturned canoe. The work is estimated at $200,000 to $300,000.
Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Winter Squaw Dance, Crow Reservation, Montana, oil on canvas, 30 x 40” Estimate: $300/500,000
Along with Terpning, other living artists represented in the sale include Tucker Smith, Morgan Weistling, Jeremy Winborg, Don Oelze, Mark Maggiori, George Hallmark, Martin Grelle and others. One noteworthy work is Clyde Aspevig’s landscape The Snake River (est. $20/30,000).
Edgar Payne (1883 –1947), Desert Sky, oil on canvas, 30 x 34” Estimate: $250/350,000
Other artists in the sale include W.H.D. Koerner, Bob Kuhn, G. Harvey, Leon Gaspard, Frank McCarthy, Carl Rungius, John Singer Sargent and many others. —
Coeur d’Alene Art Auction
July 15, 2023
Grand Sierra Resort, 2500 E. Second Street, Reno, NV 89595
(208) 772-9009, www.cdaartauction.com
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