Wednesday's Top Lots: Old Master Through Modern Prints

Wednesday's sale of Old Master Through Modern Prints set several print records and saw strong results throughout every section of the sale, with American, European and Old Master prints achieving benchmark prices. The sale's top lot was George Bellows's Dempsey and Firpo, 1923-24, which sold for $108,000. Other American prints among the top 20 were Edward Hopper's East Side Interior, 1922 ($48,000), and Night Shadows, 1921 ($40,800), as well as Childe Hassam's Marie at the Window, 1923 ($22,800).

George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo, lithograph, 1923-24.

A group of six etchings from James A.M. Whistler's Jubilee or Naval Review Set brought $78,000. It was the most complete offering of etchings from this set of 12 seen at auction in the past 25 years.

Whistler, one of six etchings from the Naval Review Set, 1887.

The top old master print was George Stubbs's striking etching and engraving, A Lion Devouring A Horse. This was the first unrecorded working proof to be offered at auction in the past 25 years. It sold for $69,600, a record for any print by Stubbs sold at auction.

George Stubbs, A Lion Devouring a Horse, etching and engraving, before 1788.

Among the European prints offered, a portfolio by René Magritte, Aube à l'Antipode, brought a record $62,400. The portfolio of seven etchings was one of 17 deluxe copies, published by Editions du Soleil, Paris, 1966.

René Magritte, Aube à l'Antipode, portfolio with 7 etchings, 1966.

An Online Exhibition of Daring Dames

Daile Kaplan, Swann's Vice President & Director of Photography, recently curated an online exhibition of photographs for the National Women's History Museum. Co-curated with Donna Henes and featuring images from the Kaplan-Henes Photographs Collection, Daring Dames offers photos of women "who have demonstrated curiosity about the larger world and remarkable resourcefulness in their ability to navigate in it".

The images range from a female sharpshooter taking a shot in a 1920s Wild West show to a group of women ambulance drivers in WWI, whose job was transporting injured soldiers from the trenches to medical care, to protesters at the building site of a housing project in the 1960s.

In addition to these unknown heroes of women's rights, there are also photographs of Amelia Earhart, Grandma Moses and Helen Keller. In a statement, the co-curators said, "The exhibition celebrates the spirit of adventure and indefatigable determination of these daring dames to manifest their wildest American dreams. These pioneering women are an inspiration to all of us."

The National Women's History Museum is a Washington, DC-based organization that affirms the value of knowing Women's History, illuminates the role of women in transforming society and encourages all people, women and men, to participate in democratic dialogue about our future. The Museum regularly releases new online exhibits, and topics include women Olympians, Filmmakers, the Suffrage movement and women in wartime.

Impressive Collection of American Prints in Next Week's Sale

George Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo, lithograph, 1923-24.

Swann's April 25 auction of Old Master through Modern Prints contains a small but impressive assortment of American prints and drawings from the collection of a Virginia gentleman. The collector came to the United States in 1939, escaping Hitler's war-torn Germany, and lived in the suburbs of New York City for 35 years. During that time he discovered and fell in love with American art, most notably the works of Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Martin Lewis and Thomas Hart Benton.

Childe Hassam, The Writing Desk, etching, 1915.

Many of the classic works offered in the upcoming auction were acquired through auctions and galleries in New York during the 1970s, 80s and 90s--some at Swann, in fact.

Edward Hopper, East Side Interior, etching, 1922.

The collector is now putting these exquisite works up for auction, and it is his hope that they will be cherished by other collectors who will enjoy them as much as he has.

Tuesday's Top Lots: Revolutionary Americana & Autographs

Tuesday's sale of Revolutionary Americana from the Allyn Kellogg Ford Collection, followed by a sale of Autographs, broke over 15 auction records, and doubled the low estimate for the sale as a whole. The Allyn Kellogg Ford collection, sold to benefit the Minnesota Historical Society, featured material that had been acquired in the 1930s and 40s and was well preserved for the past 70 years. At the core of Ford's collection was a large group of letters related to Brigadier General George Weedon who corresponded with many central figures in the American Revolution. 

Autograph Letter Signed by Jonathan Trumbull Jr. to Brigadier General George Weedon, 1781, sold for $90,000.

The top lot was a 1781 letter written by General George Washington's aide-de-camp Jonathan Trumbull Jr. to Weedon, which describes the British surrender at Yorktown. Estimated at $4,000 to $6,000, the letter ultimately brought $90,000 after heated bidding, marking a new auction record for a letter from Trumbull Jr. 

Autograph Letter Signed by David Hume to the Earl of Hertford, 1766, $48,000.

Another record-breaking lot was a letter from David Hume to the Ambassador of Great Britian to France, the Earl of Hertford. In it, the famed philosopher recounts William Pitt's speech before the House of Commons defending the American reaction to the Stamp Act, and offering his own opinion in favor of repeal. The 1766 letter sold for $48,000.

Autograph Letter Signed by Samuel F.B. Morse, 1864, sold for $28,800.

From the Autographs portion of the sale were two letters by Samuel F.B. Morse that set auction records, bringing $28,800 and $26,400. Both concerned Morse's development of the telegraph. In one, he discusses the Senate's approval of funding for his experimental telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. In the other, he discusses the choice of wording for the first telegraphed message in the United States: a Bible passage that read, "What hath God wrought?"

Whistler's Jubilee Set in a Diamond Jubilee Year

More than 120 years ago, 1887 marked the 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria. James Whistler, then president of the Royal Society of British Artists, was invited to attend the Naval Review celebrating the Queen's Jubilee on July 23. He created 12 etchings during the day's festivities, and those images were never published, but were sold or given by the artist as a set.

James A.M. Whistler, from the Jubilee or Naval Review Set, etchings, all 1887.

According to our specialists, a complete set of all 12 etchings has never come to auction. In fact, the group of six etchings from the Jubilee or Naval Review Set that's being offered in our April 25 sale of Old Master through Modern Prints is the most complete set ever to appear at auction. 

This year marks the Diamond Jubilee (60 years) of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, and fine art is taking center stage in those celebrations: among several exhibitions throughout the UK, the National Portrait Gallery in London will be showing iconic images of the Queen, both traditional and challenging. Whistler honored Queen Victoria in 1887 with etchings that celebrated the strength of the British fleet... it will be interesting to see what new art comes out of this year's Jubilee.

Last Week's Top Lots: Photographs & Photobooks

Last Wednesday's sale saw several auction records, and excellent results overall. The morning session, Property from the Estate of Filmmaker Gary Winick, included important contemporary and vintage photographs, movie memorabilia and posters from all but one of Hitchcock's films. The top lot from the Winick session was also the day's top lot overall: a striking William Eggleston dye-transfer print, 1970, which sold for $60,000. 

William Eggleston, Untitled (from the series Los Alamos), dye-transfer print, 1970.

Among the 19th & 20th Century Photographs & Photobooks, Ansel Adams' Portfolio #4: What majestic Word, In Memory of Russell Varian set a record. The 15 photograph portfolio brought $54,000. Camera Work Number 36 also set a record for that particular issue of Alfred Stieglitz's early photo magazine, selling for $26,400. This copy is signed & inscribed: Stieglitz wrote "I'd like to autograph my photographs for you, dear Friend. But I most dislike to autograph them more often than they are autographed in their "natural state." 

Ansel Adams, from Portfolio #4: What Majestic Word, In Memory of Russell Varian, 1963.

A portfolio of more than 90 professional photographs of a German dignitary's Asian & American travels set a record for a portfolio of vernacular photography. The photographs, mostly of China, Japan, and the U.S., were taken in the 1930s.

From the record-setting portfolio of Asia & the Americas, 1930s.

Harry Houdini: Not Buried Alive

Among the highlights in Swann's April 17 auction of Revolutionary Americana & Autographs is a typed letter signed by escape artist Harry Houdini expressing his wishes involving who would be permitted to be buried in his plot at Machpelah Cemetery in Flushing. Written in 1925, the year before his death, the letter instructs that, "[m]yself, my wife, Wilhelmina Rahner Houdini, my brothers, Nathan Joseph Weiss, William Godfry Weiss, Theodore Franz Weiss known as Theodore W. Hardeen and my sister Carrie Gladys Weiss known as Gladys Houdini and I direct that no . . . other person or persons whatsoever shall be buried in the said plot without my written consent." Ironically, Houdini's wife is actually buried in a different cemetery.

An Old Master "Collaboration"

Among Rembrandt’s 350-plus recorded etchings, The Flight into Egypt: Altered from Seghers, circa 1653--a highlight in Swann's April 25 auction--stands out as a unique example of his reuse of another artist’s copper plate. Having acquired the plate of Hercules Seghers’s Tobias and the Angel (which Seghers himself had loosely based on an early 1600s composition by Hendrick Goudt), Rembrandt proceeded to burnish away the right-hand side of the composition, removing the figures of Tobias and the Angel and replacing them with the Holy Family on their flight into Egypt. 


Seghers was a reclusive, wildly inventive and highly self-editing graphic artist, and approximately 180 total impressions exist today of his 50 known etchings. As a native of Haarlem who often produced etchings printed in multiple colors and sometimes on cloth, he had a deep influence on Rembrandt’s career as an etcher.


Looking at an impression of Rembrandt’s The Flight into Egypt: Altered from Seghers, one can see the remnants of the wings of Seghers’s angel at the upper right. Rembrandt carefully preserved Seghers’s rather delicate, finely etched landscape occupying the left-hand side of the composition; blending it beautifully into his own darker, more heavily etched landscape on the right half of the plate. Never before had the hands of two of the greatest masters of etching been so wonderfully exposed on the same plate. This remains one of the most famous and important “collaborations” in the history of printmaking. 

Additional masterpieces by Rembrandt in Swann’s April 25th auction of Old Master through Modern Prints include an exceedingly scarce first state portrait of his friend, the goldsmith Jan Lutma, 1656, one of perhaps only several impressions still in private hands; as well as a stunning, early impression of his Self Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill, 1639, one of the most celebrated etched self portraits of all time.

The Power of Photography

We all know the power of photography to tell a story, or evoke a mood, but two events in New York this month will use the power of photography to raise funds for important causes.

On Monday, April 9, Swann President and Principal Auctioneer Nicholas Lowry will conduct a live auction on behalf of PROOF: Media for Social Justice, an organization that uses visual media to further education, research and advocacy surrounding human rights violations around the world.

On Monday, April 23, Swann Vice President and Photography Department Director, Daile Kaplan will be the auctioneer for the Annual Photography Auction & Benefit held by inMotion, which offers hope to low-income women who need free legal services in matrimonial, family and immigration law. 

The PROOF event will be held at Splashlight Studios, and features works by contemporary artists David Arky, Bruce Davidson, Mark Seliger, Trujillo-Paumier and others.

inMotion's auction and benefit will take place at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, and includes classic photographs by Diane Arbus, Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter, Ruth Orkin and more.

Elizabeth Catlett, 1915 - 2012

I must sadly note the passing of Elizabeth Catlett on April 2 in her home Cuernavaca, Mexico, as widely reported yesterday. She will be remembered as one of the great American artists of the 20th Century. Elizabeth Catlett was both a brilliant sculptor and printmaker, a trailblazer and master in wood, terra cotta, stone, bronze, lithography and linoleum cut, while working as an artist for over 70 years.

Born in Washington, DC, Catlett graduated from Howard University in 1937, where she studied with James Lesesne Wells and Lois Mailou Jones. She was one of the first recipients of an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1940 under Grant Wood. She was an active member of both the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances in the 1940s. Her breakthrough came with the award of a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1946 that enabled her to study in Mexico and complete her important "I am a Negro Woman" series. She soon moved permanently to Mexico, joined the influential printmakers collective, the Taller de Gráfica Popular, and married artist Francisco Mora in 1947. From the 1950s, she was a heroic and creative voice for social and political equality, particularly for the disenfranchised, the poor and the oppressed. Above all, her work celebrated women -- her modern representation of their power and strength is one of her greatest contributions.

Swann Galleries is very honored to have handled many of her artworks -- including such iconic works as her sculpture Homage to My Young Black Sisters, 1968, and color linoleum cut Sharecropper, circa 1952. In May 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art, I was lucky to be on hand when she enthralled an audience with fascinating stories from almost every decade -- recounting her impressive artistic journey from Washington, DC to Iowa, New Orleans, Chicago, New York and Mexico and through the Civil Rights era. Her stories live on in her prints and sculpture, and in the many generations of artists whom she has inspired. Elizabeth Catlett, a cultural treasure of both the United States and Mexico, and an international ambassador for artistic, social and political freedom, will be greatly missed and widely celebrated.


Nigel Freeman
Director, African-American Fine Art
Swann Auction Galleries