Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Important American and European Paintings at Heritage Auctions

Collectors of fine art around the world will be taking careful notice of the happenings at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 11-12, as an array of American and European artwork – led by names like William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, William Glackens, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Charles Sheeler, Alfred Maurer, James Jacques Tissot and Paul Signac – draws the attention of collectors in Heritage’s Signature® American & European Art auction.

“Forming the centerpiece of our November Fine Arts Auction are many remarkable paintings by major American artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” said Ed Beardsley, Managing Director of Fine Arts at Heritage Auctions. “Fine examples of American Impressionism, Hudson River School painting, and Stieglitz circle modernism continue the momentum Heritage Auctions has generated in this area of the market over the past year. On the European side, the sale is chock-full of marvelous examples of landscape, genre and still life painting from the 17th through the 20th centuries. A rich collection of School of Paris paintings, as well as a large private collection of American and European works on paper offer many opportunities for the discerning collector.”

William Merritt ChaseA striking portrait by William Merritt Chase, The Red Kimona (Girl in Red) (The Artist’s Daughter), painted circa 1908, is one of the highlights of the sale at Heritage Auctions. Chase, a contemporary of James McNeil Whistler and John Singer Sargent, produced an immensely popular series of portraits with models in kimonos throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several of which hang in prominent museums. It is estimated at $250,000-$350,000. Another stunning portrait by the expatriate Charles Sprague Pearce (American, 1851-1914) Moments of Thoughtfulness, 1882, is a poetic and tenderly rendered painting of a nearly life-size face of a young dark-haired girl. In this one remarkable work, Pearce, one of the most highly regarded American painters of French peasant subjects, blended a constellation of influences, demonstrating how attuned he had been to the major trends in French art of his period. It is estimated at $200,000-$300,000.

Highlights from the Hudson River School include Jasper Francis Cropsey’s (American, 1823-1900) Greenwood Lake, Autumn on the Hudson, 1875, estimated at $150,000-$250,000, and Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904), represented by the exquisite Jacqueminot Roses, circa 1883-1890, estimated at $120,000-$180,000.

More rare American landscapes include Willard Leroy Metcalf’s October Afternoon – Vermont, 1922-1923, a seminal work from his series of groundbreaking and celebrated paintings of the New England landscape around Chester, VT, which is estimated at $250,000-$350,000, and John Martin Tracy’s Field Trials in North Carolina, (Southern Field Trials: Lightfield Deuce & Prince Lucifer), (Central Field Trials), 1891, one of the largest works by Tracy to emerge from a private collection in recent decades, which is estimated at $200,000-$300,000. Tracy’s wonderful painting, a work that shows the artist in full command of his mature style at the height of his career, was selected by the United States to be shown at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago shortly after its completion.

The European side of the Heritage Auctions Fine Art auction is led by French artist James Jacques Tissot’s (French, 1836-1902) oil on canvas The Prodigal Son: The Departure, 1880-81, the first of the artist’s important series of four paintings about the Prodigal Son. The series was exhibited throughout the 1880s and 1890s, including shows at the 1882 exhibition at Dudley Gallery in London, Galerie Sedelmeyer and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The larger finished series is at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes, where Tissot was born. The Departure features a son conversing with his father, presumably about his departure. To his left his sister (Tissot’s mistress Kathleen Newton) is pictured knitting and his brother depicted seated with a contemplative gaze out the window. It is estimated at $80,000-$120,000. Further highlights of the European section of the auction include Luis Alvarez Catalá’s (Spanish, 1836-1901) colorful canvas, The Costume Ball, estimated at $50,000-$70,000, and Paul Signac’s (French, 1863-1935) Tarascon, a striking watercolor and conte crayon on paper, estimated at $35,000-$45,000.

Further highlights include, but are not limited to:

Charles Sheeler (American, 1883-1965), Barn Decorations (Hex Signs), 1959: Estimate: $120,000-$180,000.

Charles Demuth (American, 1883-1935), Trees and House (Provincetown), 1916: Estimate: $100,000-$150,000.

Richard E. Miller (American, 1875-1943), Zilpha and the Clam Digger, 1935: Estimate: $90,000-$120,000.

William Trost Richards (American, 1833-1905), The Beach, Morning, circa 1888: Estimate: $80,000-$120,000.

Heritage Auctions, headed by Steve Ivy, Jim Halperin and Greg Rohan, is the world’s third largest auction house, with annual sales more than $700 million, and 470,000+ registered online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and gain access to a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit www.HA.com.

Image: William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916) The Red Kimona (Girl in Red) (The Artist’s Daughter), circa 1908 Oil on canvas 33-1/2 x 28-3/4 inches (85.1 x 73.0 cm)