Dedham, MA – Grogan and Company Fine Art Auctioneers and Appraisers announces their upcoming September 30th Auction will include over 700 lots of Fine Art, Furniture, Decorative Works of Art, Silver, Jewelry and Oriental Rugs, and will span five centuries of artistic expression and craftsmanship from various estates and collections throughout New England.
William Bradford, Low Tide Labrador
The highlight of the fine art offerings is Low Tide, Labrador, a 20 x 30 inch oil on canvas by celebrated 19th century Hudson River School artist William Bradford. Born in New Bedford, a fishing town along the coast of Massachusetts, Bradford was best known for his dramatic paintings of icebergs and Arctic landscapes, which were inspired by his seven voyages to Newfoundland and Greenland between 1861-1869. On his last voyage, which departed in July of 1869, Bradford set out aboard the Panther, a 325 ton sealing ship, for Newfoundland on an expedition funded by art collector and New York banker, LeGrand Lockwood. Like his previous voyages, Bradford recorded what he saw in pencil and oil sketches, but this time he brought along two photographers, William Dunmore and John Critcherson. By August, the Panther had to turn around and return due to impenetrable ice. In 1873, Bradford published a collection of albumen photographs, taken on the voyage by Dunmore and Critcherson, in a book titled The Arctic Regions, documenting his 1869 expedition to Newfoundland. The Arctic Regions was a huge success and became instrumental in advancing Bradford’s career, resulting in numerous prominent commissions for his luminous views of the Arctic region, the most notable being from Queen Victoria. This 1888 panoramic view of a fishing village along the coast of Labrador, came from a Lexington, Massachusetts estate and is estimated to sell in the $40,000-60,000 range.
Another fine art highlight is an impressionist portrait by Concord born artist and member of the “Ten”, Edward Simmons. The Reflection, a 24 x 24 inch oil on canvas, depicting a woman in profile contemplating her reflection in a small hand held mirror, was exhibited at M. Knoedler & Co.’s exhibition of Paintings by ‘The Ten’ in 1916. The painting, from a Westwood estate, has descended within the family of the original owner until now and is estimated to sell in the $20,000-30,000 range.
A collection old master paintings from the estate of a Somerville Massachusetts Collector, who spent 40 years as a Boston art director, features a Portrait of Angela Chigi created about 1679-1680 by Jacob Ferdinand Voet. Voet, a Dutch artist who traveled painting portraits of the noble class throughout Italy between 1679-1684, was banned from Rome for his female portraits showing too much décolletage. Angela Chigi, one of the eleven Chigi princesses of Agostino Chigi and Maria Borghese, was sent to the Sienese nunnery of S. Girolamo in Campansi in 1680. This portrait, depicting Angela at about 14 years of age, was created just before her investiture. An old photograph of the portrait, illustrated on page 178 of Francesco Petrucci’s book, Ferdinand Voet, detto Ferdinando De’ Ritratti, published by Bozzi of Rome, lists the work as “a lost portrait from the Baron Messinger Collection, 1910”. The newly discovered canvas has suffered damage and is thus estimated at $2,000-4,000.
Other American fine art highlights include two landscapes by George Inness, Sr. The first, Landscape with Cows, an oil on canvas circa 1891, came from the estate of prominent collector George A. Hearn and is expected to fetch $8,000-12,000; while the other Inness, Sr., Figure in the After Glow of Evening, bears a presale estimate of $5,000-10,000. Works on paper include a John LaFarge watercolor of a Geisha with Dog, estimated at $10,000-15,000 and two charcoal drawings by Max Liebermann.
The highlight of the French offerings includes Maurice de Vlaminck’s Le Paysage, an 18 x 22 inch watercolor formerly in the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. William Preston Harrison and the Los Angeles County Museum bears an estimate of $10,000-20,000. Dutch works include a charming Mother and Child by Hendrik Valkenburg, oil on canvas circa 1877, estimated at $1,500-2,000, a Landscape oil on panel by Jan Dirksz Both, estimated at $2,000-3,000 and an oil on panel by Johannes Rosierse titled Gentleman Reading by Candlelight, is estimated at $800-1,200.
Highlights of the Contemporary offerings include an embroidery titled Udir e tra le parole (Read Between the Lines), by Italian artist Alighiero Boetti, which has a pre-sale estimate of $15,000-20,000; while an untitled abstract composition by Jon von Wicht, circa 1956, formerly in the collection of Elizabeth Ames, bears an estimate of $800-1,200. Ames was the director of Yaddo, the Saratoga Springs New York artist colony active in the early part of the 20th century, where Wicht painted in 1956. A Karl Knath’s oil on canvas, titled Job, painted in 1966 is estimated to bring $6,000-8,000; while David Hockney’s color lithograph, Flowable Table, is estimated at $8,000-12,000. Other contemporary artists represented include Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Sam Francis, Marc Chagall and Salvidor Dali. A collection of black and white photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Curtis, and Sam Shaw are also amongst the offerings.
Sculptures include two works by Russian artist Evgeni Alexandrovich Lanceray, Cossacks Sweetheart and Triumph of the Cossacks, both from a Rhode Island estate. Several bronzes by by French artists include Lion and Serpent No. 3, a small bronze by Antoine Barye; while American offerings include a pair of bronze bookends of children by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle.
The exhibition is open to the public and begins on Thursday, September 27th. Hours: Thursday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 12 noon. The auction will begin with Fine Art at 12:00 noon and will be conducted in lot number order. A fully illustrated catalogue can be found online at www.groganco.com. For more information regarding upcoming auctions, consigning or appraisal services, please call the gallery at 781-461-9500.
