Bonhams California and Western Art auction August 6

This summer’s auction of California and Western Paintings and Sculpture at Bonhams will take place August 6 in Los Angeles, simulcast in San Francisco. Particularly notable in the sale will be the largest work by Selden Connor Gile to be offered at public auction since 2006, an oil on canvas painting, “Wagon team and barn,” measuring approximately 24 x 30 in., and estimated at $100,000-150,000. Various other Gile works will also be available.

Another painting of substantial scale and note in the auction will be “Morning, California,” by William Keith. The oil on canvas work of a valley in the eastern Sierras comes from a private Bay Area Collection. It measures approximately 30 x 50 in., and is estimated at $70,000-100,000. An additional work featuring a large Sierra view is depicted in Thomas Hill’s “El Capitan with Clouds Rest beyond, Yosemite, 1901,” on offer in the auction for an estimated $70,000-100,000.

A bronze of note in the auction will be Frederic Remington’s “The Cheyenne,” number 84 out of 100. It comes from a private San Francisco collection, and is estimated at $70,000-100,000.

A special highlight in the auction will be a rare, original Thomas Kinkade work “Skagway in 1898,” an oil on canvas stretched over board. It depicts a view of Skagway, Alaska in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush, commissioned from Kinkade in 1988, and estimated at $30,000-50,000. The work is accompanied by a letter from the consignor detailing how after vacationing with Kinkade on his yacht in Southeast Alaska, Kinkade asked if he would like to commission a work on the Klondike Goldrush, an interest both men shared. The consignor wrote that he agreed and “I charted a plane to fly [Kinkade and his wife] to Skagway to photograph the town and the terrain. Later I provided Thomas historical photographs of some of the famous ships that came to Skagway during the gold rush. This is the genesis of his painting ‘Skagway 1898.'”

Also on offer in the auction will be a large, rare oil painting by Percy Gray entitled “Quarry Near Spring Valley Lakes.” The painting is being sold to benefit the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and is estimated at $40,000-60,000. There will also be works by Armin Hansen on offer, including “Ebb Tide” and “Men of Dogger Bank,” both in oil on board, each separately estimated at $15,000-25,000.

Scot Levitt, Vice President and Fine Arts Department Director at Bonhams, says of the auction: “We have successfully brought together a strong, high quality group of fine pictures that represent the history of California painting, from 19th century masterpieces, such as William Keith’s expansive landscape, to a Roger Kuntz work of figures on the beach in Laguna.”

The illustrated auction catalog for this sale will be available online for review and purchase in the weeks preceding the sale at www.bonhams.com.