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American art

Record-setting American art hits $4.2M at Heritage Auctions

Eanger Irving Couse (American, 1866-1936) ‘The Call of the Flute,’ 1922, oil on canvas. Price realized: $341,000. Heritage Auctions image
Eanger Irving Couse (American, 1866-1936) ‘The Call of the Flute,’ 1922, oil on canvas. Price realized: $341,000. Heritage Auctions image

 

DALLAS – Maxfield Parrish’s classic Jason and His Teacher, published as a 1909 frontspiece by Collier’s magazine, sold for more than $1 million Nov. 16 in Heritage Auctions’ fall American Fine Art Auction in New York.

LiveAuctioneers.com facilitated absentee and Internet live bidding.

 

Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966) ‘Jason and His Teacher,’ 1909, oil on canvas laid on board, sold for just over $1 million. Heritage Auctions image
Maxfield Parrish (American, 1870-1966) ‘Jason and His Teacher,’ 1909, oil on canvas laid on board, sold for just over $1 million. Heritage Auctions image

 

The $4.2 million auction set several world records, including the most valuable painting ever sold by artist Stevan Dohanos. His 1950 Saturday Evening Post cover Menemsha, Massachusetts, Post Office (below) soared to $167,000, against a $40,000 estimate.

 

Stevan Dohanos (American, 1907-1994) ‘Menemsha, Massachusetts, Post Office,’ 1950, oil on canvas. Price realized: $167,000. Heritage Auctions image
Stevan Dohanos (American, 1907-1994) ‘Menemsha, Massachusetts, Post Office,’ 1950, oil on canvas. Price realized: $167,000. Heritage Auctions image

 

The $4.2 million auction set several world records, including the most valuable painting ever sold by artist Stevan Dohanos. His 1950 Saturday Evening Post cover Menemsha, Massachusetts, Post Office soared to $167,000, against a $40,000 estimate.

LiveAuctioneers.com facilitated absentee and Internet live bidding.

“Our last three American Fine Art auctions have been powerhouses – a trifecta of stellar results,” said Aviva Lehmann, director of American Art. “Our team works diligently all year long to curate an irresistible selection of art and our latest world records shows clients like what they see at Heritage.”

A record auction price for a nocturne by Western Art master Eanger Irving Couse was claimed by The Call of the Flute, 1922, which sold for $341,000. Fresh-to-market, the oil remained in the same private collection for 92 years.

Influenced by his childhood spent in Spain and the American Southwest, Kaleidoscope by Clark Hulings (below) – a bucolic and vibrant depiction of an everyday market scene – fetched $161,000.

 

Clark Hulings (American, 1922-2011) ‘Kaleidoscope,’ oil on canvas. Price realized $161,000. Heritage Auctions image
Clark Hulings (American, 1922-2011) ‘Kaleidoscope,’ oil on canvas. Price realized $161,000. Heritage Auctions image

 

Colorado by Gerard Curtis Delano (below) sold for $149,000. The oil was commissioned by Palmer Hoyt, the famed American writer who was a regular contributor to pulp magazines such as Ace-High Magazine.

 

Gerard Curtis Delano (American, 1890-1972) ‘Colorado,’ oil on canvas. Price realized: $149,000. Heritage Auctions image
Gerard Curtis Delano (American, 1890-1972) ‘Colorado,’ oil on canvas. Price realized: $149,000. Heritage Auctions image

 

Another Western scene, Beginning of a Boomtown (below), 1981 by G. (Gerald Harvey Jones) Harvey, also sold for $149,000, more than double its estimate.

 

G. (Gerald Harvey Jones) Harvey (American, b. 1933) ‘Beginning of a Boomtown,’ 1981, oil on canvas. Price realized: $149,000. Heritage Auctions image
G. (Gerald Harvey Jones) Harvey (American, b. 1933) ‘Beginning of a Boomtown,’ 1981, oil on canvas. Price realized: $149,000. Heritage Auctions image

 

LeRoy Neiman’s Roulette Las Vegas, 1958 – making its auction debut after nearly 60 years in a private collection – sold for $125,000.

Likewise, two works by Nicolai Fechin made their auction debut after decades out of the public eye; Russian Girl sold for $109,375 and Still Life with Cherries, Pitcher, and Bouquet sold for $87,500.

Norman Rockwell’s 1968 preliminary illustration for Look Magazine titled The Right to Know brought $106,250, while the artist’s Norman Rockwell Visits a County Agent in Jay, Indiana, an original illustration for the July 24, 1948 edition of The Saturday Evening Post sold for $53,750.

Additional highlights include Snow Play by Richard Friese, a fine and unusually large example of his work, which closed at $55,000 to tie the artist auction record Heritage set during in May 2015.

The auction’s selection of American sculpture was led by Sacred Rain Arrow, 1977, by Allan C. Houser, which set an auction record for that cast when it brought $17,500.

 

American artClick here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

American art