Rare Edward Hopper print The Lonely House fetched record auction price @SwannGalleries

The Edward Hopper etching The Lonely House was the star lot going into the sale and in the live auction last night. The print sold for $310,000 vaulting past its pre auction estimate of $150,000-$200,000.

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Hopper’s Les Poilus circa 1915 surpassed its $15000-$20,000 pre-sale estimate as well, selling for $42,500. I’ve sold an impression of the Lonely House before but I’ve only scene Les Poilus in the Whitney collection.

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The sale featured Old Master through Modern prints by American and European artists.

Here’s a link to the Swann Galleries catalogue for the November 4th 2017 sale 2460 and the Swann Galleries auction results. Images in this post are from Swann Galleries.

Besides Edward Hopper, there were prints by artists with Gloucester connections (or topics of interest such as a 1680 engraving of a beached whale).

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Willem Van Gouwen after matham A Beached Whale between Scheveningen and Katwijk 1680 engraving sold for 1875

Records were achieved for other prints like Martin Lewis, Relics, $55,000

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a rare Odilon Redon 1892 lithograph sold for $47,500

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and a Rembrandt 1631 etching, Self portrait with Cap Pulled Forward, that sold for $65,000.

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See more highlights below the “read more” break from the nearly 500 prints that were sold at the November Swann Galleries auction.

Head to the Cape Ann museum Fitz Henry Lane exhibition Drawn from Nature and on Stone: The lithgraphs of Fitz Henry Lane to experience a great print show in person. Continue reading “Rare Edward Hopper print The Lonely House fetched record auction price @SwannGalleries”

Motif Monday: Memorial Day, Gordon Parks, Poppies

John McCrae sketch book 1896, Maryland
John McCrea sketchbook, ca.1896, Maryland

Veteran of the Boer War and WWI, a teacher, and doctor, Canadian John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields in the spring of 1915 while still at the bloody battlefront in Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders.

The Germans had already used deadly gas.

Dr. McCrae had been tending to hundreds of wounded daily. He described the nightmare slaughter: “behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed.” By this time he had already devoted his life to art and healing. He couldn’t save his friends. How could anyone?  Twenty years prior, he sketched poppies during his medical residency in Maryland. He published poems and stories by the time he was 16.  I’m not surprised he noticed the brilliant fragile petals and horror. He wrote for those who couldn’t speak and those who had to see. Meningitis and pneumonia killed him January 1918 after several months battling asthma and bronchitis. His poem and the emblematic poppy continue to inspire and comfort.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt  dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

John McCrae, 18721918

Images: Respectfully thinking about art that helps us celebrate, remember, remind and reflect every family who has suffered a loss in service.

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Donald Sultan Five Reds, Five Whites, Five Blues, 2008 color silkscreen with enamel, flocking and tar like texture
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Gordon Parks, Library of Congress, 1943 photograph, Gloucester policemen, Memorial Day Ceremonies

A few poppy images follow. I was thinking about their poetic illumination before and after WW1 and layers of meaning and beauty.

Paul Cummins blood swept lands and seas of red tower of london 2014 ceramic poppy
Paul Cummins, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, 2014, Tower of London, individual cast ceramic poppies fill the moat  (photo during installation in progress) commission to mark 100 years since the first full day of Britain’s involvement in WWI
Monet poppy field in a hollow near giverny 1888 mfa
Monet, Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny, 1888,  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

More representations of poppies in art

Continue reading “Motif Monday: Memorial Day, Gordon Parks, Poppies”