Sold! Edward Hopper Gloucester Houses $550,000 From Whitney Museum. Plus 3 more. See Sotheby’s Day Auction Results 2023

Sotheby’s Auction House | The New York Sales. Modern Day Auction, May 17, 2023. New York. See auction results and selection of highlights below. The Morning Session 1 lasted from 10:00 AM-12:30 PM and covered catalogued lots 101 – 323*. Session 2 resumed at 2:30 PM to auction lots 401-575*.

Sotheby’s averaged about 40 lots auctioned per hour today.

hopper Results

From the Whitney deaccession | Three of the four Whitney Hopper works sold in Session 2. The 4th Edward Hopper—linked indirectly to the Whitney bequest—a sailboat watercolor from 1899 (Lot 531) was near the end.

Edward Hopper from the Whitney Museum (Josephine Nivinson Hopper bequest)

  • Lot 430 Gloucester Group of Houses 1923 est 500,000 – 700,000. SOLD HAMMER PRICE $550,000. I wrote more about this work here
  • Lot 434 Red Barn in Autumn Landscape, 1927. SOLD HAMMER PRICE $500,000
  • Lot 432 The Battery, Charleston, SC 1929 est 500-700,000. SOLD HAMMER PRICE $450,000
  • Lot 145 Cobb’s Barn, South Truro, circa 1930-33, sold in the evening sale May 16, 2023 See “Edward Hopper Sold for 6M at Sotheby’s from Whitney Museum. Klimt Hammer Price 46 M.”

Lot 531 Edward Hopper Sailboat study from 1899 from the Sanborn batch (w/ art and papers in the Nyack family home following Hoppers’ deaths) presale est. $100,000. SOLD HAMMER PRICE 80,000

The Prendergast (Lot 250) from the Whitney collection sold under its presale estimate (400,000-600,000), hammer price was $300,000. The John Marin (Lot 429) from the Whitney Deaccession Seven sold for $140,000.

Selections from the day sale

Surpassed presale estimateS- Highlights

Selection of sold works

notes on images: The Feiningers were friends with the Hoppers. Ditto Hartley. The Hartley Pink Houses, ca. 1940, like a Hopper motif, was inspired by Stonington, ME. Henri taught Ed Hopper and Jo Nivison. The Benton Train Station that’s a bit more of a Hopper composition is dated 1929.

Failed to find a buyer (“passed”)

selection of works that failed to find a buyer at this time

Sotheby’s may 17, 2023 day Auction Results

Results here

*Various lots are withdrawn and or fail to sell at auction. As a result, the final lot tally generally doesn’t match the total number of lots promoted ahead of the live sale.

Note: Hammer price indicates last bid before the gavel drops. Fees are added to the hammer price.

Gloucester and Fiesta at Peabody Essex Museum

As I frequent museums and collections for work,  and Gloucester art abounds, I suffer bouts of ‘Gloucester acquisition affliction’ . Relative newcomers at PEM include a St. Peter Fiesta scene by Gifford Beal and one of Portuguese Hill by Olga Itasca Sears.  As much as I am fond of PEM– and I mean no disrespect to this august institution– I sorely wish the Cape Ann Museum had received the art or funds for acquisition. There are few major historic paintings of Gloucester (and the greater region) which remain in private hands. They include works by Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper. I’m trying.

While at PEM for special exhibits, I often check the permanent installation. Are the Frank Benson works and Norman Rockwell on view?  Check. I make a point to spend time in front of the Philip Reisman 1951 Tuna Shed, another Gloucester painting and one that Wicked Tuna fans may like to scrutinize.  Reisman was a masterful, versatile painter, and a smart gentle man. I was lucky to know and work with him. The Cape Ann Museum has examples of his Gloucester paintings in their collection and a binder of slides, photographs he took, many Fiesta. I remember labeling some.

I paused more than I ever have at the John Trumbull portrait of Alexander Hamilton. (Hmm. Have museums tagged works representing Alexander Hamilton? It would be a mastery of quick edits matched up to the Lin Manuel Miranda song.)

20160710_135914
GIFFORD BEAL (1879-1956), Fiesta of Saint Peter, Gloucester, c.1930                                              Oil on masonite, Gift of the family of Gifford Beal, 2006. Peabody Essex Museum.

20160710_140030
OLGA ITASCA SEARS (1906-1990). Portuguese Hill, Gloucester. ca.1950s. Oil on canvas. The Sheila W. And Samuel M. Robbins Collection. Peabody Essex Museum. (2015 acquisition)

20160710_140121
PHILIP REISMAN, Tuna Shed, 1951, oil on masonite. Gift of Louise K. Reisman. Peabody Essex Museum.

20160710_140310

#Hamilton, @ Lin_Manuel, #PEM                                                                                                     John Turnbull, Portrait of Alexander Hamilton, 1792, oil on canvas, gift of George A Ward, 1918, collection Peabody Essex Museum

I am looking forward to the upcoming Childe Hassam show opening July 16th at PEM. I went to see the Rodin exhibit.

Continue reading “Gloucester and Fiesta at Peabody Essex Museum”