Sothebys : A MAGNIFICENT COLLECTION OF 19TH CENTURY LANDSCAPES HIGHLIGHTS SOTHEBY’S $19 MILLION AUCTION OF AMERICAN ART IN NEW YORK

New York | [phone] | Darrell Rocha | [e-mail]| Adrienne DeGisi | [e-mail]

A MAGNIFICENT COLLECTION OF 19TH CENTURY LANDSCAPES

HIGHLIGHTS SOTHEBY'S $19 MILLION AUCTION OF

AMERICAN ART IN NEW YORK

Led by Sanford Robinson Gifford's

$2.9 Million A Lake Twilight

*World Auction Record for the Artist*

ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Milton Avery's Tranquil Painting

Two Figures on Beach Achieves $1.9 Million

**

Cover Illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell

Total $2.5 Million

Highlighted by Christmas Homecoming from 1920

• Auction Record for a Work on Paper by Rockwell*
  **

A Newly-Discovered Work by Jacob Lawrence

Brings $980,000

*Auction Record for a Work on Paper by Lawrence*

**

Georgia O'Keeffe's Hawaiian Waterfall

Fetches $932,000

NEW YORK, 21 May 2019 - Kayla Carlsen, Head of Sotheby's American Art Department, New York, commented: "The top prices in today's sale demonstrate a demand for fresh-to-marketproperty, whether emerging from exceptional estate collections such as Milton Avery's Two Figures on Beach formerly in the collection of Elaine Attias, or tucked away for decades in distinguished private collections such as Norman Rockwell's Little Boy Writing Letter. We were especially pleased to see 19th century landscape pictures perform well today, led by the record-settingwork by Sanford Robinson Gifford that was the highlight of a distinguished group of Hudson River School paintings. We are also encouraged to see a number of participants new to our category acquiring top works, across the full spectrum of genres."

Today's auction was led by Sanford Robinson Gifford's A Lake Twilight, which sold for $2.9 million and set a new world auction record for the artist. Painted in 1861, the painting is a dramatic depiction of the nation's landscape at the brink of the Civil War. The work topped a stunning selection of 19th century landscapes emerging from a private American collection, including works by Thomas

Cole, Albert Bierstadt, and Alfred Thompson Bricher, which together totaled $3.5 million.

Milton Avery's Two Figures on Beach achieved $1.9 million, exceeding its $1.8 million high estimate. The work belongs to a remarkably innovative and productive period of Avery's celebrated career and exemplifies the distinctive blend of realism and abstraction that defines his most admired aesthetic.

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A recently discovered work by Jacob Lawrence, The Carpenters from 1946 achieved $980,000, surpassing its $700,000 high estimate. The vibrant work on paper made its auction debut in today's sale, after being held in the family of its original owners, who purchased the work from The Downtown Gallery soon after it was completed in 1946. Today's result marks the third-highest price ever achieved for Lawrence at auction and a record for a work on paper by the artist, and follows the record- setting result that his 1947 work The Businessmen fetched at Sotheby's in November 2018.

Two cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post led a selection of works by Norman Rockwell on offer, led by Little Boy Writing Letter that sold for $1.7 million, exceeding its $1.5 million high estimate (pictured left). Appearing on the January 17, 1920 cover of The Post, the work exemplifies the charm, humor and nostalgia that imbues Rockwell's best and most beloved images. Rockwell's preliminary study for the painting Christmas Homecoming, which appeared on the cover of the 25 December 1948 edition of The Post, fetched $800,000 - an auction record for a work on paper by Rockwell, well above its $600,000 high estimate. The work is the only image in the artist's oeuvre in

which all members of his immediate family appear and are portrayed as themselves.

Georgia O'Keeffe's Waterfall, No 2. Īao Valley realized $932,000, surpassing its $700,000 high estimate. Attracted by O'Keeffe's success and her distinctive interpretation of natural subjects, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company - now known as the Dole Pineapple Company - sent the artist to Hawaii in 1939 to create images of pineapples for a new promotional campaign. Captivated by the regions lush tropical landscape, the present work is one of four waterfalls O'Keeffe painted in the Īao Valley on Maui, and the only example left in private hands.

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*Estimates do not include buyer's premium. Prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer's premium and are net of any fees paid to the purchaser where the purchaser provided an irrevocable bid.

Images are available upon request

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