Clarke’s sixth fine art auction on May 4 did not produce the fireworks of last October’s sale, which set a world record of $176,500 for African American artist Beauford Delaney. This auction’s flame burned lower, but it produced a more sustained, consistent temperature, said Tom Curran, with just eight to ten of the 300 lots being passed.
A 1960 self-portrait by Bob Thompson and a circa 1855 American floral still life by John Beigel, both works hitting the market for the first time, were the sale’s leading lights. The Thompson self-portrait, carrying complete provenance, including the 1969 New School exhibition catalog, came directly from the estate of the late Carl-Eric-Flanders, founder of the Finnish American Chamber of the Commerce. The painting was hotly pursued by the trade, all of the action on eight phone lines, according to Curran, and it ultimately was won by a Manhattan dealer for $47,000, above its low estimate.
Auction house owner Ronan Clarke believed the Beigel still life to be only the second work by the artist to appear at auction in the past 150 years. According to art historian William Gerdts, Beigel belonged to a group of German artists, along with Severin Roesen who emigrated to America in the mid-Nineteenth Century. A search of online art databases yields a painting titled “Field Flowers” as the only other known painting by this artist.
The tempting bowl of fruit and glass of wine depicted in the Beigel work being offered by Clarke lured a Maine collector to dispatch an advance man in a private plane to check out the painting, according to Curran. “The man took a cab to the gallery. He was completely unknown to us, and when we sent out for lunch, we ordered him a sandwich.” Good client relations, it seems, worked well for the gallery as the Beigel sold to the Maine collector for $29,375.
A modest watercolor by Rios Rey (1911‱980), a Puerto Rican artist, depicted musicians, and despite some age-related fading, the 14¾-by-10¾-inch work that was estimated at just $100/200 took off to bring $1,175, a record price for the artist.
Equally puzzling to the auction house was the strong (and record) $2,232 price realized for an early watercolor of St Augustine, Fla., by American artist Sarah Sewell Monroe. The somewhat faded 13-by-19-inch work, initialed SSM lower right and inscribed with the artist’s full name and the painting’s location verso, had been estimated at just $300/500.
Clarke expected keen interest in an unusual lot †a five-volume Biblia Sacra illustrated with 105 lithographs by Salvador Dali. Uniquely, the first volume’s frontispiece was hand inscribed to the previous owner by Dali himself with an original pencil drawing and dated 1968. Since the auction house does not often sell books, however, the auctioneer assigned it a low estimate of $3/5,000. A book dealer bidding by phone snapped it up for $12,925.
A signed oil on canvas painting by Jean Xceron (1890‱967) came out of a collection of a Central Park West estate. Executed in 1941, it was similar to a mural Xceron created for the Works Progress Administration the following year. With Depression-era works currently enjoying increased popularity, the 52-by-40-inch painting easily bested its $8/12,000 presale estimate to bring $23,500.
The auction also offered a single-owner collection of 40 works with a Rockport or Doll and Richards provenance, including pieces from William Trost Richards, Anthony Thieme, Emile Gruppe, Antonio Cirino, Al Czerepak and A.C. Goodwin. A Gruppe oil on board titled “Harbor with Sails Under Clouds” and coming out of the Rockport estate went out at $5,875, just shy of its high estimate. From the same estate, “Fisherman and Docked Boats” by Cirino drew $3,525.
There were some bargains to be had. Clarke featured a Jose De Creeft (1884‱982) 1954 marble sculpture that had been exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York City in a 1960 retrospective of the artist. Carved by the artist from a single block of pink Tennessee marble, “Vision” and “Invocation” came with all the necessary attributes to support a $12/18,000 presale estimate. Its condition was good, with no chips or scratches, and it came with provenance showing that it was from the artist directly to the parents of the consignor, who were personal friends of the artist. It sold for $11,750.
International art was led by a work by Irish artist Paul Henry (1876‱958). The small (8 by 10 inches) oil on board landscape with clouds and shadows had been in a private collection for the past 20 years, and Clarke had assigned it a $20/30,000 presale estimate. It went to the Maine collector for $28,200. “I was shocked that there was not more interest in the painting,” said Curran.
Ireland was also the subject of a watercolor by William Trost Richards (American, 1833‱905), whose “Carrigan Head Ireland,” 1891, depicted the area between Carrick and the Bunglass cliffs below Slieve League, the so-called “Highest Sea Cliffs in Europe.” It also commanded somewhat less than its high estimate, settling at $8,081.
Sometimes art sleuthing makes for surprising revelations. Such was the case with a pencil drawing of a nude male torso by Spanish artist Antonio Lopez Garcia (b 1936). “Someone had consigned the piece, and it first appeared to be badly foxed,” said Curran, referring to the damage that sometimes afflicts works on paper caused by oxidation of iron or other substances in the pulp or rag from which the paper was made. It turned out, however, that the brown and white spots had been made deliberately by the artist with a lit cigarette as part of his creative process. That discovery resulted in Clarke upping the presale estimate on the drawing, dated June 3, 1968, from $300/500 to $6/9,000. It ultimately sold for $7,400.
All prices include the 17½ percent buyer’s premium. Clarke Auction is at 20 North Avenue. For information, www.Clarkeny.com or 914-833-8336.
