American Works of Art

American Works of Art 3915M | January 28, 2022 | Marlborough, MA

American Works of Art Early 19th century painters through early Modernists are represented at auction, including a cast of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln). Other highlights include works by Henry François Farny, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Charles Wimar, Eric Sloane, Harry Walcott, and Ernest Lawson. We are excited to welcome bidders back into the gallery for previews and the live auction—check our website for details. Experience the auction from wherever you are by joining the live sale-day video.

Join us on Zoom, on Wednesday, January 26 at 5pm, for a virtual talk by Dr. Henry Duffy, Curator Emeritus, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, who will be discussing Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his sculptures of Abraham Lincoln. Register for the event on our website.

3915M American Works of Art | Friday, January 28 | 10AM | Marlborough

visit us online to browse the catalog, see the preview schedule, register & bid

Robin S.R. Starr

front cover:

this page:

Elizabeth Haff

57 Harry Mills Walcott (American, 1870-1944), The Bluebird, 1913, oil on canvas $25,000-35,000

76 John Joseph Enneking (American, 1841-1916), Spring Brook, oil on canvas $6,000-8,000

Kathleen M. Leland James Leighton paintings@skinnerinc.com 508.970.3206

MA LIC. 2304

back cover: 63 Charles M. Schulz (American, 1922-2000), Tyrannosaurus Rex, A Peanuts Cartoon, Sunday, June 5, 1960, ink on paper, $30,000-50,000

75 John Leslie Breck (American, 1859-1899), A Mill-stream, 1890, oil on canvas $25,000-35,000

49 Johann Berthelsen (American, 1883-1972), 5th Avenue, New York, St. Patrick’s Cathedral,1953, oil on canvasboard $3,000-5,000

50 Johann Berthelsen (American, 1883-1972), Little Church Around the Corner, 1953, oil on canvasboard $3,000-5,000

41 Richard Hayley Lever (American, 1876-1958), Fourth of July, 1913, Gloucester, Mass, watercolor and gouache on paper $2,500-3,500

1 Charles Ferdinand (Carl) Wimar (American, 1828-1862), The Entrance to the Jeddo River, 1851, oil on canvas $30,000-50,000

View the sale & register to bid: skinnerinc.com

Henry François Farny Henry Farny is credited with these words, “The plains, the buttes, the whole country and its people are fuller of material for the artist than any country in Europe.” This sentiment provides a glimpse into the motivation and mindset of the artist who was recognized during his lifetime, and today, as one of the most admired painters of the American Indian.

Born in Alsace Lorraine, Henry Farny came to the United States with his family in 1853 , settling in Warren, Pennsylvania, in the western part of the state near a Seneca reservation. Here Farny was introduced to Indian culture through these peaceful neighbors living in harmony with the land. The Farny family then moved to Cincinnati, where Henry developed his artistic talent through lithography and illustration. By 1865 he had his first illustration published in Harpers Weekly.

From 1867 to 1870 Farny lived abroad, studying art in Rome and Düsseldorf.

The Sioux people, who eventually adopted Farny into their tribe, bestowed on him the name “Long Boots” and the symbol of a circle enclosing a dot, a device which he often included as part of his signature.

26 Henry François Farny (American, 1847-1916), Danger/A Study, oil on canvas $80,000-120,000

Farny remained deeply fascinated by Indian culture. To gain first-hand knowledge, in 1881 he traveled over a thousand miles by canoe on the Missouri River. During the 1880s he took advantage of other opportunities for travel to the West to meet Native peoples, to sketch and photograph Indian life, and to collect cultural artifacts, saving these materials in his Cincinnati studio as source material for his illustrations and paintings.

After 1890, Farny was able to give up magazine illustration to concentrate his efforts on painting, commencing a fruitful, productive period through 1906. He did not choose to paint Indians in conflict with the White Man or to stress the hardships of their existence. Instead he used his talent and documentary skill to portray, without sentimentality, a culture in tune with the natural world, providing a window on a vanishing way of life.

1. Robert Taft, Artists and Illustrators of the Old West, 1850-1900, p. 219

16 Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828), Mrs. Samuel Parkman, née Sarah Rogers (1755-1835), oil on canvas $3,000-5,000 21 Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (American, 1819-1905), Chickens, 1865, oil on prepared millboard $6,000-8,000 22 Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (American, 1819-1905), Dog’s Head and Woodcock, 1888, oil on canvas $7,000-9,0000

68 Eric Sloane (American, 1905-1985), The Old Bridge, oil on Masonite $30,000-50,000

View the sale & register to bid: skinnerinc.com

Augustus Saint-Gaudens The work here depicts the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. He stands with his head bent gently downwards in introspection and humility, and his left foot slightly forward, in a posture he often assumed when readying to give a speech.1 The original commission, begun in 1883, was for a monumental work for Chicago’s Lincoln Park. Saint-Gaudens saw Lincoln in person while the latter was in New York in late 1860 or early in 1861. In recalling the encounter Saint-Gaudens noted, “Lincoln stood tall in carriage, his dark uncovered head bent in contemplative acknowledgement of the waiting people, and the broadcloth of his black coat shone rich and silken in the sunlight.” 2 Saint-Gaudens used his recollections, a local model of similar build, and life casts made of Lincoln’s face and hands to create his evocative Lincoln.

The casting of the reduced 40-inch versions the Standing Lincoln was overseen by his widow, Augusta Fisher Homer Saint-Gaudens. She began casting these in 1912 and made approximately 17. As an artist herself, she understood the complexities of the process, and fiercely oversaw the casts to be certain that they were of the highest quality. She utilized several of her husband’s studio assistants and used only the foundries that her husband had trusted to cast his works. She was careful to distinguish the casts she oversaw by including the inscription “COPYRIGHT 1912 BY A.H.SAINT-GAUDENS” on the back of the base.

Provenance: A Massachusetts educational institution, probably since the 1930’s, possibly earlier.

1. John H. Dryfhout, The Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (University Press of New England: Hanover and London, 1982), p.158; 2. Ibid., p. 158.

17 Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, 1848-1907), Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln), 18841887, cast before 1926, bronze with brown patina. $300,000-500,000

Virtual Talk Wednesday, January 26 at 5pm Join us on Zoom, on Wednesday, January 26 at 5pm, for a virtual talk

by Dr. Henry Duffy, Curator Emeritus, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, who will be discussing Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his sculptures of Abraham Lincoln. Register for the event on our website.

left to right: 13 Alexander Helwig Wyant (American, 1836-1892), Coastal View, watercolor on paper mounted to cardboard $4,000-6,000 82 Ernest Lawson (American, 1873-1939), Misty Day, oil on canvas mounted to panel, $5,000-7,000 23 Aiden Lassell Ripley (American, 18961969), Two Hunters/Hunter and Dog: A Double-sided Work, watercolor and gouache on paper $8,000-12,000 6 Hermann Herzog (American/German, 1832-1932), Torrent Through a Mountain Village, oil on canvas $7,000-9,000

For buyers, consignors, and the passionately curious