Sotheby’s is set to present the annual spring auction of American Art in New York on May 23, 2018. Led by 13 works by Norman Rockwell from all periods of the artist’s decades-long career, the sale is estimated at more than $40 million. The auction will include exceptional examples by Frederic Edwin Church, N.C. Wyeth, Milton Avery, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran – many of which are from distinguished private collections and are coming to auction for the very first time.The auction house says, “leading the selection of works by Norman Rockwell is ‘Blacksmith’s Boy – Heel and Toe (Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop).’ Commissioned for a 1940 The Saturday Evening Post story by Edward W. O’Brien, this monumental painting – measuring nearly six feet across – illustrates a horseshoe-forging contest and will be sold to benefit the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (below, estimate $7/10 million).”“The Little Model” from 1919 (estimate $1/1.5 million), a gift from the artist to his aunt that has remained in the family collection for nearly a century. The work was completed for the 29 March 1919 cover of Collier’s, making it one of Rockwell’s earliest images executed on commission for a prominent American publication. “Boy Playing Flute Surrounded by Animals (Springtime)” and “Little Girl Looking Downstairs at Christmas Party” are also some of the Rockwell’s most recognizable works.“Making the debut in the auction is the N.C. Wyeth’s ‘Portrait of a Farmer (Pennsylvania Farmer)’ from 1943, which was formerly in the collection of the artist’s wife which synthesizes his memories and experiences of his Pennsylvania home,” says the auction house.One of the finest panoramic landscapes, Edwin Church’s “Valley of Santa Isabel, New Granada” (estimate $5/7 million) will be sold to benefit the Berkshire Museum. Albert Bierstadt’s “View of Nassau, The Bahamas” (estimate $700/1,000,000) will also be put for auction. “A Showery Day, Grand Canyon” by Thomas Moran is another significant landscape by a major 19th century artist to be presented in the May sale.According to the auction house, “‘The Seamstress’ from 1944 (estimate $2/3 million) by Milton Avery is a vibrant work highlighting American modernism will be a part of May sale. American realism is represented by two Edward Hopper drawings from the collection of Steve Martin Study for ‘A Woman in the Sun,’ a charcoal drawing executed in 1961 and Study for ‘Summer Evening.’ Works by Charles Marion Russell, Frederic Remington and Olaf Carl Seltzer from the Jack and Bonita Granville Wrather Collection will represent the Western Art. While Russell’s ‘When Guns were the Locks of the Treasure Box’ is a spectacular watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper that conveys the sense of excitement and adventure that the American West inspired (estimate $150/250,000), Frederic Remington’s Western Stage Managers is also a noteworthy addition from the Wrather Collection.”http://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder Louise Blouin
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