NEW YORK—Heritage Galleries’ Nov. 10 sale of American and European art, in Dallas, achieved some strong prices. Leading the sale was Auguste Renoir’s undated Three People in the Countryside, which brought $167,300 (estimate: $150,000/200,000); it had been consigned by a collector in Colorado and was purchased by a private buyer abroad.
Following the Renoir was Thomas Moran’s Venice, Grand Canal, 1903, which sold for $131,450, compared with an estimate of $70,000/90,000. British painter Harold Knight’s undated By the Window sold for $44,813 (estimate: $10,000/15,000) and John Gamble’s Bush Lupine, Near Monte, ca. 1925, sold for $41,825 (estimate: $60,000/90,000).
The sale included five undated paintings by Edouard-Léon Cortès, all of which brought solid prices: Vaudeville Theater sold for $35,850 (estimate: $35,000/45,000); Paris Street Scene sold for $33,460 (estimate: $15,000/25,000); Paris at the Turn of the Century sold for $31,070 (estimate: $20,000/30,000); Rue de la Paix—Place Vendome sold for $28,680 (estimate: $18,000/24,000) and Avenue de l’Opéra sold for $35,850 (estimate: $18,000/24,000).
Thomas Hart Benton’s watercolor Two Bathers, ca. 1919–21 more than doubled its $8,000/12,000 estimate, fetching $28,680, and Thomas Doughty’s Catskills, ca. 1848 also surpassed its $12,000/18,000 estimate, earning $28,680. Henry Ossawa Tanner’s undated Country Scene in the Adirondacks sold for $19,120 (estimate: $10,000/15,000).
Ed Beardsley, managing director of fine and decorative arts at Heritage, said that there was a bidding war for Elizabeth Strong’s oil Sleeping Child with Dog, 1887, which sold for $15,535, compared with an estimate of $4,000/6,000, marking an auction record for the artist.
Overall, 169, or 65 percent, of the 260 lots in the sale found buyers, fetching a total of $1.34 million, and falling under the estimate of $1.45 million. Beardsley said most of the buy-ins were in the latter part of the sale, which contained its less expensive lots, estimated in the low four figures.
Among the higher-priced lots that were bought in was Alexander Pope Jr.’s Dogs in a Kennel, ca. 1900, which carried an estimate of $60,000/80,000.