NEW YORK—Skinner’s two-part sale of American and European art on Feb. 3 was marked by plenty of demand and strong prices.
The highest price was given for Jane Peterson’s Canal Venice, ca. 1909, which realized $130,350, surpassing its $60,000/80,000 estimate. Robin Starr, director of the American and European art department, noted that the Peterson painting was “one of her most desirable paintings. This was a large-scale piece, 40 inches tall; it had been on the market two decades ago and hadn’t been seen since, so it was quite a find.”
Starr called the sale “thrilling,” noting that there were many bids coming by phone, online, “and the room was packed to the gills.” In all, the auction realized $2.7 million, just under the top end of the $1.85 million/2.76 million presale estimate, with 561, or 84 percent, of the 655 lots finding buyers.
Other top-selling lots included, Irish artist Paul Henry’s painting, The Bog Pool, ca. 1921–22, which sold for $94,800 (estimate: $30,000/50,000); Aldro Hibbard’s Winter in New England, 1924, which sold for $88,875 (estimate: $25,000/35,000); Henri-Joseph Harpignies’ oil titled An Extensive View of Rome, 1865, which sold for $59,250, compared with an estimate of $20,000/30,000; and Gustav Klimt’s drawing, Portrait of a Walking Female Nude, ca. 1906, which sold for $59,250, on an estimate of $20,000/40,000.
An enamel on canvas by Lawrence Weiner titled Wheelwright, ca. 1963, sold for $50,363, well above the estimate of $15,000/30,000, and Marsden Hartley’s undated Two Gulls, sold for $47,400, compared with an estimate of $10,000/15,000.
Some dealers took chances on certain lots, paying significantly more than the presale estimates: a 19th-century painting, Ruins of the Noruttun at Sasseram, attributed only to “British School,” achieved $45,938 on an estimate of $800/1,200; an undated and untitled, abstract welded-iron sculpture by Berto Lardéra sold for $34,365, against an estimate of $2,000/3,000; and José Manuel Capuletti’s The Last Hour, undated, sold for $24,885, compared with an estimate of $800,000/1,200.