and new inspiration, and his Florida watercolors are notable for a wide range of techniques that he employed to portray the exotic landscape, from complex layers of color to delicate transparent washes. These scenes have a spontaneity and freshness that is strikingly different from earlier works. Homer’s Three Figures in an Interior from 1885 (est. $150/250,000) is one of only a handful of works that the artist painted during his travels to Cuba. The previously unknown watercolor was discovered by a man visiting Southern Ireland on a fishing trip. He found the work lying near his favourite fishing spot and took it home. In May of last year, he brought it to the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow valuation day at Althorp House in Northamptonshire. The fine art dealer Philip Mould identified the watercolor as the work of Winslow Homer, and pointed out that it was signed. Mould commented, “[Homer] was an amazing painter, he was an impressionist, he was an illustrator, he travelled on the Continent, but basically he’s claimed by the Americans; he’s one of the great artists who define American heritage.”
Among the works of sculpture included in the sale is a monumental example of Harriet Whitney Frishmuth’s iconic sculpture The Vine, which measures 83 1/2 inches (est. $400/600,000). First modeled in 1921 and cast as a statuette, The Vine quickly became one of Frishmuth’s best-selling bronzes. During the forty-five years that the 11 1/4 inch sculpture was produced, 396 editions were cast, making it one of the largest authorized editions of American bronzes of the period. The small sculpture was modeled after a pose struck by one of Frishmuth’s students in a sculpting class, who later explained it was a position from her dancing. Two years later, in 1923, Frishmuth produced a larger-than-life version for a special exhibition to be held at the National Sculpture Society. The present work is one of only five large-scale bronze editions of The Vine and is from the collection of the Regents of the University of California. Sotheby’s will also offer a strong selection of Western works, including paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington being sold by the Art Institute of Chicago. Several of the sale’s top Western works come from the aforementioned Minnesota Private Collection, among them Walter Ufer’s The Red Moccasins, from 1917 (est. $500/700,000). Ufer travelled to New Mexico in 1914 with the sponsorship of the Chicago Mayor, who encouraged young artists to visit Taos. In Taos, Ufer was struck by both the landscape and the declining native culture of the Pueblo Indians in the face of modernization. The artist’s depiction of the moccasin mender carefully preparing the traditional Taos footwear amidst broken boards, rough clay walls and a damaged blackware pot reveals his compassion for the plight of the Indian people, who were forced to adjust to a transforming world.
Charles Marion Russell’s Buffalo Hunting, dated 1894, will also be offered from the Private Minnesota Collection (est.
$400/600,000). For Russell, who travelled to Montana one summer at the
