Important American Paintings and Prints to Be Offered By Copley Fine Art Auctions On January 17, Copley Fine Art Auctions will conduct its first Winter Sale, offering 430 lots of top-notch American paintings, decoys and related folk art.
News-Antique.com - Dec 15,2010 - NEW YORK, NEW YORK – On January 17, Copley Fine Art Auctions will conduct its first Winter Sale, offering 430 lots of top-notch American paintings, decoys and related folk art. The first lot will cross the block at 11 AM, and all items will be available for preview from 10 AM to 8 PM on Saturday, January 15 and Sunday, January 16 in Wallace Hall at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue. Copley is pleased to be teaming up with Keno Auctions, which will conduct its Winter Sale the following day, January 18. These auctions will kick off Americana Week in New York.
Headlining the painting selection is a noteworthy oil on canvas by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905) titled Guarding the Catch ($125/175,000). Tait, who is known as one of America’s earliest sporting artists, was drawn to art and the outdoors early in life. He trained in England but found success after his move to America, where he settled in New York and spent time painting in the Adirondacks. Tait quickly gained membership to the National Academy of Design, and Guarding the Catch is a classic example of his ability to tell a story in paint, as the objects surrounding the dog, a predecessor of the Labrador Retriever, engage the viewer in a unique way. Of this impressive work Copley Chairman and Fine Art specialist Stephen O’Brien, Jr. notes, “It is one of the most important American dog paintings that we have ever had the privilege to bring to market. The composition, subject, condition, and provenance are all first rate. Very few of Tait’s large oils are held in private hands, and this is a rare opportunity for the right acquisitor.”
Also crossing the block will be a number of fine Western and wildlife scenes, led by an oil painting by artist and sportsman William Harnden Foster. Foster was one of the founders of skeet shooting, and the rules appeared on the pages of “National Sportsman,” where the artist served as editor. Across the Canyon ($30/50,000), a rare and important western scene, appeared on the cover of the October 1930 issue of the same magazine. Other wildlife and western works in the sale include a depiction of mountain goats by Michael Coleman titled In The Cliffs ($10/15,000), an oil painting of Jenny Lake by Ogden Pleissner ($15/20,000), and an outstanding offering of big game etchings by Carl Rungius from a single private collection.
A fine watercolor by New England artist Frank W. Benson, featuring a dramatic view of the Maine coastline near the artist’s North Haven summer home, is also included. Western Bay ($30/50,000) was painted in 1922, the same year the artist was awarded a medal by the Art Institute of Chicago for his outstanding watercolor work. Western Bay displays the confident brushstrokes of an American master.
An exceptional selection of upland shooting and salmon fishing scenes by Ogden M. Pleissner will be offered, including The Orchard Cover ($40/60,000), which showcases Pleissner’s ability to recreate the
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