Skinner Fine Paintings and Prints Auction to Feature Works by Dunning, Peterson and Escher Skinner, Inc will host an auction of American & European Paintings & Prints on Friday, May 20th at noon in the Boston gallery. The sale offers wonderfully fresh material from a number of well-establis
News-Antique.com - Apr 28,2011 - Skinner, Inc will host an auction of American & European Paintings & Prints on Friday, May 20th at noon in the Boston gallery. The sale offers wonderfully fresh material from a number of well-established estates and private collections including works from Robert Spear Dunning, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Carl Spitzweg, among others.
European Paintings
Through the estate of Selma H. and Irving M. Sobin are several works including Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s Hayfield with Storm Clouds. Schmidt-Rottluff was a founding member of “Die Brücke,” a group that sought to express “…rejection of the older forces of the establishment” through art. The radical anti-academic model they championed helped bring Expressionism into acceptance. By the time Schmidt-Rottluff received public acclaim for his work, the Nazis denounced it as “degenerate,” and banned him from painting. He resumed art-making after the war and the Sobins exhibited the present work in 1958. Lot 478 is estimated at $35,000 to $55,000.
Another German work of note is Carl Spitzweg’s Der Briefträger. The scene depicting a letter carrier is likely the rediscovered, final version of this known composition, created c. 1870. Coming from a private collection, the piece hasn’t been on the market for quite some time. Lot 326 is estimated at $70,000 to $90,000.
American Paintings
From another private collection is Robert Spear Dunning’s Still Life with Root Vegetables.
Co-founder of the Fall River School, Dunning was known as a master of reflective surfaces and for ornate Victorian still lifes inspired by the influx of wealth coming into the area following the Civil War. His pieces often incorporate ripened fruit, flowers and opulent objects set on highly polished tabletops. While it was an unusual choice to paint root vegetables in a worn brass pot, the piece offers all the hallmarks of his style with the meticulous detail as evidenced in his more showy works. Lot 364 is estimated at $70,000 to $90,000.
The sale will also feature a wonderful Jane Peterson piece entitled Lotus Flower. Lot 484 has an estimated value of $100,000 to $150,000. Purchased from a private Massachusetts collection c. 1970 by the present Massachusetts owner, Lotus Flower was likely created during World War I when the artist was unable to travel throughout Europe. While more of a portrait, much of the style is reminiscent of the flower pieces she later painted.
From the estate of a New York arts benefactor come several impressive 20th century works, including pieces by Japanese and American artists. Featured in this collection are 3 Janvier 1960 by John Harrison Levee, lot 578, estimated at $1,500 to $2,000 and The Shining Waves by Insho Domoto, lot 582, estimated at $1,500 to $2,000.
Prints
A strong group of Frank Benson etchings comes from the private collection of Robert Morse. Highlighted are Pintails in Flight over a Marsh, lot 416, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and The Fishermen, lot 21, which was based on Benson’s painting titled Calm Morning of 1904, currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The composition
