1850 Severin Roesen masterwork, Still Life with Fruit and Flowers in a Landscape at Heritage May 17 American & European Art auction in Dallas includes work by John Koch, John Constable, American landscape paintings from The Flanner & Buchanan Corporate Collection and British Portraits...
News-Antique.com - May 04,2011 - DALLAS, TX – A magnificent 1850 still life by German-born American painter Severin Roesen, Still Life with Fruit and Flowers in a Landscape, is expected bring more than $600,000 as the central highlight in Heritage Auctions’ Signature® Fine American, European Art & Western Art Auction on Tuesday, May 17 at the company’s Design District Annex, 1518 Slocum Street.
“This rare example of Roesen’s early work was produced only two years after the artist’s arrival in the United States from his native Germany where he had trained as a porcelain painter,” said Dr. Marianne Berardi, Senior Fine Arts Expert at Heritage. “The sophisticated composition has its roots in the lavish still lifes of the eighteenth-century Dutch and Flemish masters of the genre, such as Jan van Huysum, Jan Frans van Dael and the Spaendoncks. The beautiful design, combined with Roesen’s dazzling technical skills and attention to naturalistic detail, makes this work an exceptional example of the opulence characterizing mid-nineteenth-century still-life painting, and is widely considered one of Roesen’s finest known works.”
Still Life with Fruit and Flowers in a Landscape has descended in a single family since its original purchase directly from the artist. It has been displayed, without interruption, in the family’s 1880 New Jersey estate along the Neversink River.
A pair of late eighteenth-century flower paintings in a similar vein on mahogany panels by Flemish artist Peter Faes is another highlight in the still-life category, and are expected to bring $50,000+. Faes enjoyed the patronage of Hapsburg Archduchess Maria Christina – the favorite daughter of Empress Maria Theresa.
British painter John Wainwright’s Floral Still Life, 1865, estimated at $8,000+, continues the tradition of fine European still life painting into the 19th century, along with George Clair ‘s Still Life with Apple Blossom, Primroses, and Bird's Nest, estimated at $3,000+.
The auction is notably rich in portraiture and landscape painting by both American and European artists. An outstanding American offering is the charming large- scale Portrait of Eleanor Anne Schrafft by preeminent Boston School painter William McGregor Paxton, estimated at $80,000+. A delightful example of the artist’s ability to capture the elegance of America’s Edwardian-period upper crust, the painting depicts a young girl in a crisp white frock with blue satin bows, posed in a stately interior alongside her rosy-cheeked doll.
“Paxton’s decorative style of portraiture became fashionable beyond the Boston Brahmin set, extending into Pennsylvania, where he became known as ‘the court painter of Philadelphia,” said Mary Adair Dockery, Consignment Director at Heritage. “Among his many notable sitters were Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Grover Cleveland.”
Another American portrait highlight of the auction already proving popular with collectors is realist painter John Koch’s evocative and moody 1955 composition Father and Son, estimated at $80,000+. Koch created a special artistic niche for himself as a figure and portrait painter who staged his compositions in his own Manhattan apartment, amidst domestic furnishings and materials associated with art-making. He is best known for his paintings of social scenes such as cocktail parties and
