Rockwell, Wiggins, Rivera & More Provide Great Depth to Garth’s August 4th Art Auction “With names like Cassatt, Rockwell, Wiggins, Rivera, & more, Garth’s Auctions is pleased to offer a stellar selection of contemporary and modern art in the August 4 auction,” exclaimed CE) Jeff Jeffer
News-Antique.com - Jul 24,2012 - “With names like Cassatt, Rockwell, Wiggins, Rivera, and more, Garth’s Auctions is pleased to offer a very good selection of contemporary and modern art in the August 4th auction,” exclaimed CEO Jeff Jeffers. The auction is one of two hosted annually by Garth’s featuring American & European Paintings, Fine & Decorative Arts. This event includes 615 lots of fine art, fine and vintage jewelry, Asian decorative arts, bronzes, textiles, furniture and more.
A true gem of the sale is the lovely winter scene, Looking Down 5th Ave., by American artist Guy Carleton Wiggins. Billowing American flags, colorful umbrellas, buses, and delicate snowflakes: these are the elements which combine to make the oil on canvas board, which depicts a 1940s-50s New York City street scene with five American flags, come alive. The work is signed lower right and verso and measures 12"h. 9"w. Ex Questroyal Fine Art (New York), this example of Wiggins work adorns the front cover of the catalog and it is expected to hit the street for $35,000-45,000.
Works of many other fine American artists are represented including a lot of two sketches by Norman Rockwell. With one ink and pencil on paper, and the other pencil on paper, both sketches depict a man pecking a lady on the cheek under a sprig of mistletoe. They are a rough study sketch, 7"d. (image), and a more polished version in ink, 7.75"d. (image), identically matted and framed, 19" square. Ex Don Walton, the former Fine Arts Division director at the Franklin Mint, these two sketches, and the accompanying archive, provide a glimpse into the process by which Rockwell's iconic images became collector plates. The two sketches offered here were, apparently, a first and a second attempt at the final image. Rockwell notes on the ink sketch, rather humorously, "Dear Don, This was my first attempt. Grandpa looks like a lecher in this one. Norman." Another sketch was created and ultimately used in the creation of the plate. That sketch sold at Sotheby's (New York), October 2007, lot 269. An example of the sterling silver plate that was created from Rockwell's illustration is also included along with three photographs of Rockwell sketching this image, a well as two letters from Rockwell to Don Walton, both dated in late 1970, and both discussing this specific commission (estimate $18,000-22,000). A pencil on paper sketch of a woman by Mary Cassatt bears an oval stamp in lower right, "Collection Mary Cassatt Mathilde X" and also is stamped on remnant of earlier backing. Measuring 17"h. and 14.25"w., it is conservatively estimated at $5,000-7,000.
An oil on canvas titled Les Sylphides by Marian Williams Steele (New Jersey) depicts ballerinas on stage. At 30"h. 36"w., the canvas has a presence as big as the dancers’ (estimate $ 2,500-3,500). Another oil on board takes the viewer on A Summer Day on the Big Miami. The painting by William McCord, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and active in the area from the 1880s until his death in
