JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS ANNOUNCES October 16, 2012 FINE ART SALE Early consignments to John Moran Auctioneers’ October 16, 2012 sale promise an exciting second installment of the house’s new two-session format for their semi-annual Fine Art Auctions. Beginning with
News-Antique.com - Sep 11,2012 - • Select American, European and Modern works from private collections offered at all price levels
• Authenticated John Singer Sargent watercolor featured in American Session
• European Session highlighted by Alexei Harlamoff portrait
Pasadena, CA— Early consignments to John Moran Auctioneers’ October 16, 2012 sale promise an exciting second installment of the house’s new two-session format for their semi-annual Fine Art Auctions. Beginning with their very successful April 2012 sale, Moran’s broadened the scope of their marquee event to include European and Modern art in a separate, same-day session preceding a session devoted to the house’s traditional specialty of regional American Impressionism. This strategy has dramatically boosted sales of both European and American works, drawing a larger audience of collectors and connoisseurs at all price levels while maintaining an emphasis on the quality of the offerings, and has attracted a wealth of consignments to the October 16th sale.
The 200-lot American Session includes an important 1914 watercolor by John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925 American) with pristine provenance. ‘In the Tyrol’’ is painted with exceptionally lively, loose brushstrokes, exemplifying the spontaneous style that established Sargent’s reputation as one of the most celebrated watercolorists. The work conveys Sargent’s unabated enjoyment of the scenery of the Alps, a favorite destination of the artist, and a general sense of ease and relaxation despite the turmoil caused by the outbreak of World War I. Turning his back on society portrait work, of which he had grown weary despite his phenomenal success with it, Sargent turned to watercolor and began his first truly sustained exploration of the medium around 1905, making numerous outdoor studies while wandering the Continent on his frequent trips. The immediate popularity with collectors of these sketches injected his career with a new vitality and within a few years they were being acquired in volume by institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sargent reserved several of his best watercolors for his own collection, however, and after his death many were retained by family members to be donated to museums or sold, as was the case with ‘In the Tyrol’. The painting is very well documented, accompanied by a sepia-toned image of the watercolor inscribed with Emily Sargent’s handwritten notes authenticating it, and by the 1927 sales receipt from Barbizon House Gallery in London, where it was exhibited as part of a one-man show in July 1927 and subsequently purchased by Mrs. Edward Browning of Philadelphia, who was a prominent collector and member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. ‘In the Tyrol’ remained in the family, handed down through Mrs. Browning’s descendents to the present day. It has recently been authenticated by a Sargent vetting committee and will be included in Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray’s ninth and final volume of “John Singer Sargent, Complete Paintings, Figures and Landscapes, 1914-1925.” Moran’s is pleased to offer ‘In the Tyrol’ for $80,000 – 120,000.
