With total sales tripling the auction’s original estimate and new records for 18 featured artists, Freeman’s recent paintings sale harbingers great things for European and American impressionistic painting.
Freeman’s sale of The George D. Horst Collection of Fine Art on March 30 achieved numerous stunning results. Auction records were set for 18 artists, and the total sales of $4.3 million more than tripled auction estimates. On top of that, the 63-lot auction achieved a perfect 100 percent sell-through rate to earn the esteemed designation of a “white glove” sale.
George Loftus Noyes, “Joyous Island,” 1920, oil on canvas, 34 x 36 in. Freeman’s
The Horst Collection boasted landscape paintings from the French Barbizon school and fine works from the distinguished group of American painters known as The Ten. With many of the paintings and sculptures appearing in public and on the open market for the first time, expectations for the sale were high, though perhaps not high enough.
Howard Russell Butler, “Maine Cliffs in Sunlight,” 1918, oil on canvas, 25 1/4 x 32 1/8 in. Freeman’s
Total sales on the day brought in $4.3 million — far beyond the auction’s presale estimate of $1.3 million. The flurry of activity in this sale bodes well for the market of late-19th- and early-20th-century paintings, reflecting a significant upturn in value for the impressionistic painters of the period.
The auction’s top lots certainly did not disappoint: Edward Willis Redfield’s “Winter Sunlight” brought an auction-high $710,500, while Frank Weston Benson’s “Marshes of Long Point” achieved a second-best $662,500.
Emil Carlsen, “Copper and Porcelain,” 1928, oil on canvas laid on board, 58 x 46 3/4 in. Freeman’s
Emil Carlsen’s gripping still life “Copper and Porcelain” became the most valuable piece in a slew of new auction records when it brought $386,500 — more than doubling its high-end estimate of $150,000 and besting the artist’s personal record by more than $200,000.
This was just one of many paintings in the sale that drastically outperformed their estimates. Others included Jonas Lie’s vividly colored marine painting “Beyond,” which sold for $146,500 against a presale estimate of just $20,000-$30,000, and George Loftus Noyes’s impressionistic “Joyous Island,” which earned $122,500 against an estimate of $10,000-$15,000. Howard Russell Butler’s charming beach landscape “Maine Cliffs in Sunlight” brought $146,500, soaring past its $8,000-$12,000 estimate and shattering the artist’s previous auction record of $26,400. Even Eugene Louis Boudin’s “Estuary with Sailboats and Lighthouses” — an anticipated draw of the sale estimated at $40,000-$60,000 — far exceeded expectations, selling for $170,500.
Eugene Louis Boudin, “Estuary with Sailboats and Lighthouses,” 1891, oil on panel, 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. Freeman’s
The full list of artists who achieved new auction records includes Emil Carlsen, Katherine Newbold Birdsall, George Matthew Bruestle, Howard Russell Butler, Mary Gray, Walter Hauschild, Louis Bertrand Ralston Keeler, Paul Bernard King, Elizabeth Annie McGillivray Knowles, Jonas Lie, Mary McClellan, George Loftus Noyes, Marie Danforth Page, Susan Gertrude Schell, Milly Steger, George Agnew Reid, Caroline Everett Risque, and Frederick R. Wagner.
To see the rest of the results, visit Freeman’s online.
