Collectors, dealers and auctioneers were attentively watching the American art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby’s the week of January 20th. Christie’s had two sales, “American Sublime: Property from an Important Private Collection” and “19th Century American and Western Art”. Sotheby’s sale, just a day later, “Art of the Americas, Featuring the American West”, a two-session auction, offered an assortment of American landscapes. Combined, both auction houses offered just over 50 landscapes and seascapes by 19th century Hudson River School artists, along with the other American paintings.
Overall, the market was resilient and strong ---- even though the recent feedback of auction market decline, benchmarks not met, was more commonly heard in the industry. The competition for quality landscapes showed pre-2008 levels of enthusiasm. Christie’s two sales “American Sublime: Property from an Important Private Collection” and “19th Century American and Western Art” totaled $19,230,950 and $12,472,44. Sotheby’s sale “Art of the Americas, Featuring the American West”, totaled a little over eight and a half million dollars, by our calculation. The totals did not reflect the results of the American folk-art auctions held by both houses the same week.
When surveying the art market, we often look at other categories of auctions to see market trends and the pulse of the marketplace. Since 2019 non-traditional auction sales in unique categories have shown surprisingly high prices. Some of the results in the non-traditional categories made me wonder if tastes had drastically changed, and if my more traditional sense of auction type and value needed recalibration.
Non- traditional art auctions, as I call them, is a bit off subject according to the title of this blog, yet it made me reflect by comparison at the value buys available with 19th century American art. As an interesting comparison Sotheby's held its first sneaker auction in July 2019. The auction was called "Stadium Goods: The Ultimate Sneaker Collection Online" and featured 100 pairs of rare sneakers- one pair cataloged as “Nike Waffle Racing Flat Moon Shoe “achieved $437,500 . In 2021 Sotheby’s held its first NFT auction which totaled $17 million dollars. This auction occurred on the heels of Christies “Beeple” sale where a single NFT sold for over $69 million dollars. Sports clothing and sneakers worn by certain star athletes selling in hundreds of thousands of dollars was my first clue that interest and the money chasing collectibles had been added to the marketplace, and the attention toward a new wave of collecting had shifted to a new time and place. Rock stars guitars selling well over a million dollars were kind of acceptable, I guess, but still undeniably pricy. Surely, Tom Brady’s football game wristband could not be worth too, too, much- or could it? Sotheby’s sold it for $204,000 over a month ago in December 2024. These are categories I never imagined a decade ago. Unquestionably, the presales estimate of 19th century Hudson River School landscape paintings, a long-standing category of American art seemed like a bargain by comparison.
The January sales showed that serious money was still flowing into American paintings at all price points. Christie's American sale on January 23rd started strong. The first lot offered was by Homer Dodge Martin (1836-1897) called “Adirondack Lake”. It is a glorious sun-filled fall landscape. It was offered at a pre-sale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000 dollars. It sold for $176,400, over three times its high estimate, or slightly under the price achieved for Tom Brady’s wristband. It set a world record for the artist. The price was over four times more than a previous action high. The assurance that top quality brings top prices was instantly injected into the first lot offered in this auction sale.
The second auction lot, a seascape by William Trost Richards (1833-1905) called “Sunlit Waves” was estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. It fetched $201,600. Interestingly, the same painting was sold in 2006 at Christie’s. This was before the stock market crash, and during a time of strong market pricing. It sold just below the amount paid in 2006.
Lot 206 in the Christie’s auction, a serine and remote mountainous landscape showing Mount Chocorua in New Hampshire painted by Thomas Cole estimated at $800,000 to $1,200,000 brought $1,623,000. The painting was originally sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 1995 for $277,500.
Throughout the sale and the following sale which was titled 19th Century American and Western Art one could see good results and strong results for Hudson River School pieces. Aggressive bidding at all price levels, for quality, was an obvious theme we have seen over the past decade in other venues. The market always seemed to be in search of special paintings, even whose historic values for artists are in the lower thousands.
The Sotheby’s sale “Art of the Americas”, Featuring the American West, had fewer Hudson River
3++++School paintings and more Latin American and Western paintings. . The 19th Century Hudson River School paintings which stood out included a Francis Silva called “The Catskills from the Hudson” which fetched $72,000, a Benjamin Champney which brought $6,600, a nice woodland interior by Thomas Worthington Whittredge which brought $16,600. The highlight of the sale was a Hummingbird and Orchid painting by Martin Johnson Heade which brought slightly more than $2,000,000.
