Under the Hammer
Highlights from American Art
The American, California, and Western Art departments offer several sales per year in New York and Los Angeles, making Bonhams the only auction house to sell American Art bi-coastally. Our dedicated department of specialists have over 100 years of combined experience, bringing professionalism and passion to those interested in this rich collecting category.
Our American Art auction on 20 May in New York features an exquisite array of genres and rare works from the 19th-20th centuries. Leading the sale is Fairfield Porter’s seminal landscape, Yawl in the Channel, from the collection of the late Yvonne de Chavigny Segerstrom. Additional highlights from Henry Ossawa Tanner, Milton Avery, and a first-to-auction portrait by John Singer Sargent round out the sale.
From 19th century portraiture to American realism, our specialists highlight their personal favorite lots from the upcoming auction.
Aaron Anderson pictured with Fairfield Porter's Yawl in the Channel. Estimate: $700,000 - 1,000,000
Aaron Anderson pictured with Fairfield Porter's Yawl in the Channel. Estimate: $700,000 - 1,000,000
Lot 18
John Singer Sargent
Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr.
Lot 18. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925); Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
Lot 18. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925); Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
There is a good reason why John Singer Sargent was such a popular portrait painter on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the 20th Century. He had an uncanny ability to capture the personality of his sitters. One can almost sense the type of person Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. must have been just from how the artist captures the sitter’s air of opulence and stature. The sitter looks towards the viewer with a look of power and influence without being too formal or contrived. He is confident and unabashedly austere. Sargent shows off his characteristic economy of brushwork in the sitter’s shirt and tie—just enough paint, but not too much. His face is bathed in Sargent’s soft chiaroscuro light and becomes the focal point of the painting. How marvelous that Mr. Hammond’s portrait has remained in the family for all these years.
— Scot Levitt, VP/Director, Fine Art
Lot 9
Fairfield Porter
Yawl in the Channel
Lot 9. Fairfield Porter (1907-1975); Yawl in the Channel. Estimate: $700,000 - 1,000,000
Lot 9. Fairfield Porter (1907-1975); Yawl in the Channel. Estimate: $700,000 - 1,000,000
Painted in the final years of his life, Yawl in the Channel demonstrates Porter’s range and intentions as a mature painter and brilliantly exhibits his feeling for his beloved home on Great Spruce Head Island in Maine. Details like the rocky outcropping of the shores, the slow-moving waters, the forest covered island across the channel, and the single yawl coasting by in the distance bring to mind a peace and tranquility that one can imagine Porter felt as he painted in his studio. Aside from its splendid beauty—painted with dynamic brushstrokes and vivid colors—the fresh-to-the-market provenance is fantastic. The work comes to us from the estate of accomplished artist, philanthropist, and collector Yvonne de Chavigny Segerstrom where it was treasured in their private collection for nearly 30 years. This superb landscape by Porter is truly a dream lot to bring to auction.
— Aaron Anderson, Cataloguer, American Art
Lot 5
Edwin Walter Dickinson
Herring Cove Beach
Lot 5. Edwin Walter Dickinson (1891-19768); Herring Cove Beach. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Lot 5. Edwin Walter Dickinson (1891-19768); Herring Cove Beach. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Imaginative travel is nothing new, but especially after this landlocked year, I have been particularly nostalgic for the decade I spent living in New England and visiting the Cape. This scene of Herring Cove Beach looking toward Race Point Light is more than just a beach scene, it is a mnemonic for the Cape’s quiet otherworldliness—its gnarled pitch pine, waving tall grasses, cottontail rabbits, and fiery sunsets at dusk. This particular scene captures the beautifully surreal, expansive beaches of the Cape. Dickinson was a Modernist through and through, and I love how he devotes two-thirds of the composition to the beach, conveying the monumentality of the land, sky, and sea through masses of nuanced color.
— Kathy Wong, Specialist, Fine Art
Lot 15
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Return from the Cross
Lot 15. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937); Return from the Cross. Estimate: $100,000 - 150,000
Lot 15. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937); Return from the Cross. Estimate: $100,000 - 150,000
This painting is visually arresting, and I think this is in no small part due to the surface. Tanner deliberately constructed Return from the Cross to have not just the two dimensions of a painting but a third dimension of heavily textured pigments. The pattern of craquelure is like Chinese Guan ware – a deliberate finish. The emotional weight of the scene Tanner has painted is emphasized by the feeling of immense age conveyed by the coloration and this distinctive surface.
— Aaron Bastian, Director, Paintings
Lot 1
Sargent Johnson
Hippopotamus
Lot 1. Sargent Johnson (1888-1967); Hippopotamus. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Lot 1. Sargent Johnson (1888-1967); Hippopotamus. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Hippos in the wild are of course dangerous animals, but I can’t help but adore their bulbous form and sweet features. Sargent Johnson must have felt similarly because he chose a hippopotamus, along with six other, mostly gentle, animals for a childcare center playground of the Sunnydale Housing Project in San Francisco. Hippopotamus, a unique work executed in a rich dark glaze, was likely a ceramic model for this project. I am delighted by the sculpture’s form: I love the stylized references to Mexican and African craft movements seen in the tall grass forms on either side of the back of the hippo, the charming oxpecker hitching a ride, and the hippo’s disarmingly sedate, almost smiling features.
— Katherine Halligan, Specialist, Western Art
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