Record-Setting American Art Hits $4.2+ Million at Heritage Auctions
DALLAS—Maxfield Parrish’s classic Jason and His Teacher, published as a 1909 frontspiece by Collier's magazine, sold for more than $1 million Nov. 16 in Heritage Auctions’ fall American Fine Art Auction in New York. The $4.2 million auction set several world records, including the most valuable painting ever sold by artist Stevan Dohanos. His 1950 Saturday Evening Post cover Menemsha, Massachusetts, Post Office soared to $167,000, against a $40,000 estimate.
“Our last three American Fine Art auctions have been powerhouses—a trifecta of stellar results,” said Aviva Lehmann, Director of American Art. “Our team works diligently all year long to curate an irresistible selection of art and our latest world records shows clients like what they see at Heritage.”
A record auction price for a nocturne by Western Art master Eanger Irving Couse was claimed by The Call of the Flute, 1922, which sold for $341,000. Fresh-to-market, the oil remained in the same private collection for 92 years. Influenced by his childhood spent in Spain and the American Southwest, Kaleidoscope by Clark Hulings - a bucolic and vibrant depiction of an everyday market scene- fetched $161,000.
Colorado by Gerard Curtis Delano sold for $149,000. The oil was commissioned by Palmer Hoyt, the famed American writer who was a regular contributor to pulp magazines such as Ace-High Magazine. Another Western scene, Beginning of a Boomtown, 1981 by G. (Gerald Harvey Jones) Harvey, also sold for $149,000, more than double its pre-auction estimate.
LeRoy Neiman’s Roulette Las Vegas, 1958 - making its auction debut after nearly 60 years in a private collection - sold for $125,000. Likewise, two works by Nicolai Fechin made their auction debut after decades out of the public eye; Russian Girl sold for $109,375 and Still Life with Cherries, Pitcher, and Bouquet sold for $87,500.
Norman Rockwell’s 1968 preliminary illustration for Look Magazine titled The Right to Know brought $106,250 while the artist’s Norman Rockwell Visits a County Agent in Jay, Indiana, an original illustration for the July 24, 1948 edition of The Saturday Evening Post sold for $53,750.
Additional highlights include Snow Play by Richard Friese, a fine and unusually large example of his work, which closed at $55,000 to tie the artist auction record Heritage set during in May 2015.
The auction’s selection of American sculpture was led by Sacred Rain Arrow, 1977, by Allan C. Houser, which set an auction record for that cast when it brought $17,500.
Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of approximately $900 million, and 950,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and receive access to a complete record of prices realized, with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.
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