Thomas Hart Benton at Public sale V
Additionally see
Thomas Hart Benton at Public sale
Thomas Hart Benson at Public sale II Swann
THOMAS HART BENTON at Public sale III – Christie’s, Doyle, Bonhams
THOMAS HART BENTON at AUCTION: SOTHEBY’S
This June marks the return of dwell auctions to Sotheby’s New York, following the state’s Keep-at-Dwelling order because of the unfold of COVID-19. Distant bidding will likely be obtainable prematurely and through the public sale by way of sothebys.com and on Sotheby’s app, in addition to by telephone with Sotheby’s specialists within the salesroom. All works at the moment are on exhibition in our New York galleries, that are open by appointment solely.
The sale options two works from the Assortment of Marylou Whitney, a beneficiant philanthropist, arts patron and thoroughbred breeder. By means of her marriage to Cornelius Vanderbilt “Sonny” Whitney, Mrs. Whitney developed a lifelong ardour for thoroughbred horse racing, and the couple produced over 175 stakes winners on the C.V. Whitney farm in Lexington, Kentucky (now Gainesway Farm). After Sonny’s loss of life in 1992, Marylou established her personal eponymous stables, and loved huge success with Fowl City, who gained the Kentucky Oaks in 2003 and Birdstone, who gained the Belmont Stakes and the Travers Stakes in 2004.
The couple’s ardour for horses is highlighted all through their assortment, together with Thomas Hart Benton’s Midday – a dynamic portray executed in 1939, which was featured in Benton’s first main retrospective in New York later that 12 months (estimate $700,000/1 million). Praised as a convincing success, the exhibition garnered important consideration from quite a lot of New York collectors, together with Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. Whitney bought Midday from the retrospective, and it has remained within the household’s assortment ever since. Enchanted by America and its choices, Benton started touring by way of the South and the Midwest within the late Twenties and immersing himself within the tradition of rural America. In celebrating the American lifestyle, Benton was sympathetic in his portrayal of farmers and discipline employees, favoring the themes of dedication and onerous work. Middayexemplifies Benton’s capability to seize what he noticed because the simplicity and dignity of on a regular basis life.
Highlights by American printmakers embrace Thomas Hart Benton’s Going West, a 1934 lithograph that includes a prepare powering by way of the prairie. The artist was notably keen on locomotives, noting, “My first photos have been of railroad trains…To go all the way down to the depot and see them are available in, belching black smoke, with their large headlights shining and their bells ringing and their pistons clanking, gave me a sense of stupendous drama.” Going West is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000.
