It’s always wonderful to stumble upon paintings by artists whose names I know. So many have produced so much great works that it’s sometimes impossible to see it all.
I was at the USArtists American Fine Art Show & Sale this weekend in Philadelphia when I came across works by several artists that I had either seen in shows, galleries, museums and at my down-the-street auction house. This was the USArtists’ ’19th show and sale, with more than 2,000 works of colonial to contemporary paintings, prints and sculptures from 36 dealers throughout the country. This was the first one I had been to in a couple years. I used to do them every year, not necessarily to buy but to see and be dazzled.
One of the first paintings that drew me carried a name I recognized but an image that I did not. It was an oil on canvas titled “Boats on a Dock” in earthy colors by African American artist Palmer Hayden, whose subjects were usually African Americans. I’ve seen several pieces by Hayden, and one that sticks in mind is an oil of a janitor painting his wife and child in their home called “The Janitor Who Paints.”
This piece was hanging on the wall in a space belonging to Debra Force Fine Art of New York. A woman in the booth told me that Hayden painted it while he was in France, where he lived for about five years during the late 1920s to early 1930s. It was selling for $18,000.
That’s what I love about going to art shows and auctions. At auctions, you never know what tidbit of history will turn up on the tables. At art shows, you never know what new artists you’ll meet or old artists whose other works you’ll be introduced to.
Bumping into an old friend was exactly what it felt like when I came face to face with a beautiful painting I had seen a year ago at Freeman’s Auctioneers, that venerable old auction house in Philadelphia. It was Emlen Etting’s painting of his wife Gloria Braggiotti Etting – and appropriately titled “Gloria,” and painted in 1938 – which Freeman’s had sold along with others of his works. Here, it was hanging in the booth of Dixon-Hall Fine Art in Phoenixville, PA.
A woman in the booth said the gallery had to do restoration work after acquiring it. She said the artwork at Freeman’s had come out of the artist’s home and not his studio. The studio pieces had been sold some time before, she said. Etting died in 1993 and his wife in 2003.
As we stood there chatting, another man also admiring the piece recalled seeing the couple walking along the streets near their home in Philadelphia – him in a tux and her in a gown – apparently headed to a party. Both were Philadelphia socialites, hosts of many parties at their own home.
“Gloria” was selling for $19,200. You can click here to see how much it sold for at auction.
Here are some others I found:
Two oil paintings by Earl Horter. I first learned about Earl Horter when I bought an etching at auction some years ago, and was re-introduced to him a year ago when a batch of his etchings were sold at auction. This was the first time I’d seen some of his paintings. Horter was also a major collector of 20th-century American art, as well as African and Native American art – which he had to sell during the Depression when money was scarce.
One oil on canvas at the show was titled “Still Life (1939),” with no price attached, being sold at Avery Galleries in Bryn Mawr, PA. The other was a watercolor titled “Valentine #3,” being sold for $3,400 by Dixon-Hall Fine Art.
William H. Johnson, an African American painter who spent some time in France and Denmark from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s. I cannot afford his nor Hayden’s works but I can drool over them. This one was called “The Portrait,” painted in 1930 and selling for $85,000 by Clarke Gallery in Newburyport, MA.
Miniature portraits. It’s not often that hand-painted miniatures are sold at the auction houses I attend, and I barely notice when they do. At this sale, groupings of about a dozen or so were displayed on walls inside a small space belonging to Elle Shushan of Philadelphia. They were impressive in this arrangement and beckoned me in for more detailed observation.
One of the loveliest was of a woman’s bust, her top covered in sheer fabric and lace. The lace was so delicately painted that I just had to eyeball it closer. It was awesome, so painstakingly done that the fabric looked perfectly real. It was a portrait of a young lady by George Freeman, a self-taught miniaturist, and it was painted circa 1855. Other miniaturists included Evelyn Purdie, Moses B. Russell and Mira Edgerly, who worked in ivory. From now on, I’ll start paying attention.
I also discovered some new names whose works spoke to me, including Winfred Rembert, whose medium was dye on carved and tooled leather and subjects were African Americans with such titles as “Jitterbug (2003),” “Amazing Grace (2008)” and “Picking Cotton (2010).”
And familiar names: Newell Convers Wyeth, partriarch of the Wyeth family of artists whose progeny Andrew is my favorite. I was so used to seeing him identified with his initials N.C. that I barely recognized his name. But I did recognize his work, though.
