That’s Miss Tina, my art-travel buddy Kristin said as we arrived for the Swann Auction Galleries twice-yearly sale of African American art. Kristin is always on the lookout for celebrities at these events, and we’ve seen quite a few. I didn’t know who Miss Tina was until Kristin mentioned the name Beyonce.
Celebrities don’t sway me as much, because I’m much too busy discovering new artists and revisiting old ones. Mention the name of an African American artist – especially the veterans – and I’m all over it. But I was curious about what Tina Knowles had her eye on. There were plenty of works by all manner of African American artists here, so she had a wide swath to choose from.
Here are vignettes of what I found interesting at this sale:
Tina Knowles likes Henry Ossawa Tanner
I didn’t have to wait long to see the first painting that had brought Knowles to the auction. It was Lot #9 Tanner’s “Christ and Nicodemus (Early Study),” circa 1923. According to the auction catalog, it was an early study of one of his major paintings. It had the artist’s estate stamp and signature of his son Jesse O. Tanner. It sold for $75,000 (not counting the 20 percent buyer’s premium).
Knowles also bought Hale Woodruff’s “Landscape Near Grasse,” 1930. It was an impressionist painting of a landscape in Provence, France. It sold for $16,000.
Five Tanners were on sale at the auction, and hers was one of three that sold (from $30,000 to $75,000).
Reconnecting with old masters & meeting new ones
One of the joys of these auctions is learning of the earliest African American artists, those who lived during the 19th century and became artists despite the odds against them. I knew the names of several of them, but two were unfamiliar to me.
Robert S. Duncanson, “Young America,” (1846). Duncanson was primarily a landscape painter based in Cincinnati. This oil on canvas was likely commissioned by the family of a young man headed off to the Mexican-American War, according to the auction catalog, quoting Duncanson scholar Joseph D. Ketner II. The painting, estimated at $50,000 to $75,000, did not sell.
Edward M. Bannister, “Untitled (Autumn Landscape),” 1888. Bannister was the first African American painter to receive a prestigious award for one of his paintings “Under the Oaks,” which received the bronze medal at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. The judges were about to reconsider their choice after learning that he was black, but white artists in the competition interceded. His reputation grew, and Bannister got more and more commissions that allowed him to live as an artist. He was primarily a landscape artist. The painting, estimated at $15,000 to $25,000, did not sell.
Charles Ethan Porter, “Overturned Basket of Apples,” circa 1885. Porter was a prolific still-life painter who lived in Connecticut. He was among the first African Americans to study at New York’s National Academy of Design, and one of the first to exhibit there. Later in his career, he was forced to sell his paintings door to door to make ends meet. Another of his still lifes, “Untitled (Peonies in a Blue Vase),” sold for $24,000 at a Swann auction in February. His body of work is amazing. This painting, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000, did not sell.
Grafton Tyler Brown, “Eagle’s Nest, Yellowstone,” 1890-91. Brown was a new artist for me. He was a painter, lithographer and cartographer of the American West, drawing maps and illustrations of its cities and towns. He also painted settlements, towns and mountainous landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and Canada, where he also lived for a time in the late 1880s. The painting, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000, sold for $11,000.
Richard Lonsdale Brown, “Untitled (Pastoral Landscape),” 1913. Another new find. Brown lived a very short artistic life. He spent his youth in West Virginia and later ventured to New York to sell his artwork. The artist George de Forest Brush befriended him and took him under his wings. Brown did cover illustrations for The Crisis magazine and in 1913 won a bronze medal at a National Academy of Design exhibit. Mary White Overton, a founding member of the NAACP, wrote in her memoirs in the early 1930s of a shy young man who had come to New York with his sketches. He was set up with an exhibit where he sold his paintings, but his desire was to return to West Virginia to paint its hills. He died of an “incurable disease” at age 24. The painting, estimated at $5,000 to $7,000, sold for $5,000.
Some top names that did not sell
Buyers passed on works by some major African American artists, several of whom had sold well in the past. Particularly interesting were the prices that these artists’ works were now demanding:
Richmond Barthe, “Head of a Boy (Black Boy),” circa 1929-1931. Estimated at $35,000 to 50,000.
Charles White, “Untitled (The Dreamer – a Portrait of Dorothy Dandridge),” 1951. Estimated at $20,000 to $30,000.
Norman Lewis, “Sunset #2,” 1960. Estimated at $30,000 to $50,000.
Al Loving, “Untitled (Three Cube Composition),” circa 1969-1970. Estimated at $30,000 to $40,000.
Romare Bearden, “Girl in a Garden,” 1972. Estimated at $150,000 to $200,000.
Eldzier Cortor, “Classical Composition No. 4,” circa 1973. Estimated at $200,000 to $250,000. This was one of my favorites.
The selling of OJ (art, that is)
I was curious if anyone would buy the 1969 full-size O.J. Simpson oil on canvas by Ernie Barnes. It was a young OJ from a time when he was a beloved football champion. According to the auction catalog, it was given to John McKay, OJ’s coach at the University of Southern California after “The Juice” won the Heisman Trophy. The painting hung in the coach’s office until he went to Tampa Bay in 1976. It sold for $20,000.
