Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998
Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998
Publication: Ant
Author: CAROLL
Quick Words:
Lucky
Full Text:
Lucky 13, Broken Elevator, Broken Records
W/4 CUTS
By Rita Easton
NEW YORK CITY -- "When the elevator broke down, there were already over 150 in
the gallery," said Jim Pratzon of Illustration House "so who knows how many
eventually might have shown up?"
Pratzon was referring to the gallery's November 7 auction of 180 lots of
illustration art, an event which grossed $727,145.
Lot number 13 proved to be the luckiest of the day, garnering over four times
its high estimate to reach $99,000, a record for the artist. The charcoal and
watercolor on board by Jessie Willcox Smith, "Practicing Scales," depicted a
young girl wearing a large hair bow, sitting at the piano. The work was
executed as a story illustration for Helen Hay Whitney's The Bed Time Book,
published in 1907, and measured 17.75 by 15 inches (est $18/24,000).
Scoring another record, a 23 by 14« inch watercolor and charcoal by Elizabeth
Shippen Green, depicting a young girl with scrapbooks, realized $66,000. The
story illustration was done for the Edward S. Martin book The Mind of a Child
in 1906 (est $10/15,000). Both Smith and Green were students of Howard Pyle
and had a studio together. Their insightful and definitive images of childhood
was the quality that set their work apart.
Two works by J.C. Leyendecker followed: His intricate oil on canvas
composition of the "Three Kings," for a Success magazine cover early in his
career, brought $30,000 for the 22 by 15 inch work, and a 1950 advertising
image for Amoco, a 17 by 32 inch oil on canvas, featuring one of his trademark
infants, made $18,000.
John Clymer's April 1960 Saturday Evening Post cover in oil on gessoed
masonite, picturing a schoolyard baseball game in the Montana Rockies, 30 by
27« inches, was purchased at $34,000.
Cheesecake inspired competition, with an Enoch Bolles oil on canvas painting
of a woman riding a buoy scoring $18,000; Peter Driben's Whisper magazine
cover from the '50s selling at $11,000; and a portrait of former porn star and
television personality Traci Lords, in watercolor, pencil and gouache, by
Hajime Sorayama, achieving $12,000.
Paperback artist Robert McGuire was represented by a cover for Black Opium
which succeeded in bringing a record price for the genre at $5,500 for the 24
by 16 inch oil on board; and a surprise oil on board by Connecticut artist
Victor Olsen, depicting a postman descending a flight of stairs on which were
seated boys reading comic books, measuring approximately 24 by 40 inches,
reached $14,300, well over estimate.
"He was a real discovery in this auction," Pratzon said of Olsen, "I think
very few people are familiar with his work."
"Madeleine," an oil portrait by Ludwig Bemelmans of his famous creation,
crossed the block at $13,000, setting another of the many records at the
auction.
Prices quoted reflect a ten percent buyers premium.