Hunt Slonem's bunnies and birds keep flying past estimate

Slonem paints the same subjects over and over on purpose, and the repetition has done nothing to slow a market that keeps clearing its estimates.

By LiveAuctioneersSeptember 15, 2026

Above: 'Red Toucans' by Hunt Slonem sold for $28,000 plus buyer's premium at Rago, Lambertville, in September 2025. Image courtesy of Rago Wright, LLC and LiveAuctioneers.

NEW YORK, NY — Hunt Slonem (b. 1951-) paints bunnies, butterflies, and tropical birds, over and over, and has done for decades. The repetition is the point rather than a limitation, and the market has never held it against him. Slonem was born in Kittery, Maine, the son of a Navy officer whose postings kept the family moving throughout his childhood, including stretches in Hawaii, California, and Connecticut. It was in Hawaii that he first encountered the tropical birds and plants that would come to define his work. He went on to study painting and art history at Tulane University in New Orleans, and later studied abroad in Nicaragua and Mexico, deepening an interest in tropical landscapes that had taken hold in childhood. Slonem had his first solo show at Fischbach Gallery in New York in 1977, and was later represented by Marlborough Gallery for 18 years. His work is now held in more than 250 museum collections worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. The paintings themselves are produced at volume, in studios that double as an aviary, with Slonem keeping dozens of live exotic birds on hand as reference for his subjects. He has traced the sheer repetition of his method partly to time spent around Andy Warhol's Factory in the 1970s, where he and his brother Jeffrey worked as apprentices. 'Red Toucans' sold for $28,000 plus the buyer's premium in September 2025 at Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey, double its mid-estimate.

'Monstera & Troupials' sold for $20,000 plus the buyer's premium in August 2026 at Abington Auction Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, against a $10,000-$15,000 estimate. The bird and foliage paintings are his largest and generally his most expensive, but the smaller subjects perform strongly against estimate too, and they are where most buyers enter.

'Hombre Heart,' painted in 2023, took $11,000 plus the buyer's premium in July 2026 at Bonhams in New York, having been estimated at $5,000 to $7,000.

'Untitled: Birds on Yellow Background,' 2000, oil on canvas, sold for $4,250 plus buyer's premium at Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, in September 2026. Image courtesy of Neal Auction Company and LiveAuctioneers.

'Untitled: Birds on Yellow Background,' a 2000 oil on canvas, sold for $4,250 plus the buyer's premium in September 2026 at Neal Auction Company in New Orleans, Louisiana, against a $2,000-$3,000 estimate.

'Starry Night November,' 2018, sold for $35,000 plus buyer's premium at Doyle, New York, in May 2024. Image courtesy of Doyle New York and LiveAuctioneers.

'Starry Night November,' from 2018, brought $35,000 plus the buyer's premium at Doyle in New York in May 2024.

'Dawn,' 2020, sold for $22,500 plus buyer's premium at Doyle, New York, in September 2025. Image courtesy of Doyle New York and LiveAuctioneers.

'Dawn,' a 2020 painting, sold for $22,500 plus the buyer's premium at Doyle in New York in September 2025, more than double its mid-estimate. Results like these have been the pattern for some time: salerooms tend to price Slonem conservatively, and buyers keep disagreeing.