PHILADELPHIA — In back-to-back sales this December, Freeman’s presents American Art Week, bringing the best of American Art to market, with a strong emphasis on 20th-century canvases. Led by striking paintings by Robert Henri, Bo Bartlett and William Glackens, American Art Week offers important, fresh-to-market works, including two curated single-owner selections. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
The American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists auction, scheduled for Sunday, December 4, features Bo Bartlett’s The Promised Land, a remarkable large-scale canvas that represents one of the artist’s most accomplished works to date. Its estimate is $200,000-$300,000.
The sale puts 20th-century women painters in the spotlight, including figures from the Philadelphia Ten, from Susette Keast’s Atlantic City, Steel Pier to Mary Elizabeth Price’s Hollyhock and Delphinium Screen and a group of five canvases by Emma Fordyce MacRae. With a selection of paintings by Daniel Garber, Edward Willis Redfield, Fern Coppedge and John Fulton Folinsbee, the sale confirms Freeman’s ongoing place as a premier destination for works by Pennsylvania Impressionists.
Freeman’s esteemed biannual sale is accompanied by a curated group of early 20th-century paintings, works on paper and sculpture from the distinguished collection of Charles and Virginia Bowden. The Bowdens, longtime residents of San Antonio, Texas, have amassed a collection that is as impressive as it is far-reaching, with striking selections from Jane Peterson, George Bellows and George Luks, among others. Spanish Gypsy, a compelling portrait by Robert Henri executed at the height of his artistic powers, leads the collection at an estimate of $250,000-$400,000.
On Monday, December 5, Freeman’s presents a sale titled A Beautiful Reality: The Fine Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Rifkin, which offers an impressive selection of works by artists associated with the Ashcan School and its legacy, including William Glackens, John Sloan, Reginald Marsh and Charles Burchfield.
William Glackens, ‘Afternoon in Provence (Woman and Child on Donkey),’ estimated at $60,000-$100,000
Glackens’s Afternoon in Provence (Woman and Child on Donkey) is a standout of the Rifkin collection, offered at an estimate of $60,000-$100,000. The jewel-like canvas, a colorful vision of maternal and summer bliss, is balanced in composition but expresses a strong emotional intensity. Arnold and Sandy Rifkin, longtime residents of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, developed a refined sensibility that in turn built a collection both innovative and wide-ranging. In addition to Ashcan School artists, the Rifkin collection also includes major figures within Modernism and illustration art, including Marguerite Zorach and Eyvind Earle.
On the heels of back-to-back auctions on December 4 and 5, Freeman’s presents Collect: American Art on Tuesday, December 6, with opportunities to collect works by major figures ranging from Martha Walter and George Cope to Arthur Meltzer and Joseph Barrett. The auction features several prints by Daniel Garber, drawings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt, and five paintings and drawings by the aforementioned Bo Bartlett.
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