SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Four Frederic Remington original works created for Century Magazine between 1888 and 1891 came to market for the first time at Scottsdale Art Auction August 3, with one lot exceeding its estimate by nearly three times. Complete auction results are available at LiveAuctioneers.
The four Remingtons came by descent from the consignor’s great-grandmother, the Honorable Lady Ward, nee Jean Templeton Reid. Her father was Whitelaw Reid, US Ambassador to the Court of St. James during World War I and owner of the New York Tribune.
Remington’s (1861-1909) interest in the West began to take form in 1881 when he traveled to the Montana Territory. Remington’s works were published between 1888 and 1913 in forty-one periodicals, including Century Magazine, Collier’s, and Harper’s Weekly. He also illustrated books for authors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Theodore Roosevelt. According to Thayer Tolles, curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Remington traveled frequently on sketching trips to the American West; his experiences with and observations of Native Americans, cavalrymen, scouts, and cowboys served as ongoing creative fodder for an endless stream of commissions for illustrations.”
The sale’s top-performing Remington was Goot Packers at Work, a pen, ink, and black-and-white watercolor measuring 11.25 by 17in. Signed by the artist and estimated at $15,000-$25,000, it smashed those numbers by selling for $70,000, or $85,400 with buyer’s premium.
Fremont Ellis (1897-1985) grew up in Montana, but is best remembered for being a member of Los Cinco Pintores (The Five Painters), a Santa Fe, New Mexico collective that lived in the Camino Del Monte Sol historic district of the city. Ellis was inspired by Santa Fe’s landscape and unique pueblo architecture, and according to Scottsdale Art Auction, “There is nothing more iconic Santa Fe than the Loretto Chapel, built in 1873 and the home of Santa Fe’s most famous relic, the Miraculous Staircase, built of wood with no glue, nails or other hardware.”
Chapel of Loretto was presented in the sale as the only known Ellis work of the chapel. An oil on canvas measuring 30 by 25in, it bore a $8,000-$12,000 estimate. Passionate bidding landed the final hammer at $20,000, or $24,400 with buyer’s premium.
