NEW YORK – In the 1950 and 1960s, when artist Neil Welliver’s career was starting to take off, Abstract Expressionism and Color Field paintings were celebrated, and the bright colors and textures of Mid-century Modern furniture were all the rage. Welliver (1929-2005) and his representational landscapes was something of a throwback.
He moved to Maine in 1962 and soon began painting large-scale works that paid homage to the tranquil vistas of the state he called home. Focused on depicting the essence of the atmosphere and the quality of light he found there, Welliver once said he wished he had a tube of air to truly capture what he saw.
Instead, he found a way to recreate the look of air in his colors. His paintings of dappled white birches, sparkling streams, snowy fields, and dark evergreens are prized by art collectors who recognize the reverence that Welliver had for nature.
Demand for his works has been on the rise. Georgina C. Winthrop, president of Grogan & Company Fine Art and Jewelry Auctioneers in Boston, noted that buyers have been very responsive. “The auction market for Welliver’s paintings is robust, with many of his paintings selling far above their presale estimates in recent years,” she said. “His three highest prices at auction have been achieved in the past year [2023], and his top six auction results have all occurred since 2020.”
The top result for the artist on the LiveAuctioneers platform belongs to a 1974 painting sold in September 2020 at Freeman’s Hindman. Detailing a majestic view, From Zeke references a well-known back trail near where Welliver lived in Lincolnville, Maine. Measuring 72 by 96in, the painting brought $65,000 plus the buyer’s premium.
Welliver painted in all seasons, and his body of work shows enough diversity to offer something for all appetites. “Some collectors gravitate toward Welliver’s winter scenes, while others covet his springtime woodland views,” Winthrop said. “Regardless of the subject matter, buyers are drawn to Welliver’s use of pattern and color to build up rich landscapes with pockets of light and dark. His large-scale square format works, which are anywhere from 5 to 10 feet, are the most desirable, and command the highest prices at auction. His smaller works, which are about 12 inches and are often studies for his monumental compositions, are also popular, and certainly require less wall space than the full-sized examples.”
A standout among his small-format winter landscapes is an untitled oil on canvas picturing dark swaths of trees intersecting the white expanses of a snowy field and a frozen river while fluffy clouds dot a blue sky. This 1974 painting, measuring only 12 ⅛ by 12 ⅛in, realized $18,000 plus the buyer’s premium in August 2023 at Barridoff Auctions.
Another fine diminutive Welliver winter landscape was a framed 12-by-14in oil on canvas titled Pitcher Pond, which sold for $9,500 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2019 at Grogan & Company.
“This jewel-box of a painting had the hallmark color palette of Welliver’s winter scenes, and the reserved composition evoked the feeling of a brisk, icy day on the coast of Maine,” Winthrop said.
Welliver suffered more than his share of personal tragedy. A fire destroyed his studio and farmhouse in 1975, his infant daughter died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) the following year, and his second wife, Polly, succumbed to a strep infection soon after. In 1991, his son Eli was murdered while traveling in Thailand, and another son, Silas, died from muscular dystrophy in 2002.
Throughout it all, Welliver’s forays into nature helped keep him grounded. He succeeded in creating scenes of unspoiled wilderness that resonate with audiences by showing that nature continues on, regardless.
Patterns are common to his approach, as seen in a stand of feathery trees in the foreground of the 1994 painting Shaled Trees, Alagash, which made $60,000 plus the buyer’s premium in January 2021 at Swann Auction Galleries.
“I think collectors of Welliver’s work are drawn to his balanced yet abstracted depictions of the natural world,” Winthrop said. “He uses intricate patterns of color to build his scene, rendering reflections, shadows, and landscape reliefs with shapes that are simultaneously precise and soft.”
Streams and trees were a common subject matter for Welliver, but no two paintings of his are alike. Instead of a calm, clear babbling brook, viewers are treated to a churning brown spectacle in Fall Brook, showing one of the many facets of the jewel that is nature. The stream also serves as a guiding line to direct the eye deeper into the painting, a technique employed by many painters and photographers. This 1996 painting brought $20,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2021 at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries.
Welliver’s screenprints in colors can be a good entry point for new collectors, as they are not priced at the same level of his oil paintings. Bearing stylistic similarities to fellow Contemporary Realism artist Alex Katz is Welliver’s 1973 silkscreen Si’s Hill, which measured 36in square and made $8,000 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2023 at Grogan & Company.
“This large-format silkscreen was from a series of six we sold from the collection of noted Boston gallerist Portia Harcus. All six works were in beautiful condition, with strong colors and the dappled light so typical of Welliver’s work. Bidders competed aggressively to go home with one of the prints,” Winthrop said.
Welliver alternated between painting sweeping nature views and going in tight, as seen in his study of a tree trunk that sold within estimate for $4,250 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2019 at Elder’s Antiques. His eye for views and snapshot moments that best capture nature’s glory makes his art highly collectible.
“Welliver’s works represent an appealing balance between realism and abstraction,” Winthrop said. “The viewer can recognize the subject that Welliver has depicted, while at the same time lose herself in the complex patterns and colorwork of the composition.”