TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A prime-period work by Gertrude Abercrombie headlines the merchandise at Affiliated Auction on Wednesday, August 23. The textbook Surrealist oil on Masonite is consigned from a Philadelphia collection with an estimate of $10,000-$30,000. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
Dubbed ‘the Queen of the Bohemians’ in a Chicago social circle that included the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, Abercrombie (1909-1977) was at her most prolific and productive in the 1940s and the early 50s, before alcoholism and arthritis took hold.
This 12-by-9in image of a lone woman in a flowing gown and standing near a lifeless tree is dated ‘[19]46]’ and depicts one of the artist’s core themes.
Largely self-taught, she said of her work: “I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace. I like and like to paint simple things that are a little strange. My work comes directly from my inner consciousness, and it must come easily. It is a process of selection and reduction.”
The picture has old labels to the back for The Gallery on 55th Street, Chicago, and another with the price of $95.00. It is consigned from the same private collection as another Abercrombie oil of a similar size and subject, Let It Go, also dated 1946, which the auction house sold in September 2022. It hammered at $32,000.
