Sotheby's NYC May 2018

Monday, May 21, 2018 - I really enjoy my trips with Wendy to NYC to see Auction House and Gallery exhibitions. Sotheby's is actually having another "American Art" auction this month, and there are 19 pieces I would like to see:




We left the house at 7:15 AM. It being a commuter/work-day, it took 5 hours 15 minutes to get down to NYC. SpotHero parking, and a great lunch at Cafe Luca, then a quick walk over to Sotheby's:


Wonderful highlights include:

Frederic Edwin Church - Valley of Santa Isabel, New Granada, 1875:

Andrew Wyeth - Aerial, 1987 watercolor

Andrew Wyeth - Weather Front (study for 'Arctic Circle'), 1996 watercolor

Thomas Moran - A Showery Day, Grand Canyon, 1919:

Albert Bierstadt - View of Nassau, The Bahamas, circa 1880s:

William Bradford - The Fisherman's House, Arctic Harbor, no date:

Alfred Thompson Bricher - Cliff Island, Maine, no date:

And the "big money-maker" of the auction:
Norman Rockwell - Blacksmith's Boy - Heel and Toe (Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop), 1940


The "Highlights from American Art" auction viewing was on the 10th and 2nd floors; also on the 10th was "A Collection That We Dreamt Of: Art and Design from The Homes of Delphine and Reed Krakoff". It was this collection that had the 8-feet-wide pieces by Christo The Pont Neuf, Wrapped, parts i and ii, 1982:


The "Master Paintings" viewing down on the 6th floor had Francesco Guardi - The Island of San Cristoforo in the Venetian Lagoon, no date

Finally, the "19th Century European Art" viewing down on the 4th floor had Federico del Campo - La Chiesa Gesuati from the Canale della Giudecca, Venice, 1887


Note from the Future - these pieces sold for:

Lot 64 - Frederic Edwin Church - Valley of Santa Isabel, New Granada - unsold
(estimate 5,000,000 - 7,000,000)

Lot 32 - Andrew Wyeth - Aerial - $212,500
(estimate 180,000 - 220,000)

Lot 98 - Andrew Wyeth - Weather Front (study for 'Arctic Circle') - $125,000
(estimate 120,000 - 180,000)

Lot 50 - Thomas Moran - A Showery Day, Grand Canyon - unsold
(estimate 800,000 - 1,200,000)

Lot 71 - Albert Bierstadt - View of Nassau, The Bahamas - unsold
(estimate 700,000 - 1,000,000)

Lot 29 - William Bradford - The Fisherman's House, Arctic Harbor - unsold
(estimate 150,000 - 250,000)

Lot 66 - Alfred Thompson Bricher - Cliff Island, Maine - $47,500
(estimate 30,000 - 50,000)

Lot 43 - Norman Rockwell - Blacksmith's Boy - Heel and Toe (Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop) - $8,131,000
(estimate 7,000,000 - 10,000,000)

Lot 140 - Christo The Pont Neuf, Wrapped, parts i and ii - $175,000
(estimate 180,000 - 220,000)

Lot 125 - Francesco Guardi - The Island of San Cristoforo in the Venetian Lagoon - $100,000
(estimate 70,000 - 90,000)

Lot 52 - Federico del Campo - La Chiesa Gesuati from the Canale della Giudecca, Venice - $225,000
(estimate 180,000 - 220,000)

Picked up the car just after 3, dinner at Uno Pizzeria & Grill in Sturbridge! Excellent Adventure-Time with my Beautiful Bride! Thank You God for these Great Days!

Music today - Shuffle Songs on my big iPod, then some Beach Boys:

The Beach Boys Today!, March 1965


Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), July 1965

Yes, they really did release one album only 4 months after another - I bought both! (and still enjoy them to this day!)

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking in New England (the 4,000 footers; the 100 Highest; WATERFALLS)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Day 3 - Home from the Catskills (4 museums!)

Saturday, May 19, 2018 - Wendy has a conference up in Amesbury, so I decided to DO SOME HIKING. Although there are 46 4000 footers in the Adirondacks (?rent a cabin for a month?), there are only 2 further south in the Catskills: Hunter Mountain (4,040) and Slide Mountain (4,180):

So I made reservations for Thursday and Friday nights at the Super 8 in Montgomery, NY (about an hour south of this area)(much cheaper!).

Because "hiking 4000 footers in the Northeast" is actually why I started my blog dixonheadingnorth, that is where I posted the blogs for the first 2 days click here.



Since this is an "Art Museum" day, I am posting it under dixonheadingwest. It was a wet rainy day as I left the Super 8 in Montgomery, New York a little after 9. I got to The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY) right at 10:

I had been there previously (July 16, 2015 and January 29, 2016), so I made a spreadsheet of "the art I like" and when (and if) I had already taken a picture of it:

This is a good idea - it allows me to identify (and focus on) pieces that I have not seen (while still enjoying works that I have seen). The only one I saw on my to-do list was by Jervis McEntee - Beeches and Ferns:


But other enjoyable pieces include:
Anders Lunde - Marina Piccola, Capri, 1847 oil:

Rembrandt van Rijn - Study from the Nude: Man Sitting on the Ground, 1646 etching:

Grace Robertson - The Connoisseur, Tate Gallery, London, 1952 silver print:


I then headed east to Cornwall, Connecticut, and their Historical Society, to see:
David Johnson - Housatonic River at West Cornwall, 1870s:



From there I went straight north. It was a lovely rainy day to drive through the Connecticut countryside:


Straight up Route 7, and I was up at the Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, Mass.) by 1:45. Favorites there include:
Sanford Robinson Gifford - The Palisades, 1877:

Robert Seldon Duncanson - Title unknown [Meeting by the river], 1864:

George Henry Smillie - Title unknown [Cliffs of Etretat], c. 1884:


Then it was time to head home down Route 2 - I thought Florida had nicer weather!!:


I made it to the Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, Mass.) by 4:30 - plenty of time!:


They have an exhibition that ladies in my family would like - "Leisure Pursuits: The Fashion and Culture of Recreation" (open until March 24, 2019):



Of the 111 paintings in their collection, they decided to put 51 of them on display, all at once, in ONE ROOM:





My two favorites (that I could see) are:
John Frederick Kensett - In the Catskills, ca. 1850

Thomas Hill - Bridal Veil and El Capitan, ca. 1885:

(can you find them in the photos above?)

And then home by 7! Thank you God for these wonderful adventures!

Today, for my listening pleasure, I have been doing Shuffle Songs on my iPod. 17,869 songs! Today I listened to 87 songs, starting with:

#1 - "Don't Drink The Water" - Dave Matthews Band (from the album Listener Supported, 1999 live album)


and ending with #87 - "Sometimes A Great Notion" - John Cougar Mellencamp (from the album Big Daddy, 1989)

Deerfield Academy

Thursday, May 10, 2018 - Last month, Wendy and I were at the Albany Institute of History & Art, and I really liked their 5 paintings by Homer Dodge Martin, so I decided to add him into my "Where's the Art?" app. Research revealed he is in collections across the country:


It turns out that Deerfield Academy has one of his paintings! On Thursday April 26 I visited the Boston Public Library to view their copy of "The Charles P. Russell Collection" - a 1969 book published by Dearfield Academy listing their art collection:

The five pieces I found interesting are:
George Inness - Passing Shower, c. 1865 oil:

Winslow Homer - Girl Resting on a Hillside, c. 1868 aquatint:

Homer D. Martin - Criqueboeuf Church, c. 1890 oil:

Frederick Childe Hassam - Rainy Evening - New York, 1891 oil:

Frederick Childe Hassam - Rainy Day - Boston, 1886 oil:

The black-and-white reproductions only whet my appetite to see the real paintings!

Over the next two weeks I exchanged emails with Lydia Hemphill - as is the case at many boarding schools, Lydia wears many hats: Director of Studies, Visual Arts Teacher, Director of the von Auersperg Gallery, Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair. We agreed on this Thursday, so after my breakfast in Boston, I headed west:


I stopped in the Concord Free Public Library to do an hour of work, and got to Deerfield right at 12:30:


We walked over to a house that had the Childe Hassam paintings:
Rainy Day - Boston, 1886 oil

Rainy Evening - New York, 1891 oil


We then went to the Hess Center for the Arts, through the Von Auersperg Art Gallery:

and then through a labyrinth of doors-and-stairs to get back into the storage area:

(I LOVE getting behind-the-scenes)!

Homer D. Martin - Criqueboeuf Church, c. 1890 oil:

it is fun to contrast it with his painting-of-the-same-name out in The Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

(Criqueboeuf Church, Normandy, 1893)

And then back to the Main School building
George Inness - Passing Shower, c. 1865 oil:


I headed back home from there, avoiding (most of) rush hour. Thank you God for a GREAT Adventure DAY!

For my listening pleasure, I have been doing Shuffle Songs on my iPod. 17,869 songs!