NYC Day-Trip: Christie's

Monday, October 30, 2023 - Both Sotheby's and Christie's have excellent auctions next month (November) - Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction (13 November 2023), and Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale (9 November 2023). Unfortunately they do not have overlapping "Viewing Dates", so Christie's looks like the better destination, with 5 Monets up for sale:

I left the house shortly after 6 AM, and by 9:30 was driving through Western Connecticut. The fog and views were pretty cool:

I grabbed Post Offices on my way down, and my favorite this morning is 10576 - Pound Ridge, NY:

I was running a little early for my SpotHero parking spot, so I decided to test the "free option" of getting onto Manhattan = I-95 South, getting off right before the George Wahington Bridge (versus entering at the top of the Island over the Henry Hudson Bridge). I was mentally prepared to just sit in stopped traffic for 10/15 minutes, and that is exactly what happened. I'm usually on a tight schedule, so I won't be doing that again, but it was a good experiment.

As always, pretty cool going down the West Side Highway:

After getting lost (the sign for the garage WAS A LEVEL BELOW THE STREET, ON THE DOWN RAMP) I parked at 1:16

The City is always busy:

The five Monets that started this trip are:

"La Seine à Bougival", 1870 oil:

(estimate $0.8 mm - 1.2 mm)

"La Seine à Lavacourt", 1879 oil:

(estimate $0.6 mm - 0.8 mm)

"Les bords de la Seine près de Vétheuil", 1881 oil:

(estimate $1.5 mm - 2.5 mm)

"Sandviken, Norvège, effet de neige", 1895 oil:

(estimate $2.5 mm - 3.5 mm)

"Le bassin aux nymphéas", c. 1917-1919 oil:

(Estimate on Request)

There was actually a 6th Monet, back in the "PRIVATE SALES" area:

"Vue du village de Giverny", 1886 oil:

(Price upon request)

A side-note on this lovely picture: It was sold through Christie's in 2018 for $3,972,500. As for this year, Christie's does not publish their Private Sales results.

Other wonderful art on view today:

Andy Warhol - "Sixteen Jackies", 1964 silkscreen:

(estimate $25 mm - 35 mm)

Andrew Wyeth - "Spring Fed", 1967 tempera:

(estimate $4 mm - 6 mm)

A WONDERFUL SURPRISE HIGHLIGHT was a pair of paintings by Canaletto, visiting from their 7 December 2023 "Old Masters Part 1" auction in London:

"Venice: The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West":

"Venice: The Molo: from the Bacino di San Marco":

(sold as a pair - estimate 8 mm - 12 mm [British Pounds])

and then it was time to head back down into the streets of New York:

I picked up my car at 2:30, and headed home, grabbing Post Offices on the way. My 2 favorites this afternoon are:

ZIP Code 10583 - Scarsdale, NY:

ZIP Code 10514 - Chappaqua, NY:

Note from the Future - these pieces sold for:

Lot 832 - Claude Monet - "La Seine à Bougival" - $1,623,000
(estimate $0.8 mm - 1.2 mm)

Lot 783 - Claude Monet - "La Seine à Lavacourt" - $1,320,500
(estimate $0.6 mm - 0.8 mm)

Lot 763 - Claude Monet - "Les bords de la Seine près de Vétheuil" - $3,438,000
(estimate $1.5 mm - 2.5 mm)

Lot 61B - Claude Monet - "Sandviken, Norvège, effet de neige" - $6,705,000
(estimate $2.5 mm - 3.5 mm)

Lot 35B - Claude Monet - "Le bassin aux nymphéas" - $74,010,000 (no typo)
(Estimate on Request)

Lot 31B - Andy Warhol - "Sixteen Jackies" - $25,940,000
(estimate $25 mm - 35 mm)

Lot 17B - Andrew Wyeth - "Spring Fed" - $4,769,000
(estimate $4 mm - 6 mm)

Lot 11 - Canaletto - the pair - "Venice: The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West; and The Molo: from the Bacino di San Marco" - 9,740,000 British Pounds
(estimate 8 mm - 12 mm British Pounds)

Thank You God for this wonderful art/adventure day!

Music for today:

Bob Dylan - Desire, 1976:

The Eagles - Desperado, 1973 2nd album:

Echo & The Bunnymen - Songs To Learn & Sing, 1985 compliation album:

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, 1970 1st album:

Enya - The Best of Enya, 1997:

Wonderful ethereal music for driving through fog-shrouded hills of Western Connecticut.

Eurythmics - Greatest Hits (Eurythmics), 1991:

Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959:

PERFECT for driving through the streets of New York City!!!

Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard, 1961 live album:

Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad, 1993:

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly, 1982:

Marianne Faithful - Collection, 1994:

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - 2023/08/24 Foxborough, MA:

Once I hit I-84, Bruce and The Band took me home!! I listened to his New Zeland concert (Feb 2017) 2 days ago, so this was a FUN CONTRAST.

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

2023 Fall Trip - Wrap-up of 21 Days - Lessons Learned

One week after finishing - Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 - Thoughts on my Fall 2023 Road Trip. The Route, and Raw Numbers are that I drove 9,143 miles over 21 days:

If you look at "averages", I averaged 435 miles-per-day. That is a totally managable number, with daylight-driving each day. It is a comfortable pace, offering the opportunities to stop at "Scenic Views" and collecting Post Offices.

In this case, however, I "Drove Big" for 15 days (8,649 miles, averaging 577 miles-per-day) [leaving 6 days "Driving Little" totaled 494 miles, averaging 83 miles-per-day].

That "577 miles-per-day" was too much. I wound up driving one/two/or even three hours in the dark, which I don't like to do - one main purpose of my trips is to "see the lay of the land". Needless to say, that doesn't happen IN THE DARK!

My constraints for this trip were:

1) I didn't want to be away from home (and my Beautiful Bride) for more than 21 days, and

2) I wanted to hike 7 days in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains (well hike for 6, and day-of-rest for 1).

So, given those two factors, this trip WORKED OUT PERFECTLY! And I don't plan on doing it again.

Maybe my new motto should be "Drive Less, See More."

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Mid-Blog Break - let's see SOME BEAUTY: Jackson Pollock in Buffalo:

J.M.W. Turner at Oberlin:

Alone Out There:

California Sunset:

Heart Lake:

Kearsarge Pass:

Bristlecone Pine:

Bishop Lake:

Ruby Lake:

Upper Lamarck Lake:

Lake Tahoe:

Desolation in Nevada:

Counting Crows in Idaho:

Snake River in Idaho:

Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming:

Maxwell, Nebraska:

Dixon, Iowa:

HOME:

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Another "Lesson Learned" is that I really like Hostels (or at least The Hostel California). They are a great place to get a communal sense, and the kids (yeah, everyone is younger than me) are all healthy, either coming off a Big Hike, or about to start one. I definitely want to keep "Hostel" on my list of places-to-stay:

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I really like the caltopo maps. I think they are better-looking than AllTrails

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I'm working through coming to terms with the increasing-joy I get "hunting Post Offices" versus the lessening-joy of "visiting Art Museum". Although I love The Art that I see in the museums, it seems to be quite a hassle dealing with them (timed-entry, parking, layout problems - not to mention THE HUGE AMOUNT OF BAD ART that is taking up wallspace/floorspace).

With Post Offices, I get off The Interstate Highway unto a well-defined US Highway System that runs right through towns that The Interstate Highway System has abandoned. The Primary Highways going through the Great Plains states are I-80 and I-70, and I know what they are like. The "red box" is blown-up below, and shows 53 Post Offices - it puts a smile on my face thinking about figuring out how to zig-zag and get them all:

It reminds me of a "Hubble Space Telescope zoom-in" that I saw the other day:

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And finally, it has been 2 years since I did an overnight (= camping in a tent) hike ("Glacier National Park"). I know I said that I don't want to do that again, but I've recently been reading about some really cool multi-day hikes, and just pulled out a map I made a couple of years ago, for a 3-day/2-night hike in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho

We'll see...