Less Agita, More Action at Fall Art Sale

Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts

by Jeanne Schinto

Photos courtesy Skinner

Toward the end of the Skinner prints, photography, paintings, and sculpture auction in Boston on Friday, September 11, it sounded like Christmas as buyers, some of whom had been at the sale all day, wrapped their purchases. The gross for the event that began at noon and ended about ten hours later was a heartening $1,914,000 (including buyers' premiums), with 79.6% of 804 lots sold.

Department director pro tem Robin S.R. Starr said, "We were thrilled with the Dufy and with the Moore." She was referring to the two top lots, a Raoul Dufy watercolor of an orchestra, featured on the catalog's cover, that sold for $92,430 and a study of sculptures by Henry Moore that made $82,950. But she hastened to say she was also happy with the smaller purchases made by dealers, collectors, and "even an institution or two."

Starr elaborated, "Frankly, at the preview, on the telephones, talking to people beforehand, I felt the whole attitude had changed. People are clearly feeling better [about the economy]. I'm not going to say they're downright peppy, but there's not that gloomy pessimism of March and May, when everyone you talked to made you think you needed to be on suicide watch. Last spring, dealers were buying if they knew they had a client, and that was it. This time, they were clearly buying for stock and for the future."

Both the Dufy and the Moore were among the remaining pieces from the consignment brought to Skinner by heirs of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (née Braman) Grasso of Essex, Connecticut. Still to come are one or two more "potentially major items" from that collection, but they're still being researched, said Starr.

Grasso's Aristide Maillol bronze sculpture, a female bather only about 12" tall, did well too, going at $46,215. So did the collector's Henri Matisse drawing of a woman's head. Inscribed to Marcel Z. Méraud, chauffeur to the artist's dealer Ambroise Vollard, the portrait, consisting of just a few dozen deftly executed lines in ink and graphite, made $34,365.

Grasso's copy of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's lithographic poster of Jane Avril, on the other hand, sold at a one-bid bargain of $35,550 (est. $50,000/70,000). Her Marc Chagall drawing of Two Lovers on a Rooster was bought in (est. $40,000/60,000), then sold later for $20,027. Her Lautrec of L'Amazone from Chasseur de Chevelures (est. $20,000/40,000) failed to sell. Starr was asked whether condition, overly ambitious estimates, or the market—that handy whipping boy—were to blame.

"It was a combination of factors," she said, "but you know, I really can't get too upset with the market right now. Whatever it's doing for others, the market did fine by us. I have no complaints."

Attendance at the sale, although never a standing-room-only crowd, was encouragingly healthy. One of the best American pictures in the sale, a Frank Weston Benson watercolor of three Canada geese feeding in the snow, went to one of those room bidders for $50,363. But it's increasingly unusual to glimpse a major purchaser at an auction, and following that pattern, most of this sale's top lots went to unseen phone bidders.

The Dufy, the Moore, and the head drawn by Matisse went to phone bidders in Britain, Skinner's Kathy Wong said. Given the weak dollar, they had the advantage over Americans. Another British phone bidder captured a painting by Russian/American artist Pavel Tchelitchew, paying $34,365. A Parisian got a captivating portrait of a Tunisian man by Albert Herter. Sold to benefit Vermont's Bennington Museum, Mohamed Ben Hadge Abdeslam Djedidi was described by Robin Starr as "wonderful, mysterious, striking, and ever so slightly sinister." The $800/1200 estimate made dreamers of many, but the picture eventually went to France at $23,700.

American phone bidders did take their share. The buyer of the Maillol was on the West Coast, said Wong, while a Connecticut collector took Diego Rivera's Vendedora de Pozole within estimate at $53,325. The ink and watercolor scene of a peasant vendor selling bowls of Mexico's traditional stew had been in a private collection in Florida since 1984.

New York City phone buyers took other key lots, including a 1975 abstract in acrylic on a diamond-shaped canvas by Russian/American artist Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981). Estimated at $1500/2500, Golden Diamond went all the way to $26,070.

From all parts of the world there were significant numbers of winning Internet bidders. For those who have been confused by the various designations for those winners at Skinner sales lately, here is a gloss. Bids that come through Live Auctioneers are designated "LA." Those that arrive through the Skinner Web site platform are "LA" plus numerals. A third designation is for internet absentee bids, which are noted as "IN" with numerals.

Starr admitted the system was complex but said the auction house is understandably interested in keeping track of which bidding options yield what results, and this classification system is one way to do it.

One important Internet sale was the first painting of the evening session, which followed the prints of the afternoon. Titled The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, it is believed to be a copy of a work by 15th-century Italian artist Pier Francesco Fiorentino. It sold for $12,250 (est. $2000/3000). Another notable Internet trade was a gouache and watercolor by 20th-century Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias that fetched $7350. A third was a lot of three color woodcut portraits by 20th-century Japanese artist Junichiro Sekino for $7962.50. A fourth was Chagall's lithograph Green Tree with Lovers that a Live Auctioneers bidder took for $4900.

Internet bidders also took a 1973 Frank Stella color lithograph, Sidi Ifni, for $2450; a 19th-century American school oil portrait of Richard Varick, a Revolutionary War captain from New Jersey, for $4594; an Emile Gruppé harbor view in oil on canvas mounted on board for $4288; along with many others under $1000.

At a gallery walk on a preview night, Starr chose to discuss the Benson, the Dufy, the Rivera, and a print from Andy Warhol's "Endangered Species" series, which, along with two others from the same series, was destined to be the print section's dollar leader. She also chose an evocative little (6" x 8") oil on panel, Paul Cornoyer's Rainy Day, New York City. She has a good eye. Estimated at $1200/1800, it sold to a phone bidder for $14,220.

What Starr said was common to all these artists was their stubborn originality. They went their own way; they were themselves, despite pressures to do or be otherwise. Perhaps that legitimately describes all successful artists, but it seems also an apt characterization of Starr, who is bringing her own personality to bear on the department.

Her gallery walk style obviously takes from her classroom experience as a part-time lecturer in the art history department of Boston College. Her auctioneering style is one that combines a sparkly animated humor with a dose of tough love. To sluggish phone bidders, for example, she'll be forceful, urging them to answer "Yes or no!" Full of energy, she challenges others to be the same. Most of all, she seems honestly to enjoy herself, and the mood is infectious.

As previously reported, along with recent staff changes, Skinner has also shrunk the department's annual schedule. Now there will be three major art sales yearly, instead of four. The next one is in January, once again a combination of prints, photography, paintings, and sculpture. These are long sales, to be sure, but they're now about 150 lots shorter than combined sales of previous years. That's because Skinner has decided to sell lesser works at its revived "Studio" auctions. Despite the further proof that our world is ever more economically bifurcated, it's a move that makes marketing sense.

The first Studio sale was at the auction house's suburban headquarters in Marlborough, Massachusetts in July. As of this writing, another was scheduled for mid-November. For more information, phone the Boston gallery at (617) 350-5400, the Marlborough facility at (508) 970-3000, or see the Web site (www.skinnerinc.com).

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