Painting of Fort Macomb in Louisiana Sells in Tennessee
M.A.D. staff | January 26th, 2013
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This is an oil on panel depiction of Fort Macomb, originally built to defend New Orleans. The painting attracted multiple phone and Internet bidders and sold for $29,250. The artist was George David Coulon (1822-1904) of Louisiana. It measured 15" x 21" (sight 11" x 17"). The painting is signed and dated lower right “G.D. Coulon 86,” and on the back remnants of an old label read “Fort Macomb Chef Menteur, __ view taken from the residence of the officer in charge, sketched by Coulon June 12 __.” |
A painting of an abandoned Louisiana fort sold for $29,250 (includes buyer’s premium) to a southern collector at an auction conducted by Case Antiques on January 26 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The painting, found in a Nashville estate, was estimated at $2000/3000.
The oil on panel by George David Coulon (1822-1904) was dated 1886 and depicted Fort Macomb, originally built after the War of 1812 to defend New Orleans from a potential water attack via the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Pontchartrain. Fort Macomb was briefly occupied by Confederate forces during the Civil War but was retaken by Union troops after the capture of New Orleans. Decommissioned in 1871, it is now owned by the state.
Other art highlights included a Paris street scene by Édouard Cortès (French, 1882-1969), deaccessioned by the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA) to benefit its acquisitions fund. It sold for $26,400. Another ex-KMA painting, a panoramic early 20th-century oil on canvas by Eugene Buccini, Aurora, after the original by Guido Reni, brought $1989. The KMA was also buying, paying $4800 for a Tonalist-style oil on canvas landscape with sheep by J.W. Wallace of Knoxville.
A portrait of a woman, attributed to the circle of Charles Hawthorne and consigned by Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, realized $1872. A small watercolor of the Smoky Mountains by Charles Krutch set an auction record for the artist at $5520. A self-portrait by Joseph Delaney, the only one known in oil, sold to the C.M. McClung Historical Collection for $6240.
Three unsigned paintings turned out to be sleepers. An 18th-century Dutch still life surged to $6786 against a $1000/1500 estimate; a 19th-century American folk art portrait of a boy holding a black cat hit $2880 (est. $400/500); and a small 20th-century Scottish oil on canvas of a fly-fishing scene reeled in $2040 (est. $200/300).
Civil War-era items were in demand. A partial letter by and pair of ambrotypes of Alabama soldier F.M. Sconyers earned $4212, the same price as a Harpers Ferry model 1855 rifle with Maynard priming device. An Ames M1850 staff and field officer’s sword brought $2400. A bull’s-eye canteen and a bayonet with scabbard for a .58-caliber musket that descended in the family of Capt. William Geary of Pennsylvania sold for $1200. An early 20th-century painting of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, which formerly had hung in an Alabama museum, brought $1872. An 1870’s engraved portrait of Robert E. Lee, sold to raise money for his memorial monument in Virginia, brought $1287. A 1904 reward poster for outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rounded up $3510.
For more information, contact Case Antiques at (865) 558-3033; Web site (www.caseantiques.com).
