High Demand For Norman Rockwell Lifts Heritage Auctions' American Art Auction

New Auction Records Achieved For Seven Artists

June 22, 2018

Nine works by Norman Rockwell and new auction records for seven artists drove Heritage Auctions’ May 4 American Art Auction in Dallas, Texas, to $4,571,987.50 versus pre-sale estimates of $3,503,200-$5,237,800 (includes estimates of the unsold lots). The auction sold 96 percent by value and 91 percent by lot.
“Norman Rockwell is among the most beloved and important American artists of all time,” said Heritage Auctions director of American Art Aviva Lehmann. “Art lovers of all levels and types can relate to the people in his paintings, which is why an auction like this one was such a success.”
Once in the private collection of late actress Debbie Reynolds, Norman Rockwell’s “Ben Franklin's Sesquicentennial,” The Saturday Evening Post cover from May 29, 1926, sold for $762,500. One of Rockwell’s most patriotic images, it was commissioned in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and is Rockwell’s only cover lot featuring a Founding Father.
Another lot from the famed illustrator that drew major interest from collectors was Rockwell’s “The Census Taker,” The Saturday Evening Post cover study, 1940, which brought $372,500. While the painting offers a humorous view of a mother trying to wrangle six children while answering questions, “The Census Taker” also documented an important event in American history, the 1940 U.S. Census. That census occurred April 1, a couple weeks before the April 27 debut of this Post cover.
Numerous bidders pursued Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s “Living Mannequin,” The Saturday Evening Post cover, March 5, 1932, until it drew $312,500, more than double its pre-auction low estimate. Originally from the estate of Harry Glass, the painting from Illustration’s Golden Age originally sold at the 1943 U.S. War Bond at the United States Treasury-Saturday Evening Post War Bond Show, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Competitive bidding helped John S. Jameson’s “Grazing Sheep at Headwaters of a Stream,” from 1862, crush its pre-auction estimate when it realized $250,000, a new auction record for the artist. The influence of the Hudson River School on the young prodigy (Jameson died at just 22 years old after being captured while fighting in the Civil War) is evident in this landscape and exploration into theatrical light and weather effects.
Rockwell’s “Before the Shot,” The Saturday Evening Post cover study, 1958, went for $187,500. A preparatory study for an illustration that graced the March 15, 1958, cover of The Saturday Evening Post and of the artist's most iconic and most popular images, had been exhibited alongside the final painting at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.
Rockwell broke from his stance of shielding his political views in “The Day I Painted Ike (All through that grind of turning on different moods, he never lost patience. At the end-by golly, it was time to go fishing)” from The Saturday Evening Post interior illustration, 1952, which sold for $150,000. The artist’s admiration for the 34th U.S. president was so unwavering that Ben Hibbs, then the editor of The Saturday Evening Post, wrote to Rockwell, saying, “If Ike is elected, as I think he will be, no small share of the credit should go to Norman Rockwell.”
A couple lots that established new auction records included W.P. Wilson’s “Mr. Trunk and his Advisors – His Friends, Old Mr. Parrot and Mr. Starling,” from 1862, $13,750; and Henry Schnakenberg’s “Summer in the Park (Central Park, Bethesda Fountain)” that sold for $13,750.
Norman Rockwell’s “Stealing Socks,” from an Interwoven Stocking advertisement, 1928, realized $143,750. LeRoy Neiman’s “Paris – Cafe Deux Magots,” 1961, sold for $81,250, and Marguerite Thompson Zorach’s “Mother and Child,” 1919, $75,000. “Churning Bay,” by Milton Avery, 1945, sold for $65,625, and Norman Rockwell’s “Man with Rod and Reel,” a probable advertisement study, circa 1940, realized $50,000.
To learn more, visit www.HA.com.


 

More Articles