Andrew Wyeth’s hold on the American imagination made him the country’s most popular living artist

By Renée Harrison Drake

Renée Drake and her husband, Max Drake, stand beside "The Woodshed," painted by Andrew Wyeth in 1944.

I was lucky to have a mother who appreciated art and who introduced me to three generations of paintings by the Wyeth family. Although I grew up in Virginia, my mother was from Greenville, Del., which is not far from the artists’ home in Chadds Ford, Pa. On our regular trips there, she would always take us to the Brandywine River Museum to see the paintings of N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and Jamie Wyeth. I never tired of looking at those wonderful canvases. They welcomed me like old friends whenever I visited the museum tucked beside the river.

While N.C.’s paintings inspired me to read the classic works of literature he illustrated and Jamie’s menagerie of animals were both intriguing and delightful, Andrew’s paintings made me appreciate the landscape of the Brandywine Valley.

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The Constantiner Collection of Photographs sets a record at Christie’s New York

By Renée Harrison Drake

Bert Stern (b. 1929). Marilyn Monroe, “The Last Sitting,” 1962. Hand colored print, signed, dated and numbered. Sold for $146,000 at Christie’s December 2008 sale of the Constantiner Collection.

The 2008 auction season at Christie’s ended on a high note with a spectacular sale of photographs from the Constantiner Collection. The treasure trove of 318 photographs focusing on the interconnecting relationships between media, fashion, and celebrity was the result of years of astute collecting by Leon and Michaela Constantiner. As noted by Phillippe Garner, international head of photographs, “The superb results achieved for this collection demonstrate the potential of works bought with passion and considerable connoisseurship to perform magnificently, even in the present uncertain economic climate.”

Photographs by Helmut Newton, a giant in the annals of 20th century photography, led the Dec. 16-17 single-owner sale, which by the fall of the last gavel had achieved $7,721,875, a record for a single-owner sale of photography at Christie’s. Newton’s “Sie Kommen (Naked and Dressed),” 1981, was estimated to fetch between $400-$600,000 but ended up shattering the world auction record for the photographer when a private buyer purchased it for $662,500. Newton’s signature combination of shrewd and witty social observations with perverse eroticism ensures that his works command top prices from serious collectors, and the Constantiners were known to possess the largest and best examples of his oeuvre. The photograph that achieved the second highest price was also by Newton, “Big Nude III: Henrietta,” 1980, which achieved $482,500. The Helmut Newton photographs in the collection achieved a staggering $3,946,625 of the total proceeds. Of the top ten highest prices achieved in the sale, half were works by Newton. Iconic photographs by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh and Andy Warhol were avidly collected by the Constantiners as well, and they also fared well in the sale.

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The speech Abraham Lincoln gave on the occasion of his reelection to office in November, 1864, will be auctioned at Christie’s New York on Feb. 12. (Courtesy of Christie’s Ltd.).

Historic Abraham Lincoln re-election speech to be auctioned at Christie’s on February 12th

By Renee Harrison Drake

On the eve of one of the nation’s most symbolic inaugurations, when an African-American will be sworn in as 44th president, Americans will see the dream of an iconic president become reality. Abraham Lincoln’s belief that all of his countrymen were equal was put to the ultimate test in the recent election. As President-elect Barack Obama said in his historic election night speech, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founding fathers is alive in our times, who still questions the power of democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Lincoln became president in March, 1861. Like Obama, he was an Illinois lawyer who had a short résumé of governmental experience, and he would take the oath of office during a time of turmoil. While seeking re-election in the summer of 1864, he faced defeat. His popularity was waning due to dissatisfaction with his Civil War policies and mounting casualties. The Democrats were rallying behind popular former Army Gen. George McClellan, who was calling for a cease-fire and peace with the Confederacy. The defining victory of the Union Army in Atlanta by Gen. William T. Sherman that August was instrumental in turning the electoral tide in Lincoln’s favor. Thousands of Union troops were permitted to cast absentee ballots on Election Day and others were granted furloughs to vote in their home states. The result was an overwhelming victory for Lincoln, who tallied 55 percent of the popular vote.

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Sporting Art sales in New York feature hunting scene masterworks

By Renée Harrison Drake

Frederick Henry Prince, Master of Foxhounds of the Pau Hunt by Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959). Oil on canvas. Christie’s New York Sporting Art sale, Dec. 3. Estimate: $1,200,000-1,800,000.

In November, collectors look to New York to see what Sotheby’s and Christie’s will offer in their sporting art sales. Top collectors in the field will gather to compete for traditional English racing and hunting scenes as well as more contemporary wildlife art works. Sporting art has historically been an internationally competitive field with particularly strong sales in London, Scotland and Ireland; however, Americans now participate with equal enthusiasm and the market for works by European masters such as Sir Alfred Munnings and John Frederick Herring (both British) and Christophe Fratin (French) remains strong here.

Notable highlights this year include the spectacular Frederick Henry Prince, Master of the Foxhounds of the Pau Hunt by Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) that will be offered at Christie’s on Dec. 3. Munnings’ works are highly sought after by museums and private collectors alike and this picture is sure to garner fierce competition. The highly successful composition depicts a master of foxhounds astride a magnificent gray and white thoroughbred surrounded by a pack of eager hounds on the scent of their quarry. The masterful brushwork for which Munnings has been celebrated achieves the dynamic impression of movement of both the rider and his hounds. The theater the viewer is drawn into is complemented by the atmospheric symphony of grays and blues in the sky and a small but effective slash of green surrounding a distant manor house, all set perfectly behind the eye catching figure of the Master outfitted in his brilliant red riding coat. Undoubtedly a masterpiece of the genre, this oil painting clearly stands out as the major highlight of the two sales and will be offered with an estimate of $1.2 to $1.8 million.

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Brigid Berlin

Brigid Berlin and Ann Getty’s classic costume jewelry goes on the block.

By Renée Harrison Drake

As the fall auction season gets underway, fashionistas have set their sights on sales of costume jewelry, a specialized category that has become one of the “hot” new collecting fields for women of all ages. On October 2 at DOYLE NEW YORK’s auction galleries, the excitement will kick off with a party co-hosted by Doyle and Interview magazine to celebrate and preview the October 7 auction of two eclectic collections belonging to two iconic women: the famous society and Andy Warhol Factory girl Brigid Berlin, and San Francisco philanthropist, art collector, and style icon Ann Getty.

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Lincoln’s petition from school children in Concord, Mass. serves as a personal example of Lincoln’s work to abolish slavery. (Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Lincoln’s letters sell for over $3 million.

By Renée Harrison Drake

Collectors of important manuscripts had a thrill at the beginning of April when Sotheby’s offered Presidential and other Manuscripts from the Dr. Robert Small Trust at auction. Rarely has a group of political manuscripts such as those in the Small collection ever come to auction, and the extensive collection, comprised of 111 lots, offered an unusual look into the public and private sides of many of America’s major historical figures.

One of the most interesting things about the Small Collection as a whole is the insight into American politics of days past and the issues those politicians grappled with that are present in our own political arena today. In this election year, which has proved so far to have a particularly heated race in the Democratic Party, the candidates are experiencing many of the very same problems that faced candidates over one hundred years ago. The tedium of the campaign trail, barbs from other candidates even insults aimed at sitting presidents were also part of the political landscape back then and are documented throughout the collection in many of the rare examples of political correspondence collected by Dr. Small. For example, in a letter written by former President Millard Fillmore in 1862 he rails against President Lincoln and calls him a “tyrant” who “makes my blood boil” and Lincoln’s predecessor James Buchanan wrote a letter in which he washes his hand of any responsibility for the Civil War writing, “No act or omission of mine has produced this terrible calamity.” The echoes of these statesmen sound eerily familiar today.

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