Rendering of Santa Ana Canyon vista may crest $120,000
Paintings depicting historic vistas from across the Western U.S., including California’s Santa Ana Canyon, will come to auction Oct. 25 at John Moran Auctioneers.
MONROVIA, Calif. — A breathtaking painting of the Santa Ana Canyon is one of the leading lots in
the October 25 biannual California and American Fine Art Auction, featuring 250 lots, presented by John Moran Auctioneers.
Excellent examples by top-tier American artists abound, while price-points for the offerings are varied: pre-auction estimates range from $800 to $150,000.
The auction will begin at 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Bidding is available in person, via telephone, absentee, and online through LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable.
Offerings from Icons of Western Art
Consistent with the high concentration of Western-genre offerings Moran’s has sold throughout the year, the October sale features a large number of works by important Western artists dating from the 19th century through the modern day. Highlights include historically important mural-sized panels by German-born Detlef Sammann (1857-1938), which were commissioned in 1910 by California oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to be installed in his Los Angeles mansion. Sammann originally conceived the works as a continuous room-sized frieze. Moran’s is offering three self-contained and two contiguous pairs of panels from the frieze; each lot has been assigned a conservative $8,000 to $12,000 estimate.
More contemporary Western works hail from the Paso Robles estate of dedicated art patron Phoebe Hearst Cooke. “Wyoming Range,” a large-scale oil painting by artist Tucker Smith (b. 1940 Wyoming) is an excellent example of the artist’s compositional and tonal prowess; the painting is expected to bring $40,000 to $60,000. Consigned from a private Sun Valley, Calif., collection, a diminutive watercolor by celebrated Western artist Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926) is also expected to prove popular with collectors. Titled “My Shot Killed the Elk (The Dispute),” the work carries a $15,000 to $20,000 estimate.
The auction catalog comprises a number of American landscape vistas by top-tier American Impressionist painters. William Wendt (1865-1946) is represented in a sweeping, saturated view of Santa Ana Canyon ($80,000 to $120,000). Equally striking, John Frost’s (1890-1937) view of a riotously colorful poppy field in full bloom is balanced by distant, icy blue snow-capped mountains and a cloud-dappled sky. “California Poppies, Desert” is expected to earn $60,000 to $90,000.
Photos Round Out Selection
A select group of photographs is also slated for sale, including a low-angle view of the Sierra Nevadas from Manzanar by Ansel Adams (1902-1984). Titled “Mount Williamson,” the 1944 gelatin silver print will go to the block with an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.
For more information, visit www.johnmoran.com, email info@johnmoran.com or call 626-793-1833.
