Skinner Auctioneers held its first American Art Auction (Jan. 28, 2022) and Fine Prints & Photographs Auction (Jan. 18-27, 2022) of the year, featuring exceptional work by Western printmakers over the past 500 years, early 19th century painters through early Modernists, as well as a stand-out Lincoln statue from famed sculpture Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The American Art Auction featured 83 exciting lots and brought in its high estimate of $1.5 million.

Bidding was extremely animated on works of all periods and the top lot of the sale was Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln) , bringing in nearly $1.2 million. This work was sold to the Colby College Museum of Art and will be on display as part of The Lunder Collection, one of the most important collections of American art ever assembled by private hands.

“The success of the sale had little to do with period or places” said Robin Starr, Director of American & European Works of Art. “Success was entirely based on the quality of the works, and their freshness to the market.”

Standing Lincoln had no trouble toppling its estimate of $700,000-$900,000, and that is due to its rarity and highly impressive craftsmanship and detail. The 40 inch versions of the composition were cast by Saint-Gaudens’ widow from the original maquette made by Saint-Gaudens for the monumental commission of this sculpture for Chicago’s Lincoln Park. This particular version and the other 16 known casts are not mere reductions of the larger version, but are cast from a fully finished model of the same size. The Saint-Gaudens statue was not the only lot to exceed it’s estimate.

Additional lots that exceeded expectations include a Charles Schulz original drawing for a Peanuts cartoon in 1960, which brought in $150,000, against an estimate of $30,000-$50,000. This comic strip was given to Dr. Lowell, an orthopedic surgeon at Mass General and associate professor at Harvard, as a gift from a patient. A Charles E. Prendergast gilded frame flew past its estimate of $3,000-$5,000 and sold for $32,500. The frame is carved with birds and flowers and is currently holding mirrors, however Prendergast made additional tripartite frames to hold paintings as well.

Paintings also fared well at auction, including a view of Giverny, entitled A Mill Stream, by John Leslie Breck, brought $75,000 against a $25,000-35,000 estimate. Breck took inspiration from Claude Monet when he first met Monet in Giverny, France during the summer of 1887 and he became one of the earliest American artists to embrace Impressionism.

The Fine Prints & Photographs online auction also saw some success, including highlights from Cubism founders Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Picasso’s Wood-owl, 1968, was estimated at $8,000-$12,000 and sold for $18,750. Braque’s etching, Paris 1910, was estimated at $6,000-$8,000 and sold for $15,000. The highest selling lot of the sale was by Russian/French artist Marc Chagall, titled Paysage bleu, 1958, which sold for $26,250, well above its estimate of $3,000-$5,000.

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