Bonhams Skinner’s latest American Art and Prints & Photographs sales featured various paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures spanning the last several centuries from a host of celebrated artists. The live auction took place on May 25 at Skinner’s Marlborough (Mass.) gallery, and was accompanied by an online sale of Prints & Photographs between May 16 - 26, 2022.

Among the American Art auction’s top performing works was the final lot, Edgar Alwin Payne’s Topmost Trail, which sold for $100,000, against an estimate of $70,000-90,000.  The painting had been in private hands since the 1930s, and depicts the Eastern Sierra. Payne’s landscape paintings of the region rarely include signs of human life, with this painting featuring one of the notable exceptions picturing two horses and a lone rider.

Lot 3 by Samuel Isham also stood out, as it exceeded its modest $4,000-6,000 estimate to sell at $40,625. This more than doubled the artist’s previous auction record of $16,660. The painting, titled A Fairy Tale, was painted in 1901, and has an impressive exhibition history including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

In the photography and prints sale, the two top lots were by Andy Warhol, including After the Party, 1979, which brought $33,750, and Golden Mushroom, from the portfolio Campbell's Soup II, 1969, which brought $27,500. Both prints attracted competitive bidding, resulting in sale totals that blew past original estimates.

Bonhams Skinner closed its spring sale of Fine Photographs on May 26 with promising results for works from the mid-20th century to the contemporary period. The top lot of the night was Arthur Tress’ Teenage Runners, N.Y., which blew well past its high estimate to sell for four times above expectations, at $4,688. Additionally, Duane Michals’ The Captive Child, a classic pairing of image with text, was fought over and sold for $3,125, the top result for this photograph at auction.