Consignments for the upcoming auction at Barridoff Galleries on April 24 began with a large pastel 20 × 30 in. (50.8 × 76.2 cm) of the U.S. Capitol in the evening with figures in period dress out front and the arrival of what appears to be a Model T Ford. It was painted by Colin Campbell Cooper in 1908, the same year the Model T was introduced to the public. It had been purchased by the consignors, a Connecticut couple, in the mid-sixties from Sloan-Roman Gallery in New York. 

The Cooper was followed by a consignment from a friend of a friend of the artist John Grabach. She had been gifted three excellent examples of the artist by her and the artist’s mutual friend, Jan Stone, who had been a part of a “tight-knit” group that included the artist, Helena Rubinstein, and Rosa Halpern, who is believed to have been Grabach's student. The three oils are stunning views of New York and its harbor – an untouched canvas, framed simply for the auction, and in excellent condition, perhaps in need of a light surface cleaning. 

According to gallery owner Annette Elowitch, a "terrific auction moment" came from a consignor from Southern California who wanted to consign three abstract images of mixed media by Consuelo Cloos. Who? “We loved the three paintings. The made us want to know more about the artist.” Research found that Cloos had often painted in Maine and had been photographed (see image of the artist with Thomas Cushing, a friend) by the photographer George Daniell, two images of whose work are also in the sale. (Daniell was known for his photographs of Hollywood movie stars Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren and the artist Georgia O’Keeffe as well as Cloos, whose portrait alone is enough want to know much more about her. 

Two early works by Henry Ferguson, The Blacksmith Shop and Frontier Log Cabin, descended first to the artist’s nephew George Frederick Ferguson, who, in 1931, gave them to his friend Joseph Gokey, who ultimately left both to his wife, the current owner. These canvasses aren’t romanticized memories of what was still very much a frontier. Despite bright light outside the windows, the interior image is painted as Henry Ferguson undoubtedly saw it it–that is, without electricity–and it is all the more meaningful for that. He was there! This is documented history, albeit not of the gorgeous vistas of sunsets on the Hudson River. The artist was 22 when he painted these images that seem so close to his heart. He would later travel the world and develop a strong reputation for his detailed and romantic subject matter. But these two early canvasses are a treasure – fresh, personal, and touching. 

Equally intriguing are two oils in the sale by Anthony Thieme. When the Galleries was approached by a Minneapolis family to handle an estate painting by Anthony Thieme, it seemed appropriate for an oil by the North Shore of Boston artist to come east. But it was one of the artist's rare Bahamas subjects and, although one image very similar sold by the Galleries once produced the second highest auction record ever for a Thieme, this one is, perhaps, better, though estimated at half the sold price of the previous one at $96,000. But in some even more more intriguing, another Thieme faces the Nassau image in the catalogue. From the image, it appears to be very handsome, if a very typical Thieme view of a fishing boat at dockside. 

But it isn't at all typical. The paint is applied with great but controlled. It is as though Thieme was a Modernist with the paint as his subject moreso than the fishing boat. It is not merely surprising, but something very much more. 

An important drawing ca. 1920 by George Grosz adds to the mix of newly discovered or recently re-discovered works of art in the auction. It was consigned by a Maine gentleman, Carl Schmalz, a professor of art at Harvard, Amherst, and Bowdoin College prior to retirement. Professor Schmalz consigned the Grosz drawing and a beautiful watercolor he had purchased by Fairfield Porter when both were at Amherst College where Porter was in residence. Professor Schmalz also consigned an Old Master oil from the School of Bassano and several very fine small Old Master drawings, all purchased during the mid 20th Century and now to be offered on April 24 by his wife. (Schmalz passed away shortly before the auction.) 

Among the many other features of the auction are a stunning Dutch 17th Century canvas, a very fine view in oil of one of Fairfeld Porter’s favored views near the artist’s home in Maine, a stunning, probably long lost watercolor of “The Pirate” by Howard Pyle, and two truly extraordinary and surprising oils by Grau Sala, both of which come from private sources with no known previous history.(63.5 × 54.6 cm)

Works of art mentioned in the above release in alphabetical order