A male nude rendering by Paul Cadmus fetched a record price for a drawing by the artist at Swann Galleries' first stand-alone American art auction on June 13 in New York City.

A private collector picked up Cadmus' Male Nude, NM 165, a color crayon drawing from 1981, for the record-setting price of $48,000. It was the top lot in the drawings-heavy sale which totaled $571,785 with buyer’s premium (69% sell-through rate by lot).

Several well-performing works offered by Cadmus, created in his early 90s and representing the culmination of his career as a master draftsman of the human form, included the Male Nude, NM series depicting of his longtime lover, Jon Anderson, 32 years his junior. The two met on Nantucket in 1965—the “NM” notation stands for “Nantucket Man.” Cadmus and Anderson’s collaboration explored all aspects of the male nude, and the two remained lovers until Cadmus’s death just days before his 95th birthday.

A cover design for the June 1927 issue of Liberty Magazine by Frank Lloyd Wright, in color crayons and pencil, 1927, titled June, The Garden Window in pencil went for $36,000 (estimate: $40,000 to $60,000).

Todd Weyman, Swann Galleries Vice President and Director of Prints & Drawings, said, “Swann’s first stand-alone American Art auction included excellent examples by Paul Cadmus, Frank Lloyd Wright and Milton Avery, with the overwhelming majority of top lots selling to private collectors amidst fierce bidding.”