Two marquee lots fell flat in Christie's American Art Sale on May 21 while definitive works by several artists far exceeded estimates. Topping the $29,822,500 (with fees) total sale was Arthur Dove's early modernist masterpiece "Boat Going Through Inlet" (circa 1929) which brought $5.4 million, more than doubling its low end estimate of $2.5 million.

Other highlights included Thomas Hart Benton's signature rural landscape from 1949, "Ozark Autumn," which fetched $4.8 million (estimate: $2-3 million). A bright and cheery scene titled "The Rock Garden, Monhegan Island, Maine," by Pennsylvania Impressionist Edward Willis Redfield, brought $725,000 from a $400,000-600,000 estimate.

Another high performer was William Herbert Dunton's luminous fall scene with mounted Indians, "Glorietta." From the collection of the Oldsmobile founder's family, the work soared to $497,000 from a low estimate of $100,000.

Elie Nadleman's sleek "Resting Stag" brought $629,000, exceeding the estimate of $400,000-600,000.

The biggest casualty of the sale was Edward Hopper's "Two Puritans," depicting two austere white houses on Cape Cod and thought to represent the artist and his wife; the 1945 work carried a heavy estimate of $20-30 million. Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church's c. 1851-53 work "Mount Newport on Mount Desert Island," one of his most important works to surface on the market ina while, also failed to sell. It was estimated to bring $5-7 million.

Visions of the West: American Paintings from the William I. Koch Collection, held the same day, brought a total $17,189,125. The top lot was Thomas Moran's seminal work "The Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming" which brought $8.5 million from a $6-8 million estimate. (In 2008,Christie's achieved the record price for a 19th century American landscape at auction for Thomas Moran’s Green River of Wyoming at $17,737,000.)

Frederic Remington's "Pretty Mother of the Night--White Otter is No Longer a Boy" nearly doubled its low estimate to bring $2.3 million.