Following Christie's major auctions devoted to Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art last week, which generated $1.1 billion in total sales, the auction house offered up about 100 lots of American art on Nov. 19 bringing a total $45 million in New York.

The sale was strong with early modernist works culled from top private collections. A dynamic 1960 abstraction by Stuart Davis, titled Ways & Means, brought $3.1 million (high estimate: $3 million). It came from the collection of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Dr. Gabrielle Reem, as did Charles Sheeler's 1953 Ore Into Iron which brought $311,000 (high estimate: $250,000), among other high-performing, top-notch examples.

Paintings of Maine also had a strong showing with Marsden Hartley's craggy coastal scene Camden Hills from Baker's Island fetching a solid $2.7 million (estimate: $1 million -  $1.5 million).

Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, a gift in the 1960s from Norman Rockwell to the National Press Club, fetched the top price of the night at $11.5 million, at the lower end of the estimate, yet still the fourth highest price for artist. (Rockwell's auction record price is $46 million.)

Georgia O'Keeffe's 1925 Leaves Under Water brought $725,000 (est. $300,000-$500,000), and her Grapes No. 2, garnered $1.5 million (est. $600,000-$800,000).

There were some notable passed lots, including Thomas Moran's Jupiter Terrace, Yellowstone, which was expected to bring as much as $5 million.

The leading lot at Sotheby's Taubman collection sale on Wednesday reportedly is headed to a Minnesota museum. The founders of the Minnesota Marine Art Museum are the buyers of the 8-foot-by-4-foot The Great Florida Sunset for an artist record $5.9 million, reports the Star-Tribune. It is said to be a companion piece to Heade's View from Fern-Tree Walk, Jamaica, already on view at the museum.