Questroyal`s Top Ten vs. The Auctions No Paddle Required

10 9 8 7 6
Q U E S T R O Y A L F I N E A RT, L L C
903 Park Avenue (at 79th Street), Suite 3 A & B, New York, NY 10075 T : (212) 744-3586 F : (212) 585-3828
H O U R S : Monday–Friday
10–6, Saturday 10–5 and by appointment
E M A I L : gallery @ questroyalfineart.com
www.questroyalfineart.com
Questroyal’s Top Ten vs. The Auctions
No Paddle Required
5 4 3 2 1
Chloe and Jessica suggested that the gallery enter a “David vs. Goliath” competition this May by
submitting our top ten paintings for comparison against those offered by the major auction houses.
Louis M. Salerno, Owner
They further suggested that I rank our paintings to give you an idea of how I valued our acquisitions.
Brent L. Salerno, Co-Owner
I thought this risky because the works listed as ten through five may be diminished, but I believe
Chloe Heins, Director
that you will understand the process and determine your own ranking — and that is exactly what an
Jessica L. Waldmann, Director of Marketing and Research
art dealer should encourage collectors to do.
Angela M. Scerbo, Administrator
Rita J. Walker, Controller
The “top ten” works presented herein will withstand their competition in many categories of value
including condition, provenance, date, subject, and rarity. Each painting is accompanied by my
ranking, which is a personal weighing of the factors that define quality such as the renown of the
artist, the work’s place within the artist’s oeuvre, condition, and market value. In certain instances,
Q U E S T R O YA L F I N E A RT, L L C
Important American Paintings
my colleagues dissented and their differing ranks are also shown. All of us would be pleased to
explain our reasoning and share our conviction.
In closing, I urge you to consider that the best paintings and values are not always found at auction.
Please review our catalogue and visit the gallery to let us know how you would rank our top ten!
903 Park Avenue (at 79th Street), Suite 3 A & B, New York, NY 10075 T : (212) 744-3586 F : (212) 585-3828
H O U R S : Monday–Friday
10–6, Saturday 10–5 and by appointment
E M A I L : gallery @ questroyalfineart.com
www.questroyalfineart.com
louis m. salerno , Owner
10
Lou
Click on the image for more information!
Rockwell Kent (1882 –1971)
Alaska, 1919
Oil on board
12 x 13 7/8 inches
Signed, dated, and inscribed lower right: Rockwell Kent. Alaska, 1919.
A loner, a dad, and a painter, Kent spent a year with his young son in a small
cabin on Fox Island, Resurrection Bay, Alaska. A year later, he was famous.
I ponder the intensity of Kent’s Alaska, 1919 and struggle to decipher its
sentiment, but I unambiguously feel the full force of the painting as it spurs
my imagination. Kent’s Alaskan paintings commanded the attention of
critics as well as the collecting public when first revealed and they earned
Brent
10
Chloe
8
Jessica 10
Angela
7
him a reputation as a major American artist. Today, Hudson River School,
Modernist, and Contemporary collectors all respect and seek his work.
Lou
9
Click the image to see works by Marsh that are currently available!
Reginald Marsh (1898 –1954)
New York City Women
Tempera and watercolor on paper
22 5/8 x 31 3/8 inches
Images of sassy New York City women of fine (and ill) repute are
a central theme in Marsh’s work. This painting overflows with
innuendo and character, leaving the viewer to decipher the artist’s
intentions. It is this precise quality that continues to propel
Marsh’s stature among collectors.
Brent
8
Chloe
6
Jessica
4
Angela
3
Lou
8
Click the image to see another Impressionist masterpiece by Hassam!
Edward Willis Redfield (1869 –1965)
Mountain Brook
Oil on canvas
26 x 32 inches
Signed lower right: E.W. Redfield
Collectors tend to consider Redfield a great Pennsylvania Impressionist
and more specifically a Bucks County artist — a provincial categorization
that belies his rightful place among the world’s most renowned painters.
Redfield trained and worked in both France and the United States;
between 1900 and 1920 alone he enjoyed fifteen solo exhibits and was
the recipient of about twenty-seven prizes. Mountain Brook was
Brent
7
painted ca. 1912, during Redfield’s heightened popularity, and was in
Chloe
5
the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for nearly
Jessica
3
Angela
8
ninety years before it came to us.
Lou
7
Click the image to see another Hudson River School winter scene!
Walter Launt Palmer (1854 –1932)
Barker’s Brook , 1923
Oil on canvas
34 1/8 x 24 1/8 inches
Signed lower left: W. L. Palmer
A great artist attains the highest form of his vocation when he
transcribes the otherwise obscure spirit or essence of his subject to
canvas. Here, Palmer doesn’t just paint Barker’s Brook; he reveals
the very essence of winter in New England. This work was the artist’s
1923 National Academy submission. He applies his paint with all the
bravado of an artist at the pinnacle of his career. His brushwork is
Brent
4
so rhythmic, his color so harmoniously nuanced that I imagine him
Chloe
9
as a bold maestro and this painting, his silent fantasia.
Jessica
5
Angela
6
Lou
6
Click on the image for more information!
Thomas Doughty (1793 –1856)
Sublime Landscape
Oil on canvas mounted to board
14 1/8 x 17 5/8 inches
Signed lower left: DOUGHTY
Thomas Doughty’s importance in the history of American art cannot
be overestimated; in fact, some scholars think his importance is on par
or exceeds that of Cole. Upon his death in 1856 The New York Times
hailed Doughty as the “Patriarch of American Landscape Painting” and
in 1839 Thomas Hofland of Knickerbocker Magazine duly noted that
Doughty’s paintings were “conceived and executed in the spirit of free,
Brent
6
untrammeled genius deriving from a gorgeous and unhackneyed
Chloe
7
species of scenery. We cannot think that any European could produce
Jessica
8
Angela 10
such pictures.” Sublime Landscape is a great example of the genius
Hofland and The New York Times saw in Doughty’s works.
Lou
5
Martin Johnson Heade (1819 –1904)
Newburyport, Massachusetts, ca. 1880 –1890
Oil on canvas
10 3/8 x 20 5/16 inches
For over 130 years critical opinion of Martin Johnson Heade has
remained steadfastly positive: in 1870 Henry Tuckerman, the renowned
critic and author of Book of the Artists, wrote of Heade, “None of our
painters has a more refined sense of beauty, or a more delicate feeling
for color.” In 2001 New York Times art critic Ken Johnson penned
similar sentiments stating, “Martin Johnson Heade has been called the
Vermeer of nineteenth-century American painting. To be sure, his
Brent
5
luminous, awesomely spacious landscapes may seem a far cry from the
Chloe
10
Delft master’s intimate interiors, but like the latter’s, Heade’s paintings
Jessica
9
Angela
5
have a magical lucidity and an enigmatic psychology that continue
to captivate the eyes and haunt the minds of modern viewers.”
Click on the image for more information!
Lou
4
Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837–1908)
Seascape: Sunset
Oil on canvas
27 1/8 x 50 1/4 inches
Signed lower left: ATBricher.
In what may be best described as a stunning homage to
Transcendentalism, this tour de force evokes the fundamental
philosophy of the two great literary figures of the nineteenth
century, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
I have heard it said that a great painting can transport a viewer
across time and place, with the power to quiet or awaken the
Brent
1
spirit. I always thought it was dealer speak, the right words to use
Chloe
4
to facilitate a sale. After viewing this masterpiece, I am a believer.
Jessica
6
Angela
9
Click on the image for more information!
Lou
3
Click the image to see another Modernist work by Bluemner!
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943)
Migration, 1943
Oil on masonite
19 15/16 x 22 inches
Signed and dated lower right: MH 43
There is something about Migration. I did not want to buy it at first — all
I could see were fish! I dismissed it once, twice, maybe four or five times,
but I came back to it and found myself saying “Yes, I will buy it.”
My staff admired the painting and encouraged me to abandon literal
observation so as to see it with the eyes of a twenty-first-century viewer.
With considerable trepidation, I hung it among the best of our nineteenthBrent
9
and twentieth-century paintings. Shortly thereafter, I observed the
Chloe
2
beginning of a remarkable phenomenon: staff meetings veered off topic to
Jessica
2
discuss the “fish” and nineteenth-century collectors focused only on this
Angela
2
twentieth-century painting. There really is something about Migration.
Lou
2
Click on the image for more information!
Frank Duveneck (1848 –1919)
Venice
Oil on canvas
22 5/8 x 37 5/8 inches
Signed lower left: FD (artist’s monogram)
I recognized a work of sheer genius the moment I saw Venice. Duveneck’s
decision to leave multiple sections of his canvas vacant was the defiant
act of an innovative and courageous master. Swaths of pigment appear
to be drawn from the outer edges to the painting’s nucleus infusing it
with great vigor. Remnants of design that remain at the periphery capture
the viewer’s imagination, initiating the process by which the painting
Brent
3
is brought to completion. It is no wonder that John Singer Sargent
Chloe
3
declared, “After all’s said, Frank Duveneck is the greatest talent of the
Jessica
7
Angela
1
brush of this generation.”
Lou
1
Click on the image for more information!
Childe Hassam (1859 –1935)
Hollyhocks, Isle of Shoals, 1902
Pastel on paper
17 7/8 x 22 1/16 inches
Signed and dated lower left: Childe Hassam. 1902
Few works will rise above the merits of my number one, Childe Hassam’s
Hollyhocks, Isle of Shoals, 1902, if one considers the prominence of the
artist, importance of subject, significance of date, exhibition history,
literary inclusions, and pure beauty. It is surely a work to be coveted
by any serious collector of American Impressionism. A vibrant view of
Brent
2
in this pastel is as well-known in the pantheon of American painting as
Chloe
1
Sargent’s views of Venice. I acquired this painting a moment before the
Jessica
1
Angela
4
awakening of financial confidence and can offer irrefutable proof that it
is the most compelling value offered at this time!
malcolm grear designers
the southwest corner of Celia Thaxter’s garden, the location represented