501
501
oil on paper 13 h × 9½ w in (33 × 24 cm)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
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SPANIERMAN
The Preeminent Gallery for American Art
For more than fifty years, Spanierman Gallery cultivated a reputation as one of the country’s preeminent galleries dedicated to American Art. Founded by Ira Spanierman in 1961, the gallery initially offered a wide selection of material, including silver, arms and armor, Old Master, European and American art. Over time, Spanierman chose to focus exclusively on American art, a move that would establish the gallery as a tour-de-force in the field. Well-known for his outstanding ‘eye’ and dedication to connoisseurship, Spanierman was trusted by institutions and private collectors alike. The gallery was known to have sold to hundreds of museums across the United States and abroad while fostering the development of some of the country’s most prestigious private collections.
In addition to its reputation as a dealer, Spanierman Gallery was esteemed in the industry for its dedication and support of art scholarship. As a young man starting off in the business, Ira Spanierman recalled researching and identifying paintings through tedious research at the Frick Art Reference Library. These hours of study left an indelible mark on Spanierman who would go on to publish catalogue raisonnés for artists such as Theodore Robinson, John Henry Twachtman, Willard Metcalf, and co-sponsor the catalogue on the work of Winslow Homer.
When Spanierman Gallery closed in 2014 an impressive inventory remained. We are pleased to be offering a selection of these works in our upcoming auctions. Paintings and sculpture by artists such as John Haberle, Childe Hassam, Walter Schofield, Ibram Lassaw, Theodoros Stamos, George Segal and Patrick Procter among others, will be offered over two days. The sales also features work from a few of the estates acquired by the gallery, such as: Burgoyne Diller, Gershon Benjamin, Hayley Lever, Charles Warren Eaton, Sears Gallagher and Abraham Bogdanove.
Rosa Bonheur 1822–1899
"Why shouldn’t I be proud to be a woman? My father, that enthusiastic apostle of humanity, told me again and again that it was a woman’s mission to improve the human race… To his doctrines I owe my great and glorious ambition for the sex to which I proudly belong, whose independence I’ll defend till my dying day. Besides, I’m convinced the future is ours." - Rosa Bonheur
Unconventional, trailblazing, and unapologetically feminist, Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux and became one of the most acclaimed female artists of her time.
Bonheur trained with her father, a painter, from a young age and proved to be a precocious and gifted student, exhibiting at the Salon for the first time at the age of 19. Her love of animals, especially horses, provided inspiration for most of her art. She worked from a variety of sources: direct observation in nature, her small, private menagerie, slaughterhouses, copying paintings at the Louvre, and even dissection for the purpose of gaining anatomical knowledge. Her preference was direct observation, allowing her a close, personal view of her subjects and the ability to draw them in a variety of positions as they naturally moved.
In 1855, at the age of 33, she completed what is considered to be her masterpiece, The Horse Fair, a monumental painting now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The piece was an enormous success, putting her name on the map and garnering her a meeting with the Queen of England. Though her art was traditional in nature, her life (by Victorian standards) was far from it. Bonheur was a lesbian with a long term partner, Nathalie Micas, and she wore men’s clothing for which she required, and was given, formal permission from the local police. She is famously noted as saying: “As far as males go, I only like the bulls I paint.”
Bonheur became one of the most successful female artists in the 19th century thanks to her masterful depictions of the natural world and all its creatures. In 1865, she was the first female artist to be awarded the French Legion of Honor, one of many accolades she achieved in her life including prizes at the Paris Salon, a gold medal at the 1848 World’s Fair, and finally, a promotion in 1894 to Officer of the Legion of Honor. Her legacy lives on in her paintings, housed in esteemed collections worldwide, and Château de Rosa Bonheur, her home and studio which is now a museum.
Auction Results Rosa Bonheur
