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 offer a selection of these works from the estates acquired by the gallery including those of Dora Maar, Solomon Ethe, Vaclav Vytlacil, John F. Carlson, Joseph Amar, James and Myron Lechay, Martha Walter, Mercedes Matter, Lamar Briggs, Sumiye Okoshi and Robert Emmett Owen.
Robert Emmett Owen 1878–1957
Robert Emmett Owen was a successful artist best known for his Impressionist views of rural landscapes. His color-filled paintings capture the moods and seasonal splendor of the New England countryside.
Owen began his art training at the Drury Academy in his home town of North Adams, Massachusetts. In 1897, he contributed pen and ink drawings to Life Magazine, initiating what would be a long and productive career as an illustrator. He received a scholarship to study at the Eric Pape School of Art in Boston in 1898. Owen achieved further success from his commercial work, selling drawings to the Boston Globe, National Magazine, Brown Brook Magazine, Scribners Magazine, and Harper's Monthly.
In 1901, Owen moved to New York and continued his training at the Art Students League, the Chase School, and the National Academy of Design. Among his instructors were Frederick Mulhaupt and Leonard Ochtman. In New York, Owen became aware of the art of leading American Impressionists and began to create works that reflected the influence of Willard Metcalf, J. Alden Weir, and Childe Hassam.
After nine years in New York, Owen moved to Bagnall, Connecticut in order to paint landscape subjects directly. In the period that followed, he exhibited at the Greenwich Society of Artists, the National Academy of Design, and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts.
His work was well liked by critics and the public, and he received a number of important commissions from private clients for both murals and oils. Owen returned to New York in 1920 and opened a gallery on Madison Avenue, called the Robert Emmett Owen New England Landscape Gallery. The gallery was closed at the start of World War II after a successful 21 years. Owen died in 1957.
Auction Results Robert Emmett Owen
