June 13, 2016 02:00 PM
by Jessi
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Arguably, the two most recognizable paintings in the world today are Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Grant Wood’s American Gothic. Both have been reproduced and lampooned ad nauseam, and while most everyone can name the author of the Mona Lisa, not everyone can as easily recite the name of Grant Wood, even though they instantly recognize the image of the dour looking bespectacled farmer with pitchfork in hand and his spinster daughter. For a vast multitude of reasons, most would logically assume that these two painters have very little common, yet they do share one similar circumstance – very few oil paintings by either artist exist. For Da Vinci, there are perhaps a dozen oil paintings whereas there are hundreds of his drawings and for Grant Wood at best there are perhaps only two dozen easel size finished oil paintings from his mature (post American Gothic) period, and it is believed that of those only three are in private hands.
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June 9, 2016 04:43 PM
by James
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At Jackson’s International’s auction of May 24th and May 25th, 2016. The multiple estate and collections auction featured treasures from around the world and attracted over 1,000 international bidders totaling $1.5 million in sales.
The auction opened with a small offering of paintings, works on paper, and bronzes featuring a typical seashore scene by Hendrik Willem Mesdag (Dutch 1831-1915) which came from a collection in Minnesota and sold to a phone bidder from the Netherlands for $100,000. That was followed by an interesting preparatory drawing for an altar crucifix attributed to Etienne Delaune (French 1518-1595) which sold to a Parisian phone bidder for $63,750. A charming painting by Frederick Soulacroix (French 1858-1933) depicting a young woman making a curtain call, sold for $20,000 and an oil on canvas painting depicting the Holy Family by Michael Rieser (Austrian 1828-1905) sold for $14,375. A pair of religious painting attributed to Luis Berruaco (Mexican 18th century) went to a buyer in France for $9,375 and a 17th century Dutch portrait of a gentleman sold to a buyer in the Netherlands for $8,125.
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January 5, 2015 03:58 PM
by James
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The November auction at Jackson’s International totaled 3.6 million with an amazingly high sales rate of a little over 90 percent, almost double that of recent sales at many of the large auction houses, especially in the area of Russian arts and antiques for which Jackson’s has gained an international reputation and following. The sale attracted over 700 registered bidders representing over 37 countries worldwide.
The auction featured the lifelong collection of Russian icons from the estate of the late Jose Antonio Danobeitia (1942-2011) of Toronto, Canada, as well as examples from other smaller collections. There were no shortages of buyers for the fine and unusual, and when it came to Russian icons, the trend of late (circa 1880-1915), high quality examples proved once again to dramatically outpace what was once the focal point of every Russian icon collection, early pre-17th century icons.
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