Auction Preview | American Art Auction

Dallas, TX
Heritage Auctions, May 7

William Robinson Leigh, Indian Rider, oil, 20 x 16.

This story was featured in the May 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Western art aficionados and auction fans will want to save Saturday, May 7, for Heritage Auctions’ American Art Auction in Dallas. The sale features approximately 150 lots that span a multitude of significant genres and, as Aviva Lehman, Heritage Auctions’ director of American art, notes, “high quality at every price from $5,000 to half a million. This sale is so strong in great western and California art,” she says. The field also includes significant works from the Ashcan School, the Taos Society of Artists, and the Hudson River School, along with illustration works and modernism. “Western works are the strongest area of the sale,” she notes, “which is perfect for Dallas.

“We have a top western work by William Robinson Leigh,” Lehman says of the highly anticipated 20-by-16-inch oil on canvas titled INDIAN RIDER, estimated to sell for between $400,000 and $600,000. “It’s quintessential Leigh and comes from a collector in Fort Worth. The work has been in the family for decades.” Also on the block is a “monumental” Birger Sandzén. The 80-by-60-inch oil entitled LAKE AT SUNSET, COLORADO was painted in 1921. “It gives you goosebumps standing in front of it,” she says. “It’s a great year, great size, great color—all hallmarks of a great Sandzén.” And it’s anticipated to go for between $300,000 and $500,000.

Birger Sandzén, Lake at Sunset, Colorado, oil, 80 x 60.

Other highlights include an 18-by-24-inch Ernest L. Blumenshein oil titled ASPEN IN THE SQUARE, estimated to sell for between $150,000 and $250,000, and an “important and rare” oil painting by Laverne Nelson Black entitled BURROS IN WINTER, TAOS estimated to go for $40,000 to $60,000.

In preparation for the sale, previews of select lots are touring the country. The first happens at Heritage’s San Francisco location April 6-10, then its New York location April 18-21. All lots are on view in Dallas May 5-7.

Interested collectors can attend the auction in person or bid online (online bidding opened April 5). There is also absentee bidding and phone bidding available. —Laura Rintala

contact information
877.437.4824
www.ha.com/5251

Featured in the May 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art May 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.