05 Mar Auction Block: By the Dawn’s Early Light

Happy birthday, America! You don’t look a day older than 250.

At the dawn of the nation’s birthday year, shows and sales put on their best red, white, and blue and trotted out some of the finest work to come to market in recent years. International auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s marked record amounts for a work by Frederic Remington and a bottle of single barrel “Sam’s” whiskey, respectively.

Christie’s fortnight-long Americana Week was a heady brew of works by well-known Western artists, founding documents and correspondence by early and admired leaders, and American painters at the opening of a movement in landscape art that brought to the fore the Luminists.

Landscapes by Albert Bierstadt rose to become top-selling lots at one of several Sotheby’s sales under the rubric, Visions of America. As it was said of the painter known as El Greco, Greece gave him birth but Spain his brushes, it might be said of Bierstadt that Germany gave him birth but America his brushes. Like El Greco, Bierstadt’s all but mystical painterly revelations about actual American places cause some observers to overlook the keenness of his composition and his mastery of tone.

Morphy’s Old West and Native American Art Auction was pure gold, in a manner of speaking. The auction house fueled excitement with offerings that included rare gold ingots and a chain fashioned of gold nuggets. Buyers at the Las Vegas location were spurred on by the sales of one-of-a-kind cowboy gear and diorama art.

Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale brought contemporary Western artists into an arena that ties nicely with the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Selecting Logan Maxell Hagege as featured painter is proof of the event’s gravitas in the world of Western art and accolades for Jill Soukup’s energetic painting, Blue Impulse serve as confirmation.

Sotheby’s Visions of America

January 23-27
Total: $17 million

Sotheby’s was just minding its own extensive and prestigious art business in early 2026 when a bidder stirred murmurs into shouts amid the sale of a bottle of American whiskey for $162,500.

The auction house raised more than one eyebrow amid the series of January sales in New York in which all items were about America, an apt subject as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.

Martin Johnson Heade, Sun Gems | Oil on Canvas | 12.125 by 10.125 inches | Sold: $698,500

Getting back to the bottle, the American whiskey that brought a historically high price at auction, according to Sotheby’s, was Rip Van Winkle 20-year-old single barrel “Sam’s.”

That was just one of the intoxicating offerings at auctions that included American furniture and a handwritten letter from George Washington to Benjamin Franklin introducing the Marquis de Lafayette, which achieved $1 million.

Total sales for Art of the Americas on January 24 exceeded $4.9 million. Sun Gems by Martin Johnson Heade led the auction at $698,500. The small-sized oil depicting Brazilian hummingbirds went for more than three times its high estimate of $180,000.

Albert Bierstadt, Mount Baker | Oil on Canvas | 30.25 x 44 inches | Sold: $508,000

A picture by Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as the ruralist painter Grandma Moses, took the number two slot at $660,400 against estimates of $300,000-$500,000. An unnamed but prestigious American museum walked away with Over the River to Grandma’s House.

A striking portrait of a striking American figure on a horse — George Washington at Princeton — went for $609,600. The piece by Charles Peale Poke had been projected to bring $400,000-$600,000.

Fodder by Winslow Homer realized $533,400 to become the fourth highest-selling painting among enviable pieces.

Collection of Native American Beadwork | Pipe Bag, Two Knife Sheathes and Knives, Two Strike-A-Light, Paint Pouch, Four Beaded Pouches, and Umbilical Cord Fetish | 41.5 x 33.5 inches | Sold: $28,290

It is painterly justice to know that Homer, whose work was so disparaged by author and ardent Anglophile Henry James, has been redeemed by history. James’ snootiness about Homer’s style — “barbarously simple” — failed the test of time, which is thankfully more forgiving and less convinced of its superiority than James. The piece was expected to fetch $400,000-$600,000.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, was the high bidder for Joshua Johnson’s Lady on a Red Sofa. The painting sailed over estimates topped at $120,000 to garner $508,800 and land the number five slot. Johnson is best known as the first documented professional African-American painter in the nation’s history, according to Sotheby’s catalog notes.

The American West sale, also on January 24, saw a work by Albert Bierstadt climb to $825,500 to become the best-selling picture.

One of the most celebrated landscape artists of the burgeoning U.S. West, the German-born Bierstadt brought that distinctly European artistic sensibility of the early-to-mid 19th century to the vistas of the Rocky Mountain West. That romantic realism is in relief in An Indian Encampment, which had been expected to bring $800,000-$1.2 million.

Paintings by Bierstadt vied with each other for the number one and two slots, with Mount Baker ultimately conceding at $508,000 compared to estimates of $400,000-$600,000.

Fort Laramie, Indian Girls Racing by Alfred Jacob Miller went for $355,800, a small oil packed with the action of riders on horseback. The painting by Miller, an artist known for his exceptional drawing skills, is one of several depicting the U.S. Army outpost in the Wyoming of today that, during the period of exploration and expansion, found many a mix of Native Americans in and outside the fortified compound.

N.C. Wyeth’s slinging saloon scene, Waite Seized Him and Swung Him on High … achieved $279,400 against estimates of $120,000-$180,000 and Thomas Moran’s Grand Canyon of Arizona from ‘Berrys’ went for $139,700 to round out the top five.

The American West segment brought more than $3.5 million in sales.

Morphy Auctions Old West & Native American Art Auction

January 23
Total: $1.5 million+

Does gold go out of style? Not if you were a buyer in late January in Las Vegas, where Morphy’s sale marked three of the leading four lots with items crafted of gold that tested for a minimum of 20 karats.

The bestseller was a weighty gold chain fashioned from solid gold nuggets. Skillfully worked and weighing in at 474 grams, the jewelry was predicted to go for as low as $50,000 and top out at $80,000. Surprise (the good kind): The chain realized $92,250.

Felix Grundy Hoard California Gold Bar | Gold | 2 x 1 inches | Sold: $67,650

Gold crossed the bar to gain the number two slot, with a 2-inch-by-1-inch ingot from the so-called Felix Grundy Hoard — speaking to an assayer from Fiddletown in Amador County, California, an area in the heart of gold fields outside Sacramento. The bar sported Hoard’s stamp in a large circle with the legend, “No. 2206/7.75 OZS.’999 THOUS/FINE.”

The bar, one of a very small group of gold ingots discovered in the late 1960s, went for $67,650.

A 1902 framed poster for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress and Rough Riders of the World climbed to the number three position, selling for $49,200. That compares to pre-sale expectations of $6,000-$8,000. The stellar price is yet another sign of the exclusiveness of a poster cut to resemble a Native American tanned hide, according to Morphy’s. The illustration shows a mounted warrior with a rifle and vignettes of a buffalo, tipi, snowshoes, and tomahawk.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress and Rough Riders of the World | Framed Poster | 31.25 x 45.25 inches | Sold: $49,200

Gold would not be outsold for fourth place in the top five. A late 19th century gold bar from Star Mining Company of California brought $44,280. Said to be a comparative rarity, the ingot was stamped with the serial number 521, graded 995 fine and weighed 5.43 ounces.

Additional items of interest at the sale included a diorama, Country Store by Andy Anderson, which sold for $27,060. And a custom prison-made pair of spurs for Fred Harman, creator of the popular Red Ryder comic strip, fetched $23,370.

Christie’s Americana Week

January 13-27
Total: $149 million+

Americana Week is a euphemism.

In an enthusiastic hats-off to the United States as it marks its birthday, Christie’s launched two weeks of sales in New York that featured four separate auction series. On offer was everything from seminal documents tied to the nation’s beginnings to the storied scenes, figures, and animals depicted by legendary American painters.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Home of Jeanne D’Arc | Oil on Panel | 20 x 24 inches | Sold: $368,300

Without further ado, let us commemorate an artist famed for picturing the U.S. Western Frontier even as it vanished into history: Frederic Remington.

The artist from Upstate New York — equally famed for his bonhomie and his prodigious appetite for adventure, food, and drink — tore up the turf at Christie’s live auction on January 20, Visions of the West: The William I. Koch Collection Evening Sale.

Pieces by Remington took four of the five top slots among best-selling items at a sale that totaled more than $69.4 million and saw Coming to the Call (bugling moose) rise to almost $13.3 million, a record for a Remington work, according to Christie’s. The oil was estimated at $6 million-$8 million.

Eastman Johnson, Cranberry Pickers | Oil on Board | 22.5 x 26.5 inches | Sold: $635,000

Having set a new high, pictures and sculptures by Remington were left, for the most part, to compete amongst themselves.

An Argument with the Town Marshall, a nocturne which puts an old spin on a fast draw, garnered more than $11.8 million to become the second highest-selling item, followed by the widely known — and spirited — sculpture, Coming Through the Rye, at $9.9 million-plus. The shoot-out scene had been projected to go between $4 million-$6 million, the same estimate for the bronze depicting whooping and whiskied mounted cowboys.

An ethereal oil by Charlie Russell, Dust, broke up the one-man show to gain the number four slot. Given the number of contemporary Western artists who are skilled colorists, it is easy to forget that Russell — some-time cowpoke, all-time cow-poke painter — was a master of light and color; Dust is pure gold. The oil sold for $5.8 million-plus compared to pre-sale expectations of $5 million-$7 million.

Sanford Robinson Gifford, Sunset Over Palisades on the Hudson | Oil on Canvas | 18 x 34.25 inches | Sold: $2.88 million

The Trooper by Remington rounded out the top five, fetching $4.9 million-plus.

Charlie Russell had his due on January 21 at Visions of the West: The William I. Koch Day Sale, where three works by the giant of Western art were among the five best-selling pieces.

Russell’s The Whoop-Up Trail led that auction, which brought a total of more than $14.6 million. The painting, of Native Americans riding against winds and snows, realized $3.2 million-plus against expectations of $1.2 million-$1.8 million.

Robert Scott Duncanson, Canadian Landscape | Oil on Canvas | 30 x 50 inches | Sold: $355,600

A vertical painting, An Apache by Remington, sold for $1.1 million-plus (estimates at $600,000-$800,000), followed by a California coastal mountain scene by Maynard Dixon, Cattle Country, going for $990,600 compared to projections of $250,000-$350,000.

Russell’s Indian Attack and A Disputed Trail gained the fourth and fifth slots, selling for $952,500 and $889,000 respectively. The pre-sale peg for Indian was $700,000-$1 million and estimates for Trail ranged from $400,000-$600,000.

Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale

January 8
Total: $1.9 million+

The Coors Western Art show, a signal annual exhibit and sale in Denver, selected contemporary Southwestern painter Logan Maxwell Hagege as featured artist in a halcyon event that coincides with the National Western Stock Show.

Jay Moore, High in the San Juans | Acrylic on Canvas | 48 x 48 inches | Sold: $24,000

Hagege, a master of clouds and geometrics, sold Springtime in the Rockies for $85,000, a modest sum for a bold oil on panel of a rider on a rodeoing horse. Hagege has a knack for inviting the observer into a scene of contrasting elements. Springtime mixes fact and fiction in an effortless unfolding of real (horse and rider) and iconic (mountain and cloud).

Jay Moore’s High in the San Juans, an outsized oil on linen that went for $29,000, depicts a lakeside moose that seems as struck by the mountain landscape as the observer and, certainly, the eye of the artist.

Gordon Brown, Smokey Sunset | Oil on Panel | 34 x 34 inches | Sold: $85,000

Jivan Lee’s Restitution, 60-inches-by-48 inches, shows the thick brushwork frequently associated with Vincent Van Gogh and particularly as it related to his landscapes. But it is arguably unlikely that Van Gogh achieved as much enjoyment from his work as Lee demonstrates in the oil on panel, which garnered $25,000.

Smokey Sunset by Colorado artist Gordon Brown is a symphony of atmospherics in the tradition of J.M.W. Turner, the much-admired English artist of the 19th century. Like Turner, Brown paints into the observer instead of before the observer. The saturation of color, the curving horizontals and the loose vertical lines in the large-scale acrylic is masterly. The framed piece sold for $24,000.

Logan Maxwell Hagege, Springtime in the Rockies | Oil on Linen | 36 x 48 inches | Sold: $29,000

Best in show was awarded to Jill Soukup for Blue Impulse. The large portrait of a pair of double-yoked black horses is electric with energy. The animals appear poised to leap from the painting and kick off its frame. The picture evokes a period of painting in which action and emotion for the first time united to escape the yoke of artifice. Soukup’s piece fetched $21,000.

Laura Zuckerman is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in magazines such as Cowboys & Indians and Country Living.