The Plum Tree, a beautiful oil on canvas by American Impressionist, Theodore Robinson, is one of the top lots in the American Art sale at Bonhams New York on 20 May. It is estimated at $700,000-900,000. The Plum Tree was painted circa 1890-1896 during the peak of the artist’s too-short career. In this painting, a simple composition that depicts a young woman picking plums in a verdant garden, Robinson’s short, broken brushwork lends movement and radiance and intensifies the beauty of the outdoors. The Plum Tree demonstrates the essence of American Impressionism with its colorful palette, joyful rendering and earthly beauty.
Another notable oil on offer is Gordon Fairchild (est. $300,000 – 500,000) by John Singer Sargent, a prolific American artist. This work, which never been offered on sale was painted by Sargent in Newport, Rhode Island in 1887, and depicts the youngest child of Sargent’s close friends, the Fairchilds.
Another marvelous oil on offer that passed from the artist to his descendants is a work by one of America’s greatest illustrators, Newell Convers Wyeth. …Emerging into an opening that appeared to have been formed partly by the ravages of the wind, and partly by those of fire (est. $400,000 – 600,000), painted in 1925.
Other notable works in the auction include a magnificent work by prominent Canadian artists, Tom Thomson, a complex and dense composition called View of Algonquin Park (est. $150,000 – 250,000) painted circa 1915; and a rare oil work by Dennis Bunker, whose works rarely appear at auction, Portrait of Doctor Royal Whitman (est. $40,000 – 60,000).