California's Golden Age
July 2006
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Edgar Payne, "The Race," c. 1922, |
“All American art done at the turn of the century is popular and consistently going up in value in all the auction houses. California and American impressionist paintings have been our leading sales category for more than four years,” says Laura King Pfaff, chairman of Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco, who also collects the genre. “There are still affordable works available, though.”
The California artists applied the French Impressionists’ use of color and specialized brushwork to their canvases. “The French dissolved the form; the Americans like solid form,” Stern says.
It’s this aspect that attracted collector Joan Irvine Smith, who founded the Irvine Museum. “I wished to show our paintings not only for their merit and beauty but also to make people aware of how much of our fragile California environment has been lost and how necessary it is for us to protect what remains,” she says.
“The first impressionists whose paintings sold well were from northern California, like Thomas Hill and William Keith,” says Scot Levitt, director of fine arts at Bonhams and Butterfields in San Francisco. “Today it’s the plein-air paintings from Southern California whose market has gone from modest to quite strong.”
“The Northern California group painted with a more traditional 19th-century European influence, while Southern California painters were influenced as a group by the French impressionists. There
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Franz Bischoff, "Alpenglow, High Sierra," |
“We have a strong market as well, though not as broad as in southern California,” notes Paula Trotter, co-owner with husband, Terry, of Trotter Galleries in Carmel, which represents Northern California artists. At the 2006 LA Art Show, the Trotters sold a work by E. Charlton Fortune for six figures, which was a big jump, since the high auction price for a Fortune work was $61,625, set in December 2003.
“Getting educated is the best thing a collector can do,” says Levitt, who suggests that would-be collectors take a year to look at everything possible to attune their eyes to quality. “Become familiar with an artist’s body of work from early examples to mature pieces,” adds Jeff Moran of John Moran Auctioneers in Altadena. Seek the painting’s provenance and analyze its physical condition to determine its value.
“Don’t buy an autograph,” stresses Thom Gianetto, director/owner of Edenhurst Gallery in Los Angeles and Palm Desert, who notes that it’s better to purchase an important work by Edgar Payne than a mediocre one by Guy Rose.
“Not a single artist’s work that I know of has gone down in value,” says Whitney Ganz, director of the Karges Gallery in Los Angeles and Carmel. “There’s even been a big jump in the prices for works by secondary artists like Hanson Puthuff, Paul Lauritz and Jack Wilkinson Smith in the last two years.” Stern adds that prices seldom go down, and when they do, it’s because of quality. “Sometimes they plateau,” he says. “Right now that’s true of works by William Wendt. That makes him a good value. Large paintings by Granville Redmond of wildflowers and poppies sell in the six figures. A nocturnal painting would probably sell for less.” Payne’s Western scenes are important sellers, while his European pictures aren’t as popular.
Rose, whose “Owens River, Sierra Nevada, California” sold for $1.9 million in November 2005, is a top seller. Many artists’ works sell in the six figures, including those by Franz Bischoff, John Gamble, Anna Hills, Alfred Mitchell, Maurice Braun and Joseph Kleitsch. “For many years these works sold mainly regionally,” says Peter Kloman, specialist in American painting at Christie’s Los Angeles. “Auction sales have brought these artists to a more national audience and as a result that market has expanded and prices have continued to rise.”
Maureen Murphy, owner of Maureen Murphy Fine Arts in Montecito, agrees. “We now have a broader base in collecting. I used to know all the collectors, but now they come from all over. I’ve even shipped to Hong Kong.” Second-tier artists whom she believes are undervalued are Orrin White and George Demont Otis.
“As to undervalued artists, I feel that there aren’t many secrets now. Perhaps works by regional artists like Millard Sheets and Emil Kosa would qualify,” says Ray Redfern, owner of Redfern Gallery in Laguna Beach.
And if you do know your subject, you may get lucky. As Jean Stern notes: “Right now there is something out there that’s waiting to be discovered.”
For More Information
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, Calif. (916) 264-5423. www.crockerartmuseum.org.
De Rus Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, Calif. (949) 376-3785. www.derusfinearts.com
Edenhurst Gallery, Los Angeles, (310) 247-8151, and Palm Desert, Calif., (760) 346-7900. www.edenhurstgallery.com.
George Stern Fine Arts, West Hollywood, (310) 276-2600, and Carmel, Calif., (831) 626-1100. www.sternfinearts.com.
Irvine Museum, Irvine, Calif. (949) 476-2565. www.irvinemuseum.org. Houses the largest collection of California impressionist paintings.
James J. Rieser Fine Art, Carmel, Calif. (831) 620-0530. www.rieserfineart.com.
John Moran Auctioneers, Altadena, Calif. (626) 793-1833. www.johnmoran.com.
Kendall Fine Art, Atlanta. (404) 869-1314. kendallfineart.com.
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, Calif. (949) 494-8971. www.lagunaartmuseum.org.
Maureen Murphy Fine Arts, Montecito, Calif. (805) 969-9215. www.mmfa.com.
Masterpiece Gallery, Carmel. (831) 624-2163. www.masterpiecegallerycarmel.com.
The Redfern Gallery, Laguna Beach, Calif. (949) 497-3356. www.redferngallery.com.
Trotter Gallery, Carmel, Calif. (831) 625-3246.
Westbrook Galleries, Carmel. (866) 748-9377. www.westbrookgalleries.com.
William A. Karges Fine Art, Beverly Hills, (310) 276-8551, and Carmel, Calif., (831) 625-4266. www.kargesfineart.com.
Kathy Bryant is an Art & Antiques Los Angeles correspondent.
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