Included in Art of America are important maritime subjects, illustrating specific moments in New England’s history through these poignant coastal scenes. James E. Buttersworth and Fitz Henry Lane are two of the most celebrated American maritime painters of the nineteenth century. Their renditions of New Hampshire and Maine respectively accentuate the beauty of the American east coast. The paintings featured in Art of America showcase charming regions in nineteenth century New England ranging from Cape Ann to Mount Desert and everything in between.

Included in Art of America are important maritime subjects, illustrating specific moments in New England’s history through these poignant coastal scenes.

American Maritime Subjects

From Native American subjects depicted by Edmonia Lewis and Alexander Phimister Proctor to iconic forms rendered by Beaux-Arts generation artists Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Frederick William MacMonnies, the nineteenth century sculpture in Art of America highlights key people, cultures, and moments in American history.

A rare marble entitled Hiawatha’s Marriage by Edmonia Lewis is a sculptural highlight of the sale.

American Sculpture

The genre of still life painting dates back centuries and transcends continents. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, American artists turned to still lifes to capture daily life and showcase their formal artistic training. In addition to quality examples by Peto and Harnett, two of the nation’s leading still life artists, Art of America also highlights Martin Johnson Heade’s engagement with still life - a painter who is equally celebrated for his orchid and marsh compositions as he is his still lifes.

Still life paintings are a hallmark of nineteenth century art.&nbsp;

The American Still Life Tradition

Mapping the geographic locations visited by the world’s leading nineteenth century artists.

Painting the Americas

It was considered a rite of passage for American artists to study abroad, visiting the world’s leading museums to copy Old Master paintings and commission European subjects for their American patrons. Many of the celebrated artists included in Art of America are instances in which celebrated American artists such as Gifford, Haseltine, Colman and others rendered European landscapes and architectural scenes.

Many of America’s leading nineteenth century painters journeyed abroad in search of new inspiration.

Americans Abroad

Artists who traveled through Latin America and who were born there in the 19th century were driven by new currents in modern painting to document daily life and customs in the “New World.” In these paintings, complex images of the clash and hybridization of cultures, and both real and imagined examinations of indigenous life, come into view. From Victor Landaluze’s delicate scenes of Carnaval in Havana to Manuel Serrano’s buoyant El Baile, explore a few highlights of this genre below. 

Artists working in Mexico, the Caribbean and beyond avidly documented daily 19th-century life.

Costumbrista Scenes from Latin America

With artists such as Worthington Whittredge and Frederic Remington capturing idyllic frontier landscapes and Native American life out west and Taos school artists such as Eanger Irving Couse concentrating on the American Southwest, the breadth of subject matter hailing from the American West is wide-ranging and awe-inspiring. The tradition of cowboys and untamed subjects also pervades the Mexican tradition, as evident in Ernesto Icaza’s practice among others.

Across the United States and the broader Americas, western themes prevail in paintings, drawings and sculpture to capture the uncharted and mysterious spirit of the west.

America and the West

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SVP | Head of Sotheby’s Collectors Group, Senior International Specialist 

Peter Kloman

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Katie Maher

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Natalie Alford

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From Hudson River School paintings to dynamic depictions of the western frontier, Art of America showcases portraiture, landscapes, and sculpture executed by the nation’s leading artists. Highlights from this season’s Art of America sale include early American portraiture by Charles Willson Peale, a Native American subject rendered in marble by female-sculptor Edmonia Lewis, and exceptional examples of nineteenth and early twentieth century landscapes depicting a variety of wide-ranging regions across the Americas by artists from Ferdinand Bellermann to Jose Maria Velasco, signaling the cultural and geographic diversity of nineteenth century American art.