Two American art auctions in New York City have continuously brought bidders to modern and impressionist works, Ashcan paintings, American illustration, and early American sculpture. But Sotheby’s and Christie’s fall American art sales, held every November, have also been bringing bidders Western artwork with consistently high results. That trend continued in November when both sales returned with notable works made in or inspired by the West.
On November 13, Sotheby’s American art sale racked up $19.4 million in sales, with top Western lots that included Marsden Hartley’s New Mexico Recollections (est. $700/1,000,000) that sold for $615,000, Ernest L. Blumenschein’s Eagle Nest Lake (est. $300/500,000) that sold for $471,000, Alfred Jacob Miller’s Hunting Elk by Moonlight (est. $150/250,000) that sold for $200,000, and Thomas Moran’s A Sand Storm, Acoma, New Mexico…