Original Paintings From Artists' Estates to Be Auctioned in Florida, 3/13

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ Only once in a blue moon does an auction come along that checks off all the boxes on an art collector's wish list a sale that contains fresh works by desirable artists not often seen in the marketplace, all with unimpeachable provenance and with very few having auction reserves. Such is the case with Myers Fine Art's connoisseur's selection to be auctioned on Sunday, March 13. Almost all of the recently discovered art will be making its first-ever public appearance in the 457-lot sale.

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Many of the original paintings and other artworks in the auction came directly from the estates of New York artists and writers, including the Sagaponack, N.Y., estate of novelist and 2008 National Book Award winner Peter Matthiessen. Among the premier paintings previously displayed in Matthiessen's Long Island residence is a signed Willard Leroy Metcalf (American, 1858-1925) oil-on-canvas titled Summer Night. The 24-by-23-inch painting is dated 1908 and depicts an old two-story house nestled among trees beneath a starlit sky. Auction estimate: $20,000-$30,000.

A stunning Maynard Dixon (Californian, 1875-1946) oil-on-canvas titled Mountain Juniper Sierra Nevada Mountain (Lot 123) depicts an encampment of covered wagons below a craggy, sun-drenched mountain with the wagon master on horseback in the foreground. A quintessential Old West scene executed in 1944 by a noted artist of the genre, the painting is expected to make $40,000-$60,000 at auction.

Lot 33 is a Frank W. Benson (American, 1862-1951) watercolor painting titled The Ponter. Artist-signed on a Milch Galleries NY label, the 19-by-25-inch impressionist artwork depicts a water scene with a man and dog navigating the rushes as a flock of ducks flies off toward the horizon. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000.

Sourced from the same estate as the Benson, Lot 198 is a coveted Winslow Homer (American 1836-1910) burnished etching titled Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake. It is artist- signed, dated 1889, and pencil-signed "66" at lower right. Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake is the only composition that Homer created expressly for a print. It is also most likely his final etching. Lifetime impressions of Fly Fishing rarely come up for sale and are seldom seen, even by advanced collectors. Estimate: $25,000-$35,000.

Approximately 30 vibrant works of art by Leon Polk Smith (Native American, 1906-1996) came to Myers through Smith's longtime life partner Bob Jamieson. The consignor has provided a signed letter of provenance and photograph of Smith in his New York studio as a bonus accompaniment to each Smith artwork in the sale.

The auction also includes desirable works by Julia Thecla and Clara Elsene Peck; 1940s photographs by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, a 1930 Jacques Majorelle portfolio Les Kasbahs De l'Atlas, and a rare Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937-) first printing of Dutch Details, an artist book published in the Netherlands in 1971. The book contains 116 black-and-white photomechanical illustration photographs on 10 foldout leaves. Only some 200 examples have survived, this being one of them. Estimate: $6,000-$8,000.

Contact: Mary Dowd, 727-823-3249, www.myersfineart.com

SOURCE Myers Fine Art