HOLLYWOOD ON THE POTOMACBY JANET DONOVAN
January is the month for those seeking to acquire top-notch examples of Americana at auction. Fine American furniture, folk art and a wide variety of collectibles entice collectors to come to New York to bid in the sales at both Sotheby's and Christie's. Whether it's a painted chessboard or a weathervane in the form of a cricket, these acquisitors stand their ground and bid competitively on the object of their desire.
For folk art aficionados, the most coveted painting that could be added to a collection would certainly be one of the Peaceable Kingdom paintings by Edward Hicks, who is considered by art historians to be the greatest and possibly most influential American folk artist. Born in Buckstown, Pennsylvania, Hicks was a popular Quaker minister who also came to have a successful ornamental painting business decorating coaches, signboards, furniture and decorative household objects. His first easel painting was a composition called The Peaceable Kingdom and he went on to do over 65 different variations on that particular subject during his life. Although he also painted historical compositions such as Washington crossing the Delaware and the Indians signing the Penn Treaty, the popular Peaceable Kingdom paintings became a looking glass into the schism that plagued the Quaker community and concerned Hicks who was, above all else, a religious man who embraced the idea that peace in the world was possible. The last P e a c e a b l e Kingdom painting that Hicks completed a few days before his death in 1849 will be for sale at Christie's Important Americana sale held on January 20. The impeccable provenance of the painting is unbroken as it descended directly from Hicks' daughter Elizabeth, who was also a minister, to her brother and then directly down through his direct heirs to the present Hicks descendant. According to John Hays, director of American folk art at Christie's, "Edward Hicks' imagination and inspiration is unique in the annals of folk art history. The painting is his final and most powerful sermon on the prophecy of Isaiah. In this final composition, the menagerie of animals seems content to exit the stage on which they had repeatedly acted out Hicks' interpretation of the drama he witnessed in his world. 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid...' This is the final resolution for Hicks and a summation of what he wanted to convey to people. A world where acceptance is the only path to peace. Obviously, it is very relevant message for the world today." A Peaceable Kingdom painting holds the world auction record for a painting in the Folk Art collecting field. Sold in January of 1999 by Christie's, that painting exceeded over twice its pre-sale estimate of $1.5 to $2 million when it was hammered down for $4,732,500. The conservative pre-sale estimate for this iconic painting is $3 to $4 million and it is expected to exceed the previous record for the artist...
|
||||||||||
