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Coinciding
each year with the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, Doyle New York's
annual Dogs in Art auction on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 1pm will
showcase two centuries of canine paintings and sculpture by some of the
genre's most important artists.
Hundreds of art collectors and dog fanciers
from across the nation and around the world will vie for breed portraits
that highlight a breed's characteristics, sporting paintings that
illustrate a dog's working abilities, and charming pet portraits.
Highlighting this year's sale is a masterful
painting of English setters by Americas finest setter painter, Percival
Leonard Rosseau. Certain to attract attention, and a few smiles, is an
important pair of paintings from the original 1903 series of dogs
playing poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. The public is invited to
the exhibition on view from Saturday, February 12 through Monday,
February 14. Doyle is located at 175 East 87th Street in Manhattan.
"Ever since we introduced the annual Dogs in
Art auction in 1999, people have jokingly asked me, 'Do you ever have
paintings of dogs playing poker? heh, heh'." said Alan Fausel, Doyle New
York's specialist in charge of the auction. "Well, this year we are
pleased to have two of these icons of American popular culture, and the
estimated 'ante' for this 'kitty' is $30,000-50,000. Coolidge's canine
works have fetched as much as $70,000, and I'm not 'bluffing'!"
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844-1934)
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was born in upstate New York in
1844 to abolitionist Quaker farmers who named him after statesman Henry
Clay's brother, Cassius Marcellus Clay. Known to friends and family as
"Cash", Coolidge appears to have had little formal art education, yet he
was already sketching cartoons for his local newspaper by the time he
was twenty. An accomplished cartoonist, he is credited with creating the
familiar life-size Boardwalk cutouts, which he called Comic Foregrounds,
into which one's head was placed so as to be photographed as an amusing
character.
In 1903, Coolidge contracted with the
advertising firm of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota to create
sixteen paintings of dogs in various human-like situations. Nine of
these paintings depicted dogs around a card table. The pair of paintings
in Doyle's February 15 auction, A Bold Bluff and Waterloo, are two of
the nine original works. In A Bold Bluff, a poker-faced St. Bernard with
a weak hand bluffs as the dogs lay their bets, and in Waterloo, the St.
Bernard rakes in the pot much to the consternation of his fellow pooches
(est. for the pair $30,000-50,000).
Percival Leonard Rosseau (1859-1937)
Percival Leonard Rosseau was often invited by his patrons to
hunt and paint on their estates. Most prominent among these was Percy
Rockefeller, who made Rosseau a member of his hunting club at Overhills,
on his estate in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Rockefeller erected a
studio for Rosseau on his estate and often lent his bird dogs to Rosseau
as models. Painted in 1919, On Grassy Hill, depicts two setters, Transue
Bill and Glensale Harry, belonging to the Rockefeller family. As one
points, the other is gracefully 'backstanding.' The entire work is
handled with Rosseau's typically vibrant yet elegant brushwork (est.
$50,000-70,000).
Other Notable Works
Other featured paintings in the auction include an oil depicting two
pointers by the German/American artist Edmund Henry Osthaus (1848-1928)
(est. $40,000-60,000). Osthaus is known for his keen rendering of
sporting dogs. Also included are paintings and drawings by such
prominent artists as Maud Earl, George Armfield, Gustave Muss-Arnoldt,
Lucy Dawson and Arthur Wardle, as well as prints by Diana Thorne and
Marguerite Kirmse.
The selection of fine dog bronzes features
the work of animaliers Jules Moigniez, Alfred Dubucand, and
Antoine-Louis Barye, in addition to no fewer than eight works by Pierre
Jules Mene. Most of the bronzes depict sporting dogs such as setters,
retrievers and pointers. Complementing the fine paintings and sculpture
will a variety of lots affectionately known as Dogiana. A large
collection of porcelain dogs of various breeds by makers such as Royal
Doulton, Rosenthal, and Royal Copenhagen will be offered, as well as dog
show trophies, medals, books and dog-related ephemera.
Auction
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 1pm
Exhibition
Doyle New York, 175 East 87th Street, NYC
Saturday, February 12, 10am – 5pm
Sunday, February 13, Noon – 5pm
Monday, February 14, 10am – 6pm
Catalogue
Subscriptions Department, 212-427-4141, ext. 257, subscriptions@DoyleNewYork.com
Contact
Alan Fausel, 212-427-4141, ext. 238, alan@DoyleNewYork.com
Media Contact
Louis LeB. Webre, Vice President, Marketing and Media,
212-427-4141, ext 232, louis@DoyleNewYork.com
Images and interviews are available upon request.
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