PHILADELPHIA, PA.- As part of American Art Week, Freeman’s presents American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Collection of Virginia and Stuart Peltz at 2pm on December 5.

Led by the esteemed Collection of Virginia and Stuart Peltz, the sale will feature fresh-to-market works by marquee names, including Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, Arthur B. Carles, 19th-century landscapists Albert Bierstadt and George Inness, Illustration Art masters Stevan Dohanos and Jessie Willcox Smith, and revered Pennsylvania Impressionists from Daniel Garber to Fern Coppedge, among many others.

THE COLLECTION OF VIRGINIA AND STUART PELTZ

The Peltz Collection is an esteemed collection of paintings by leading Pennsylvania Impressionists bought by the collectors well in advance of the market’s rise. Sixteen of these works—never before sold at auction—will be on offer December 5, among them Daniel Garber’s expansive landscape Up the River, Winter (Lot 55; estimate: $150,000-250,000) and River Road at Centre Bridge, a monumental canvas by Kenneth Nunamaker (Lot 63; estimate: $60,000-100,000). A rare example of Morgan Colt’s work, The Butcher Wagon, will also be on offer (Lot 52; estimate: $40,000-60,000), as will Mother and Daughter, a touching portrait of the artist’s wife and their first daughter by John Folinsbee (Lot 62; estimate: $10,000-15,000).




Over the past three years, Freeman’s has sold in excess of $20M solely in the sale of single-owner collections; the sale of the Peltz Collection is part of this track record of excellence. Says Freeman’s Chairman Alasdair Nichol, “We are proud and honored to have been asked to present Virginia and Stuart’s collection at auction. Their name has long been associated with the history of Pennsylvania Impressionism and is deeply respected in the Bucks County community. There is strong interest in the Peltz Collection among our bidders—no surprise, given its incredible quality and freshness.”

LEADING NAMES IN AMERICAN ART

The sale highlight is Daniel Garber’s Sycamores, offered at an estimate of $300,000-500,000 (Lot 94). The canvas depicting a grove of trees along the Delaware River was executed in 1923 and is one of the largest Garber ever made; it is offered at Freeman’s in its original exhibition frame. Sycamores boasts an extensive exhibition history—and was in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery before it was deaccessioned—and is one of Garber’s signature paintings, highlighting the artist’s bold use of color and painterly precision.

Other highlights from Freeman’s December 5 auction include works from the venerated Wyeth family, from Jamie Wyeth’s Saltwater Ice (Lot 43; estimate: $200,000-300,000) to Andrew Wyeth’s The Johnson Place (Lot 49; estimate: $40,000-60,000), which had been on long-term loan at the Brandywine River Museum of Art. The sale will feature fine sculpture, including William Zorach’s Spirit of the Dance (Lot 36; estimate: $100,000-150,000), two important bronzes by Donald de Lue (Lots 46 and 47), and Elizabeth Catlett’s The Family (Lot 48; estimate: $20,000-30,000). Another sale highlight is a fresh-to-market selection of four works from a private Florida collection by the celebrated children’s book author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans, gifted directly from the artist to the family. The selection is led by Madeline’s Rescue (Lot 29A; estimate: $40,000-60,000), the title illustration for Bemelmans’ sequel to the original children’s classic Madeline.

QUINTESSENTIALLY AMERICAN WORKS

Works by leading Illustration Artists feature prominently in Freeman’s December 5 sale, including Stevan Dohanos’s Tying Flies (Saturday Evening Post Cover), a charming and quintessentially American scene (Lot 34; estimate: $25,000-40,000), and a backyard portrait by Jessie Willcox Smith, The Little Gardener (Portrait of Edward Morris Davis III) (Lot 30; estimate: $20,000-30,000). The sale will feature works by Philadelphia artists as well, including six works by Philadelphia’s Arthur B. Carles, led by his oil Angèle (Lot 37; estimate: $20,000-30,000), and four oils by Martha Walter, including A Day at the Beach (Lot 27; estimate: $40,000-60,000), as well as highlights from Edward Redfield, Richard Miller, and Mary Elizabeth Price.