PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freeman’s June 5 American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists auction is led by Childe Hassam’s Mrs. Hassam in a Garden, offered at an estimate of $2,000,000-3,000,000, one of the largest and most significant canvas from the artist’s Parisian period.

Coming fresh to market from an important Philadelphia collection, the painting’s masterful handling of color and light shows clear Impressionist influences from the likes of Claude Monet and Gustave Caillebotte, and is expected to set a new house record for work by Hassam.

“Mrs. Hassam in a Garden is simply one of the best works featuring the artist’s wife among geraniums—Hassam’s signature flower,” says Head of Sale Raphaël Chatroux. “The subject matter, paired with its impressive scale, suggests the work was likely conceived as a major exhibition piece.”

BRINGING PENNSYLVANIA IMPRESSIONISM TO MARKET

Building on Freeman’s sterling reputation as the premier destination for Pennsylvania Impressionists, the June 5 auction features fine canvases by the movement’s leading names, led by the vibrant spring scene Road to the River by Edward Redfield (estimate: $200,000-300,000).

Fern Coppedge’s Winter Decoration appears here at auction for the first time (estimate: $100,000-150,000), a large Bucks County landscape. Collectors of Pennsylvania Impressionists will be pleased to find important works by Kenneth Nunamaker, John Folinsbee, and George Sotter, whose atmospheric painting The Artist’s Studio is offered at an estimate of $100,000-150,000.

ROCKWELL, WEBER, SMITH: AMERICAN ILLUSTRATION

The Illustration Art offerings of American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists are led by Norman Rockwell’s Character Study (estimate: $30,000-50,000), a signed oil on canvas that highlights the artist’s tremendous eye for the detail of his subject’s expressions.

The auction features two works by notable Philadelphia-based female Illustration Artists: Sarah S. Stilwell Weber’s joyful Three of Us (Saturday Evening Post Cover) (estimate: $30,000-50,000), and Jessie Willcox Smith’s Christmas Morning, an intimate portrait of a wide-eyed child (estimate: $30,000-50,000).

HISTORIC IMPORTANCE: 19TH-CENTURY CANVASES

Freeman’s is proud to offer a curated selection of fine 19th-century works in its June 5 sale, including Hermann Herzog’s Near the Outlet of the Waccasassa River, Florida (estimate: $30,000-50,000). One of the foremost painters of American landscapes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Herzog’s Florida landscapes are particularly sought-after among collectors.

Two naval scenes from James Edward Buttersworth’s British period, Starboard View of a Brig Under Sail (Possibly The Needles) and Frigate Testing Her Guns (Possibly Off Deal), each offered at an estimate of $15,000-25,000, are highlights of American Art’s 19th-century selection. Two lush still life paintings (estimate: $25,000-40,000 each) by Margaretta Angelica Peale—an influential early Philadelphia painter—kick off the sale, each having descended in the family since their creation in the 1860s.