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Taking a Closer Look: A Map of Kyoto as the Imperial Capital of Japan

May 30, 2014, 12:52 pm
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The June 3 auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books is marked by a number of unique or exceedingly rare examples of cartographic material and decorative graphics. Among a selection of maps of Japan is a masterpiece of urban cartography: an impressive 17th-century manuscript map of Kyoto as the imperial capital, mounted on a six-panel screen. 
Manuscript map of Kyoto as the imperial capital of Japan, mounted on a six-panel folding screen, 17th century. Estimate $60,000 to $90,000.
The map shows Kyoto as it looked centuries before 1600, in approximately the 10th or 11th century. 

Kyoto was established as the capital of Japan in 794 AD. From roughly that time until the 13th century, the city featured the large Heian Palace Complex at its northern end. This served as the seat of imperial power. The complex was destroyed by a fire in 1227 AD. The present map depicts the complex in extraordinary detail, going as far as to label individual trees within its confines. 


The grid layout of the city is based on the regimented Jo-Bo system of urban planning, which the Japanese had adopted from China and used for the early development of Kyoto. The number and width of each street is noted. Suzaku Avenue is shown proceeding south from the palace to Rashomon Gate. 

There is color-coded key in the lower left corner that differentiates buildings used by the imperial household, magistrates, Shinto and Buddhist clergy, military retainers, and commoners. Many buildings - most of those not owned by commoners - are individually labeled. 


Dying for a closer look, cartophiles? A large version of the full map image is available for perusal here, or stop by the preview! More information on the auction can be found in our catalogue.
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Assemblage Artist Noah Purifoy at Auction for First Time

June 5, 2014, 1:11 pm
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Swann Galleries is pleased to offer the first significant work by assemblage artist Noah Purifoy to come to auction in our upcoming sale of African-American Fine Art titled The Shape of Things to Come.

Purifoy's Untitled (Standing Figure), circa 1968-70, is a striking figurative assemblage construction that includes wood, wood veneer and leather, and stands more than 51 inches tall. 

Noah Purifoy grew up in Alabama and received his undergraduate degree from Alabama State Teachers College in 1943, followed by a graduate degree from Atlanta University in 1948. He moved to Los Angeles in 1953 to study at the Chouinard Art Institute--where he was the first African-American student to be enrolled full-time. He received a BFA in 1956, just before his 40th birthday. 

The Watts rebellion in 1965 changed Purifoy's life and art. At the time, he and fellow artist Judson Powell ran the art education program at the newly created Watts Towers Arts Center, which had grown as a sculpture garden around assemblage work by the eccentric Italian-American artist Simon Rodia. Together Powell and Purifoy organized Junk Art: 66 Signs of Neon, a seminal exhibition at the University of Southern California. They exhibited 66 art works made from found debris and junk--all detritus left in the wake of the Watts riots--alongside photographic documentation. From this period, Purifoy created an important body of work, alongside with his fellow artist John Outterbridge, which is largely credited for influencing a whole generation of Californian assemblage artists including David Hammons and Senga Nengudi. 

By 1970, Purifoy had expanded his range of assemblage material to include such diverse organic materials as leather, feathers, brass and copper. This enigmatic female figure, with leather breasts mounted on her flanks, and a dense decorative surface, reflects both the assemblage aesthetic and early Surrealist sculpture. 

Purifoy worked in public art programs run by the California Arts Council through the late 1980s, and initiated programs such as "Artists in Social Institutions," which brought art into the state prison system. He then moved to a large compound near Joshua Tree in California, where he created a 10-acre site with large-scale assemblage sculpture. Today the entire site is preserved in a cultural center and museum, run by the artist's non-profit foundation.


The sculpture at auction on June 10 was bought directly from the artist by Canadian sculptor Artis Lane, who acquired the work just before Purifoy's move to Joshua Tree in 1989. She recalled, "Noah Purifoy was closing his L.A. studio in preparation for this move. John Outterbridge and I went to see his L.A. studio before it closed. I purchased the sculpture then and it has been in my possession since that time."
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Edward Gorey Drawings and Posters Top Lots from Speigel Collection

June 10, 2014, 9:08 am
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Swann Galleries' May 8 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books featured extraordinary material from the Edward Gorey Collection of Samuel Speigel. The exhibition was among the best attended we've had and nearly every lot found a buyer. The Gorey collection brought excited new bidders to Swann--and his posters, original artwork and ephemera were the runaway hits of the day.

More material from Speigel's collection will appear in our October 2014 auction of Art, Press & Illustrated Books.


Lot 305: This pen and ink vignette was used in advertisements, Showbill illustrations and merchandise for the 1992 Philadelphia Plays and Player's Theatre production of Amphigorey, A Musicale. It brought $5,500. 
Lot 304: This pen and ink illustration of a cigarette-smoking balletic acrobat with decoratively lettered title was designed for The New York Review Quiz Book, 1986. It sold for $4,500.

Lot 267: Gorey's 1983 publicity poster for a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado at Carnegie Mellon University's Kresge Theatre--one of only 100 and signed by Gorey--sold for $3,500.
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Whereabouts No Longer Unknown: Winslow Homer's Study for Fresh Air

June 10, 2014, 12:56 pm
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On June 12, Swann Galleries will auction a pen and ink drawing by celebrated American illustrator and artist Winslow Homer--a study for his seminal, same-titled watercolorFresh Air. The painting is part of the American Art collection at the Brooklyn Museum. 

This drawing, listed in the Homer catalogue raisonne as "whereabouts unknown," was recently discovered and had descended through the family of the artist James D. Smillie. It is an en plein air representation of a fancifully dressed shepherdess at Houghton Farm, the upstate New York property of one of Homer's patrons.

In researching the piece, we found that it was drawn by Homer to be illustrated in the catalogue of the American Water Color Society Twelfth Annual Exhibition (held in New York in February 1879), which included thumbnail images referencing--not reproducing--watercolors in the exhibition. James D. Smillie was a member of the three-man "Catalogue Committee" for the exhibition.

More details on this fascinating discovery can be found in a recent article in The Art Newspaper--see below.
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Naturalist Charles Burchfield

June 11, 2014, 1:06 pm
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If you've got summer on your mind these days--and who doesn't?--you may be drawn to some of the bucolic images in Swann's June 12 auction of American Art. And, among those lovely examples is Charles Burchfield's watercolor and pencil depiction of Lacy Trees and Sunlit Clouds. Even that title makes you yearn for lady warm-weather days, no?

Burchfield (1893-1967) was born and raised in rural Ohio. As a shy boy he took refuge in nature and absorbed works by the popular Transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and John Burroughs. Burchfield's early interest in nature never waned, and he remained first and foremost a landscape artist throughout his career. He studied at the Cleveland School of Art in 1912 and, after graduating, took a job designing wallpaper. In 1928, Burchfield abandoned the wallpaper business to pursue fine art full time. The Montross Gallery was already exhibiting his work, but in 1929 Frank Rehn began representing the artist, a pivotal moment in his career, as Rehn made life as an artist a viable possibility for Burchfield--who was by then a father of five. Burchfield had already been exhibiting extensively since 1916, and in 1930, had the honor of the Museum of Modern Art's first one-man exhibition featuring his early watercolors. 

Burchfield's oeuvre is typically divided into three periods: the first until 1929; the middle until 1950; and the final period lasting until the year or so before his death. Each period is still closely related, as he never strayed from portraying nature and utilizing watercolor. Burchfield's early period, from which Lacy Trees and Sunlit Clouds and another lot, Morning Glories, date, was extraordinarily prolific. He produced half of his entire oeuvre between 1915 and 1917 (Burchfield considered 1917 to be his "golden year"). He painted many of these early works from the direct vantage point of his home and experimented liberally with color.
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Barkley L. Hendricks in Conversation with Nigel Freeman at Swann

June 13, 2014, 9:21 am
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Last week Swann Galleries had the pleasure of hosting an artist talk with Barkley L. Hendricks, whose "unique work resides at the nexus of American realism and post-modernism, a space somewhere between portraitists Chuck Close and Alex Katz and pioneering black conceptualists David Hammons and Adrian Piper.*" In the interview with Nigel Freeman, Hendricks discussed the role of education in his artistic development, painting technique and inspirations, and took questions from the audience.

In Swann's June 10 auction The Shape of Things to Come: African-American Fine Art, Hendricks's Sergio, which served as the backdrop for their talk, brought $106,250. Stay tuned for a video of the revealing and entertaining conversation.


*From the Nasher Museum of Art's page on their 2008 Hendricks retrospective Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool.

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Celebrating Bloomsday

June 16, 2014, 1:31 pm
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To celebrate the life and literary oeuvre of James Joyce on the international holiday that is Bloomsday, we are looking back on some of the many editions of James Joyce's Ulysses that have been printed over the years. 
Ulysses got the artist's treatment in 1935 when The Limited Editions Club published a beautiful collectors edition, stamped in gold with a bas-relief design by Leroy Appleton and illustrated with 20 lithographed and etched plates after drawings by Henri Matisse. The above volume is number 1015 of 1500 copies signed by Matisse.

"Giant Joyce" copies of Ulysses come from a group of 150 printed on larger paper than the rest of the first edition of 1000, printed in Paris in 1922 by Shakespeare and Company. The above copy was rebound with the original Greek blue wrappers bound at the end. 

A notorious serialization of Ulysses appeared in Two Worlds Monthly, a magazine published by Samuel Roth, who printed parts of Joyce's text without permission. Read more about the controversy here. The present copy will be offered in Swann's June 19 sale.
Also in our June 19 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature is an unrestored copy of the second impression of the First Edition, printed in London in 1922 from the same plates as the true first. Because at least 500 copies were intercepted by U.S. Customs, this issue has become less common than the First Edition. 

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Artist Talk: A Conversation with Barkley L. Hendricks & Nigel Freeman

June 19, 2014, 8:10 am
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As promised in an aforementioned blog post, a video featuring renowned artist Barkley L. Hendricks in conversation with Swann Galleries Director of African-American Fine Art, Nigel Freeman, is now available for viewing on our website.


From Hendricks' various experiences with his favorite subjects to stories about student life at Yale, this animated artist talk delves into the career and life of a celebrated pioneer of black portraiture and conceptualism. Here is just a snippet from Hendricks' description of his painting technique: "The quality of oil. The consistency of acrylic, comes together and gives me the kind of quality that I like." 

The video is also available on Vimeo.
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Vintage Tennis Posters in Swann's August 6 Auction

June 20, 2014, 11:48 am
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This year's summer auction of Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries includes an outstanding group of tennis images from a private Australian collection. The auction features images by well-known designers including Roger Broders, Paul Colin, Hans Rudi Erdt, Ludwig Hohlwein and Louis C. Kalff, as well as remarkable ads for famous tournaments by unknown artists. With more than 70 images related to tennis in the sale, it is the largest single offering of tennis posters ever to come to auction.
Paul Colin, Vichy / Mai - Octobre, 1948. Estimate $500 to $750.
More highlights and further information on the August 6 auction are available on our website. 
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Top Lots: Melville's Whale, Signed Flannery O'Connor Firsts, Rex Stout Titles

June 23, 2014, 1:28 pm
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A first American edition of Moby-Dick (left) brought $40,000, while a fourth edition (right) sold for $7,168.
Topping our June 19 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature was a first American edition of Moby-Dick, which brought $40,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $18,000 to $25,000, while a scarce fourth edition copy also exceeded expectations, bringing $7,168 in its first time at auction.

Every one of the 20 Rex Stout titles in the sale found a buyer, and several record prices were set, including Where There’s a Will ($9,375), Too Many Cooks ($7,500) and Over My Dead Body ($6,500).

Signed and inscribed first editions by Flannery O'Connor, which seldom appear at auction, also set records. These were all signed and inscribed to her former professor and family friend, George Haslam, and included her novel Wise Blood, 1952 ($8,750) and her best known collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, 1955 ($9,375).


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Daile Kaplan & W.M. Hunt Go to Arles

June 27, 2014, 11:13 am
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Daile Kaplan, director of Swann's Photographs Department, and Bill Hunt, photo collector, author and Swann friend, are exhibiting collections at the Rencontres d’Arles photography show in France.

For decades Daile has been collecting what she calls Pop Photographica: three-dimensional objects adorned with photographic images. 550 objects from her collection will be on view at the Bureau Des Lices, and Daile will host the exhibition's opening and a guided tour, as well as taking part in a round table discussion and symposium.

The W.M. Hunt Collection, titled Foule, contains photographs of groups--with eye-grabbing images of clubs, teams, graduations, parades, rallies, clans, fraternities, assemblies, ceremonies, choruses, mobs and more. It is at the Palais de L'Archeveche.

Both exhibitions are up from July 7 to September 21. For more information, visit http://www.rencontres-arles.com.

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Top Lots: William T. Williams, Barkley L. Hendricks and Walter Williams

June 12, 2014, 10:28 am
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Lot 61: William T. Williams, Truckin, acrylic on canvas, 1969. 
Sold June 10, 2014 for $137,000.

An auction focused on the politically charged and artistically fertile period of the 1960s and 70s, Swann Galleries' African American Fine Art auction titled The Shape of Things to Come achieved strong results for works of art by artists who defined the era. 

Several new auction records were set in this sale, including one for William T. Williams'Truckin. The excellent example of the artist's celebrated abstract work of the era exceeded all prior auction results for the artist (also set at Swann), when it brought $137,000. 

Lot 80: Barkley L. Hendricks, Sergio, sold June 10, 2014 for $106,250.

Also breaking six figures was Barkley L. Hendricks’s colorful and hip portrait of Sergio, oil and acrylic on canvas, 1972, at $106,250. Days before the sale, we were lucky enough to have the artist himself join us for a talk about his career with Swann Galleries' Director of African-American Fine Art, Nigel Freeman.

Lot 27: Walter Williams, Southern Landscape, sold June 10 for $93,750.

Walter Williams, known for his Southern landscapes filled with children, flowers, moths, blackbirds and butterflies, hit a new auction record of $93,750 for an oil and collage on board considered his most important painting.
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Top Lots: Winslow Homer, Preston Dickinson and James D. Smillie

June 14, 2014, 9:43 am
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Lot 15: Winslow Homer's Study: Fresh Air, set a new record for a pen and ink drawing by the artist on June 12 at $106,250.


The first of its kind at Swann to break $1 Million, the American Art auction on Thursday was Swann's highest-grossing sale in this category ever, with a sale total of $1,020,970.  

There was spirited bidding across the board, for works from 19th-century artists to mid-century modernists. Particularly notable were Winslow Homer’s Study: Fresh Air, a recent discovery which—having previously been listed in the Homer catalogue raisonné as “whereabouts unknown”—had descended through the family of the artist James D. Smillie. It was a study for Homer’s seminal, same-titled watercolor Fresh Air, which is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

Lot 76: Preston Dickinson's The Peters Mills brought a record price of $60,000 on June 12. 

Other note-worthy records were set for Preston Dickinson's The Peters Mills, a 1924 brush, ink, wash and color pastel with pencil that sold for $60,000 and James D. Smillie's Sunset Over a Lake, which brought in $11,875. 

Lot 11: James D. Smillie's Sunset Over a Lake set a record in the June 12 auction when it sold for $11,875.




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Rencontres d'Arles Director Interviews Daile Kaplan

July 2, 2014, 12:27 pm
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As Swann Director of Photographs & Photobooks Daile Kaplan jets off to Arles, France for Les Rencontres d'Arles 2014, those of us left stateside stifle our jealousy and devour all of the great additional content the annual festival has posted on their website.

The Médiathèque (Media Library) is particularly rich in content, and features Skype interviews of curators and artists with exhibitions being presented at Arles this summer. In one, festival Director François Hébel asks Daile about the origins of her passion for Pop Photographica. Regarding the unique allure of this category of photography, Daile comments, "the everyday life material seemed to be outside the parameters of what collectors and curators were looking at... 20 years ago when the world was different." 


Daile Kaplan Collection : Pop Photographica (version française) from Les Rencontres d'Arles on Vimeo.

Other charmingly candid video interviews with collectors who curated shows at Arles this year include W.M. Hunt, Martin Parr and Arthur Walther.
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News From Arles: Daile Kaplan on Instagram @popdaile #daileytravels

July 8, 2014, 12:27 pm
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As previously mentioned, Swann's Photographs & Photobooks Director Daile Kaplan is currently in Arles where her collection of Pop Photographica is among the highlights of the annual Rencontres d’Arles photography show. If you're not following Daile on Instagram, you're missing out on her images of this eclectic fair and her magnificent collection.


The catalogue for Daile's exhibition--and that unmistakable curly hair behind it.

You can find Daile on Instagram: @popdaile or using the hashtag #daileytravels
Also featured at the Arles Photo Festival is W.M. Hunt's collection of images depicting crowds. It's a visual treat, and the New York Times photography blog has a terrific slide show of images and a Q&A with Hunt at: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/crowding-the-frame/


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Keep Calm and Poster On

July 11, 2014, 9:41 am
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The image is so iconic, it's been co-opted countless times, but in Swann Galleries' upcoming Vintage Posters auction we have the original: A 1939 Keep Calm and Carry On poster.

When Britain formally declared war on Germany, the newly re-formed British Ministry of Information began working on a giant publicity campaign to prepare and reassure the British populace. Three slogans were chosen for broadsides with white text against boldly colored backgrounds. Instead of a photograph or illustration, each poster bore a depiction of the crown of King George VI at the top. 

The first two posters, Freedom Is in Peril / Defend It With All Your Might and Your Courage Your Cheerfulness Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory, were distributed and posted around Britain during the end of September and October of 1939. The third, and now most famous, was held back in case of the invasion of Britain or another catastrophic event.

The public did not respond well to the first two posters. Papering the country with posters encouraging people to defend freedom and project optimism when nothing was happening turned out to be something of a public relations disaster. 

Since the expected German invasion never materialized, and because the earlier posters had been met with such derision, Keep Calm and Carry On was never posted and was kept in storage for years. After the war the remainders were scrapped for their pulp. 

Contemporary reports estimate that almost 2.5 million copies of the poster were printed. An HMSO (His Majesty's Stationary Office) printing slip order form for the job breaks down that number, showing that the poster was printed in 12 different sizes, and that in this 30x20 inch format, only 496,500 were printed. This is only the second copy in this size to come up for public sale. 

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"The Great War" in Posters

July 18, 2014, 1:48 pm
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Summer 2014 marks the centennial of the beginning World War I, known at the time as The Great War, the events of which began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914 and escalated through the first declaration of war on Serbia by Austria-Hungary a month later on July 28. Having courted allies in the days leading up to the declaration, other nations soon followed Austria-Hungary and Serbia into war: Germany, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom were all involved by August 4. 
A fascinating predecessor to the modern and pervasive infographic, this Public Warning from 1915 was issued to help the British public "familiarise themselves with the appearance of British and German Airships and Aeroplanes, so that they may not be alarmed by British aircraft, and may take shelter if German aircraft appear." The first Zeppelin raid on Great Britian took place in January of 1915. 
Savile Lumley, Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?, London, 1915. 
A.G.R., Canadiens Francais / Venez Avec Nous Dans le 150IÈME Bataillon C.M.R. A poster produced in Montreal in 1915, geared toward French-Canadian recruitment.  

A French wartime poster promoting an art fundraiser to help Belgium.
Australian recruitment: Harry J. Weston, "Were You There Then?,"circa 1916. 
American Recruitment and Invigoration

The United States declared neutrality in early August of that 1914, and would not declare war on Germany until April of 1917. America remained removed, both psychologically and physically, from the widening horror of the war in Europe through 1917. Before the United States officially entered the war, private groups of concerned citizens and businessmen took it upon themselves to begin preparing America for the upcoming conflict. The foundation of the Mayor's Committee on National Defense in 1915 helped motivate the establishment of similar organizations across the country. Their work was a combination of raising awareness and retooling American industry to handle the needs of war. 
Michael P. Whelan, Men Wanted for the Army, circa 1910. 
The scale of the First World War and the development of new technologies meant that the very nature and representation of war and military service changed as well. Recruitment posters changed from depicting a bucolic pastime, as pictured in Michael P. Whelan's Men Wanted for the Army to patriotic messages geared largely toward an individual's pride. 

Perhaps the most recognizable war poster of all time:
James Montgomery Flagg's I Want You for U.S. Army, 1917. 

Howard Chandler Christy, If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines, 1915.

James Montgomery Flagg created a large number of posters during this period. After the States declared war, there was an effort to motivate Americans to pitch in for the war effort. This 1917 poster shows a potent allegory of a country unaware of danger. Columbia is rendered peacefully sleeping on her front porch while behind her, the flames and smoke of war can be seen in the distance.
Swann Galleries' August 6 auction of Vintage Posters includes a large selection of WWI images, including those shown here. View the full catalogue.
 
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Buffalo Bill Cody: Scout & Showman

July 22, 2014, 9:53 am
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Lot 267: P. Frenzeny's portrait of the Wild West hero dates from 1888
Swann's August 6 auction of Vintage Posters features a trio of posters promoting Buffalo Bill, which date from 1888 to 1908. Paul Frenzeny’s The Scout, depicts a young W.F. Cody on horseback with a smoking rifle and brown hair. It was one of the images that helped to create the legend of Buffalo Bill.
Lot 268: A 1908 depiction of the legendary performer by an unknown artist.

A gray-haired Cody appears in Col. W.F. Cody / "Buffalo Bill," a 1908 poster by an unknown artist. This classic image shows the consummate showman late in his career, but still sitting tall in his saddle and doffing his Stetson with one hand to welcome the viewer.
Lot 266: A poster celebrating Cody's accomplishments promoted his 1905 visit to France.

A rare French poster from 1905, comprised of scenes from Cody's life surrounding a bust portrait, is also a highlight of the sale. Buffalo Bill toured France twice during his lengthy career; the first time in 1889, and the second and final time in 1905.

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The Richard A Long Collection of African-American Art Comes to Swann

July 25, 2014, 9:47 am
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Beauford Delaney's pastel Portrait of Richard A. Long is among the highlights of Long's collection.
On October 9, as part of our Fall African-American Fine Art auction, Swann will offer the collection of Richard A. Long. Among these 60 works are pieces by early pioneers of African-American art, such as Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hale Woodruff; modern masters like William Artis and Alma Thomas; and contemporary artists including Amalia Amaki and Radcliffe Bailey. 
Also by Delaney is this untitled oil on canvas, an exquisite example of the artist's signature abstraction in yellow.
Long is best known for his association with artists Beauford Delaney and Romare Bearden, and gifted his own portrait by Delaney in oil to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The collection features another striking portrait of Long by Delaney, this one in color pastels, as well as four paintings by the artist. And, there are 19 works by Bearden, including two collages.
Among the 19 works by Romare Bearden in the October 9 auction is this untitled collage depicting the Trojan Horse. 
Richard A. Long, who died January 3, 2013 at the age of 85, was a preeminent American cultural historian, author, educator and art collector. A Philadelphia native, Long founded the department of African-American studies at Atlanta University in 1968, and was appointed as the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University in 1987. Long also established an intellectual and artistic community at Emory and in his home where he frequently entertained such luminaries as James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. 

An excellent example by Alma Thomas is this watercolor, Space.


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Summers on the Vineyard

August 4, 2014, 11:04 am
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Lois Mailou Jones's oil on canvas, Monday at Menemsha, 1943, brought $25,000 in our June 10, 2014 auction 
Martha’s Vineyard, an affluent summer colony located on an island south of Cape Cod, has long attracted African Americans. The town of Oak Bluffs has been a favored vacation destination since its harbor drew freed slaves and laborers in the 18th century. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks bought or rented summer homes there, with their descendants returning annually.
Jones's Vineyard Haven Harbor, watercolor, 1924, offers a charming view of the harbor. This watercolor, one of the earliest known examples of the artist's painting on Martha's Vineyard, will be in our October 9 auction.

Artwork depicting scenes from Martha’s Vineyard has made many appearances in our African-American Fine Art auctions. The artist Löis Mailou Jones took a particular interest in the island, and it is the subject of many of her works. Jones's grandmother worked as a housekeeper and nanny on the Vineyard, and saved up to purchase land in Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, where Jones began spending her summers in 1906. Her parents also purchased a summer home there in 1909, and the artist spent every summer on the picturesque waterfront. 
Our October 9 sale also features Allan Freelon's 1925 Untitled oil on canvas landscape, which is most likely a view of the Bass Rocks where the artist summered in Gloucester, Mass.

Artwork by Jones depicting scenes of the Vineyard has become her most sought after. In our last auction, The Shape of Things to Come, two of the four works by Jones depicted Menemsha, a small fishing village located in the town of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard. Both works went on to sell for more than their pre-sale estimates, and one brought $25,000.
Harlem Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas's etching of a Martha's Vineyard landscape will make its auction debut in our October 9 sale of African-American Fine Art

In our upcoming October 9th sale of African-American Fine Art, there are three works depicting Martha’s Vineyard: an oil painting by Jones of Menemsha, and two works depicting Vineyard Haven, one a watercolor by Jones and the other an extremely rare etching and aquatint by Aaron Douglas. Vineyard Haven, also a popular subject for African-American artists who vacationed at the Vineyard, is a community within the town of Tisbury and the main point of entry to Martha’s Vineyard. 
Another Lois Mailou Jones oil on canvas, Boats, Menemsha, circa 1940s, will be among the highlights of our October 9 auction.

The October sale also features a beautiful 1925 oil painting by Philadelphia artist Allan Freelon of Gloucester, a fishing town north of Cape Cod, which is another popular artists’ colony. 

Many thanks to Alaina McEachin of Swann's African-American Fine Art department for this post.

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