US Painting before 1940
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : USA Wild West Sargent Hopper O'Keeffe 18th century painting Development of USA Women artists Groups Horse Sport in art
Chronology : 1770-1779 1878 1880-1889 1905 1910 1920-1929 1927 1928 1929 1932 1934 1936
See also : USA Wild West Sargent Hopper O'Keeffe 18th century painting Development of USA Women artists Groups Horse Sport in art
Chronology : 1770-1779 1878 1880-1889 1905 1910 1920-1929 1927 1928 1929 1932 1934 1936
1779 George Washington at Princeton by Peale
2006 SOLD for $ 21.3M by Christie's
On June 14, 1774, the Continental Congress creates an army to carry on the War of Independence. Its commander-in-chief is George Washington, a Virginia planter who is also an officer and a veteran of the Seven Years' War.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547.
masterpiece
1871 Arrangement en Gris et Noir (la Mère de l'Artiste) by Whistler
Musée d'Orsay
James McNeill Whistler's works are relatively rare at major auctions, particularly high-quality oil paintings, for several key reasons:
Harmony in Grey and Green: Chelsea in Ice (also known as Harmony in Grey, Chelsea in Ice), 1864
Sold for $2,866,000 (Christie's New York, 2000)
This remains the longstanding record for a Whistler painting, a tonal winter landscape of the Thames.
Whistler's top prices remain modest compared to peers like Monet or Sargent (whose works routinely exceed $10M+), reflecting his niche appeal and supply constraints. Major new appearances often set personal bests due to rarity.
Was Whistler's tonal harmony influenced by black and white photography ?
No, James McNeill Whistler's development of tonal harmony was not significantly influenced by black-and-white photography. His approach to subtle tonal relationships, limited palettes, and atmospheric effects—evident in works like the Nocturnes, Symphonies, Harmonies, and Arrangements—predated widespread black-and-white photography's impact on painting and stemmed from other primary sources.Whistler's emphasis on tonal harmony emerged prominently in the 1860s and crystallized by the early 1870s. Key influences included:
- Limited production of major oils — Whistler was a meticulous, slow-working artist who produced relatively few finished oil paintings (estimates suggest only around 200–300 oils in his lifetime, many small or unfinished). He prioritized quality, tonal harmony, and experimentation over volume, and he destroyed or reworked many pieces.
- Museum and institutional holdings — A significant portion of his most important works (e.g., Nocturnes like Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, Symphony in White series, major portraits) are held in major public collections such as the Freer Gallery (Smithsonian), Tate Britain, Musée d'Orsay, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Frick Collection. These rarely, if ever, come to market due to deaccession policies or donor restrictions.
- Private collections and long-term ownership — Many surviving oils remain in private hands with multi-generational ownership, often not offered publicly for decades (e.g., recent sales like Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides in 2025 emerged after 60+ years off-market). Whistler's financial troubles led to some dispersals (e.g., 1880 bankruptcy auction), but top pieces were acquired by dedicated patrons like Charles Lang Freer or Richard Canfield and stayed private.
- Preference for prints and works on paper — Whistler was prolific in etchings, lithographs, and pastels (thousands exist), which appear more frequently at auction and achieve lower prices. Major oils are scarcer and command premiums when fresh to market.
- Market dynamics — His aesthetic (subtle, atmospheric, "art for art's sake") appeals to niche connoisseurs rather than broad buyers, and prices have not escalated as dramatically as for Impressionists or modernists, keeping supply low as owners hold for investment or affection.
Harmony in Grey and Green: Chelsea in Ice (also known as Harmony in Grey, Chelsea in Ice), 1864
Sold for $2,866,000 (Christie's New York, 2000)
This remains the longstanding record for a Whistler painting, a tonal winter landscape of the Thames.
Whistler's top prices remain modest compared to peers like Monet or Sargent (whose works routinely exceed $10M+), reflecting his niche appeal and supply constraints. Major new appearances often set personal bests due to rarity.
Was Whistler's tonal harmony influenced by black and white photography ?
No, James McNeill Whistler's development of tonal harmony was not significantly influenced by black-and-white photography. His approach to subtle tonal relationships, limited palettes, and atmospheric effects—evident in works like the Nocturnes, Symphonies, Harmonies, and Arrangements—predated widespread black-and-white photography's impact on painting and stemmed from other primary sources.Whistler's emphasis on tonal harmony emerged prominently in the 1860s and crystallized by the early 1870s. Key influences included:
- Ingres and classical principles — Through mentors and his time in Paris, Whistler absorbed the idea that line outweighs color and that black serves as the "fundamental color of tonal harmony."
- Velázquez and Spanish masters — Their subtle gradations, muted palettes, and atmospheric handling informed his restrained use of tone.
- Japanese prints (ukiyo-e) — These provided flat compositions, decorative surfaces, and harmonious subtlety, shifting him away from literal transcription of nature toward formalist priorities.
- Music as analogy — Whistler drew parallels between painting and music, titling works "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to prioritize abstract tonal relationships over narrative or literal depiction. This aesthetic philosophy ("art for art's sake") focused on evoking mood through calibrated hues and values rather than photographic realism.
- Barbizon School and Pre-Raphaelite circles — These contributed to his interest in subdued, contemplative landscapes and tonal unity.
- Whistler had some exposure to photography; his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden (an etcher and physician) spurred interest in art and photography, and Whistler briefly experimented with early color photography and lithography in the 1870s–1880s.
- He viewed photography critically, dismissing it as mechanical reproduction rather than creative art. In one statement, he quipped that if mere transcription made an artist, "the king of artists would be the photographer," underscoring his rejection of literal realism in favor of artistic arrangement.
- His Nocturnes (e.g., Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, 1875) evoke misty, low-light effects that later resonated with Pictorialist photographers (who manipulated prints for painterly tonality inspired by Whistler), but the influence flowed the other way: Whistler's atmospheric style shaped early "art photography" rather than vice versa.
- Black-and-white photography's full aesthetic impact on painting (e.g., flattening forms, emphasizing value over color) became more pronounced later, influencing movements like Tonalism (which Whistler helped inspire in America) or even modernism, but not as a formative source for Whistler's own innovations.
1878 Green River by Moran
2008 SOLD for $ 17.7M by Christie's
The railway, superseding the dangerous Oregon trail, allows the emergence of civilization into the wilderness of the Western American territories that are not yet upgraded into states.
The village of Green River in Dakota Territory is served by the Pacific section in July 1868 before the famous transcontinental junction of 10 May 1869. Green River will be part of Wyoming in the later division of states.
Green River was incorporated as a city in 1868 and became a rallying point for geological and geographical expeditions starting with Powell in 1869.
Thomas Moran arrives by train to Green River in 1871 to join the Hayden expedition. The admirer of Turner is dazzled by the variety of colors: the reflection in water adds green and lavender to the yellow and orange of the cliffs. He immediately realizes a first watercolor. He does not seek realism but idealization and the result is sumptuous.
An oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm painted in 1878 in intense colors was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3.5M by Christie's on May 21, 2008, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The village of Green River in Dakota Territory is served by the Pacific section in July 1868 before the famous transcontinental junction of 10 May 1869. Green River will be part of Wyoming in the later division of states.
Green River was incorporated as a city in 1868 and became a rallying point for geological and geographical expeditions starting with Powell in 1869.
Thomas Moran arrives by train to Green River in 1871 to join the Hayden expedition. The admirer of Turner is dazzled by the variety of colors: the reflection in water adds green and lavender to the yellow and orange of the cliffs. He immediately realizes a first watercolor. He does not seek realism but idealization and the result is sumptuous.
An oil on canvas 64 x 122 cm painted in 1878 in intense colors was sold for $ 17.7M from a lower estimate of $ 3.5M by Christie's on May 21, 2008, lot 26. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Special Report
Compare Sargent to Whistler
John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) were two of the most prominent American expatriate painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both operating in Europe (primarily Paris and London) and achieving international fame. They shared cosmopolitan backgrounds, admiration for European masters like Velázquez, and a fascination with Venice as a creative refuge. Their paths crossed—likely first in Venice around 1880—and they maintained a respectful, friendly relationship until Whistler's death in 1903, with Sargent praising Whistler's exquisite handling of paint and even advocating for him in projects like Boston Public Library decorations. Temperamentally, however, they differed profoundly: Whistler was combative, witty, and iconoclastic, often clashing with critics (e.g., his famous libel suit against John Ruskin); Sargent was affable, diplomatic, and socially adept, thriving in elite circles.While both bridged Realism, emerging modernism, and elements akin to Impressionism—without fully joining the French Impressionist group—they pursued distinct artistic visions. Whistler was a true innovator and theorist ("art for art's sake"), emphasizing tonal harmony, subtlety, and abstraction. Sargent was a masterful technician and portraitist, blending academic precision with painterly freedom and luminosity.
Key Similarities
Key Similarities
- Expatriate American identity and cosmopolitanism — Both rejected a purely American artistic identity, thriving in Europe where they absorbed influences from French, Spanish, and British traditions. They helped elevate American art on the international stage.
- Venice as inspiration — Their sojourns there (Whistler 1879–1880; Sargent multiple times from 1880 onward) produced intimate, unromanticized depictions of everyday Venetian life—alleys, interiors, working-class figures in repose or labor—focusing on authenticity, light effects, and detachment rather than tourist grandeur. Whistler's etchings, pastels, and Nocturnes influenced Sargent's small oils and genre scenes (e.g., parallels in detachment, apertures, and working-class subjects in works like Sargent's A Venetian Interior and Whistler's etchings).
- Interest in tonal subtlety and light — Both explored color harmony and atmospheric effects, drawing from Velázquez's brushwork and Japanese prints (via Whistler's influence). Sargent's early "studies in white" (e.g., Fumée d'Ambre Gris) echo Whistler's Symphony in White series in handling shadows and light accents.
- Rejection of strict academic norms — They favored spontaneity, loose brushwork, and modern subjects over rigid finish, aligning loosely with Impressionist concerns (plein air, everyday life) while maintaining individuality.
- Style and technique
Whistler pursued ethereal, tonal abstraction—thin layers, muted palettes, and "arrangements" or "nocturnes" that prioritized mood and harmony over detail (e.g., Nocturne in Blue and Silver). His work often feels austere, suggestive, and almost musical.
Sargent excelled in bold, virtuosic brushwork—dynamic strokes, high-keyed luminosity, and anatomical precision rooted in his training under Carolus-Duran. His paintings convey energy, texture, and sensuality (e.g., fluid fabrics, shimmering light in portraits or Alpine scenes). - Subject matter and approach
Whistler favored landscapes, nocturnes, subtle portraits, and detached observations—often avoiding overt narrative or social commentary, emphasizing aesthetic purity.
Sargent dominated society portraiture (e.g., Madame X, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw) with glamorous, psychological depth and elegance, later shifting to personal, non-commissioned works of leisure and intimacy (e.g., Group with Parasols). His art balanced client demands with artistic flair. - Personality and career trajectory
Whistler was a provocateur—his scandals (e.g., Ruskin trial) were intentional defenses of artistic autonomy, leading to financial struggles but legendary status as a modernist pioneer.
Sargent was a consummate professional—his 1884 Madame X scandal was unintended, prompting a move to London where he became the era's most sought-after portraitist, earning wealth and acclaim. - Relation to Impressionism
Both absorbed Impressionist ideas (broken color, light effects) indirectly—Whistler through tonal experiments and Japanese influence; Sargent through direct contact with Monet and plein air practice—but neither exhibited with the core group. Whistler leaned toward symbolism and abstraction; Sargent toward a "painterly realism" with academic solidity.
1905 A Siesta by Sargent
2004 SOLD for $ 23.5M by Sotheby's
Influenced by impressionism, John Singer Sargent was one of the best portrait painters of his time. As he approaches fifty, he wants to live his life better. He has been traveling throughout Europe since his youth. He will now refocus his art on the landscapes of his travels and on the holiday scenes with friends in Italy and Switzerland.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004, lot 7. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
John Singer Sargent's Group with Parasols (A Siesta) (c. 1905), an oil on canvas measuring approximately 22 x 28 inches, was sold at Sotheby's New York on December 1, 2004, as lot 7 from the collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. It achieved a record-breaking price of $23.528 million (including buyer's premium), nearly doubling its $9–12 million estimate, reflecting Sargent's enduring appeal as a master of light, texture, and evocative social scenes.
The painting depicts a small group—likely friends including the Harrison brothers (Peter and "Ginx," to whom it is inscribed) and two women—lounging in a sun-dappled Alpine meadow during a midday siesta. Large white parasols shield them as they recline amid grass and foliage, limbs casually intertwined in a state of dreamy repose. The composition is intimate and cropped, creating a "landscape interior" that isolates the figures in relaxed indolence, with Sargent's bold, dynamic brushwork capturing dappled light, patterned surfaces, and a sense of luxurious ease.
This work exemplifies the theme of idleness and leisure that became prominent in Sargent's later career. After establishing himself as the preeminent portraitist of the Belle Époque and Edwardian elite—depicting wealth, elegance, and cosmopolitan sophistication in formal commissions—Sargent grew ambivalent about the constraints of portraiture. By the early 1900s, he increasingly turned to personal, non-commissioned subjects during travels, especially summer sojourns in the Swiss and Italian Alps (c. 1903–1913). These en plein air paintings and watercolors served as his "painted diaries," capturing intimate moments with family and friends in settings of relaxation and unstructured pleasure.
Sargent often portrayed the upper class's capacity for leisure as a marker of privilege, but in these informal works, he infused it with a bohemian, progressive sensibility—challenging Victorian norms through close male-female groupings and a focus on passive sensuality rather than activity. Group with Parasols invents an "ideal" world of "passive indolence" and reverie, contrasting the group's actual energetic hikes and pursuits, as noted by Sargent's grand-nephew Richard Ormond. The scene's dreamy quality, with its emphasis on rest and sensory enjoyment, aligns with Impressionist influences while showcasing Sargent's modern handling of form and light.
This theme recurs across his oeuvre:
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004, lot 7. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
John Singer Sargent's Group with Parasols (A Siesta) (c. 1905), an oil on canvas measuring approximately 22 x 28 inches, was sold at Sotheby's New York on December 1, 2004, as lot 7 from the collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. It achieved a record-breaking price of $23.528 million (including buyer's premium), nearly doubling its $9–12 million estimate, reflecting Sargent's enduring appeal as a master of light, texture, and evocative social scenes.
The painting depicts a small group—likely friends including the Harrison brothers (Peter and "Ginx," to whom it is inscribed) and two women—lounging in a sun-dappled Alpine meadow during a midday siesta. Large white parasols shield them as they recline amid grass and foliage, limbs casually intertwined in a state of dreamy repose. The composition is intimate and cropped, creating a "landscape interior" that isolates the figures in relaxed indolence, with Sargent's bold, dynamic brushwork capturing dappled light, patterned surfaces, and a sense of luxurious ease.
This work exemplifies the theme of idleness and leisure that became prominent in Sargent's later career. After establishing himself as the preeminent portraitist of the Belle Époque and Edwardian elite—depicting wealth, elegance, and cosmopolitan sophistication in formal commissions—Sargent grew ambivalent about the constraints of portraiture. By the early 1900s, he increasingly turned to personal, non-commissioned subjects during travels, especially summer sojourns in the Swiss and Italian Alps (c. 1903–1913). These en plein air paintings and watercolors served as his "painted diaries," capturing intimate moments with family and friends in settings of relaxation and unstructured pleasure.
Sargent often portrayed the upper class's capacity for leisure as a marker of privilege, but in these informal works, he infused it with a bohemian, progressive sensibility—challenging Victorian norms through close male-female groupings and a focus on passive sensuality rather than activity. Group with Parasols invents an "ideal" world of "passive indolence" and reverie, contrasting the group's actual energetic hikes and pursuits, as noted by Sargent's grand-nephew Richard Ormond. The scene's dreamy quality, with its emphasis on rest and sensory enjoyment, aligns with Impressionist influences while showcasing Sargent's modern handling of form and light.
This theme recurs across his oeuvre:
- Dolce Far Niente (c. 1907, "Sweet Idleness" or "Pleasant Idleness") shows figures in Middle Eastern-inspired costumes lounging by a stream, playing chess or simply resting, evoking languid sensuality amid brilliant Alpine light.g
- Nonchaloir (Repose) (1911) portrays a woman (his niece Rose-Marie Ormond) reclining in draped fabrics, eyes closed in quiet withdrawal, embodying contemplative rest.
- Idle Sails (1913), a watercolor, captures a becalmed boat with furled sails, symbolizing literal and metaphorical stillness.
John Singer Sargent's Group with Parasols (A Siesta) (c. 1905) exhibits clear Impressionist influences, particularly in its handling of light, color, and atmosphere, while retaining Sargent's distinctive blend of realism and painterly bravura. Classified by sources like WikiArt as Impressionism and often described as one of his most "impressionistic" works, it reflects his long-standing engagement with the movement—rooted in his friendship with Claude Monet and experiments dating back to the 1880s—yet adapts these elements to his personal vision of leisure in the later Alpine phase of his career.
Key Impressionist Influences in Group with Parasols
Sargent's parasol motif recalls Monet's iconic Woman with a Parasol (Madame Monet and Her Son) (1875), where Camille Monet stands in a breezy field, her parasol shielding against bright sunlight, with wind-swept grass and dappled effects dominating the scene. Both paintings use the parasol as a compositional device to frame figures and play with light patterns, but Sargent's version is more intimate and group-oriented, with intertwined limbs suggesting shared indolence rather than solitary elegance.
In broader Impressionist terms, the painting aligns with the movement's interest in outdoor leisure and nature's transient beauty, as seen in works by Renoir (e.g., Luncheon of the Boating Party, with relaxed social groups) or even earlier Sargent pieces influenced by Monet, like his own Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood (1885), which captures plein air spontaneity.
Sargent's Distinctive Adaptations (Differences from Pure Impressionism)
While heavily influenced, Sargent never fully embraced core Impressionist tenets:
Key Impressionist Influences in Group with Parasols
- En plein air execution and capture of natural light: Painted outdoors in the Swiss Alps, the work prioritizes the fleeting effects of dappled sunlight filtering through foliage and parasols. Sargent uses loose, dynamic brushstrokes to render shimmering highlights on white fabric, grass, and skin, evoking the Impressionist goal of recording momentary visual impressions rather than detailed realism. This mirrors Monet's lifelong obsession with changing light conditions.
- High-keyed palette and broken color: The painting employs vibrant, luminous colors applied in patches and dabs—bright whites, greens, and yellows for the meadow and parasols—creating optical mixing and a sense of vibrancy. This technique, where colors are juxtaposed rather than blended smoothly, draws directly from Impressionist methods to suggest form and atmosphere through light alone.
- Informal, cropped composition and focus on leisure: The intimate, close-up view of reclining figures under parasols isolates a private moment of repose, emphasizing sensory experience over narrative. This echoes Impressionist scenes of modern bourgeois leisure, such as picnic outings or garden rests, where everyday idleness becomes a subject worthy of aesthetic celebration.
Sargent's parasol motif recalls Monet's iconic Woman with a Parasol (Madame Monet and Her Son) (1875), where Camille Monet stands in a breezy field, her parasol shielding against bright sunlight, with wind-swept grass and dappled effects dominating the scene. Both paintings use the parasol as a compositional device to frame figures and play with light patterns, but Sargent's version is more intimate and group-oriented, with intertwined limbs suggesting shared indolence rather than solitary elegance.
In broader Impressionist terms, the painting aligns with the movement's interest in outdoor leisure and nature's transient beauty, as seen in works by Renoir (e.g., Luncheon of the Boating Party, with relaxed social groups) or even earlier Sargent pieces influenced by Monet, like his own Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood (1885), which captures plein air spontaneity.
Sargent's Distinctive Adaptations (Differences from Pure Impressionism)
While heavily influenced, Sargent never fully embraced core Impressionist tenets:
- Solid modeling of forms — Unlike Monet's dissolution of form into pure color and light, Sargent's figures retain clear structure and anatomical precision, rooted in his academic training under Carolus-Duran and admiration for Old Masters like Velázquez.
- Expressive brushwork over strict optical effects — His strokes are bold and gestural, conveying texture and energy (e.g., the lush foliage and fabric folds), rather than the smaller, more uniform dabs typical of French Impressionists.
- Personal and intimate focus — In his later non-commissioned works like this one, Sargent uses Impressionist techniques for emotional reverie and human connection, not scientific study of light. As noted in analyses, he "never carried his experiments with light and color as far as the Impressionists," maintaining solidity while adopting their vibrancy and looseness.
- Dolce Far Niente (c. 1907) employs Impressionist broken color and plein air light for a languid streamside scene, yet figures remain distinctly rendered.
- Watercolors of women with parasols (e.g., The Lady with the Umbrella, 1911) show spontaneous, light-filled effects akin to Impressionist sketches, but with Sargent's fluid mastery.
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1910 Polo Crowd by Bellows
1999 SOLD for $ 27.5 M by Sotheby's
Crowds in New York are one of the favorite themes with which Georges Bellows shows enthusiasm, movement, play. In 1909 he adds sport. His boxing paintings show the action in progress, in a close-up snapshot that photography was only just beginning to be able to provide. The expressive style of the young artist marks his refusal of classicism.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
O'KEEFFE
1
1927 White Rose with Larkspur
2022 SOLD for $ 26.7M by Christie's
Alfred Stieglitz was one of the first to understand the strong link between photography and art, and his gallery in New York was a meeting point for painters and photographers. After being one of the best authors of photos of the city, he became passionately interested in one subject, Georgia O'Keeffe, and married her in 1924.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
2
1932 Jimson Weed
2014 SOLD for $ 44.4M by Sotheby's
The beauty of nature was the main inspiration for Georgia O'Keeffe. Painter amidst the circle of photographers led by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, she wanted to see everything from larger landscapes to tiniest details. From 1929 she regularly visited the wonderful site of Taos.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting was sold for $ 44.4M from an estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 11. It was deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Dec 29, 2014
#CountingDown to 2015: Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic flower painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1' sold for $44.4m
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting was sold for $ 44.4M from an estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 11. It was deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Dec 29, 2014
#CountingDown to 2015: Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic flower painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1' sold for $44.4m
- This December 2014 Sotheby's post highlights the November sale of Georgia O'Keeffe's 1932 painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1' for $44.4 million, shattering the auction record for a female artist by over tripling the prior high of $12.7 million.
- The oil-on-canvas work, depicting a magnified jimson weed flower with symbolic undertones of sensuality and nature, exceeded its $10-15 million estimate and was consigned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum to fund acquisitions.
- As part of a New Year's countdown series, the post underscores Sotheby's role in elevating women in art markets, with the painting now displayed at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
3
1936 Black Iris
2023 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
In 1923 Georgia O'Keeffe famously shocked her avant-gardist surrounding with the audacity of her oversized paintings of views inside flowers.
Black Iris III, oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm painted in 1926, is an early example. The curves and depths of the petals and their gradual shift of color from flesh to black are nearly zoomorphic and invite for an interpretation as a female human sex.
The artist nevertheless denied such titillating connotations,. She was considering with no nonsense that her feat had been to make her hand on the flower when it was just blooming as it was so available only two weeks per spring. She provided an unprecedented representation of the natural beauty.
O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz considered that specific example as "the greatest picture in the world". This masterpiece is currently owned by the Met Museum.
O'Keeffe came back to her successful bloom. The version VI, oil on canvas 91 x 61 cm, was painted in 1936 with tonal changes from purple and pale pink to black on a background of soft grays, not fully cancelling the green stem. Compared with the earlier version, the botanical details are sharper and more voluptuous. The dark center is repositioned in the middle of the composition.
The VI belonged to Paul G. Allen who was a great admirer of anything O'Keeffe. From that collection, it was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 36A.
Grok thought :
Quote
Wall Power @artmarket May 12, 2023
Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Iris VI with a $5m estimate is bid to $18m.
Black Iris III, oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm painted in 1926, is an early example. The curves and depths of the petals and their gradual shift of color from flesh to black are nearly zoomorphic and invite for an interpretation as a female human sex.
The artist nevertheless denied such titillating connotations,. She was considering with no nonsense that her feat had been to make her hand on the flower when it was just blooming as it was so available only two weeks per spring. She provided an unprecedented representation of the natural beauty.
O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz considered that specific example as "the greatest picture in the world". This masterpiece is currently owned by the Met Museum.
O'Keeffe came back to her successful bloom. The version VI, oil on canvas 91 x 61 cm, was painted in 1936 with tonal changes from purple and pale pink to black on a background of soft grays, not fully cancelling the green stem. Compared with the earlier version, the botanical details are sharper and more voluptuous. The dark center is repositioned in the middle of the composition.
The VI belonged to Paul G. Allen who was a great admirer of anything O'Keeffe. From that collection, it was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 36A.
Grok thought :
Quote
Wall Power @artmarket May 12, 2023
Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Iris VI with a $5m estimate is bid to $18m.
- This post captures live bidding on Georgia O'Keeffe's 1926 oil "Black Iris VI" during Christie's May 2023 20th Century Evening Sale, reaching $18 million hammer—far exceeding its $5-7 million estimate—from the Paul G. Allen collection.
- The attached image depicts O'Keeffe's abstracted close-up of a black iris in soft purples and grays, exemplifying her modernist floral series often seen as sensual or symbolic of female anatomy, which drove competitive phone and room bids.
- The final sale price of $21.1 million (with premium) marked it as the auction's top lot, underscoring sustained demand for O'Keeffe's works amid a solid $280 million total sale, boosted by estate consignments like Allen's.
HOPPER
1
1928 Blackwell's Island
2013 SOLD for $ 19M by Christie's
Hopper does not want to be blinded by the foils of America, but he loves his country and New York. In reaction against his time, he developed a passion for anonymous houses in front of which he goes his way by road, rail or river. He does not know whether they are used or abandoned, but their menace of ruins are the symbol of the past that he does not wish to leave.
Blackwell's Island, oil on canvas 88 x 151 cm painted in 1928, was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 23, 2013. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
Blackwell's Island, oil on canvas 88 x 151 cm painted in 1928, was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 23, 2013. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
2
1929 Chop Suey
2018 SOLD for $ 92M by Christie's
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey was sold for $ 92M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Edward Hopper's iconic 'Chop Suey' achieves a staggering $91,875,000, a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the category of American Art https://bit.ly/2B1UzKF
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey was sold for $ 92M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Christie's on November 13, 2018, lot 12 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Edward Hopper's iconic 'Chop Suey' achieves a staggering $91,875,000, a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the category of American Art https://bit.ly/2B1UzKF
- The painting "Chop Suey" by Edward Hopper, sold for $91.875 million in November 2018, reflects a rare market peak for American art, surpassing previous records like Georgia O’Keeffe’s $44.4 million "Jimson Weed" (2014), driven by demand from ultra-wealthy collectors amid global economic inequality.
- Hopper’s depiction of two women in a diner, possibly inspired by his frequent visits to a Columbus Circle restaurant, subtly critiques 1920s urban isolation, a theme supported by art historian Gail Levin’s analysis linking the painting’s muted tones to personal memory over realism.
- The auction’s record price, noted by Christie’s, contrasts with studies like those from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018), which highlight how such expenditures could fund arts education for millions, sparking debate on wealth distribution in the art world.
3
1934 East Wind over Weehawken
2013 SOLD for $ 40.5 M$ by Christie's
The house is for Hopper the theme that ensures the continuity of civilization. It symbolizes the past by surviving after the move or death of its residents. The 1929 crisis could only exacerbate his reluctant vision of the modern world.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting was sold for $ 40.5M from a lower estimate of $ 22M, for sale by Christie 'son December 5, 2013.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting was sold for $ 40.5M from a lower estimate of $ 22M, for sale by Christie 'son December 5, 2013.
