For Immediate Release
June 2nd, 2009

Freeman's Fine American & European Paintings & Sculpture auction of June 21, 2009 will feature an excellent selection of works ranging from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
 
The European section of the sale includes a select assortment of Old Master pictures, beginning with lot 1, a noteworthy three-quarter length portrait of the architect Theodore Jacobsen by William Verelst, and also featuring a group of Dutch paintings, one attributed to Egbert van Heemskerck, with others by followers of Rembrandt and David Vinckboons and a private collection of early Dutch and French drawings.
 
An assortment of good 19th century European paintings is also included in this sale, including a fine group of works from the collection of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in McLean, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. - including decorative works by Eugene Cauchois, Antoine Perret, John Clayton Adams and William Barraud. Mane-Katz, Le Pho, Paul-Emile Pissarro, Tadashi Asoma, Sacha Moldovan and Jean Dufy are amongst the 20th century painters represented in the sale, with many of these having been acquired from the Wally Findlay Galleries. A rare, large Francisco Zuniga copper relief, "Chaumulas," is also featured in this auction.

A number of outstanding American paintings are included in this sale, including two somewhat unusual trompe l'oeil still lifes by John Frederick Peto, each executed on an artist's palette, with provenance traceable to the artist. Other prominent American artists represented in this sale include Charles Prendergast, Grandma Moses, William Trost Richards, Robert Emmett Owen, Chauncey Foster Ryder, Charles Warren Eaton, Henry Pember Smith, John Francis Murphy, John E. Costigan, Hugh Bolton Jones and Frederick Arthur Bridgman. Philadelphia's Hughie Lee Smith and Philadelphia's Humbert Howard are two important African American artists with works featured in this sale.
 
Of special note amongst the fine offering of American paintings in this sale is a jewel-like painting - less than 5 x 3 inches in size - by Guy Carleton Wiggins of Fifth Avenue in Front of Library. Finely executed and handsomely framed, we believe it is the smallest Wiggins to appear on the market in many years. Other outstanding American paintings in this sale include a fine Ogden Minton Pleissner oil, The Upper Margaree - Cape Breton (Salmon Fishing), an interesting Yasuo Kuniyoshi mixed media work, Girl at a Bar, a similarly themed work of Men at a Café Bar by Everett Shinn in sanguine conte, a fine Hughie Lee Smith oil, Dock Scene, a good Gil Elvgren oil, entitled Pot Luck!, an illustration typical of the artist's oeuvre, and a rare Thomas Hart Benton study, executed in oil, for the American Historical Epic mural series.
 
Closer to home, Pennsylvania artists in this sale include Aaron Henry Gorson and William Anderson Coffin, with Bucks County impressionists, including Walter Emerson Baum, Walter Elmer Schofield, Fern Isabel Coppedge, Edward Willis Redfield, William Lathrop, George Sotterr, Kenneth Nunamaker, Martha Walter, Henry Snell, Henry Bainbridge McCarter and Roy Nuse featured. Amongst this group, it is worth noting that there are five Schofield oils, each at least 30 x 30 inches, with three having Pennsylvania estate provenance and a fourth consigned by a British collector, four Baum oils, two Lathrop oils, and two Coppedge oils. Of the latter, January Sunshine is a classic example of the artist's work, impressive for its size - 25 x 30 inches, its excellent condition, estate provenance - originally a gift from the artist, and its exceptional, original Harer frame. Roy Nuse's The Children of James W. Hunsberger is one of the most important works in this auction. A never before offered Nuse oil, 34 x 40 inches (estimate $70,000-100,000), this lovely, impressionist work depicts four children enjoying a summer day at the Cape May seashore, and was commissioned by the Hunsbergers and later exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
 
The auction, featuring over 120 lots, will be held on June 21st, beginning at 2 p.m., and is also featured on www.freemansauction.com, with the sale being simulcast on Artfact Live!

Contact: Alasdair Nichol
267.414.1211
anichol@freemansauction.com