Lot 38, "Sounding Reveille," by Winslow Homer, oil on canvas, 13 by 19 1/2 inches, 1871

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"Following the end of the Civil War, poet Walt Whitman famously reflected, 'The real war will never get in the books…Its interior history will not only never be written—its practicality, minutiae of deed and passions, will never be even suggested.' (Specimen Days & Collect, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1882, pp. 80-81) As Eleanor Jones Harvey writes, '[Winslow] Homer understood the dilemma of painting Whitman’s ‘real war,’ that of the common soldier rather than the heroics of generals on horseback or the impersonality of panoramic sweeps of troops on the chessboard of battle. Instead Homer would go deep, look inward, and portray individual soldiers with a keen insight often lacking in depictions of men in uniform.' (The Civil War and American Art, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2012, p. 151) Striking a delicate balance between honest reporting and sympathetic storytelling to capture the early morning routine of a Union Army camp, the present work embodies this intimate quality of Homer’s finest war imagery, which distinguished him from his contemporaries and launched his career among the leading American artists of the nineteenth century.

"Homer first visited the front lines of the Civil War in October 1861 as a twenty-five-year-old artist-correspondent for Harper’s Weekly. He would return in April 1862 and Spring 1864, gathering material for black-and-white magazine illustrations. Accompanying General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac in Virginia, Homer observed the Peninsula Campaign and the Siege of Yorktown. His sketches from life captured the full spectrum of activities he observed, from the daily routines and times of rest to troops on the move and at gunfire. In addition to fulfilling his commission, these drawings and experiences would inform Homer’s first important oil paintings, including Home, Sweet Home (circa 1863, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) When exhibited at the National Academy in 1863, Homer’s nuanced sensitivity within the painting garnered him immediate acclaim. As one critic declared, 'Winslow Homer is one of those few young artists who make a decided impression of their power with their very first contributions to the Academy...The delicacy and strength of emotion which reign throughout this little picture are not surpassed in the entire exhibition.' (as quoted in M. Simpson, Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War, exhibition catalogue, San Francisco, California, 1988, p. 147)

"In Sounding Reveille, Homer similarly depicts the soldiers with an intimate focus, even while also conveying the full expanse of the Union camp with tents as far as the eye can see. Although inscribed '1865,' Abigail Gerdts asserts that the painting was completed shortly before its exhibition at the Century Association in October 1871, based on a stamp on the reverse of the canvas. (Record of Works by Winslow Homer: 1867 through 1876, vol. II, New York, 2014, pp. 146-47) Around this time Homer also exhibited A Rainy Day in Camp (1871, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which Lloyd Goodrich posits was started during the war years and then revisited and completed prior to its February 1871 showing. Like A Rainy Day in Camp, Sounding Reveille is a deliberately designed composite of various scenes Homer had observed during his multiple visits to the front lines. Three specific studies, now in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, appear to have inspired the present work: Man Wearing Zouave’s Cap (circa 1861); Young Soldier (circa 1863); and Drummer’s Resting before Tents (circa 1861-62). In addition, the “61” inscribed on the knapsack in front of the leftmost tent connects the painting to Homer’s time spent with the 61st New York Infantry in 1862.

"In Sounding Reveille, Homer combines these memories into a poignant moment of routine and reflection. Reveille was an important part of daily life in the army, which signaled the start of the day for soldiers at camp. An 1865 account of the practice describes, 'The wind sweeping gently through the tall pines overhead only serves to lull to deeper repose the slumbering soldier, who in his elevation the clear-toned bugle sounds out the reveille, and another and another resounds, until the startled echoes double and treble the clarion calls. Intermingled with this comes the beating of drums, often rattling and jarring on unwilling ears. In a few moments the peaceful quiet is replaced by noise and tumult, arising from hill and dale, from hill and forest.' (as quoted in Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War, p. 234) The buglers and drummer boys who sounded this daily alarm were often the youngest members of camp, sometimes as young as nine, and also worked as barbers, valets and burial details during the war.

"In the present work, Homer depicts these young soldiers with a quiet dignity, focusing on the simplicity of daily routine. Drummer boys were often romanticized in art of the period, for example in Eastman Johnson’s Wounded Drummer Boy (1871, Union League Club, New York); however, here Homer takes a subtler approach, focusing on the unique character of each individual subject. While the bugler begins his song standing tall with hand on hip, his two accompanying drummers focus with their heads down on the task at hand. Each glowing figure around the campfire, even while depicted in small scale in the background, also has a unique pose and demeanor. These nuances allow the viewer to relate to the men as they experience a quiet moment at dawn, rather than just depicting an archetypal soldier. Moreover, the music motif of Sounding Reveille harks back to Home, Sweet Home, which was titled after a popular song for troops on both the Union and Confederate sides and thus has been said to convey an underlying message of unity. In Sounding Reveille, the focus on these young soldiers’ reality similarly inspires deep universal empathy as Homer looks back on the casualties of the Civil War era.

"As pronounced by a contemporary critic, 'Mr. Homer is the first of our artists...who has endeavored to tell us any truth about the war...What he has tried to tell us has been said simply, honestly, and with such homely truth as would have given his pictures a historical value quite apart from their artistic merit…he will never paint more real soldiers than these.' (The New Path, 1863, as quoted in A. T. E. Gardner, Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work, New York, 1961, pp. 77-78) Indeed, in Sounding Reveille and his other important Civil War paintings, Homer elevates his subject well beyond reportage to provide one of the most profound records of the conflict produced by any artist of the period.

"The original owner of the present work, Theodore Russell Davis, also worked as an illustrator-correspondent for Harper’s Weekly from 1861-64. Davis and Homer were friends, and it is likely Davis received Sounding Reveille as a gift from the artist.

The painting has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.  It sold for $1,815,000.

Lot 62, "Trappers Around a Campfire with the Wind River Mountains in the Background," by Alfred Jacob Miller, oil on canvas, 38 1/4 by 32 1/4 inches, circa 1839

Lot 62, "Trappers Around a Campfire with the Wind River Mountains in the Background," is an oil on canvas by Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874).  It measures 38 1/4 by 32 1/4 inches and was painted circa 1839.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"In 1837, Alfred Jacob Miller accompanied Scottish nobleman Sir William Drummond Stewart on an expedition to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. As a result of this trip, his only one to the West, Miller gathered sufficient ideas to pursue a lifelong career painting images of American frontier life. The present work, painted for his patron shortly after their trip, features Stewart himself visible in the distance, holding a spyglass and wearing his usual buckskin outfit. Other members of the expedition, Antoine Clement, Bill Burrows and Pierre, prepare dinner around the campfire in the foreground."

The lot has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.  It sold for $423,000.

Lot 47, "Autumn Mist, Lake George," by Alfred Thompson Bricher, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 by 24 inches, 1871

Lot 47 is a particularly bright and lovely oil on canvas of "Autumn Mist, Lake George" by Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908).  It measures 13 3/4 by 24 inches and was painted in 1871. It has an estimate of $70,000 to $100,000.  It sold for $106,250.

Lot 45, "Lake George," by John Frederick Kensett, oil on canvas, 24 by 36 inches, 1858

Lot 45 is a smaller version of the "Lake George" painting oil on canvas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  This one measures 24 by 36 inches and was painted in 1858.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"With the development of railroads and steamboats aiding the trip to Upstate New York and attractive views of the Adirondacks area, Lake George became an easily accessible and popular tourist attraction in the mid-1800s. John Frederick Kensett first visited the area in 1853 and was so captivated that he continued to return and paint the magnificent lake and landscape over the following two decades. The present work likely depicts the peak of Black Mountain towering in the distance, with surrounding hills and water embodying Kensett's characteristic shifts between warm and cool tones and subtle light effects. The inclusion of the few figures, possibly Mohawk Indians, incorporates the common Hudson River School theme of the relationship between man and nature. Perhaps harkening back to a time pre-tourism, the artist depicts man as just a small element within mother nature’s greater ecosystem: the season turns to fall, aquatic birds skim the lake and the sun illuminates the vast sky.

"Lake George (Adirondacks Mountains) serves as an exceptional example of the artist’s transcendental reflections on nature, highlighting the tranquility of the landscape through luminist painting techniques. Lake George became a favorite destination and subject for not only Kensett but also such notable contemporaries as Thomas Cole, Jasper Francis Cropsey and Asher B. Durand due to its sublime, awe-inspiring scenery. In The Traveler's Guide to the Hudson River of 1864, Lake George was enthusiastically described as 'surrounded by high and picturesque hills, sometimes rising to mountain height, and dotted with numerous islands, said to count as many as there are days in the year; some are of considerable size, and cultivated; while others are only barren rock, rising majestically out of the surrounding waters. The wild and romantic scenery of the lake is nowhere surpassed.' (as quoted in L.S. Ferber, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, New York, 2009, p. 98).

The lot has an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.  It sold for $350,000.

Lot 56, "Picnic by the Sea," by Thomas Hill, oil on canvas, 51 by 87 1/4 inches, 1873

Lot 56 is a superb oceanfront scene by Thomas Hill (1829-1908) entitled "Picnic by the Sea."  An oil on canvas, it measures 51 by 87 1/4 inches and was painted in 1873.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"Picnic By the Sea presents a vista from Point Lobos, California, looking out towards the Golden Gate. Harold Nelson writes of the present work, 'Thomas Hill, in Picnic by the Sea of 1873, presents an image of seaside play and relaxation. An established portraitist in San Francisco, Hill in 1866 traveled to Paris to study briefly with landscape painter Paul Meyerheim, who greatly encourged his developing interest in landscape subjects. Hill returned to California in 1870, and from then until his death in 1908, he frequently painted the magnificently dramatic California coast and the lofty peaks of the High Sierras. In Picnic by the Sea, Hill depicts a pastoral outing that more frequently takes place, at least pictorially, in the shelter of a wooded glade. But there the picnickers perch atop a dramatic, exposed seaside bluff. The vulnerability of their position is assuaged by the sunny sky and quiescent sea. Winslow Homer employed a similar juxtaposition in Long Branch, New Jersey of 1869 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Hill might have been familiar with this work, either through the original or through a related series of line engravings.' (Sounding the Depths: 150 Years of American Seascape, New York, 1989, p. 58)

The lot has an estimate of $120,000 to $180,000.  It sold for $125,000.

Lot 42, "Mansfield Nose," by Sanford Robinson Gifford, oil on canvas, 10 1/2 b 20 inches, 1859

Lot 42 is a small and lovely mountain scene by Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) entitled "Mansfield Nose."  An oil on canvas, it measures 10 1/2 by 20 iinches and was painted in 1859.

The catalogue provides the following commentary:

"In the summer of 1858, after a two-year sojourn in Europe, Sanford Robinson Gifford embarked on his first American sketching tour since returning from abroad. Gifford and fellow artists Richard Hubbard and Jerome Thompson traveled to the Green Mountains of Vermont and, in August, they climbed Mansfield Mountain, where Gifford made a series of sketches in preparation for an exhibition picture. When it was shown at the National Academy of Design, the resulting monumental masterwork, Mansfield Mountain (1859, Private Collection), reestablished Gifford’s reputation as a leading landscape painter of the era and earned him such praise as “the most poetical of our American artists, whose pictures are like poet’s dreams.' (as quoted in Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2003, p. 109) Dated the same year, the present related work likewise captures the sublime majesty of the Vermont landscape with Gifford’s characteristic crystalline light and poetic atmospheric perspective. Featuring the artist and his dog on the cliff as in the larger work, Mansfield Nose invites the viewer to join the explorers and experience the awesome beauty of the American landscape that Gifford himself witnessed.

"According to a contemporary report, Gifford and his friends were the first artists to have sketched from Mount Mansfield and “they pronounce[d] the place equal in interest to Mount Washington, and in every way a charming spot.” (as quoted in Hudson River School Visions, p. 108) At the time of Gifford’s travels in 1858, the two-story Summit House was constructed on Mansfield Mountain, and the carriage path and hotel greatly enhanced the number of visitors to the peak, changing the mountain from a place of solitude to a place of public accommodation. However, Gifford's paintings inspired by the region are intentionally nostalgic views of the mountain in its wild state. Indeed, wielding artistic license, in the present work Gifford concentrates on the ‘Nose’ peak of Mansfield’s face-like formation and, rather than depicting man’s intervention into the landscape, he adds a placid body of water below the distinctive mount. The sheer beauty of his painted landscape underscores his primary interest in capturing an untouched, natural landscape—a metaphor for America as a promised land.

"The transcendent perfection of Mansfield Nose draws from Gifford’s adept execution, minimizing the hand of the artist and infusing the scene with an inner light. The unique geography of the mountain is executed in a nuanced palette of greens, grays and ochres, seamlessly blended to capture the contours of the peak overlain with vegetation. Dr. Ila Weiss writes, 'The Nose’s large triangular shape of flat, cool gray shadow is intriguingly articulated as cliffs where touched by the raking, warm afternoon light.' (unpublished letter, 2019) Surrounding the main Nose feature are the outlines of the surrounding range, forming precisely delineated layers in faded hues that seem to almost, but not quite, blend into the clear blue sky. As a critic for The Home Journal described the related exhibition painting, in the present work too, 'The subject is one of immense difficulty as the gradation of color and aerial perspective is so subtle, and at the same time the forms are so varied and full, it is scarcely within the province of Art to more than suggest so extensive a panorama.' (as quoted in Hudson River School Visions, p. 109) In this way, the present work draws upon many of the themes of the Luminist movement. Perhaps it was the inherent spirituality within the present composition that attracted one of its original owners A.A. Willits, a prominent Presbyterian Reverend, to acquire the work no later than 1890-94. The painting has descended in his family to the present day.

"Yet, at the same time, Mansfield Nose remains grounded in reality and forges a connection with the viewer through the inclusion of the beautifully rendered figure in profile, leaning on the barrel of his rifle as he gazes out at the stunning vista with his hiking companion. The artist and his pet are depicted from behind in the final exhibition work as well as a sketch in the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts. As a critic of 1859 reflected, 'You seem to stand with those figures on the stern, splintered ridge, and gaze over through the bright mist that fills the yawning abyss, at the swelling mountain chain that soars up cloud-like into, rather than against the sky.' (Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, August 20, 1859) In the summer of 1858, after a two-year sojourn in Europe, Sanford Robinson Gifford embarked on his first American sketching tour since returning from abroad. Gifford and fellow artists Richard Hubbard and Jerome Thompson traveled to the Green Mountains of Vermont and, in August, they climbed Mansfield Mountain, where Gifford made a series of sketches in preparation for an exhibition picture. When it was shown at the National Academy of Design, the resulting monumental masterwork, Mansfield Mountain (1859, Private Collection), reestablished Gifford’s reputation as a leading landscape painter of the era and earned him such praise as 'the most poetical of our American artists, whose pictures are like poet’s dreams.' (as quoted in Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2003, p. 109) Dated the same year, the present related work likewise captures the sublime majesty of the Vermont landscape with Gifford’s characteristic crystalline light and poetic atmospheric perspective. Featuring the artist and his dog on the cliff as in the larger work, Mansfield Nose invites the viewer to join the explorers and experience the awesome beauty of the American landscape that Gifford himself witnessed.

"According to a contemporary report, Gifford and his friends were the first artists to have sketched from Mount Mansfield and 'they pronounce[d] the place equal in interest to Mount Washington, and in every way a charming spot.' (as quoted in Hudson River School Visions, p. 108) At the time of Gifford’s travels in 1858, the two-story Summit House was constructed on Mansfield Mountain, and the carriage path and hotel greatly enhanced the number of visitors to the peak, changing the mountain from a place of solitude to a place of public accommodation. However, Gifford's paintings inspired by the region are intentionally nostalgic views of the mountain in its wild state. Indeed, wielding artistic license, in the present work Gifford concentrates on the ‘Nose’ peak of Mansfield’s face-like formation and, rather than depicting man’s intervention into the landscape, he adds a placid body of water below the distinctive mount. The sheer beauty of his painted landscape underscores his primary interest in capturing an untouched, natural landscape—a metaphor for America as a promised land."

The lot has an estimate  of $500,000 to $700,000.  It sold for $519,000.