Bonhams yearly dog art sale which coincides with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in NYC is tomorrow, February 16, 2011. This year appears to be an interesting mix of traditional and whimsical. Here are my picks, not the star of the show, which is this Black Lab painting by Maud Earl, but the pieces I like best.
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Uno and the “ah-roo! heard ’round the ring.”
AP Photo
Uno, the perfect 10 Beagle, won the Super Bowl of dog shows this week with his precociousness and precision. The crowd went wild, chanting his name as he made his final lap before the judges. And when judge J. Donald Jones stood before the contestants and asked for the Beagle, Madison Square Garden erupted with cheers and gave Uno the show’s first standing ovation. If the Longhaired Dachshund, who came in second in the hound group (I was devastated), had to lose, I’m glad it was to “the people’s dog” who went all the way. Congratulations, Uno, you are just perfect!
The New York Times has a great behind-the-scenes fashion slide show. Here are some of my favorite shots.
Megan Fracrik, a handler, with her brushed-out Tibetan terrier.
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images
Mariah, an Old English sheepdog, with Jeff Yutzy.
Photo: Michael Falco for The New York Times
Geri Kelly with Buddy, her miniature schnauzer.
Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Vincent, an American cocker spaniel, is ready to be shown.
Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Mary MacQuiddy caged with Louie, an otterhound.
Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
In dog art news, Katya Kazakina of Bloomberg.com reports on mixed results. The John Emms 1889 Foxhounds and Hunt Terriers on a Bench, which also featued some perfect Beagles, was the top lot at the Bonhams’s Dog Art Sale going for $66,000, just over its low estimate of $60,000. But 33% of the lots failed to sell.
Over at Doyle New York’s 10th Annual Dogs in Art Auction, one of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s famed “dogs
playing poker” paintings entitled Only A Pair of Deuces sold for $193,000 well above its high estimate of $80,000.
Another surprise was the bargain Lynn Florian found at Bonhams, where she picked up the five pug collars previously owned by the Duke of Windsor for $1,680 below the presale low estimate of $2,000. No word as to whether she will frame them for display or let her two English Cocker Spaniels wear them. Lynn, please send me a photo of your pups in the royal collars if you do.
I’m still going through all 96 lots at Christie's, but today’s favorite dog painting at auction this Friday is Pointy by John Singer Sargent. I love that the celebrated portrait artist deigned to paint a pet, and the thick, almost graffiti-like inscription gives it such a contemporary feel.
There is also a bittersweet love story behind this work. Pointy was the pet of ex-pat socialite Louise Burckhardt with whom Sargent had an affair in the early 1880s. (The Pointy painting was a gift to her.) There was even talk of an engagement, but Louise would marry Roger Ackerley in 1889 and die shortly thereafter.
Sargent’s 1882 portrait of Louise, Lady With The Rose, (above) was a sensation at the Paris Salon and added immeasurably to his reputation… and, I’m sure, his love life.
The dog art world is buzzing this week about Christie’s New York Dog Sale on June 22. The auction house expects to net over $3 million, which would be a record for the dog art category.
Neptune (1824), the life size Newfoundland portrait by Sir Edwin Landseer, is one of the show’s stars, with estimates to bring $800,000 to $1.2 million. Stay tuned. This will be fun to follow!