March 9 will see Paul Sawyier's impressionist landscape The Kentucky Arsenal go under the hammer in Ohio. The Kentucky Arsenal, a docile depiction of the winding Kentucky River, is one of the few extant works in oil by an artist who favoured watercolours, and duly carries a substantial $50,000-75,000 estimate.
 Few Sawyier oil paintings exist – this rare example carries a $50,000-75,000 estimate |
Paul Sawyier (1865-1917), who spent the latter part of his life living in New York, remains one of Kentucky's most renowned and celebrated artists.
Graydon Sikes, director of painting and prints at the auction house presiding over the sale, comments: "From personal correspondence, we know that Sawyier began touting his abilities in oil to his existing customers back in Kentucky. He died only a few years after arriving in New York, and, as a result, his oil paintings rarely surface on the market."
Street View, a painting by William Zorach (estimate: $10,000-15,000) and Nude at the Seashore by Joseph Henry Sharp (estimate: $5,000-10,000) are also set to star in the much-anticipated sale.
Paintings by prominent American artists often put in strong performances at auction: Gloucester Gill Netters, a serene dockside scene by Frederick John Mulhaupt, sold in January for $50,000.
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