MARKET REPORTS

WHAT WE’RE HEARING FROM GALLERIES, AUCTION

HOUSES AND MUSEUMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

SANDRA GERMAIN

Managing Partner

Shannon’s Fine Art

Auctioneers

At Shannon’s we specialize

in middle-market ($5,000 to

$500,000) fine art. We have

established a worldwide

audience of buyers over the past 20

years augmented by our targeted online

marketing program. Online bidding in

both our major sales and online-only sales

has increased tremendously. Our sales

attract a broad group of collectors, and

we have met many new collectors who we

have enjoyed educating about the artists

and their works, as well as the art market

as a whole.

Our April 2018 fine art auction realized

an 85 percent sale rate, a very encouraging

figure for us and the auction market in

general.

Top examples by well-known artists

have been selling very well, with increased

$7,000 and achieved a remarkable $68,750.

It was a beautiful fresh-to-the-market

composition, with strong provenance,

housed in a period frame and in very

good condition. Our top lot in the sale

was Colin Campbell Cooper’s View of

New York City from Brooklyn. Again, a

fresh-to-the-market painting, with strong

provenance, a compelling subject matter

and beautifully painted.

We have been very successful with

works by Alice Mattern over the past two

years, topping our world records for the

artist with each sale ($31,200 in 2016,

$55,200 in 2017 and $81,250 in 2018). In

each of these cases the paintings were

from private homes and in their original

condition. Mattern was a student of Rudolf

Bauer, a master of non-objective painting

and his influence is in evident in her work.

Overall, we are encouraged and excited

for the upcoming fall season.

SHANNON’S FINE ART AUCTIONEERS

49 Research Drive, Milford, CT 06460

(203) 877-1711,

popularity in modern and

contemporary art. Freshness

to the market and condition

of the works are both crucial

factors for our clients, so we

concentrate on taking works

in on consignment that are

not overly exposed and in

“ready to hang” condition.

Our top genres in the April auction

were American modernism and American

impressionism. We had remarkable results

for modernist paintings by George L.K.

Morris, Alice Mattern and Emil Bisttram—

prices that we would not have expected

as recently as three years ago. The market

for modernism continues to rise and we

expect to see it continue to perform well

in our fall auction.

In the American impressionist market,

we continue to see quality works bring

outstanding results. For instance, in our

last auction, we sold a stellar John Joseph

Enneking of children in a sunlit field.

The painting was estimated at $5,000 to