REPRINTED FROM AMERICAN FINE ART MAGAZINE | ISSUE 41 | SEPT/OCT 2018



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