Jackson's Indiana Art Auction Results & Prices January 27th 2013

John Ottis Adams Painting Sells to the high bidder for $30,000

John Otis Adams
Brookville

January 27th, 2013 - The Jackson auction in Indianapolis, Indiana, opened with two Hoosier Group artists who studied together in the early 1800s at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany.  John Ottis Adams (1851 to 1927) and fellow artist Theodore C. Steele (1847 – 1926) were part of a group of well-known Indiana Impressionist painters that worked in the late and early 19th century. The Hoosier Group consisted of five artists; the remaining three were Richard Gruelle, William Forsyth, and Otto Stark. The group first received their name in 1894 by Chicago art critic Hamlin Garland during an exhibition at the Denison Hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. Garland named them the Hoosier Group and sponsored the same show in Chicago.  In addition to being members of the Hoosier Group, John Adams, William Forsyth, and Steele joined with other regional artists to form the Society of Western Artists.

The Adams painting up for auction appeared to be painted around the Brookville Indiana area where Adams and T.C. Steele purchased a house in 1898, later known as the Hermitage. The painting measured 26 x 32 was an O/C and Signed Lower Right.  With an auction estimate of $30,000 to $50,000 and a lot of interest among buyers, the final price reached the low end of $30,000. Perhaps because the painting had been repaired due to what appeared to be a small puncture in the sky.  The T. C. Steele landscape painting of Cattle grazing in a valley reached the high end of its $25,000 to $35,000 estimate, selling at $35,000. Measuring 30 x 45 and signed lower right 1914, the painting was another nice Steele that has come up for auction in the last year.

Lillian Dunnigan
Rockport

Six paintings from the husband and wife artist Neil (1921 to 1997) and Lillian (1921 to 2010) Dunnigan were offered for sale. Neil was a Neil Dunnigan - Soldier resident of Brown County, Indiana, from 1962 until his death. He married Lillian Raney, who also became an artist both had a studio in the Village Green at Town Hill Rd in Nashville In. Paintings by LiGreen included “Owens Farmstead”  18 x24 O/C SLR $100 estimated at $200 to $400, “Paoli” 12x16 WC SLR that was a no-sale estimated at $200 to $400. Paintings by Neil “Red Umbrella 19x22 WC SLL $150 with a pre-auction estimate of $200 – 400 and “The Farm in Winter” 11x15 WC SLR $175 estimated at $150 to $300.

Jackson has also been representing living artists in their auctions with two nice paintings from Painting Indiana II “The Changing Face of Agriculture.” Scott Sullivan's painting titled “Inquisitive” 30 x 36 O/C SLR with an estimated price of $3,000 to $6,000 brought a final bid price of $2,250. Another painting from the same book was by artist Robert Farlow www.robertfarlow.com. It was a  very nice painting of horses titled “Discing Amish Style”  SLR and 24 x 30 o/c reached $4,000 about the midpoint of its $3,000 to $6,000 estimate. Wayne Manns www.waynemanns.com, the Bloomington Indiana artist, had music-themed paintings for sale.  A 40 x 33 musical collage O/S SLR ‘00 reached $525 of its $500 to $1,000 estimate.  There were also several other nice paintings by Mann that were sold to collectors of his works.

Other Indiana Art Auction Prices of the day included:

Ida Gordan,  8x10, O/C, SLR,  Winter Landscape sold for $1200
Ida Gordan, 24x20, O/C, SLL, Daisies $800
Robert Selby,  24x36, O/B, SLR 86 “Hill Country Ranch” $550
Frank Vietor,  11x14, Acrylic, SLR, Locomotive, $350
George Herbert Baker,  18x24. SLR,  “Autumn at its Best” $500
Harry Davis, 29x21, Mixed Media, SLR, “The Opening” Murphy’s 10 cent store, $2,250