Lot 19

Property from the Charles E. Sigety Collection This season Christie’s is honored to offer works from the Charles E. Sigety collection. These days, we have noticed a trend: most collectors stick to the straight and narrow when it comes to building their collection. Methodically they settle on a particular theme, an artist or type of art, provided it suits their budget. They doggedly make careful purchases, staying focused within their narrowly defined collecting area. Charles E. Sigety was emphatically not that type of collector. You might accurately term him a collector of collections. Over many years, Mr. Sigety enthusiastically collected in a remarkably wide range of fields. Art was a central theme from the beginning. Among the many drawings, watercolors and paintings are important works of American Illustration by Maxfield Parrish, J.C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell, and others. The collection also features original comic drawings and caricatures, by Al Hirschfeld, Ernie Bushmiller, Morris Weiss and others; rare books and first editions including the seminal Federalist Papers, 1788, urging ratification of the Constitution, a fine multi-volume set of the Journals of Congress and a book from George Washington’s library (The Adventures of Gil Blas, 1775). In addition, Mr. Sigety acquired a strong series of illustrated ornithological folios with spectacular hand-colored illustrations after Marc Catesby, John Gould, Pierre Levaillant and others. Mr. Sigety found original letters and documents fascinating, and amassed a sizeable quantity of presidential and historical documents, featuring at least six signed by Thomas Jefferson, as well as items signed or written by William Henry Harrison, Sam Houston Patrick Henry (“give me liberty or give me death”), Ben Franklin and other patriots. The Charles E. Sigety Collection is unique in its range and scope, perfectly reflecting the collector’s unstinting, multi-faceted interests and the intense pleasure he derived from his various collections. Christie’s is honored to offer lots 19 to 28 from the collection.

Stevan Dohanos (1907-1994)

Art Lover (Tired Museum Feet)

Details

Stevan Dohanos (1907-1994)
Art Lover (Tired Museum Feet)
signed 'Stevan Dohanos' (lower left)
oil on masonite
30 ½ x 24 in. (77.5 x 61 cm.)

Provenance

The artist.
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1992.

Brought to you by

Elizabeth Beaman

ebeaman@christies.com 212-636-2140

Lot Essay

With career accolades spanning from The Saturday Evening Post covers to stamp designs for the United States Postal Service, Stevan Dohanos’ illustrations touched the hearts and minds of many Americans throughout the post-War years. Born in Ohio in 1907, Dohanos was a founding member of the Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut, and gained notoriety through the more than 120 Post covers he created during the 1940s and 1950s, most of them featuring scenes from everyday life, including baseball games, gas stations, barns and children at play. His work can be found in such acclaimed institutions as the Cleveland Museum, Cleveland, Ohio; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The present work is a preliminary version of the cover of the March 3rd, 1956 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. In the final work, the seascape depicted here is replaced with a view of Venice.

More from American Art

View All