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Yesterday I attended a preview and today the auction of some great New England art at the James D. Julia Auction in Fairfield, Maine. I went with my painter friend Renee Lammers. I had discovered the auction after returning from our trip to Vermont a few weeks ago. I had been looking up Aldro T. Hibbard paintings on the internet to study when I stumbled onto the James D. Julia site. I feel so lucky to have discovered the upcoming auction of the collection of the late John F. Gale. John F. Gale was a self made man living in Cambridge, Ma. who spent his money on the New England artists he loved. He had so many paintings that he literally was out of wall and floor space. He even had paintings in front of windows and standing on the floor in his bathroom! He collected paintings by Aldro T. Hibbard, Emile Gruppe, William Lester Stevens, Fredrick John Mulhaupt,  T. M. Nicholas and many other fine painters. Hundreds of paintings.  Mulhaupt's  "Gloucester Gill Netters"  sold for $50,000.

This Hibbard " Motif #1 In Winter" 9"x11" ended in a fast paced bidding battle between several buyers and sold for $27,000! It was slated in the catalogue to sell for $4000 - $6000. 

Here is a photo of the bidding!

You can see the painting in the big monitor screen on the right. 

This is Hibbard's " Winter Harbor Scene With City Views" 8"x10". It sold for $11,500 more than doubling it's estimate. Many of the small paintings were laying on tables and during the preview we were allowed to pick them up to inspect and photograph them. 

Here are two more favorites of mine.

"Snowy Vermont Landscape" 9"x12" selling for $6000 with a $3000-$4000 estimate.

"Vermont Valley In Winter" 8"x10" sold for $7,500 with a $3,500-$5,500 estimate.

There were so many paintings to see and learn from and it was such a thrill to watch the bidding. Now that it has been auctioned the likelyhood of it ever being seen as a whole again are slim. I feel so priviledged to have watched this history in the making. 

BTW James D. Julia, Inc. does a beautiful job with their auctions. There is plenty of room to move around and look at the items and they have a fantastic buffet on auction day. All in Fairfield, Maine just 20 min. up the road from my house!