Lot 85, Larry Dodd Wheeler, Crossing the Creek, Oil on canvas, Estimate: $5,000-$7,000
The Eleventh annual Sporting Art Auction at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion in Lexington, Kentucky, was held last fall. The event was a cooperative venture between the world’s largest Thoroughbred auction house and its Lexington, Kentucky neighbor, Cross Gate Gallery, a leading dealer in the world’s finest sporting art.
Bids may be made online or by phone for works by well-known artists at estimated prices as low as $1,000 to $3,00—a charcoal sketch by Sir Alfred Munnings, for example. Many lovely hunting paintings go in the $3,000 to $10,000 range. At more rarefied altitudes, an Andrew Wyeth painting might bring six figures, and several of LeRoy Neiman’s works are offered, one of which will surely fetch six figures. All lots may be reviewed on the online catalog: 2023 Catalogue | The Sporting Art Auction.
Lot 81, Sir Alfred Munnings, Young Herdsman at Mendham, Oil on canvas, Estimate: $250,000 – $350,000
This year’s offerings feature 214 lots − painting, sculpture, and charcoal − substantially more than last year. The works cover a wide range of sporting and country life: racing, foxhunting, horses, hounds, upland shooting, farming, angling, yachting, and wildlife in various media.
Lot 90, Julie Ann Bull, Young Fox, Oil on board. Estimate: $1,000 – $2,000
The hammer will fall on works by major sporting artists, both contemporary and of the past, such as Sir Alfred Munnings, John Frederick Herring, Harry Hall, Richard Stone Reeves, Henri Delattre, John Emms, George Wright, Peter Biegel, Sir Edwin Landseer, Michael Lyne, Andre Pater, LeRoy Neiman, John Skeaping, Henry Stull, Franklin Voss, Larry Dodd Wheeler, Sandra Oppegard, and others.
Lot 207, Henry Faulkner, House in Key West, Oil on board, Estimate: $15,000 – $20,000
Also included in this year’s auction are eight oil paintings by a Kentucky-born favorite son, Henry Faulkner, an eccentric mid-twentieth-century bohemian artist and poet who produced somewhat abstract, somewhat folk, vibrantly colorful oil paintings now held in collections around the world. Orphaned at age six, Faulkner grew up in foster homes yet was destined to become close friends with the biggest screen and literary figures of the time. Bette Davis, Vincent Price, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound, and others of their ilk were dear friends and collectors of his work. Faulkner died in an automobile accident in 1981 in his late fifties. He was a guest at numerous A-list parties and exhibits around Lexington, often accompanied by Alice, his bourbon-drinking goat.
Lot 147, LeRoy Neiman, Secretariat, Oil on board, Estimate: $125,000 – $150,000