The following description for has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon

 

Note 1) In response to Mr. Fastov’s e-mail of September 14, 2012 regarding this Eastman watercolor, to the Western Reserve Historical Society, Dean Zimmerman, a curator of the Society, telephoned Mr. Fastov in late September, and advised him that the Society very much liked the watercolor; was interested in it; and that the Society had absolutely no reservations about the watercolor depicting a scene on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, with a view of some of the early settlement buildings of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Fastov had written a letter of February 18, 1983 to Rena N. Coen, Professor of Art History, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, asking her to authenticate this watercolor, as being by Seth Eastman, and had provided his reasons for such authentication, because Mr. Fastov had obtained a recommendation that he seek assistance from and consult with Professor Coen from William Truettner, then Chief Curator, of the then National Collection of Fine Arts, in Washington, D.C. (now the Smithsonian Museum of American Art), who stated, in effect, that Professor Coen had a reputation of studying extensively Eastman’s works of art, including his water colors, and was regarded as the art expert on Eastman. In a letter to Mr. Fastov of February 23, 1983, Professor Coen replied, in part, as follows:

Dear Mr. Fastov:

I believe you are quite correct in attributing your watercolor to Seth Eastman. In addition to your own perceptive observations on Eastman’s style, I would add the following comments:

1.      Your picture displays the artist’s characteristic water color palette, namely, soft, rather muted tones of blues, greys and browns.

2.       The treatment of the Indians look typically Eastman-ish to me. In his watercolors, Eastman usually sketched Indians in broad, rather rapid strokes, and made them appear rather lumpish. In contrast to his oils where the Indians are much more carefully delineated and appear far more dignified.

3.      The treatment of the lake as a broad, flat, luminous sheet of water is also typical of Eastman’s other watercolors….”

Professor Coen’s very lengthy, detailed and impressive obituary of October 19, 2001 appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and stated, in part, at the outset:

Art historian Rena Neumann Coen, whose influential books and lectures on 19th-century Minnesota artists illuminated long-ignored aspects of the state's cultural history, died Thursday at her home in St. Louis Park. She was 76 …. Coen worked on a new book about Minnesota Impressionist painter Nicholas Brewer until shortly before her death, said Patricia Condon Johnston, head of the Afton Historical Society Press, which published Coen's 1997 "Minnesota Impressionists." Afton Press also interviewed her for a recent TV program it co-produced with Twin Cities Public Television about Seth Eastman, a 19th-century soldier and artist at Fort Snelling (Emphasis added).

In his letter to Professor Coen of February 18, 1983, seeking her authentication of his watercolor as being by Eastman, he discussed the following 3 major reasons, as to why he was certain that this watercolor was, in fact, executed by Eastman, as follows:

I believe that Eastman’s most distinctive (perhaps unique among Western artists of this period) stylistic characteristic is one of his methods of handling sky and cloud formations. The clouds in my watercolor have a scudding, erratic, somewhat jagged quality. [Mr. Fastov then cites her to plates of Eastman watercolors manifesting these characteristics in Francis McDermott’s (1902-1981) two publications on Eastman, Seth Eastman, Pictorial Historian of the Indian” (“Pictorial Historian”) (plates 4, 94, and 114) and Seth Eastman’s Mississippi, A Lost Portfolio Recovered (“Mississippi”) (plates 3, 5,17, 20, 25, 27, 28, 37, 41, 45, 46, 50, 51, 53, 65, etc.) Mr. Fastov could not consult McDermott in 1983, as he died in 1981] To the best of my knowledge, no other western artist of this period executed sky and cloud formation in this manner.

The placement and handling of bushes, leafy vegetation and broken tree limbs in a soft, loose manner in the foreground of my watercolor can be found in a number of Eastman watercolors. See, e.g., plates 80, 81, 94 of Pictorial Historian and plates 4, 6, 11, 12, 24, 43 and 68 of Mississippi.

The inclusion of, and soft, somewhat sketchy rendering of a group of Indians (in the right foreground of my watercolor) is also typical of Eastman watercolors. See, e.g., plate 80 of Pictorial Historian, plates 11, 19, 28, 43, 69, and 71 of Mississippi, and the “Sioux Encampment, Probably Shakopee’s Village” as illustrated in Volume 87, No. 3, plate 8 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections entitled “Seth Eastman: The Master Painter of the North American Indian.” Please note the handling of the vegetation in the foreground of this plate, as well.

There are other less distinctive characteristics, e.g., the texture of the landscape in mid-ground, that appear in other Eastman watercolors. In any event, the presence of all of the above-three major Eastman characteristics in my watercolor, especially the handling of the sky, have led me to conclude that my watercolor is definitely by Eastman. In this regard, none of the other contemporary western artists manifest all of these compositional and technical characteristics. In this regard, I am familiar with and reviewed the work of other contemporary western artists. Those manifesting superficial and partial stylistic similarities to Eastman and this watercolor (e.g., Miller, Stanley and Bodmer) do not stand up under close scrutiny.

When I talked to Bill Truettner, he suggested that the scene in my watercolor could well be on the Great Lakes.

[At that point, Mr. Fastov was not aware of the writing on the verso of the watercolor that it depicted Lake Erie and Cleveland, 1833, which first surfaced in the conservation of the watercolor in 1984. Thus, he expressed the view in his 1983 letter to Professor Coen, that he thought his watercolor might be a view of the Mackinac from the promontory in front of the fort. Professor Coen stated that she “did not personally know the area around Mackinac but you seem to be right about the spot where Eastman painted your picture.”] Copies of this Fastov/Coen correspondence will be furnished to the purchaser of this lot.

 

Note 2) Per Askart.com, in addition to several paintings in the U.S. Capitol, Eastman 's work is held in 24 major museums, including a significant number in the West and Midwest of the U. S., and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA, Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC, National Academy of Design Museum, NYC, NY, and Fogg Art Museum: Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA.

Askart.com provides the following biographical sketch of Eastman:

"

Biography from Thomas Nygard Gallery:

Seth Eastman, who spent more time among the Indians of the trans-Mississippi West than probably any other artist of his day, was one of the few to record the ordinary activities of nineteenth century Indian life. Born in New Brunswick, Maine in 1808, he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1824 where he trained as a topographical draftsman. He was assigned to duty on the western frontier and, possibly influenced by the visits of artists such as George Catlin, produced some of his Indian studies in 1829.

In 1833, he was appointed assistant drawing instructor to Robert Weir at West Point. Five years later he exhibited at the National Academy of Design. Assigned to the frontier outpost at Fort Snelling in 1841, Eastman made many studies of frontier and Indian scenes. In 1849, he collaborated with his wife on several books about Indians. His wife, an accomplished writer, is said to have inspired Henry W. Longfellow’s "Hiawatha." Seth Eastman was the principal illustrator for Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's definitive study of the American Indian and, after serving in Texas during the Civil War, was commissioned by Congress to execute a number of scenes of Indian and frontier life for the Senate and House Chamber at the Capitol.

In addition to his work at the Capitol, Eastman's paintings hang in the Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Gilcrease Museum, the Stark Museum and the Joslyn Museum of Art. (Emphasis added)."

Note 2) See also the Phillips, de Pury & Company catalogue entry for the Eastman watercolor for lot 65 (below), which brought $120,000 and makes clear that it is virtually certain that Eastman painted this July 1833 watercolor, when he was returning east from his service "from 1831-3 as the artist for a topographical reconnaissance mission of frontier forts," having been "transferred to Fort Snelling in Minnesota," per Phillips, de Pury & Company, in order to take on his new job of an appointed assistant drawing instructor to Robert Weir at West Point (see Eastman bio above). Phillips, de Pury & Company stated:

"Eastman studied drawing while at West Point before being assigned to Fort Crawford on the Mississippi River where for four years he documented tribal gatherings and in 1830 he was transferred to Fort Snelling in Minnesota, now Minneapolis, and then served from 1831-3 as the artist for a topographical reconnaissance mission of frontier forts. From 1841 to 1848, he returned to Fort Snelling and sketched both Dakota and Chippewa subjects. The Sun Dance depicted in this lot was performed by two young men who would dance with whistles in their mouths for several days while fasting."

The catalogue provides the additional following commentary: "Works such as these in Eastman's collections were received with great acclaim by artists' circles. In 1848 he exhibited a number of them at the National Academy of Design and Cincinnati's Western Art Union. A critic from the St. Louis Republican noted 'Since we have known something of Eastman's pictures, and of Indians, we have ranked him as out of sight the best painter of Indian life the country has produced; a superior artist to Catlin-he has lived and painted for years among the Indians, where Catlin has spent months; his gallery now, is far more complete in all that relates to Indian character, than is Catlin's; and there is in the latter, an effort at effect, as apparent as in the truth of Eastman, to anyone who has really seen Indians.' As a result of Eastman's success and the positive reception of his work, he and his family were moved to Washington, D.C., in 1851 to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He had been chosen as the official illustrator for a five-year, Congress-approved publication to record all of the Indian tribes of the United States, authored by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. The result was the six-volume Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (1851-1857). The illustrations for these volumes were etchings based upon original works executed by Eastman while at Fort Snelling. Published on November 30, 1852, Worship of the Sun, Dakota Dancers appears as an engraving executed by R. Hinshelwood in volume III as plate 27. (Emphasis added).”

Note 3) Mr. Fastov's research to date convinces him that the Eastman watercolor is one of the earliest artistic works depicting Cleveland, and may well be the earliest known artistic view of Cleveland extant. These factors, along with the following considerations, establish that the above presale estimate of $80,000-$150,000 is reasonable and justifiable. Such considerations include: the high artistic standing of Eastman (see Askart.com bio sketch of Eastman in Note 1) above), who painted a number of paintings for Congress, that are in the U.S. Capitol building. Moreover, this watercolor: is of historic significance to the City of Cleveland, Ohio and the State of Ohio; depicts and features Indians as the primary human figures featured in this watercolor; is a very attractive and appealing composition; and is consistent with the style and technique of Eastman's best Western watercolors. In addition, such estimate is supported by Eastman's auction records, Eastman auction sales records (below). See the following relevant auction records of the rare Eastman's watercolors, in which Indians are depicted, all of which are significantly smaller (3 are 6 in. x 8.50 in. and 1 is 6 in. x 9 in.) than the Eastman watercolor that is being offered at this auction (8 in. x 12 ¼ in.); 3 of which appear to be significantly faded, while the 1 watercolor that brought $120,000, had bright, vibrant colors like this Eastman watercolor, that is being offered at this auction. Most importantly, none of these 4 watercolors have historic ties to and depict a rare, early 19th century image of what would become a major American city, Cleveland, Ohio; and this auction watercolor, to the best of Mr. Fastov’s research and knowledge, may well be the earliest known view of Cleveland, to further justify a conclusion that the above presale estimate of $80,000-$150,000 is reasonable and justifiable.

Sotheby's New York - STRIKING THE POST

Title/Subject: Striking The Post Signed and dated. Watercolor on paper. 6 in. x 8.50 in. sold for $68,500 on 5/21/2009 at Sotheby’s, NY

Coeur D'Alene Auction - Buffalo Hunt

 

Title/Subject: Buffalo Hunt Watercolor/on paper. 6 in. x 8.50 in. sold for $84,000 on 7/28/2007 at Coeur D'Alene Auction, ID

Coeur D'Alene Auction - On the St. John's River, Florida

Title/Subject: On the St. John's River, Florida Watercolor/on paper. 6 in. x 8.50 in. sold for $42,000 on 7/28/2007 at Coeur D'Alene Auction, ID

Phillips, de Pury & Company - Worship of the sun, Dakota Dancers

Title/Subject: Worship of the sun, Dakota Dancers Signed. Watercolor on Paper. 6 in. x 9 in. sold on 05/22/2001 at Phillips, de Pury & Company, NYC