Artwork from the Collection of Artist James D. Smillie

In the 2014 Spring season, Swann is pleased to offer a selection of works from the collection of American painter/printmaker James D. Smillie.

Smillie (1833-1909), a New York artist known for his engravings and landscape paintings, owned these works in the late 19th century and then the pieces descended through his family to the current owners.     Swann’s April 29, 2014 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints features a very scarce set of 12 proofs of Smillie’s most celebrated engraving, The Rocky Mountains (Lander’s Peak), 1865-66, after the painting by Albert Bierstadt.    

Significant works from Smillie’s collection are also offered in our June 12, 2014 American Art auction. These include a recently discovered pen and ink drawing by Winslow Homer–a study for his watercolor Fresh Air, 1878, now in the Brooklyn Museum of Art–as well as a pen and ink still life by John LaFarge and several Hudson River School oils by Smillie himself.