10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
12
HOMER DODGE MARTIN (AMERICAN 1836-1897)
LADY SEATED BY AN EXPANSIVE RIVERSCAPE, POSSIBLY NORMANDY
signed with initials HDM lower left
oil on canvas
61 x 50.5cm; 24 x 19 1/4in
87.5 x 76.5cm; 34 1/2 x 30 1/8in (framed)
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Homer Dodge Martin was encouraged to pursue an artistic career by Erastus Dow Palmer (1817-1904). During the early 1860s, Dodge Martin spent his summers in the Catskills, Adirondacks and White Mountains and composed expansive lake and mountain views in the manner of the Hudson River School. From 1882-1886 he lived in France spending much of his time in Normandy, influenced by the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin. Adopting the looser brushwork of both artists he earned the label the 'first American impressionist' and on visits to England he befriended James McNeill Whistler.
He returned to New York in 1893. Ill with cancer, partially blind and suffering from depression, he moved to Saint Paul in Minnesota. There in 1895 he painted two of his best known works, Adirondacks Scenery, painted from memory and Harp of the Wind, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The present oil combines the sublime of the American landscape with Dodge Martin's facility to paint en plein air learnt from the French Barbizon painters.
Sold for £1,800
LADY SEATED BY AN EXPANSIVE RIVERSCAPE, POSSIBLY NORMANDY
signed with initials HDM lower left
oil on canvas
61 x 50.5cm; 24 x 19 1/4in
87.5 x 76.5cm; 34 1/2 x 30 1/8in (framed)
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Homer Dodge Martin was encouraged to pursue an artistic career by Erastus Dow Palmer (1817-1904). During the early 1860s, Dodge Martin spent his summers in the Catskills, Adirondacks and White Mountains and composed expansive lake and mountain views in the manner of the Hudson River School. From 1882-1886 he lived in France spending much of his time in Normandy, influenced by the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin. Adopting the looser brushwork of both artists he earned the label the 'first American impressionist' and on visits to England he befriended James McNeill Whistler.
He returned to New York in 1893. Ill with cancer, partially blind and suffering from depression, he moved to Saint Paul in Minnesota. There in 1895 he painted two of his best known works, Adirondacks Scenery, painted from memory and Harp of the Wind, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The present oil combines the sublime of the American landscape with Dodge Martin's facility to paint en plein air learnt from the French Barbizon painters.
Auction: Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026, 10th Jun, 2026
L.S. Lowry’s expansive Figures on a Beach (lot 39) is the lead painting in our June sale that ranges from the Old Masters to Modern British and post-War & Contemporary. Many of the works have been in the same collection for decades; a number have fascinating stories attached.
The first seven lots of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters are from the collection of Paul Wertheimer. Acquired almost hundred years ago, Wertheimer brought the works to England when he fled Germany in 1938. Leading the group are 17th century panels attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck and Lucas van Uden, the latter a reduced copy of Rubens’ original in the Royal Collection (lots 1 & 4). Another early panel, a portrait of Cornelisz. Van Beresteyn, is by a follower of Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld (lot 9).
Works by fellow artists and friends Augustus John and Edgar Augustus ‘Loben’ Slade (lots 20-25) feature John’s early portrait of Loben and five works on paper by the lesser known Slade, nephew of the founder of the Slade School of Art, one of which is a watercolour of Jessie McNeill, John’s model, muse and mistress.
Also in the sale are seven works by Australian artists, including Jeffrey Smart, William Blamire Young and Leonard French, all from a private collection in Surrey (lots 30-36), and ten paintings from a Cheshire Collection that features the work of Helen Bradley, Edouard Cortes and Marcel Dyf together with bracing coastal views by Campbell Archibald Mellon (lots 40-48).
A small and fascinating work on paper is by Paul Nash. It captures the view of Harry Rocks off Ballard Down from Nash's flat in Swanage where he was living in the mid-1930s and which he incorporated into his Surrealist work ahead of the major Surrealist exhibition in London of 1936 (lot 27).
Beside the Lowry beach scene, other post-War works include an important early sculpture by James Tower (lot 52), a leading sculptor-ceramicist of his generation. Other post-War abstract works include examples by Frank Avray Wilson, James Hull and Etienne Beothy (lots 50, 51, 55 & 57).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th June: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 8th June: 10am - 8pm (Drinks 5 - 8pm)
Tuesday 9th June: 10am - 5pm
