An oil on canvas landscape painting by the Scottish-born abstract modernist William Gear (1915-1997), titled Paysage, Mai 50 (May Landscape, 1950), sold for $11,875, and a large oil on canvas maritime seascape work of a brigantine ship at sea by Wesley Elbridge Webber (Am., 1841-1914) brought $9,375 at Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers’ November 25th sale.
The Gear painting depicted an amalgamation of abstracted naturalistic forms in an earthly palette over a gray background, and was housed in a 33 inch by 26 ½ inch frame. The work was signed and dated in the lower right corner (and verso) and had a compelling back story and provenance.
In 1950, the same year Gear painted Paysage, Mai 50, he left Paris, where he’d been living, for New York, to take part in a joint exhibition with his esteemed contemporary, Jackson Pollock. It would be Gear’s one and only American exhibition. While in the States, Gear met the woman who would be his future wife – Deborah Chertok – and he gifted this very painting to her sister.
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