Milton Avery - Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, May 15, 2024 | Phillips
  • “My interest has always been people.”
    —Inger Elliott

    Treasures from the Estate of Inger and Osborn Elliott

     

    Inger and Osborn Elliott cultivated an art collection worthy of praise. Their home served as a jewel box of taste, with brightly colored walls adorned with paintings, photographs, and drawings, all delicately and masterfully curated.  The couple's diverse collection reflects their devotion to New York City's cultural, intellectual, and civic spheres, while also spanning a global reach of artistic styles and techniques. Inger, originally from Norway, had a passion for photojournalism that brought her to Southeast Asia, where she documented the Vietnam War from a helicopter. She would later go on to found China Seas, a design firm specializing in batik textiles. Osborn, a revolutionary Newsweek editor and social advocate, went on to become the Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Trailblazers in their own regard, the Elliotts amassed a collection including rare, early works by Willem de Kooning, Wassily Kandinsky, and Milton Avery, among those by many other innovative modern and post-war painters, photographers, and printmakers.
     

    Inger and Osborn Elliott.

    Inger and Oz's eye for style, together with a casual, chic approach to curation, set them apart from other collectors. It is their charisma that lives on through these artworks, proving that a distinct approach to collecting yields the finest quality. These artworks not only have excellent provenance, but also exhibit a unique rarity and quality, remarkably contemporary despite their age. 

    • Provenance

      Private Collection
      Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, New York, May 16, 1973, lot 170
      John J. McDonough, Youngstown, Ohio
      Inger Elliott, New York (acquired from the above)
      Thence by descent to the present owner

    • Exhibited

      New Orleans Museum of Art; Raleigh, The North Carolina Museum of Art, A Panorama of American Painting, The John J. McDonough Collection, April 18, 1975–June 1, 1976, no. 1, pp. 21, 115 (illustrated, p. 115)

Property from the Estate of Inger and Osborn Elliott

111

The White Hen and Fantasy Creatures (double-sided)

signed and dated "Milton Avery 1947" lower left of the recto; signed "Milton Avery" lower right of the verso
gouache and watercolor on paper, double-sided
22 3/8 x 30 3/4 in. (56.8 x 78.1 cm)
Executed in 1947.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $95,250

Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
NY Head of Auctions and Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 May 2024