“My interest has always been people.”
—Inger ElliottTreasures 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.
“It is wonderful how much depends upon the relations of black and white... A black and white, if properly balanced, suggests color.”
—Winslow HomerWinslow Homer’s work of the 1880s is largely defined by his sea scenes, compositions inspired by his 1883 relocation from New York City to a remodeled carriage house on his family’s estate in Prouts Neck, Maine, a mere seventy-five feet from the ocean. The title of Eight Bells refers specifically to ships’ timekeeping methods, which are arranged in four-hour watch shifts. In this watch system, eight rings of the bell signify the end of a shift at 4:00, 8:00 and 12:00 a.m. and p.m. – each toll represents thirty minutes. Here, two sailors calmly record their vessel’s location in rough and stormy seas using a sextant and a chronometer, two astronomical instruments used to calculate longitude from the horizon and celestial objects. Homer expressed interest in the writings of oceanographer Matthew Maury (1806-1873), who made connections between scientific measurements and divine order. Eight Bells thus not only serves as a depiction of sailors’ everyday work, but also as a meditation on mankind’s struggle to comprehend nature, the seafarers navigating the same Atlantic waves that crashed on the beaches and rocky cliffs of Homer’s seaside studio. Adapted from one of his most well-known paintings of the same name, the powerfully simplified and asymmetrical composition heightens the drama of seafaring and reveals Homer’s familiarity with principles of Japanese design.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Concise Illustrated Biography of Monk Nichiren: Calming the Stormy Sea at Tsunoda in Exile to Sado Island, 1835-36, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939, JP2860 Literature
Lloyd Goodrich 96
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF INGER AND OSBORN ELLIOTT
71
Eight Bells (G. 96)
1887/1941
Etching, on imitation Japanese paper, with full margins.
I. 19 x 24 1/2 in. (48.3 x 62.2 cm)
S. 24 1/8 x 29 5/8 in. (61.3 x 75.2 cm)
With the artist's anchor and dial remarqués, printed by Charles S. White, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, framed.
Estimate
$2,000 - 4,000
Sold for $1,905
editions@phillips.com
212-940-1220
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 27 June 2024
