Weekend

It’s been a relaxing and illustrative weekend...

Saturday:
After a nice breakfast with my mom, and some Christmas shopping, Greg and I went to the Illustration House auction. My favorite lots, the two Mead Schaeffers went for something around $35,000.00 each. It was sad to see them go. The Society bought a great early Bernie Fuchs from McCalls Magazine. We didn't have his earlier editorial work represented in the collection before. There was a Charles Knight comp (although it was the size of a large painting) for one of his murals at the Museum of Natural History, but it did not meet it’s reserve price. I was sorta glad, feeling that it really belongs at the museum...although, clearly, if they felt the same it would be there already. It reminded me that the Society doesn't own a Knight dinosaur painting -- a real shame, not to have the man who brought dinosaurs back to life represented. If anyone finds one in the attic.....

Sunday:
Mark Korsak, Greg, and I went up to the New Canaan Library for the opening of a Peter de Seve exhibit. Along the way we decided to detour into New Rochelle to see if we could find the library Rockwell's Land of Enchantment lives in. As luck would have it, we arrived just as the doors were opening. A beautiful painting. The librarians kindly looked the other way when we started climbing on furniture to get a closer look at it. Then we went to see J. C. Leyendecker’s house, or at least we think we were at his house. It’s a day care now. Then it was off to the Peter’s show. He does such great work...such a sharp wit, without ever getting cynical or meanspirited. The exhibit had a cross selection of his New Yorker covers, book covers, and theater posters. We ran into David Johnson and Barbara McClintcock, both wonderful artists, at the opening. And then it was off to dinner and off for home.

All and all....a very nice weekend.

Top: Mead Schaeffer. Detail of Saul Tepper. Bernie Fuchs. Charles Knight. The auction. Middle: Rockwell painting. Leyendecker house. Mark and Greg. Bottom: New Yorker cover. Peter and daughter. Crowd.