Christie’s will hold its American art sale on May 19th and Georgia O’Keeffe is the tent pole holding up the $40-60m sale:

This comprehensive auction features 98 lots with works ranging from major American modernists, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Max Weber, to 19^th-century masters, Frederic Edwin Church, John Singer Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler.

Leading the sale, is a large-scale painting  by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), Lake George Reflection, painted circa 1921-22, from the Collection of J.E. Safra (estimate: $8,000,000-12,000,000). Four exceptional works by Georgia O’Keeffe highlight The Collection of Kippy Stroud, who was the founder of the Fabric Workshop Museum. Led byRed Hills with Pedernal, White Clouds, painted in 1936 (estimate: $3,000,000-5,000,000), this work embodies O’Keeffe’s lifelong fascination with shapes and colors found in nature as well as her close connection to the American Southwest. Also included in the collection is an early abstract watercolor by O’Keeffe, Blue I, executed in 1916, (estimate: $2,500,000-3,500,000), which represents her investigation of pure abstraction and acts as one of the earliest and most original abstract images in the history of American art. Blue I is the current auction record for a watercolor by O’Keeffe, having previously sold for $3,008,000 at Christie’s New York.

From The Collection of H.F. ‘Gerry’ Lenfest is Max Weber’s (1881-1961), New York, painted in 1913 (estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000), which is among the earliest works to depict America’s energized and technologically advanced era at the turn of the century.

Highlighting the 19^th-century works is an exceptional landscape by Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), A New England Lake, (estimate: $3,500,000-5,500,000), painted in 1854.

Other 19^th-century highlights come from the Gail and John Liebes Collection, including a stunning portrait by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925),François Flameng and Paul Helleu, painted circa 1880 (estimate: $1,200,000-1,800,000) and a large-scale floral still-life by John La Farge (1835-1910), Hollyhocks, painted in 1863 (estimate: $600,000-800,000).