Competitive bidding on December 10 night pushed the price for a 1914 oil on canvas painted by E. Charlton Fortune to a record high for the artist. The Winter sale of California and American Paintings & Sculpture established a new world auction record for Fortune when the artist’s Late Afternoon, Monterey sold for $1,832,000 – the highest price ever paid for a Fortune work crossing the auction block.

By 1913, E. Charlton Fortune was spending summers on the Monterey Peninsula. Working in obscurity for much of her career, Fortune utilized the ‘E.’ (for Euphemia) to disguise her gender when submitting art to shows and competitions. She was born in Sausalito, CA in 1885 and was living in Europe by her early teens. Although the artist is possibly better known for her later work in the genres of portrait and religious compositions, Late Afternoon, Monterey is an earlier impressionistic style painting with emphasis on subtle color and light. The fresh-to-market work is one of several known Fortune depictions of Monterey, each capturing the natural beauty of Monterey’s rugged landscape.

Posted: 12|30|07 at 11:31 am. Filed under: US News.