William Herbert Dunton Masterwork at Bonhams & Butterfields
Published February 12th, 2008
Bonhams & Butterfields April 8, 2008 sale of California & American Paintings and Sculpture.
The marquee lot of the spring auction is an exceptional fresh-to-market work entitled Sunset in the Foothills by William Herbert Dunton (est. $150/200,000). Typical of Dunton’s technique, the 16×20-inch oil on canvas work is a reduction of shape to vital geometric form thus creating recurring patters pleasing to the eye of the viewer.
Anxious from the pressures associated with being a commercial illustrator, Dunton relocated to Taos, New Mexico in 1914. He became head of Taos Fish and Game Conservation Group after 1915. In 1920, the artist’s health began to fail and he was relegated to “dry” hunt, producing landscape sketches in a variety of sizes in the mediums of paint and pencil. “Many of his later sketches, including Sunset in the Foothills are by far the most sought after of Dunton’s works. It is by far one of the artists most abstract and ornamental sketches. We are pleased to offer such a rare and fresh-to-market work in April,” said Scot Levitt, Director of California & American Painting and Sculpture at Bonhams & Butterfields.
