Hopper painting star of Christie’s American sale

Edward Hopper’s masterpiece East Wind Over Weehawken, Charles Demuth’s In the Key of Blue, Oscar Bluemner’s Surprise (May Moon), and Milton Avery’s Mandolin with Pears are among the masterworks of American Modernism due to be offered at Christie’s sale of American Art on December 5 in New York.

Hopper’s East Wind over Weehawken tipped to be the star lot of the sale. A streetscape of a New Jersey suburb, it was created shortly after Hopper’s fall 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career. It is estimated to fetch as much as $28 million.

Elizabeth Sterling, head of American Art at Christie’s in New York, said, “Christie’s is honored to have been entrusted by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with the sale of East Wind Over Weehawken by Edward Hopper.

“On the heels of our May sale, which achieved the highest total that the category has seen since May 2008, it is clear that the market for American Modernism is thriving.  Examples from the genre have soared at auction in recent seasons, driven by a renewed demand for these masterpiece-quality works.”