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Fine Art, Jewelry, Design & Asian Art

Wed, Dec 2, 2026 02:00PM EST
  2026-12-02 14:00:00 2026-12-02 14:00:00 America/New_York SebastianCharles Auctions SebastianCharles Auctions : Fine Art, Jewelry, Design & Asian Art https://bid.sebastiancharles.com/auctions/sebastiancharles-auctions/fine-art-jewelry-design-asian-art-25136
Bidding is now open for our Fine Art, Jewelry, Design & Asian Art auction, Day 2 of our three-day December sale, featuring paintings, prints, sculpture, fine jewelry, watches, porcelain and Asian works of art. Highlights include a George Gardner Symons 'Winter River' oil on canvas, an 18K gold Tiffany & Co. Mark Coupe resonator watch and a Dale Chihuly "Persian Set," alongside works by Bridget Riley, Joan Miró, Rufino Tamayo and Chen Chi-Kwan, and more. Auction is Wednesday, December 2nd at 1 PM CST. Local pickup is December 7th, 8th and 9th from 1 to 5 PM at 5263 Edina Industrial Blvd, Edina, MN. Shipping is available on all lots.
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Lot 282

John Whorf "The Wrecked Schooner" Watercolor on Paper

Estimate: $700 - $1,400
Starting Bid
$400

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$50 $10
$250 $25
$1,000 $50
$2,000 $100
$4,000 $250
$10,000 $500
$20,000 $1,000
$50,000 $2,500
$100,000 $5,000
$500,000 $10,000

Signed lower left. After Winslow Homer image.

 

Image: 15 1/4" Tall x 22 1/4" Wide 

Frame: 25 1/2" Tall x 31 1/2" Wide 

 

Condition: Slight undulation to the paper. Otherwise the watercolor is in good condition. Please see images for more details. 

 

Artist Bio: John Whorf (1903-1959) was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and trained first with his father, the commercial artist Harry Whorf, then in Provincetown and in Paris. His first Boston one man show, at the Grace Horne Gallery in 1924, sold out, and he quickly became known as the city's leading watercolorist. In 1929 the critic Lloyd Goodrich called him perhaps the most brilliant watercolorist in America, and Whorf went on to show for decades at the Milch Galleries in New York and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1947. He settled in Provincetown in 1937 and painted Cape Cod for the rest of his life.

Whorf's watercolors are built on speed and economy: broad wet washes, the white of the paper left for light, a few decisive strokes for rigging or figures. That approach belongs to the New England tradition of John Singer Sargent and above all Winslow Homer, whose late marine watercolors made the medium a serious vehicle for American painting. "The Wrecked Schooner" takes its subject from Homer's watercolor of the same title, one of his last, a storm tossed schooner caught on the rocks off Prouts Neck, Maine.

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