On July 22, Richard Stedman Estate Services LLC of Florida’s Tampa Bay will be auctioning important Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney bronze and monumental stone sculpture by the Whitney Museum founder and great granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt from her landmark Old Westbury, Long Island, New York studio.
Featured will be the Arlington Fountain, one of the most photographed garden statues in America and the centerpiece of the studio and grounds. Three nude males support a garland rimmed bowl above a stylized floral banded basin, 46” high x 44” diameter with a verdigris outdoor garden patina. This example was kept by its creator Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, with two other examples being at McGill University in Montreal and in Lima, Peru. The artwork has its own Wiki page detailing its commission for the Arlington Hotel in Washington, DC before a remodeling change. At Stedman’s January auction of interior Vanderbilt Whitney sculpture a few garden works were included where a bronze Shepherd brought $137,500. This example carries an opening bid of $200,000 ($400,000/800,000).
A second 81” pedestal basin fountain from the studio entrance by rarely seen on the market sculptor John Bateman of a water nymph carries an opening bid of $20,000 ($40,000/80,000). Bateman created monumental sculptures for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition where he exhibited alongside Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
Bracketing the vista as one approached studio were this monumental pair of bronze Chinese Qing or Japanese Meiji 56 in. wide lotus urns ($10,000/50,000).
A treasure trove of never before seen Vanderbilt and Whitney family ephemera discovered in Studio storage will include over a dozen soiree costumes worn by Gertrude and others, including this numbered vintage Balenciaga lace gown likely created for Flora Whitney Miller ($1,000/$10,000) and Gertrude’s $339,000 estate jewelry appraisal from 1942 By Witherbee Black of Black, Starr & Frost ($300/3,000).
The auction is additionally offering Vanderbilt letters, photographs, several lots of family gold jewelry and eight other partial estates including Chapellier Galleries Rosenberger heirs artworks, items from the late Mayor of Sarasota and modern art from several Palm Beach County collections. Some lots are available for Florida preview at Stedman’s St. Petersburg offices while the garden items are sold from storage during the studio’s staging for sale of the real estate with Tri-State pick up coordinated by Richard Stedman’s upstate New York warehouse.
