Edgar Payne coming to April Auction

Works by Edgar Payne coming to April 2027 Auction

One could say that Edgar Payne (1883-1947)  was an artist who lived between two worlds, equally at home among the celebrated California Impressionists and the rugged landscapes of the American West, where he found an endless source of inspiration. Interestingly enough, Payne was originally schooled in a third academic discipline as he studied portrait painting at the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s. While his luminous coastal scenes and majestic Sierra Nevada paintings established him as one of California’s most accomplished plein air painters, his travels throughout the Southwest revealed another side of his artistic identity, that of a chronicler of the West and its extraordinary people and landscapes. In many ways, Payne bridged these two traditions, bringing the color, light, and painterly sophistication of California Impressionism to the monumental scenery and romantic mythology of the American West. Payne’s first breakthrough with his Western subject matter came in 1917 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad asked him to paint the Southwest, along the railroads’ path from Albuquerque to California. Along the way, he visited the Four Corners, the Navajo Nation, Canyon de Chelly and Yosemite.

In 2022, the Scottsdale Art Auction sold a painting by Edgar Payne titled Arizona Indians (25 x 30”) for $438,750, the fifth highest total ever paid for a Payne at auction. In 2015, they sold Payne’s Desert Skies (30 x 34”) for $292,500; and in 2021 they sold Burning the Hogan (28 x 34”) also for $292,500. Another important result came in 2023 when the auction house sold Riders in Canyon de Chelly (25 x 30”) for $282,500.