Frontier Life

Sculpture and Western art claim the top slots at Bonhams' American art sale in New York City

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James Earle Fraser (1876-1953), The End of the Trail, 1918. Bronze with brown patina, 334 in., signed and dated with foundry mark from Roman Bronze Works. Estimate: $500/700,000 SOLD: $749,800

Western art, a widely collected sub-genre within American art, lassoed its way to the top of Bonhams' $6.5 million American art sale on April 30 in New York City. Not only were seven of the top 10 lots Western works or by artists who spent a great deal of time in the West, but tied for the top lot was a work by Frank Tenney Johnson, whose works of cowboys and Native American are iconic within the genre.