The word is out! Collectors are already buzzing about Moran’s upcoming Art + Design sale, featuring a recently discovered, fresh-to-market painting by the American Modernist Agnes Pelton. Only a handful of canvases by Pelton’s desirable ‘transcendental desert’ period have come to market in the last 50 years!
Agnes Pelton was a trailblazing artist who skillfully merged spiritual and abstract elements in her works. Born in 1881, Pelton spent much of her life exploring the depths of mystical symbolism and abstraction. Created in 1929 at the zenith of her career, “Flowering” is a stunning example of her transcendentalist style. Estimated at $300,000-500,000, the oil painting measures 24″ H x 19″ W and is presented in the original Pelton-designed silver-grey frame. In its day, “Flowering” was well exhibited in art shows, including in 1929 at the Montross Gallery in NYC, 1931 at the Plainfield Public Library, New Jersey, the Ogunquit Art Center, Maine, the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, and the 1932 Annual Exhibit of the Society of Modern Artists, Brooklyn, New York.
Pelton came to California after visiting the state in the late 1920s. A student of Theosophy, Agnes Pelton found her new home in the desert town of Cathedral City. This move conveyed the depth of inspiration, if not spiritual ecstasy for the artist. The relative isolation of the desert kept Pelton insulated in comparison to her contemporaries, but in time, Agnes Pelton would become one of the most influential and inspirational female painters of the last century. The acclaimed retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020 would solidify the artist’s reputation and catapult her into a rarified spotlight alongside Georgia O’Keeffe.
“Flowering” has a rich provenance, having passed from the artist through the hands of Pelton’s friends and neighbors, Matille Prigge “Billie” Seaman and then to Josephine Morse True, both of Cathedral City, CA. True moved from Cathedral City to San Diego, CA, where the painting was sold to Mrs. Anne-Marie Boyce in the 1990s. Unseen in public for nearly one hundred years, “Flowering” was re-discovered by Moran’s during a routine estate consignment walk-through. To learn more or to register to bid, go to johnmoran.com.
