Alderman Merriam’s Shells, 1951
Painted by Gertrude Abercrombie, a Chicago Surrealist artist, the painting Alderman Merriam’s Shells had been missing from public view for 75 years. As happy as we are to have recaptured the record sale price for an artist we have long championed, we are even happier for our eagle-eyed consignor who saved this masterpiece from staying forever lost to time.
“A rare instance of the artist painting directly from life, it confirms that the shell motif in her later solitary shell paintings, long presumed invented, was drawn from observation and memory,” the auction house said in a release. The Abercrombie shooting the moon was obviously the high point of the day, but the rest of the sale shone bright, with great results across the board to add to the magic of the day,” said Zack Wirsum, Senior Vice President, Head of Department, Post War & Contemporary Art, speaking about the sale. The work depicts nine finely rendered seashells on a slate-grey surface, with a single conical shell suspended by a thread against a black wall, appearing to levitate above the rest. The shells were real, and so was their owner. Robert Merriam was alderman of Hyde Park, the Chicago neighbourhood where Abercrombie lived and worked. Hence the title. “No fairytale would be complete without a storybook ending, and Gertrude Abercrombie’s Alderman Merriam’s Shells selling for a new auction record is as happily ever after as it gets. I love it when good things happen to good people and when the story unfolds in reality just as we wrote it.