Mel Gibson, wife put $15 million Parrish works on the auction block
Mel Gibson and his wife, Robyn, who filed for divorce last year, are selling a $15 million Maxfield Parrish collection at Christie's International on May 20 in New York, according to two people familiar with the situation. Christie's declined to identify the seller.
The works are identified in the auction catalog as "property from a private American collection."
The priciest painting is expected to be Parrish's famous neo-classical "Daybreak" (1922), rendered in luminous glazes, including the artist's signature cobalt blue.
The painting depicts an encounter between a young girl and a reclining toga-clad maiden, framed by columns and a heroic mountain landscape. The work is estimated at a recession- friendly $4 million to $7 million.
Robyn Gibson acquired the painting at Christie's in New York in May 2006 for $7.6 million, setting a record price for Parrish at auction. The painting previously fetched a record $4.3 million at Sotheby's in 1996, selling to billionaire James Jannard, founder of the Oakley Inc. sunglasses company.
"'Daybreak' is an idealized view," said Judy Goffman Cutler, executive director of the American Illustrators Gallery. "It's beautiful, calming and romantic."
The painting was originally created for reproduction as a print and was wildly successful. Reproductions were owned by a quarter of American households, according to Cutler. Parrish dubbed the work his "Magnum Opus," according to Christie's.
Robyn Gibson acquired many of her Parrish paintings from Cutler's gallery, buying since the mid-1990s, according to Christie's auction catalog.
Whoopi Goldberg
Parrish, who died in 1966, is perhaps best known for his illustrations for magazines such as Hearst's and Life, as well as his advertisements. After his death, demand grew for his original paintings. Well-known Parrish collectors include comedian Whoopi Goldberg and director George Lucas.
The May auction also includes a 13-foot-long 1910 mural "Sing a Song of Sixpence," based on the children's nursery rhyme. The Gibsons acquired the painting in 1995 from the American Illustrators Gallery, and it hung in the dining room of their Greenwich, Connecticut, estate. It's estimated to sell for as much as $3.5 million.
The mural was originally in Chicago's Sherman House Hotel. Parrish created 11 murals during his lifetime, according to Christie's, including "Old King Cole," which adorns the bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York.
The sale also includes the 1912 "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," originally made as a cover for Hearst's magazine. The painting features a trio of slumbering nymphs and is estimated to sell for as much as $2.5 million.