NEW YORK, NY.- On May 22, Bonhams American Art sale will be led by Fantasy by Charles Prendergast, a highly-detailed and complex composition in its original frame made by the artist (estimate: $200,000-300,000). Created circa 1916-18, this work is an exceptional example of the artist’s carved pictorial panels and exhibits Prendergast’s unique mosaic-like style with loose mythological and biblical iconography. Fantasy has remained in the same family since circa 1924 and has been exhibited at major American museums.

Jennifer Jacobsen, Director of American Art, comments: “From the exceptional painting by Prendergast and an early figurative bronze by Elie Nadelman to a lovely selection of Modernism, Impressionism, and Maritime art, our upcoming sale has a diverse selection of works representing the genres of American Art through the 19th and 20th centuries.”

Another highlight of the sale is Elie Nadelman’s Standing Female Nude from the Collection of Mr. Michael Hall (estimate: $200,000-300,000). Modeled circa 1912, this is an example of Nadelman’s modern aesthetic—embodying both classic and modern ideals of the female figure and is one of three known casts of this model.

Additional highlights include Entente Cordiale, a superb and exotic jungle scene by Orville Bulman that is the largest to come to auction (estimate: $40,000-60,000); Stephen Hannock’s The Oxbow, for Lane Faison with Betty and Agnes Mongan, executed in 2011, is a majestic landscape and the second largest example from this series as well as the first from this significant series come to auction (estimate: $30,000-50,000); U.S. Frigate in a Naval Engagement by James Edward Buttersworth, depicts a U.S. Naval Frigate engaged in a battle with a rescue scene in the foreground (estimate: $60,000-80,000); Marvin D. Cone’s interior scene Night Adventure, which has never been on the market, was originally a gift of the artist in the early 1960s and has descended in the same family (estimate: $40,000-60,000); and a selection of several quintessential geometric abstractions by Charles Green Shaw with estimates ranging from $8,000 to $25,000.