Art: Pioneer

Mary Quinn formed her taste in art early. Her taste was advanced. As a small girl she loved an impressionist landscape her aunt had painted before Impressionism existed. As an art teacher until she was 40, when she married Manhattan Lawyer Cornelius J. Sullivan, Mary Quinn kept buying the work of unknown artists. Once she stranded herself in Paris by spending every sou she had with her on a Rouault and a Segonzac. She never had resources like those of her good friends Abby Rockefeller and the late Lizzie P. Bliss, with whom she helped found the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. But Mary Quinn Sullivan’s pioneering judgment brought her a notable collection for a notably small sum.

Last week Mrs. Sullivan’s own collection of Cézannes, van Goghs, Toulouse-Lautrecs, Gauguins, Picassos, Derains, Modiglianis, Soutines and the rest was sold at Manhattan’s Parke-Bernet Galleries. It was the most important auction of modern art in a decade, and nearly every outstanding dealer and collector in the U. S. was there—except Mrs. Sullivan herself. Day before she had died quietly in her sleep.

Most perfect tribute to Mrs. Sullivan’s career was the sale itself. Total sum fetched by the 202 items: $148,730. Each noteworthy picture that passed across the velvet-draped stage brought a rustle of admiration. Rustles were frequent.

More than its quality made the Sullivan sale significant. As the first major auction of modern French painting since dealers’ prices in this field skyrocketed in the ‘203, it gave ever-suspicious private buyers a line on whether prices had been puffed up unduly. With collectors making most of the high bids, dealers were vindicated. Chunky, art-loving Walter P. Chrysler Jr. set a new U. S. auction record for Cézanne by bidding $27,500 for a sombre portrait of Mme Cézanne. An anonymous collector paid $19,000 for van Gogh’s high-keyed portrait of Mile Ravoux, smeared on the canvas with a palette knife.

Other big prices: $2.500 for Rouault’s The Clown; $1,600 for Modigliani’s Lunia Czechowska; $3,500 for a Derain still life; $3,000 for a Redon flower piece. Collector Chrysler also bought small Picasso and Cézanne water colors for $1,350 and $1,625 respectively.