Lydia Dunham Fabian Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Lydia Dunham Fabian Art Value Price Guide

Mar. 10, 2024
Lydia Fabian, American (1857-1947) Painting
Est: $75 - $100
Lydia Fabian, American (1857-1947) Painting Watercolor on Paper. "Village Scene" Signed Lower Left & Dated '09. In Original Frame Under Glass. Has Not Been Examined Out of Frame. Condition: Generally Good in Beautiful Carved Wood Frame Under Glass. Dimensions: Sight-13" x 3.5". Frame-24.25" x 14.75". Provenance: From a New Jersey Estate. Please note the absence of a Condition Report does not imply that there are no condition issues with this lot. Please contact us for a detailed Condition Report. It is the Buyer's responsibility to inspect each lot and deem their own opinions on Condition, Description, Provenance, and Validity before purchasing. Please make an appointment to preview or ask for Condition Reports. Condition Reports are rendered as an opinion by the staff of the Auction House and not as statements of fact. REMEMBER ALL SALES ARE FINAL AND ALL ITEMS ARE SOLD AS-IS, WHERE IS.
World Auction Gallery
Dec. 17, 2022
Lydia Dunham Smith Fabian, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico (1867-1947), Faraway Thoughts, 1926, oil on canvas, 27" x 21", 34 3/4 3/4" x 30 1/2" (frame)
Est: $400 - $600
Lydia Dunham Smith Fabian Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, (1867-1947) Faraway Thoughts, 1926 oil on canvas signed lower right. Signed, titled and dated verso on frame. From the collection of Edward P. Bentley, Art Researcher and Historian, Greenville, Michigan. Biography from the Archives of askART: Lydia Dunham Smith Fabian (1857-1947) Absent from any exhibitions for a number of years, Lydia Dunham Fabian, an accomplished artist and somewhat of a world traveler, presented 34 of her latest oil paintings at an exhibition held at Newcomb, Macklin & Company, Chicago, in August of 1923. In defining her work, she commented, "To tell a story in a picture may not be according to modern ideas, but almost every picture here is a narrative." Upon which the interviewer remarked in appreciation, "It is an exhibit that should be generally interesting for Mrs. Fabian has come back into her own." One of three daughters, Lydia was born March 22, 1857, in Charlotte, Michigan to Alonzo and Julian Ann (Temple) Dunham. Mr. Dunham maintained a tanning business, begun shortly after his marriage to 1851, in nearby Wayland, Michigan for a number of years. In 1875, about the time of Lydia's graduation from high school, the family moved to Spring Township, Crawford County, Pennsylvania and shortly thereafter she began her artistic study in the New York Metropolitan Art School. (Mrs. Fabian's reference in the 1930 Who's Who in American Art states that she studied at the Art Students League. The Metropolitan Art School, the Art Student's League, the National Academy of Design, plus another ten schools of various statures were available in New York by the late 1870's. Yet, according to an article from the North Central College Archives where she began teaching in 1904, the New York Metropolitan Art School was listed in her references. Of the schools mentioned, no verifying documents were available or the school no longer exists.) Accordingly, she then became the private pupil of Isabel Ross (dates unknown) and Ellen Baker (1839-1913) both prominent Americans in Parisian art circles at that time. Later study included time with Lucie Honiss of Pisa, Italy. Ossip Linde in Chicago and Henry Hensche of the Cape School of Art are also further mentioned as instructors, thus giving her quite a well rounded and international training. Almost nothing is known about her life during the decade of the 1880's. Having returned home to the United States after her European sojourn, we find her listed in the 1880 census as 23 years of age, an artist, and living at her parent's home in Spring Township, Pennsylvania. She is mentioned next in the obituary of her father who died in 1890. Just the previous year he had moved to Toledo, Ohio. Lydia is mentioned as married - Mrs. Lincoln Smith - and also living in Toledo. She is noted in the local directories there, beginning in 1889 through 1895, as a portrait artist in that city. Around 1895 her husband found employment as a traveling salesman with the Emery, Bird, Thayer & Company, a department store out of Kansas City, Missouri. At that time it was the largest such store in the Southwest. She and her husband moved to nearby Eureka, Kansas, near the home of her uncle, F.A. Temple, later that same year. With that time of relative security, she decided to continue her artistic studies and enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, beginning with the Antique Class in January of 1897, and continuing through September of 1898. Her instructors there included John H. Vanderpoel, who specialized in instruction in water colors, Charles Francis Browne, Pauline Dohn, J. Buckley, Martha Baker, and Louis Wilson, among others. She also gained an honorable mention for her work while still a student there. In March of 1900 her husband died of pneumonia while on a trip to Kansas City, and he was returned to Eureka for burial. Lydia continued to live there and in Wichita, Kansas, for several years before eventually finding employment and appreciation, in 1904 as an art instructor with North-Western College (now North Central College) in Naperville, Illinois. She held this position until 1912 when, for reasons unknown, she turned in her resignation. By 1915 Lydia had remarried - she was now Mrs. Ernst Fabian - and living at 3916 Lake Park Avenue in Chicago. She continued her artistic travels, spending time in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area, which, like Taos was also the site of a flourishing art colony. In her work she included the area's unique architecture in her portraits and genre scenes of Native American's - some of which were acquired by the Santa Fe Railroad. Mrs. Fabian was one of the exhibitors included in the inaugural showing at the New Mexico Art Museum in Santa Fe in 1917 and in July of 1918 she holds a one-person show there. The artist also spends summers the Saugatuck, Michigan area, becoming a part of the Ox-Bow Summer School of Painting. In addition, she exhibited with the Chicago No- Jury Society of Artists in 1921 (Salon des Refuse) and 1922, and in 1939 and 1940 at the Navy Pier shows. She continued to paint and to find time for her second interest, photography, until her unofficial retirement in 1934 when she moved to a "retirement" apartment building at 3510 Lake Park Avenue in Chicago. There, after a brief bout with pneumonia, she died on May 25, 1947, at the age of ninety. Biographical information: Census Records, plus information provided by: Mary Jean Baker, Gene Meyer (Chicago No-Jury Research), North Central College Archives, Who Was Who in American Art and the Illinois Historical Art Project. Written and submitted by Edward P. Bentley, researcher of Lansing, Michigan.
Ripley Auctions
Sep. 09, 2017
PARROTS BY LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (AMERICAN, 1857-1947).
Est: $600 - $800
PARROTS BY LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (AMERICAN, 1857-1947). Oil on canvas, signed lower right. Backed on panel and framed as triptych. 31"h. 35.5"w. overall.
Garth's Auctioneers & Appraisers
Mar. 16, 2013
WAGON SCENE BY LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (AMERICAN, 1857-1947).
Est: $400 - $800
WAGON SCENE BY LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (AMERICAN, 1857-1947). Oil on canvas, signed lower left. Depicting a man leading a covered wagon being pulled by two mules. 17.5"h. 25.5"w., in a gilt frame, 24.75"h. 32.5"w.
Garth's Auctioneers & Appraisers
Sep. 10, 2010
Lydia Dunham Fabian (American, 1857-1947)
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
Lydia Dunham Fabian (American, 1857-1947) Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico oil on canvas signed l.r. housed in original Southwestern frame 19.5 x 25.5 in.
Cowan's Auctions
Mar. 02, 2008
Lydia Dunham Fabian (American, 1867-1947) "Still
Est: $800 - $1,200
Lydia Dunham Fabian (American, 1867-1947) "Still Life," c. 1900, oil on canvas board, 12" x 10", signed lower right, framed
Toomey & Co. Auctioneers
Jul. 20, 2005
LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (American b.1867) "Summer Landscape" (Dogwoods) Oil on canvas, signed lower right. 22" x 36".
Est: $800 - $1,200
LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (American b.1867) "Summer Landscape" (Dogwoods) Oil on canvas, signed lower right. 22" x 36".
Jackson's International
Jul. 20, 2005
LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (American b.1867) "Country Lane in Fall Landscape" (Dogwoods). Oil on canvas, signed lower right. 22" x 28".
Est: $500 - $750
LYDIA DUNHAM FABIAN (American b.1867) "Country Lane in Fall Landscape" (Dogwoods). Oil on canvas, signed lower right. 22" x 28".
Jackson's International