The collection of well known 19th century explorer-artist paintings is being live auctioned on May 17. All of the proceeds will go to help conserve ecosystems.
" The Stewards of the West: The Knobloch Collection" is the private collection of the late Carl W. Knobloch. He collected artwork at his family residence in Wilson that reflected his interest in the natural world.
Tylee Abbott, the Head of American Art at Christie's, said this resulted in collecting work from landscape artists of the American West, including Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt.
"The earliest work in the collection by Moran is an 1874 watercolor of Yellowstone Lake," said Abbott. "And this watercolor is interesting, actually, because it was part of a series of watercolors that were reproduced in chromolithographs and distributed to what was a growing wealthy public with interest in the West and in Yellowstone in particular."
Abbott said the auction coincides with the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park.
"It's definitely a special moment for Yellowstone, for Wyoming, and for Thomas Moran and these works in the collection," he said. "And I just think that it does, and I hope that it does, translate and provide evidence to the incredible interests that we continue to have today, 150 years later, in Yellowstone."
The proceeds will go to Knobloch's non-profit, the Knobloch Family Foundation, which works to conserve natural ecosystems in the West.