Art Auction Is a Farewell to Friend

One day in 1945, an 18-foot camper pulled into Rose’s Trailer Park in El Cajon, bringing tenant George Thackeray a new neighbor. Like Thackeray, the newcomer was a struggling artist--a former cavalry rider, New Mexico cowboy and New York City cop named Olaf Wieghorst.

The two became fast friends, setting up their easels side by side in San Diego’s rural backcountry, painting landscapes, weathered barns, farm animals and horses. Lots of horses.

Two years later, when Thackeray took over the Victor Doyle Frame Shop in downtown San Diego and turned it into a gallery, Wieghorst’s paintings were among the first offered for sale.

On Friday, 15 days after the death of Wieghorst, 15 original oils and watercolors by the renowned Western artist will go on the auction block at Thackeray Gallery, along with an estimated 1,200 other paintings, sculptures, prints and Indian artifacts the 73-year-old Thackeray has accumulated.

After four decades in the business, the proprietor of one of San Diego’s oldest and biggest galleries is retiring.

“When you get into your 70s, you want to go out and see the sunshine for a change,” Thackeray said recently at his rustic ocean-view home on Point Loma. “I’m fixing up my old motor home and turning it into a studio. That way, I can restore paintings, travel or do both. . . . Instead of me chasing the business, the business can come looking for me.”

Thackeray estimates the value of his collection at $1.5 million to $2 million. But he expects at least a third of whatever the auction brings to be accounted for by the sale of his 15 prized Wieghorsts.

“Olaf is the granddaddy of the Western painters,” Thackeray said. “He had a real nice feel for the color and the atmosphere of the West, and he had a very excellent knowledge of the horse that he managed to convey through his paintings. Art experts now consider him one of the best contemporary American painters to invest in, ranking right up there with Remington and Russell.”

One of Wieghorst’s best-known paintings, “Navajo Madonna,” sold in 1982 for $450,000. Three years later, it was sold as a package with “Navajo Man” for $1 million, a rarefied figure for Western art.

Three American presidents--Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan--have owned Wieghorst paintings. Eisenhower’s Wieghorst hung in the Oval Office throughout his 8-year administration. The artist’s Western work appealed to such other notable American politicians as Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater and Carmel, Calif., Mayor Clint Eastwood.

Wieghorst died April 27 at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa. He was 88.

The three-day auction at Thackeray Gallery (321 Robinson St.) begins Friday at 6 p.m. and continues at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The pieces will be previewed for potential buyers for two hours before the bidding starts each day.

Among the collection are oils and watercolors by 20th-Century American painters Leland Curtis, Jimmy Swinnerton and Stan Poray. There will also be English, German, Dutch and Italian oils, watercolors, etchings, engravings, mezzotints and limited-edition prints from the 17th through 19th centuries, and works by 19th-Century American realists James MacDougal Hart, Rosa Bonheur and Louis Lang.

Other auction items include antique Indian baskets, kachina dolls and miscellaneous artifacts, including original bronze, stone and wood sculptures by such artists as Mehl Lawson, Wayne Hunt and John Kittleson.

The biggest item on the block at Thackeray Gallery is the building itself, a 10,000-square-foot, three-story edifice built in 1912 as a church.

Thackeray, a native Bostonian, came to San

Diego in 1940 with the Navy. After completing his five-year tour of duty, he began supporting himself--or trying to support himself--as an artist.

“Back then, I did a real mixed bag: oils, watercolors and pastels of animals, children, and lots of horses and dogs,” Thackeray recalled. “I sold my paintings through word of mouth, on speculation, and by going around to horse shows, dog shows and the county fair.”

In 1947, Thackeray became a partner in the Victor Doyle Frame Shop, where he had been buying most of his art supplies, and a year later took over completely.

“Right away, I began switching to the gallery business,” Thackeray said. “I was still earning most of my money, however, from making custom frames--I used to advertise, ‘No job too big, no job too small.’ ”

Before long, Thackeray Gallery had grown to the point where the proprietor no longer needed to make custom frames to pay the rent. He regularly sold contemporary paintings by local, national and international artists, as well as older European oils--many of which he personally restored.

In 1950, Thackeray took on the added chore of running the art exhibit at the Del Mar Fair, continuing in that role until 1956. In the late 1950s, he also served as president of the San Diego Art Institute and the La Jolla Art Assn.