15 Wieghorst Originals to Be Auctioned

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 back-country, 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 works offered for sale.

Today, 15 days after Wieghorst died at 88, 15 original oils and watercolors by the renowned Western artist will go on the auction block at Thackeray Galleries, along with about 1,200 other paintings, sculptures, prints and Indian artifacts that the 73-year-old Thackeray has accumulated.

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

“When you get into your 70s, you want to go out and see the sunshine for a change,” Thackeray said during a recent interview in his rustic ocean view home in 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 between $1.5 million and $2 million. But he expects at least a third of whatever the auction brings to come from 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, “Navajo Madonna” was sold as a package with “Navajo Man” for $1 million, a high figure for Western art.

The three-day auction at Thackeray Galleries (321 Robinson St., San Diego) begins today at 6 p.m. and at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Each day, the art will be previewed for two hours before the bidding starts.

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.

The building housing the Thackeray Galleries building, a 10,000-square-foot, three-story edifice constructed in 1912 as a church, is also on the auction block.