American Art Week in New York is the traditional reopening of the auction world each January—coincidentally timed, this year, with another American tradition that just took place in D.C. The sales landscape for American art has evolved with the country itself: Once a bastion of Main Line and Boston Brahmin respectability—all pie-crust tables and animal-themed weather vanes—the sales now feature works from some of the great American landscape and natural history painters of the 19th century, like Thomas Cole, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Martin Johnson Heade. For example, Cole’s Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire has the highest estimate among the single-owner collection of 43 American paintings on offer at Christie’s this week. At $800,000, the estimate sets up the potential for a new record auction price, which currently stands at $1.4 million, although there have been private sales of Cole’s work at prices into the eight figures.