Image: Courtesy of Phillips
Jessie Homer French’s Winter Eden, Chernobyl sold for $21,930 at Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Online Auction, New York, on Sept. 16-30, 2025, in New York City. A self-taught artist, French has been painting for over four decades, but her work has only recently received the attention it deserves.
To be fair, French has always taken the view that she paints for herself, never entertaining the idea that others would be interested in her work. She credits her late husband, Robin French, a Hollywood talent agent and producer, as well as the help of an old family friend, for helping her art reach a global audience. Within the last couple of years, French has seen her work featured at various galleries, the prestigious Venice Biennale and on billboards next to the High Line in New York City. Still, in a 2024 interview with the New York Times, French reiterated that she’s not sure “financial success is good for a painter.”
Destruction, both man-made and natural, as well as death, are recurring themes in French’s art. Despite the morbid subjects, which include cemeteries, wildfires and even the biohazardous Chernobyl site, which appears on our cover this month, French’s works are a sort of juxtaposition—whether it be the lush spring blooms alongside graves or the winter calm of wildlife grazing in the snow alongside biohazard signs.
Some of our other favorites, from Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Online Auction, New York, on Sept. 16-30, 2025 in New York City, appear throughout
the issue.
