A painting that spent two decades hanging in a Park Avenue pied-à-terre and more than 60 years in a single family's hands is finally heading to the auction block. Wayne Thiebaud's 1965 portrait “Girl in White Boots,” depicting an 18-year-old Blair Sabol in a yellow mod-style dress and white go-go boots, carries a Christie's estimate of $3 million to $5 million.
The painting is a rare portrait by the famed pop-art painter being offered at auction for the first time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It will cross the block at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale in New York on Nov. 17, with Sabol herself serving as both seller and subject. Ed and Audrey Sabol, Blair's parents, commissioned the portrait from Thiebaud, and the finished work remained in the family's collection for more than 60 years, per the same report.
Four Days of Sittings That Produced a Breakthrough
Sabol, who now lives in Arizona, sat for Thiebaud for four consecutive days, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., while wearing the same yellow dress and white boots she had worn to high school in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, in 1965. The resulting canvas, measuring 5 feet by 6 feet, is considered a breakthrough work for Thiebaud, and the artist reportedly gave it his own private nickname: “Whistler's Daughter.” He is said to have told Sabol, “You're the best cake I ever painted.”
The portrait's public profile grew quickly after it was completed: it appeared on the cover of Artnews in April 1966, cementing its place as an early signature piece. Sabol later moved to New York after finishing high school and attended Finch Junior College, and she went on to pick up the nickname the Abbie Hoffman of Seventh Avenue, the Chronicle reports. She has called the painting iconic of its moment in time.
From a Family Apartment to the Legion of Honor
For two decades, “Girl in White Boots” hung in the Sabols' Park Avenue pied-à-terre before making its way into wider public view. Its last San Francisco appearance came in 2001, when it was shown at the Legion of Honor museum. Sabol has said she hopes the painting will someday be exhibited again in California.
Rachael White Young, co-head of Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale, described the work as an early figure painting that demonstrates Thiebaud's technical range beyond the candy counters and pie cases for which he is best known. Thiebaud first gained acclaim in 1962 for paintings depicting a colorful, quintessentially American array of bakery, cafeteria and delicatessen displays, according to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which mounted a 65-work Thiebaud exhibition at the Legion of Honor in 2025.
Thiebaud's Long Climb From Arizona to the Auction Record Books
Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1920, and his family moved to California the following year, according to Christie's. He achieved his career breakthrough after being included in the 1962 New Realists exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and he later received the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. government in 1991. He turned 100 in November 2020 and died the following year.
Thiebaud first began painting San Francisco in the 1970s and continued depicting the Bay Area throughout his career, Christie's press materials note in coverage of “City Views,” a work commissioned for the Gladstone Institutes in 2004 that Christie's offered for the first time in its 2022 20th Century Evening Sale with an estimate of $10 million to $15 million.
The artist's auction record dwarfs the estimate set for “Girl in White Boots.” His 1962 painting “Four Pinball Machines” sold for $19,135,000 at Christie's in July 2020, and “Candy Counter” later sold for $12.5 million, or $14.7 million with fees, against a $10 million-to-$15 million estimate, according to The Art Newspaper. That same outlet reported that Thiebaud's 1962 still life “Avocado Salad” returned to market for the first time in at least 55 years with an estimate as high as $1.8 million.
Market watchers have pointed to Thiebaud's “Toweling Off,” which sold for almost $8.5 million at Christie's in May 2021 against an estimate of just $1.2 million to $1.8 million, as evidence of what Art and Object called a phenomenal rise in prices for late-career artists of his stature. The outlet suggested part of that enduring popularity simply comes down to Thiebaud's longevity and long career, noting that the same May 2021 sale saw Alice Neel's 1966 painting “Dr. Finger's Waiting Room” fetch a record $3 million against an estimate of only $600,000 to $800,000.
Whether “Girl in White Boots” will match or exceed its own estimate remains to be seen when bidding opens next month in New York. For now, the painting stands as a rare glimpse into Thiebaud's early figurative work, one that spent decades out of public view before resurfacing as a centerpiece of Christie's fall sale.
