The result comfortably addresses estimates of $4 million to $5.6 million for the David Clarke Collection and $5.04 million to $6.71 million for the remainder from which one or two substantial lots were unsold.
Chairman Geoffrey Smith might have been excused if he had broken out Thank Heavens for Little Girls but the words did not quite fit. One of the paintings was of a girl and the other a boy. A few kids' portraits by other artists like Bob Dickerson and Bernard Hall were horrors.
Even if the melody from Gigi was not quite appropriate, the auction had a very pronounced champagne touch from start to finish. The record auction price for a Florence Fuller Weary, (Lot 103 ) a portrait of what a reviewer of the time it was painted called a young “street arab” or vagabond was the biggest surprise even if the price was just a little over the top estimate.
In the excitement of a strong room bidder on the lot, Smith taking a phone bid, made a jumped up knock out bid which he was, on being prompted, allowed to withdraw. The painting sold for $230,000 hammer or $280,600 premium against estimates (excluding BP) of $150,000 to $200,000. John Brack's First Daughter (Lot 5 ) painted in 1955 made $884,500 and also went to a member of the Sotheby's squirearchy on the phone.
Both paintings of kids behaving themselves, the “First Daughter” on the floor drawing and the Fuller of a homeless young lad slumped against a wall, also went. Both could have been good institutional buys but in view of the different bidders numbers used, they probably would not have gone to the same institutional buyer.
The Art Gallery of NSW has been adding to its collection and display of women's art and is believed to have looked at the work closelyat the Fuller, Titled Weary, the Fuller, painted in 1888, has a long exhibition and literary history, the primmer Brack, (a painting of the artist's daughter from an early series of the same), has a slightly shorter such history so they were not exactly pulled out of a hat. But both of these known pictures were fresh to the saleroom.
The price for the Fuller, a large work, surprised as late Victorian narrative paintings are not in their market prime. That is perhaps partly why it was placed towards the end of the catalogue although that, nowadays, is where the “traditionals” are placed. Because for lack of outstanding examples, interest in the period has faded. Most of the chef d'oeuvres (CDO) or best representative examples, went into public collections in the 1980s. This 91 by 71 cm work could be described as a CDO. The previous record for a Fuller was A Golden Hour sold by McKenzies Auctions in Perth in July 2012 for $87,400, to the National Gallery of Australia.
South African- born Fuller worked mostly in her adopted Australia. The price therefore represents further growth, not only in Victorian sentimental child portraiture but in the work of Australian women artists. It follows the sale in May last year through the same auction house of Tom Roberts Miss Minna Simpson painted in 1886 for nearly $1 million.
That portrait of Minna in a mob cap went to the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) as a tribute to the former director of the NGA. Miss Simpson also had a cat on her lap which made it also appealing to cat lovers of which there are many.
Weary was chased in the room by art consultant Mr John Cruthers who put together a collection of work by women artists which has been given to the University of West Australia, which is the Cruthers family's home state. So his principal interest was in the gender. Other women artists work in the sale was not of such outstanding stature and tended just to scrape home. For an artist of such note and so rare to the market not to make the sale's top ten list still says something untoward about the state of interest in women's art.
Margaret Olley started the string of also-ran women artists' pictures with a more interesting than normal Games Table (Lot 8 ) at $48,800 IBP which at $40,000 hammer was $10,000 less than the estimate. There was not a flower in it, yet one of her works for which there were slightly higher expectations full of flowers was unsold at $55,000 best bid.
Cressida Campbell's woodblock Banksias at $109,800 (Lot 13 ) was a new record and compared well with the estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. Deutscher and Hackett had set the previous record for Berry Island of $78,000 last November in Melbourne. Bronwyn Oliver's metal sculpture Boa (Lot 27 ) was bid to $110,000 which was $10,000 below the lower of the $120,000 to $160,000 estimates.
A Clement Meadmore, unlike the Campbell from the collection of David Clarke did not sell. The Brett Whiteley sculpture, Pelican (Lot 59 ) done in 1983 and from an edition of nine, took flight, however, and was knocked down for a hammer price of $280,000 at the top of the $200,000 to $300,000 estimates. Pelican was a Whiteley first of course and a sculpture second a far as buyers are concerned. Only semi-abstract it was from a little known series which had the remarkable commendation of conceptualist critic Donald Brook when first shown.
The sale was held in a full ball room sized function space in what is one of Sydney's premier CBD hotels, the usual venue for Sotheby's Sydney art sales but also at the big end of town where the late David Clarke earned his crust. Many attending must have been work mates but barely a dozen people in the room bid. Of these no more than three or four secured anything. Most of the prices were either within or too far out of reach of the estimates. Buyers seem happy to be guided by them but then lately they seldom seem to be outlandish. That may be due to economic uncertainty.
The prices achieved were still occasionally beyond what seasoned buyers might pay. Private dealer Michael Nagy who has a good record for getting what he wants for clients secured nothing although he had several seriously wanted items in mind including a Lin Onus, an Albert Tucker (the catalogue front cover picture for the second half of the sale) and an early Jeffrey Smart. The Smart, The Bicycle Race (Death of Morandi) (Lot 22 ) painted in 1966 made $420,000 compared with $300,000 to $400,000.
Mr Clarke's Eugene von Guerard Mount William as seen from Mount Dryden in the Grampians 1892 (Lot 22 ) at $220,000 was above the $180,000 top estimate of $180,000 and the $182,000 IBP he paid for it at D and H in December 2007. But the Lloyd Rees Summer in the Suburbs 1964 (Lot 30 ) was unsold at $240,000 ($250,000 to $350,000) also apparently bought at D and H for $258,000 IBP.
Mr Clarke's most financially rewarding purchase appears to have been Lin Onus's Frogs on Waterlilies (Lot 4 ) which cost $132,000 and made $512,000. This went to one of the dozen Sotheby's hands taking telephone bids. A woman seen in occasional sales bought three lots of which the most interesting was a Roy de Maistre at $38,000 hammer ($43,360 IBP). While conspicuous activity from the Internet occurred only once this was hardly enough to make it an auction event, and one wonders how long the auction junkies who pack them out will continue to provide an audience.
Sotheby's Australia always points out its disconnection form Sotheby's Australia. The sale was conducted with aplomb by a veteran Sotheby's UK director. That director Lord Mark Poltimore explained his involvement after the auction. Sotheby's Australia was a franchise and the global Sotheby's kept a check on it for its conduct could reflect either way on the franchisor. He was also in Australia looking for material for the company's operations elsewhere.
