Bidding on several lots like this in a sale orientated more than most in recent times towards the traditional helped steer the auction towards a respectable finish of 60.7 per cent by volume. It took a modern however, Sidney Nolan's The Emu Hunt ,1949 (Lot 48 ) which sold for over $1.159 million the lift the result to the impressive total of $5.3 million (IBP) which was equal to 90.3 per cent by value.
The $950,000 hammer price, well over the $600,000 to $800,000 estimate, was helped by its inclusion in the Whitechapel Art Gallery show of 1957 and was paid by a phone bidder against a businessman in the room who appeared very disappointed at missing out.
The Long caused gasps because the subject became a hackneyed if popular one for the artist, reflected in the more than 20 records of Long Flamingos appearing at auction. This was, however, a chef d'ouevre presentation unlike the many pot boilers. Artists of this vintage and other than Streeton do not usually attract this kind of interest. Perhaps bidders had taken a look at the estimate on another major work in the same catalogue, estimated at $600,000 to $800,000, John Peter Russell's atypical large-to-place even in a big minimalist home Ariadne (Lot 9 ). Long's nude figure by a pool with Russell's figure by the sea, which was given the thumbs down, looked far more attractive.
The young looking underbidder on the Long told the writer he was retired. With a well thumbed catalogue on his lap and a thick catalogue of a coin sale from Noble Numismatics beside him he said he had recently moved out of the share market and was looking at gold and art with the proceeds. As I was cautioning him that I was a journalist the CEO of Sotheby's Australia, Mr Gary Singer came over and did the same. Unsolicited, “Chester Rockman” the man volunteered, immediately offering a firm handshake.
“Mr Rockman” bought half a dozen of the more interesting modestly priced lots such as Stella Bowens John Postgate, (Lot 113 ) a later portrait of a member of the Yorkshire family of that name done in 1934, for $36,600, the hammer being bang on the lower estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. The sitter in this fresh and lively portrait is shown playing an accordion. An equally lively small Norman Lindsay watercolour (Promenade), (Lot 107 ) far removed from the other dark oils of nudes by the same artist in the sale, went in the same direction for $24,400 IBP being hammered for the lower estimate of $20,000
The ace paddler missed out on the oil portrait by Bowen of Raymond Postgate (Lot 111 ) which at $67,100 effectively more than doubled its $15,000 to $25,000 estimate. This went to a Thai woman, the only purchase she had come to make after walking into the viewing and finding the sitter's face extremely full of character.
A telephone bidder dug in seriously when the fifth of six Streetons of the sale, the small oil painting Unloading Bricks Kew (1905) (Lot 99 ) came up and sold for $90,000 or $122,000 IBP. This was more like a wrestle than the earlier ping pong game from different sides of the room, however. A phone bidder jumped the bidding, hesitated, jumped the price again, but without any success. Although not a social realist painting, the subject was of labour and therefore not so easy to live with, Streeton had also squiggled his brush all around the harbourscape to secure his impressionistic effects.
This was the beginning of Streeton's demonstrations in deftness which put the contemporary owner of the work, Sir Baldwin Spencer, off the artist as he started to churn them out. This past ownership, and the same for three other Streetons which had come down through the Spencer family for more than a century, was highlighted by Sotheby's in its promotion of the sale, which may be why, despite being down the back of the catalogue where the traditionals usually find themselves nowadays, they still sold well.
One wonders how J. J. Hilder, who Spencer came to admire as much if not more than Streeton, would fare with similar exposure nowadays, if more than the trickle (sometimes nil a year) came onto the market today.
What appeared to be new money looking for a safe haven brushed aside the abstract paintings with only half those lots selling. Buyers like to know what is going on in a work in hard times. One of the few abstracts to be warmly welcomed was Dale Frank's luscious painterly (as always) The Unattended Funeral Coldest before Dawn (Lot 82 ) at $58,560 against an estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. Estimates do not include buyers premium. This made the price despite buyers being told in the title what was going on in it.
Two Dick Watkins, two Tony Tucksons an Aida Tomescu, and a Rosalie Gascoigne abstracts were unsold.
The market in some old favourites still followed the share market into a bit of a pear shape when both a Margaret Olley Bottle Brush and Apples (Lot 47 ) failed to sell, the $32,000 bid taken to just below the lower $35,000 estimate and the best bid of $190,000 also not being enough to secure Bill Robinson's grey Moonshine Landscape (Lot 49 ) estimated at $200,000 to $300,000. Favourites come and go.
Robinson's fans prefer his colourful farmyard scenes to his goats in orbit. All was apples however with Justin O Brien's The Pear Vendor (1820) (Lot 16 ) at $82,960 the sitter a young man in a dashing red and gold shirt.
For $30,000 hammer (the bid equal to the lower estimate) Sydney dealer Denis Savill secured the John Olsen Spoonbill and Lilypond (Lot 36 ) which had not been illustrated in the catalogue following a stoush over copyright of the work. The buyer, number 139, Denis Savill said at the sale that it sold for much less than it could have, if it had been illustrated.
Women artists did better at the front of the catalogue than the back as did most works except Streetons which reversed the process. Sydney dealer Andrew Crawford or an associate set this in motion when he bid $85,000 ($95,900) to secure Luxembourg Gardens by Carrick Fox (lot 10.) But Streeton who did well at the back, came out of the resale royalty net recently due to 50 years passing since he died. Subscribers to the Australian Art Sales Digest will have noticed that he is regularly among the top 10 artists traded by value in the saleroom each year.
With the week's big share market readjustment there was a bit of the late 1980s around when the art market sailed on despite a big share market setback, until the sale of Sir Leon and Lady Peggy Trout in May 1989. But that couple would not have been happy with how the Russell went.
The market seems not in the mood for dark pictures as Roy de Maistre Still Life with (an unlit) Lamp (Lot 6 ) being passed among other sombre offerings.
Both Cressida Campbells were slightly atypical but Sotheby's appeared vindicated in putting the vegetation Angaphora Nielsen Park (Lot 1 ) as lot one in the catalogue where it made $58,560 (estimate $40,000 to $50,000) and the flower free (but for decorative pottery detail) in Still Life with Ceramics (Lot 86 ) which did not sell at the back,
Morning Practice Baia's (Lot 57 ) by Jeffrey Smart sold for a balanced hammer price, right on the lower estimate of $550,000. Sotheby's, which had managed to put bums on most of the seats at the sale had difficulty in selling a painting of a boy with his bum on a towel when the artist's early Theme (Lot 13 ) of 1959. Buyers like his more precisioned surreal later works more.
