The front cover revealed the enormous Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly tapestry with strong orange hues accompanied by four Arne Jacobson “egg” chairs also in bright orange matching the artwork. Given the museum-like grandeur of this tapestry Siege and Burning at Glenrowan (Lot 2 ), produced in 1976 and measuring 300 x 450 centimetres, and given it sold at auction for a little over $100,000 in 2003, the $150,000-200,000 estimates seemed quite in order, but sadly no takers on the night for this one.
It was a completely different matter for Howard Arkley’s House and Nature, 1996, (Lot 1 ), which actually passed in in May 2011 at a Mossgreen sale on estimates of $50,000-70,000. At Sotheby’s last night however ensued consistent and fierce bidding, taking the hammer price to $170,000, well above the $120,000 high estimate, and also to a new record price for a work on paper by the artist, just eclipsing Shadow Factories, 1993, sold in 2007 for $165,000.
Four of these artworks were purchased from Sotheby’s from the same 25th August 2003 sale, including Arthur Boyd’s Shoalhaven Landscape (Lot 3 ), another very large painting at 243.5 x 198.5 cm, suggesting Mr Symond was already acquiring substantial trophy pictures to complement his equally substantial trophy home. The painting found another presumably large home, selling just above the low estimate at $260,000 hammer price. – and providing a nice return on its purchase price 15 years ago of $175,500 incl. buyer’s premium.
John Olsen’s lively and exuberant Village Square, 1991 (Lot 5 ) carried estimates of $150,000-250,000, and sold exactly at the low estimate at $150,000 hammer price, offering a gain on the price paid of $118,000 including buyer's premium 15 years ago.
Meanwhile, another of these pictures from that 2003 sale, Yvonne Audette’s Cantata No 16, 1958, (Lot 8 ), was estimated at $60,000-80,000; it sold for an almost identical price of $85,000 hammer price against its purchase price in 2003 of $94,500 including buyer's premium , perfectly revealing the swings and roundabouts effects of the purchase of fine art, and also the need for a diverse portfolio. (It still managed to become once again the highest price paid for this artist at auction).
Garry Shead’s The Bearers (Queen of Suburbia), 1997 (Lot 7 ), sold for the same hammer price of $360,000 as its previous sale in 2007, however a slight rise in buyer’s premium lifted it into auction record territory once again.
Of the Symond artworks, 7 of the 14 sold on the night, with Audette’s much more recent but similarly styled Spring Cantata, 2004 (Lot 9 ), achieving $50,000 hammer price at the low end of its hopes. Paintings by Tim Storrier, Jeffrey Smart, Charles Blackman and David Boyd failed to fire.
Brett Whiteley enjoyed an exceptional evening in the auction room, with 5 offerings all sold, and sold well. The more abstract, the better it seems: Summer, 1961 (Lot 15 ), exhibited in London in 1962, sold for $50,000 hammer price, significantly above expectations of $28,000-38,000, while the other Nude Beside the Basin, 1963 (Lot 16 ), exhibited at London’s Marlborough Gallery in1964, was very heavily contested. These early abstract works are starting to gain more serious traction in the auction room after playing second fiddle to Whiteley’s other major paintings: Woman in Bath 1, 1963, sold by Sotheby’s in May 2013 was the painting to break the mould when it sold for $800,000 hammer price. Even though estimated at $350,000-550,000 in last night’s sale, Nude Beside the Basin looked like a real contender for a new record price, finally selling for $680,000 hammer price, putting it in second place.
Whiteley’s much later As You Drive into Bob’s Farm at Blainey, 1991 (Lot 17 ), created shortly before the artist’s passing, sold on the low estimate for $120,000 hammer price, while Little Cream, 1975 (Lot 27 ), an attractive Lavender Bay work, sold at the high estimate of $90,000 hammer price, on $70,000-90,000 expectations. The much more challenging and very large Waratah, 1970 (Lot 60 ) has found a new place to be hung, selling exactly on its low estimate of $200,000 hammer price.
It was also Brett Whiteley’s friend Joel Elenberg’s night. His Mask A, 1979 (Lot 18 ) in white marble looked like it had the potential to set a new auction record, given its impressive beauty. However, with the previous artist’s record set some ten years ago at a Bonhams and Goodman sale, where Mask, 1980, sold for $320,000 hammer price, there were no guarantees. Expectations of $200,000-300,000 meant there would need to be considerable interest in the sculpture from several bidders. It did not disappoint: with 6 phone bidders the work rose up very quickly above the high estimate. A new bidder in the room entered with a $460,000 bid, but bowed out to a phone when it sold for $520,000 hammer price, a highlight of the evening’s sale setting a new auction record for the artist.
Early paintings by Jeffrey Smart from the 1950s often tend to lag behind their later counterparts, in the main due to their often smaller scale. However, The Game, 1954 (Lot 20 ) is a rare larger painting at 69 x 92 cm with a powerful presence. It managed $140,000 hammer price, just shy of the low estimate of $150,000 yesterday evening. In its last outing in the saleroom at Christies in 2000, it had sold for a hammer price of just over half of that, for $78,000.
Fred Williams’ oil painting Wedderburn, 1971 (Lot 23 ), in the distinct three strip format often used in the artist’s gouaches, originally came from the estate of Fred Williams. On expectations of $220,000-280,000, it sold for $220,000 hammer price. Meanwhile, Sidney Nolan’s Riverbend (Ned Kelly), 1964 (Lot 26 ) elicited huge interest, not surprisingly perhaps given the extremely conservative estimates of $15,000-20,000 for this large Kelly oil on paper on board work measuring 76 x 52 cm. Several room bidders and 7 phones battled over it until the hammer fell at $50,000 or $30,000 above the high estimate.
A good number of paintings by Elioth Gruner have hit this round of auctions. Sotheby’s offered three of these, and all sold, with the first, the very large Blue Mountains vista Sunshine and Rain, Jamieson Valley, 1914 (Lot 29 ), selling for $85,000 hammer price, well above its $50,000-60,000 expectations. Flower Piece, 1933 (Lot 30 ) blossomed to $26,000 hammer price, just above the $25,000 low estimate. The biggest battle however was for the smallest offering: Ploughing, 1917 (Lot 47 ), conservatively estimated at $10,000-15,000, had numerous phone and room bidders, with the dust finally settling at $47,000 hammer price.
Rather disappointing was a non-sale of Ethel Carrick-Fox’ wonderfully evocative Watching the Fleet from the Domain, 1913 (Lot 32 ), especially as the painting had sold previously, also with Sotheby’s, in April 2010 for $290,000 hammer price, and estimates were kept at the same level of $250,000-350,000.
Disappointment aside: Arthur Streeton’s engaging Mt. William (Land of the Golden Fleece) (Lot 33 ), painted in 1926, received good interest at its $400,000-500,000 expectations, and sold in the middle at $440,000 hammer price.
Two extremely rare and historically significant 9x5 exhibition paintings, one by Charles Conder and the other by Tom Roberts, both sold. The more interesting of the two, Conder’s Arcadia, June 28th 1889 (Lot 34 ), sold nicely above its low estimates for $240,000 hammer price, against estimates of $220,000-280,000, while Roberts’ Mentone, 1889 (Lot 38 ), had decidedly more conservative expectations, but still sold for $90,000 hammer price, exactly at its low estimate.
The recent exciting exhibition on John Russell at the Art Gallery of New South Wales has shone a much-deserved light on Australia’s perhaps only real impressionist painter. His Le Forte d’Antibes, 1891 (Lot 35 ), was once held in the famed collection of Sir Leon and Lady Trout, and was sold at auction in June 1989 at Christies for what was then a very substantial sum of $160,000. Could this be matched some 30 years later? Well, with estimates of $350,000-550,000 there was every chance. Much interest here capped a sale at $420,000, a bright result for a bright painting.
Meanwhile Russell’s much earlier and academic work, Ariadne, 1883 (Lot 36 ), was also sold, and for an exceptional $550,000 hammer price, proving perhaps that timing can be everything when it comes to selling pictures.
It seems that everybody likes Nora, but not Hilda: Nora Heysen’s Spring Flower, 1949 (Lot 40 ), a wonderful play on light and colour with flowers practically bursting from their vase, sold for $38,000 hammer price, well above the estimates of $25,000-30,000. Meanwhile sadly, Hilda Rix Nicholas’ equally appealing Chinese Vase, 1937 (Lot 42 ), failed to find a buyer on the night.
Harold Septimus Power’s painting from World War I, Horse Lines, 1918 (Lot 46 ) had sold at a Lawsons sale in December 2017 for $1,900 hammer price. In one very canny instance of arbitrage, and after a good clean and all within Sydney, last night at Sotheby’s less than a year later, it sold spectacularly well for a $30,000 hammer price.
Sales on the night generated an impressive $6,787,500 hammer price and $8,280,750 including buyer’s premium, with 74% sold by value and 67% sold by numbers.
