William Jock Frater Scotland, Australia, 1890-1974
Past Sales
Sales by Medium
Where to buy or sell art works by William Frater
Auction Houses
About William Frater
Born in Scotland in 1890, studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1905 to 1909. Frater arrived in Australia in 1910, settling in Melbourne. He worked for a time designing commercial stained glass doors continuing to paint and exhibit in his spare time, but eventually turned to painting full time. Frater’s first solo exhibition was held in 1923 at the Athenaeum, Melbourne, and he exhibited with the Twenty Melbourne Painters from the late 1920s, and the Contemporary Group of Melbourne in the 1930s. He was greatly influenced by Cezanne, becoming known as a pioneer of post-impressionism in Melbourne.
William Frater is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1969 of 827, of which 552 (67%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $30,000 for In the Cafe sold by Leonard Joel in November 1989. This year 7 works have been offered for sale. Works by William Frater are held by the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia and a further six major public national galleries (see list below).
William Frater is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 441
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 311
- Australian Prints + Printmaking, a database listing printmaking artists from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region based on the print collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
Yes, eligible, subject to the artist satisfying the residency test. The artist is alive or has been deceased for less than 70 years. Contact the Copyright Agency for information on the residency test.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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