Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny Australia, 1864-1947
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About Rupert Bunny
Born in Melbourne, Rupert Bunny was educated at the Alma Road Grammar School, after which he enrolled at the University of Melbourne to study civil engineering. He dropped out of that course for study at the National Gallery School under Von Guerard and Folingsby who he admired greatly. In 1884 he went abroad, firstly to London, and then to Paris where he studied under Jean Paul Laurens from 1886-1900. Bunny exhibited at the Old Salon from 1888, and later at the New Salon. Nine of his works were purchased by the French Government. He also exhibited in London. He held a number of exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney in 1922 and returned to live in Melbourne in 1933. He exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society, and was artist vice-president and inaugural member of the Contemporary Art Society, established in 1939. The same year he began exhibiting annually at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. In 1946 a major retrospective exhibition of his work was shown at the National Gallery of Victoria, the first to honour to a living Australian painter.
Rupert Bunny is one of the most prolific of the artists listed in our database, with the number of works offered for sale by auction since 1966 of 1,271, of which 846 (67%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $1,250,000 for Une Nuit De Canicule sold by Leonard Joel in November 1988. This year 10 works have been offered for sale. Works by Rupert Bunny are held by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia and a further eight major public national galleries (see list below).
Rupert Bunny 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 293
- Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, an online resource for biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators.
- 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…
No, ineligible. The artist has been deceased for more than 70 years.
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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