Smith & Singer’s auction of Important Australian Art in Sydney on 23 August 2023 witnessed intense competition and achieved several highly significant auction records for Australian artists, including Fred Williams’s magnificent and magisterial Masons Falls, 1981 (Lot 23 ) which realised $2,600,000 and established a new auction record for one of Australia’s most important artists of the twentieth century, and the first to achieve more than $3 million with buyer’s premium included.
The highlight of the sale and cover lot was Fred Williams’s magnificent and magisterial Masons Falls, (1981) (Lot 23 ) estimated at $2,000,000–3,000,000, which realised $2,600,000 and established a new auction record for one of Australia’s most important artists of the twentieth century. Offered for public sale for the first time and one of only six largescale paintings from the artist’s renowned waterfall series, its emergence resulted in aggressive bidding between the room and telephones before achieving the second highest price for a work of art at auction in 2023.
A rare sculpture by Joel Elenberg, Mask 1, (1978) (Lot 20 ) reached a staggering $925,000 after a rousing and lengthy battle of bidding, well exceeding its estimate of $350,000–450,000 and establishing a new auction record for Australian sculpture that was almost double the previous highest price. The result acknowledged the extreme rarity and desirability of marble sculptures by Joel Elenberg, who tragically died at the age of thirty-two.
Wounded Bushranger, 1955 (Lot 22 ), a dynamic and inventive depiction of Australia’s infamous outlaw Ned Kelly by Australia’s internationally renowned artist Sidney Nolan, estimated at $750,000-950,000, achieved $1,020,000, well exceeding its high estimate. Ned Kelly is not only the most significant subject tackled by Nolan, but also the most celebrated, with works from this series tightly held by public galleries in Australia and overseas and in many significant corporate and private collections of Australian art.
Originally from the collection of the artist’s mother, Beryl Whiteley, and held for the last four decades in a distinguished private collection, Brett Whiteley’s romantic Waterfall, (1962-1963) (Lot 24 ) sold for $800,000, comfortably in excess of its high estimate $500,000–700,000. Waterfall represents an exemplary work from this seminal, honeymoon period in Whiteley’s celebrated modernist marriage of abstraction and figuration.
Continuing the trend of strong results, Isobel Rae’s exquisite masterpiece (Femme Bretonne a Jardin Etaples), (circa 1890s) (Lot 37 ) also exceeded its high estimate $300,000-400,000 to realise $420,000 and established a new auction record for the artist. The work represents a ravishing canvas by one of Australia’s most allusive, adventurous and interesting artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Arthur Streeton’s celebrated impressionist masterpiece, Evening Game 1889 (Lot 36 ), estimate $400,000-600,000, one of only five works by the artist from the famed The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition of 1889 remaining in private ownership, also witnessed spirited bidding from the room and telephones and sold for a robust $760,000. Bearing an unbroken and distinguished provenance from its initial sale in August 1889 for two guineas, the composition not only provides a delightful insight into inner city-life in Melbourne in the late nineteenth century, but also represents a crucial and definitive moment within the history and development of Australian art.
Rosalie Gascoigne’s much-admired Marmalade 1989-1990 (Lot 21 ), estimate $600,000-800,000, pictured), again demonstrated the strength of the sale and interest in works by Australian women artists when it realised $750,000. Consigned from the prestigious private collection of Cate Blanchett AC and Andrew Upton, the composition depicts a unique interpretation of the Australian environment created from found materials and represents a pinnacle of the artist’s career.
The sale total was $11,837,000 ($14,527,228 including buyer's premium), with 121% sold by value, and 85% by number.
All prices quoted are hammer prices and do not include the buyer’s premium.
