All nine works sold well on the night with a large oil, Luncheon on the Grass (Lot 10 ) by Jacqueline Fahey selling for an artist's record of $47,000. Based on Edouard Manet's controversial painting from 1862, Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe, it had been purchased directly from the artist in the early 1980's and is now destined for a new private collection.
In a role reversal with the figures in the Manet, the two naked males and the two fully clothed females, the artist's daughter and friend sit in the artist's garden at the now defunct Carrington Psychiatric Institution where the artist's husband, Dr. Fraser McDonald held a senior role.
Surrounded by clearly identifiable picnic detritus from the period, the four figures in the painting are engaged in feeding seagulls, an element not featured in the original painting by Manet.
Also from the Chunn family, a strong and powerful beautifully crafted oil painting by Michael Illingworth from 1970 attracted some strong bidding rising from an opening bid of $50,000 to finish at $76,000.
Entitled A Calvary for Jim (Lot 11 ) the work featured a very rare and perhaps unique road side shrine from the Bohemian village of Puhoi in which a classic Illingworth style nude male figure is sheltering in what New Zealand poet A.R.D. Fairburn would have called ''nameless native hills''. The painting served as a memorial to Illingworth's friend and fellow radical poet and lifestyler James K. Baxter.
Making its debut on the auction market, Shag and Vehicular Ferry (Lot 23 ) by Don Binney, a large and impressive painting, was sold subject to vendor approval at $340,000 just $10,000 shy of the bottom estimate of $350,000.
Surprisingly, Gordon Walters Untitled (Lot 24 ) estimated at $25,000 - $35,000 was passed in, despite its offering coinciding with Gordon Walters; New Vision, an exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery until 4 November 2018.
Featured on the front cover of the catalogue, Felix Kelly's Lighthouse Maine (Lot 28 ) attracted strong bidding and selling on the night for $36,000 just above the top estimate of $35,000.
Three works by Charles F. Goldie (lots 29, 30 and 31) bore mixed results. The first, Maori Woman Washing Clothes in a Warm Pool, Whakarewarewa (Lot 29 ), a very small work (13 x 14.6 cm) originally from the estate of Goldie's wife was passed in at $100,000.
The next, After A Hundred Years, Kapi Kapi, An Arawa Chieftainess (lot 30) estimated at $180,000- $260,000 attracted very strong bidding finally being knocked down for $384,000 to loud applause. The subject of the painting, Kapi Kapi was one of Goldies favorite sitters who he painted more than twenty times. This elderly Kuia from the native village of Whakarewarewa died at the ripe old age of 102 and featured some unique moko or facial tattoos.
The third Goldie, Head and Shoulders Portrait Study of a Man (lot 31) an early figure study from 1897 sold for $40,000, well below the low estimate of $60,000.
Perhaps Gottfried Lindauer's most famous painting Anna Rupene and Child (Lot 32 ) of which he painted over thirty versions to meet market demand was the next art work to receive a round of applause when the auctioneer's hammer finally came down just $1,000 shy of the high estimate of $200,000.
Anna Rupene and Child was a painting based on a photograph taken by the Foy Brothers of Thames, a centre historically associated with gold in the North Island of New Zealand. The Thames area was home to the Ngati Maru tribe and many of its members were photographed by the Foy Brothers who had established a lucrative photographic business in the goldfields town, and Anna Rupene was by popular account, a rare beauty of the tribe.
Lindauer's patron Henry Partridge entered a painting of Anna Rupene in the St. Louis World's Fair and received a gold medal for his entry and as a result the work has achieved iconic status in this country's short art history.
Nineteenth century watercolours, the darlings of the auction market late last century have tended to languish in modern times, but a large format View of Auckland City and Harbour (Lot 33 ) with the volcanic island of Rangitoto serving as a backdrop was certainly going to be an exception. Painted in 1860 by John Barr Clarke Hoyte, this impressive view sold just above the top estimate for $41,000.
South Island artist Graham Sydney is always popular with the art buying public and whenever his larger format works come onto the market they usually sell well. Deborah Bay Otago Harbour (Lot 36 ) was certainly no exception. Estimated at $60,000 - $80,000, bidding opening at $50,000 and went to $86,000 before the gavel fell.
Peter McIntyre was represented by three works in the sale and White Cliffs and the Rangtikei River (Lot 37 ) the first of the three, was always going to be a winner, selling for $40,000, while his central North Island painting Ngauruhoe (Lot 42 ) sold for $25,500.
Peter Siddell or should I say Sir Peter Siddell is another current darling of the Auckland art market was represented by four works in the sale and all sold well. Top price on the night went to a rather curious, haunting and empty painting simply entitled Pool (Lot 39 ). Complete with reflections and a golden inner light, the 1980 painting sold for $102,000, a price almost equidistant between the low and high estimates of $80,000 - $120,000. Works by Frances Hodgkins Still Life No. 3 (Lot 41 ) and Raymond Ching, Main House from 1976 (Lot 44 ) also sold well.
International art works were few in the sale but a rare small format work (21.2 x 12.7 cm), Le Chevalet (Lot 51 ) by French artist Albert Marquet painted in 1944 attracted strong international interest and sold for $48,000, which was $3,000 above the low estimate..
The hammer total for the 98 lots was just over $2 million. However it was interesting to note that the works that did appear to languish on the night had one characteristic in common - they tended to be non figurative in subject matter and style.
All prices are hammer and in $NZ unless otherwise noted.
