Mervyn Napier (Napier) Waller Australia, 1894-1972
Past Sales
Sales by Medium
Where to buy or sell art works by Napier Waller
Auction Houses
About Napier Waller
Born at Penshurst, Victoria in 1894, Napier Waller studied at the National Gallery School. He served with the A.I.F. in France in World War I, where he lost his right arm, and while recovering, learned to use his left hand. In 1918 held the first exhibition of war pictures and in 1923 he exhibited a series of linocuts. He was the first artist to make and exhibit linocuts in Australia. As well as a printmaker he is noted as a muralist, mosaicist and painter in stained glass and murals by him are still on display in the melbourne CBD and at Melbourne University.
We have records of art auction sales by Napier Waller from 1967 and in total 135 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 106 (79%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $24,150 for Coming Down with the Pin Out – How Fritz Is Persuaded to Leave a Cellar (Somme) sold by Elder Fine Art in May 2015. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2023. Works by Napier Waller are held by the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia and a further four major public national galleries (see list below).
Napier Waller 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 999
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 377
- 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…
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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