Expected to sell for over $2 million in Deutscher and Hackett’s upcoming auction on 24 April 2024, Brett Whiteley’s masterpiece The Wren, 1978 elegantly captures the artist’s hallmark sensual line, luminous colour and enduring connection with the landscape of the central west of New South Wales during the blaze of an Australian summer.
Featuring a select group of 55 lots with an estimated total value of $10.1 – 14.9 million, Deutscher and Hackett’s first major auction of Australian and International Fine Art for 2024 represents the country’s highest value fine art offering for the year to date. Boasting outstanding examples of Australian Impressionist and modern art in particular, the Melbourne sale includes among its highlights important works by John Peter Russell, Margaret Preston, Russell Drysdale, John Perceval, Charles Blackman, Brett Whiteley and John Brack – to name but a few.
Gracing the cover of the main auction catalogue is the vibrant museum-quality painting, Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-En-Mer, c. 1905 (Lot 11 ), estimate: $1,500,000 – 2,500,000 by Australian expatriate artist, John Peter Russell. Revealing the influence of his first-hand acquaintance with masters of European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism such as Monet and Van Gogh, its offering here follows the success achieved by Deutscher and Hackett last August when the firm broke the record for the highest price ever achieved at auction by an Australian Impressionist artist with the sale of the equally stunning masterpiece by J.P. Russell, Souvenir de Belle-Île (Marianna Russell with Goats, Goulphar, Belle-Ile), 1897 for $3,927,273.
Notably, the auction features three important works by the greats of Australian art from the prestigious collection of Joan Clemenger AO and Peter Clemenger AO, Melbourne – founder of Australia’s largest advertising agency and widely revered for their generous benefaction across the arts sector. Namely, Brett Whiteley’s magnificent The Wren, 1978 (Lot 6 ), estimate: $2,000,000 – 3,000,000 painted at the very height of the artist’s fame; John Brack’s typically enigmatic still life, No More, 1986 (Lot 7 ), estimate: $800,000 – 1,000,000, and the joyful The Splash, 1955 (Lot 8 ), estimate: $400,000 – 600,000 from John Perceval’s much-admired Williamstown series.
Another iconic work by Whiteley, previously on loan to the Bendigo Art Gallery for the past 19 years, Bather on the Sand, 1975 – 76 (Lot 9 ), estimate: $1,000,000 – 1,500,000 presents a celebration of the female nude in all her overt sensuality and eroticism. With its echoes of Henri Matisse and Francis Bacon, the composition finds its genesis in the artist’s London ‘Bathroom’ series and represented Whiteley’s first major painting of bathers by the sea following his return to Australia in 1969.
Offered to the market for the first time in over half a century, Charles Blackman’s quintessential Alice image ‘Which Way, Which Way?’ 1956 (Lot 10 ), estimate: $1,000,000 – 1,500,000 reveals an equally impressive exploration of the female psyche – imparting the idea of poetry, transience and uncertainty.
Meanwhile, continuing its commitment to marketing and selling important works by Australian Women Artists, Deutscher and Hackett will offer two rare works from Australian Impressionist, Jane Sutherland (see lots 21 and 22), and a pivotal early painting by Margaret Preston, once owned by the artist’s Adelaide friend Gladys Reynell (Lot 12 ), as well as superb examples from Cressida Campbell (Lot 4 ); Bronwyn Oliver (Lot 5 ); Mirka Mora (Lot 3 ); Daphne Mayo (Lot 2 ); and Inge King (Lot 34 ). International art also strongly features prominently with key works by French Impressionist Henri Martin (Lot 24 ); Auguste Rodin (Lot 25 ); and Bernard Buffet (Lot 26 ).
