The house will be well pleased with a clearance of over 70% by lot with many works far exceeding their upper estimates. For the collectors in the room, the informal Sunday atmosphere tended to dispel any bidding inhibition. Their adventures with classicism, beauty, irony and intrigue are reported on below.
The cover lot, Dorothy Braund’s Boy’s Dreaming, a delightfully poised neo-cubist oil on board, sold mid-range at $23000, surpassing previous records for the artist. (All prices quoted are hammer and exclude the buyer’s premium.)
This is a work from that between-the-wars group of female artists, who not only found their feet in the male-dominated artworld, but they brought fresh insights to the visual language. Braund’s cubisim is not harsh and uncompromising, but evocative of a lighter mood, and ironically distilled with movement and children’s laughter. Hers are works that collectors should well watch out for. Similarly a modest linocut by Adelaide Perry Kurrajong, The Citrus Orchard, 1929 (Lot 10 ) sold for $1900 against a $500-$800 range. This was a rare piece, swirling with Art Deco bravura—perhaps the bargain of the day.
Works from the Contemporary arena in Australia still need considerable gravitas to push them over the lower estimate line. Collectors in London and New York would be most jealous as paintings in their contemporary orbit constantly push to new heights.
One young artist with sell-out shows in the Melbourne primary market saw his fluorescent early street-saavy oil and spray can on canvas Untitled, 2005, (Lot 27 ) sail past its $2000-$3000 range to sell at a more believable level of $6000—a comfortable auction record for the artist. Rhys Lee’s works have plenty of gravitas. This Untitled is the prefect work to bring intrigue to a collection.
Again, collectors need to watch carefully as primary market stars enter the secondary market. And who would have thought that you could purchase an original paperwork by John Wolesley (Lot 59 ) Corkwood, Jay Creek, 2009, for $650 at the same time as his retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria in Federation Square?
The personification of Worsley’s restless energy is like a Cy Twombly of the environmental movement. The young collector that bought the Worsley was delighted with his auction purchase and is probably still grinning.
There were some magnificent landscape paintings sold on the day. Early in the catalogue in a bidding war between room and telephone Haughton Forrest’s Early Morning Lake Scene (Lot 13 ), a view of the Old Docks on Macquarie Harbour, soared to $20000 well past its $6000-$9000 estimate.
This was a painting of great beauty that absolutely radiated sunlight through luminous veils of paint. Australian Landscapes—particularly suited to the lighter Sunday fare—performed well at all levels, with a deftly –painted A.H. Fullwood View of Hobart from Bellerive (Lot 24 ) reaching $11000 over an estimate $5000-$8000.
A classical Sydney Nolan Landscape, 1960 (Lot 34 ), originally purchased from his exhibition at the Matthieson Gallery in London for the corporate collection of the Financial Times, sold near reserve at the bargain price of $34000 against a low estimate of $40000. This work displayed Nolan’s prowess with scumbled paint (dark over light) and its scraping application to reveal hints of classical buildings and armatures of headlands.
At the lower end of the spectrum with a hint of indulgent classical lyricism, Joseph Lycett’s Four Views of Van Dieman’s Land (Lot 70 ), a quartet of lithographs published by J Souter in London in 1824 comfortably reached its lower estimate—a bargain at $3000.
Of works inexplicably passed in, it is difficult to leave behind the vivid Dididirbi-Topway (Lot 28 ) by Sally Gabori, who sadly passed away this year. Her paintings will always bring joy to the heart.
