Streeton painted numerous views looking east from Curlew Camp or Sirius Cove, depicting large sandstone boulders on the shoreline and Sydney Harbour’s bushy promontories in the middle distance.
“The significance of the re-emergence of Arthur Streeton’s Sunlight at the Camp cannot be overstated,” Smith & Singer chairman Geoffrey Smith wrote in the auction catalogue.
John Perceval’s Spiky-Moses, Heath and Honey-Eaters, 1960, in oil paint on composition board, fetched $231,250 (with buyer’s premium) at Smith & Singer on an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000.
“Hidden from public view since its creation 130 years ago, and known only to a handful of Streeton scholars, the painting dazzles in its technical as well as visual brilliance.”
The picture was sold into private hands.
In all, the S&S auction saw 55 works go under the hammer for a total hammer price of $8.3 million ($10.4 million including premium). While 72 per cent of the works in the catalogue sold, several that were passed in did not find homes until after the conclusion of the sale when auctioneer Martin Gallon had stepped down from the rostrum.
These include two Sidney Nolan works on paper with estimates of $3000 to $5000 each.
Each was titled Study for Paradise Garden, 1970, and each one reached $2800 in the bidding before being passed in. Both works sold after the auction for $1875 each.
A third work to sell after the auction was David Larwill’s marble figurative sculpture, Contemplation, 2011, which was passed in at $24,000 but sold after the sale for $31,250.
Cressida Campbell’s Burley Griffin House, Avalon sold for $212,500 at Smith & Singer.
Cressida Campbell’s interior, Burley Griffin House, Avalon, 1999, previewed in Saleroom three weeks ago, was a strong performer on the night. It fetched $212,500 on a pre-sale estimate of $140,000 to $180,000.
Campbell’s work depicts Stella James House, also known as Burley Griffin Lodge, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and built between 1933 and 1934. The house is owned by the National Trust of Australia (NSW).
A new auction record was set for the late Sydney sculptor, Bronwyn Oliver, with her copper piece, Sun, 2004, fetching $875,000 on an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.
This price places Sun not far behind Joel Elenberg’s Mask 1, 1978, which sold last year for $1,156,250 – the Australian auction record for a sculpture.
Bronwyn Oliver’s copper sculpture, Sun (2004), fetched a whopping $875,000 (including buyer’s premium) in Smith & Singer’s 17 April Important Australian Art auction in Sydney. This set an auction record for the artist. It was the first time the work had left the original owner’s hands.
“It’s great to see sculpture performing at this level,” Smith said. “Sun is a beautiful, detailed, mesmerising work.”
Staying with the art of more recent years, Nicholas Harding’s paintings fetched very good prices at the S&S auction.
Two large paintings and two smaller ones were offered by two different vendors. Of the large pictures, River Figures (Two Hats), 2009, fetched $175,000 – an auction record for Harding – and Pandanus Palm, 2011, fetched $131,250.
The smaller canvases, Pink Frangipani (3), 2003 and Pink Frangipani (1), 2003, in oil on canvas, sold for $18,750 and $20,000 respectively.
Smith believes the presence of four works, all by Harding, helped to create the “flurry” of bidding that was seen on the night and that drove up the late artist’s prices.
Nicholas Harding’s oil painting, River Figures (Two Hats), 2009, fetched $175,000 (including buyer’s premium) in Smith & Singer’s 17 April Important Australian Art auction in Sydney. The large work, measuring almost 2 metres across, far outstripped its pre-sale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000 and set a new auction record for Harding.
“I remember 10 years ago there were three or four by Cressida Campbell (in the one auction),” Smith said.
“It crystallised the interest and demand and the competition for the work. That’s what we saw on Wednesday (auction night). It was the most important group of Hardings ever to appear.”
Brett Whiteley’s oil on canvas painting, Doves on the Balcony, Lavender Bay, 1979, sold for $1 million – bang on its upper pre-sale estimate.
Louis Buvelot’s oil on canvas painting, Summer Afternoon, Templestowe, 1867, sold well on the night, fetching $162,500 on a pre-sale estimate of $80,000 to $100,000.
Perhaps this is because of the painting’s historical resonance. It is the smaller version of Buvelot’s work of the same name which can be found in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The NGV’s work was painted the year before, in 1866.
Brett Whiteley’s Doves on the Balcony, Lavender Bay, painted in 1979.
Artists such as Streeton, Roberts and Frederick McCubbin looked up to Buvelot, and particularly the NGV work which was enormously popular with the public at the time.
“How poetically (Buvelot) has caught the feeling of the end of a hot summer’s day!” McCubbin wrote. “It is thoroughly Australian.”
Buvelot was born in Switzerland in 1814. He arrived in Australia in 1865, quickly becoming famous.
Saleroom last week previewed several works in Gibson’s Auctioneers’ Australian and International Art auction on 21 April in Melbourne.
One of the works was Percy Watson’s wonderful Dispersed Forms, 1952. It fetched $4880 against a much lower estimate of $500 to $800.
Percy Watson’s Dispersed Forms, 1952, in oil on board, sold for $4000 on an estimate of $500 and $800 at Gibson’s.
In the same sale, Frances Derham’s Seated Man, 1950, fetched $3416 against an estimate of $800 to $1200.
Ben Quilty’s 2002 works, Docklands 2 and Docklands 3, underperformed their estimates of $10,000 to $15,000 each. The two pictures sold for $6710 each.
Detail from Frances “Frankie” Derham MBE’s Seated Man sold for $3416 on an estimate of $800 to $1200.
