Art collectors are eternally fascinated by the interpretations of the Australian landscape by a long list of great painters. At Smith + Singer’s winter art auction in Sydney, we were offered a rare treat in this regard, with six masterpieces from the estate of former World Bank director Sir James Wolfensohn given the premier auction slots 1 to 6, and other vendors.
Of the 64 lots on offer, six major paintings were by arguably Australia’s greatest landscape artist Fred Williams, four of them from the Wolfensohn collection alone.
However, the auction opened with two challenging landscapes from the other great landscape master Arthur Boyd: Colonial Poet Under Orange Tree, 1979 (lot 1) with a more gritty than pretty aesthetic, sold for $200,000 on estimates of $250,000 – $350,000, whilst the related painting Orange Tree, Book and Bound Figure (lot 2) did not find a buyer on the evening (estimates $200,000 – $300,000).
Fred Williams’ Bacchus Marsh, 1977 (lot 3), on estimates of $350,000 – $550,000 sold for $360,000. A savvy and rather dapper room bidder purchased two Fred Williams: Sailors Falls, 1979 (lot 4) for $400,000 (est. $350,000 – $550,000) and from the same year Chalk Hill Landscape (lot 29) for $300,000.
In hindsight, these two purchases may look like bargain buys compared to the sterling result of $800,000 for Williams’ Acacia Sapling, 1977 (lot 5). In many ways, it looked like an untypical painting, but with an undeniable X factor that grabs attention, that led to spirited bidding in the room and on the phones and a doubling of the lower estimates of $400,000 – $600,000. – Two for the price one then for our dapper buyer and his equally dapper purchases.
Another major Williams painting and the largest of the night, Summer Snow at Perisher, 1976 (lot 7), sold for $650,000 on its low estimates of $650,000 – $850,000.
A master of painters from the 19th century gave us an example of a very different interpretation of the Australian landscape: A stunning expansive painting by Nicholas Chevalier from the Graham Joel collection, Lake Colac and the Warrior’s Hill from Corangamorah, 1863 (lot 10) sold for $800,000 (est. $800,000 – $1.2 million). This is a new auction record for the artist, demonstrating the significance of this very rare offering to market. It obliterated the previous top price of $250,000 set in 2013 for Mount Abrupt and the Grampians, 41 x 59 cm, dating from the same year 1863.
Rarer still by a long way however is the work of Knut Bull (just 28 listings in Australian Art Sales Digest), so when one is offered at auction, collectors take notice. Hobart Town, 1855 (lot 11), depicts a bustling Hobart viewed from the harbour, with many clearly identifiably buildings and a magnificent Mount Wellington in the background.
This painting also from the Graham Joel collection was therefore a once in a generation opportunity to acquire one of Bull’s major paintings for a private collection. We have to go back 35 years to 1989 for a comparable offering: The City of Hobart Town with Mount Wellington Beyond sold for £155,000 with Phillips Auctioneers in London, setting the then auction record for the artist.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the historical value of this painting was recognised and achieved a new auction high for Knut Bull at $400,000, selling for the high estimate of $300,000 – $400,000.
From the 19th century to the contemporary and from oil painting to works on paper: in the current market, a work by Cressida Campbell will always excite collectors in Australia, but how far will they go to pay for a print?
For a world-famous artist like Pablo Picasso, this figure is in the millions. In November 2004 his etching Le Repas Frugal, 1904 (The Frugal Meal), sold for £620,000 / US$ 1 million, on estimates of £300,000 – £ 500,000. This very same example sold in March 2022, again with Christies in London, for a cool £6 million, on estimates £1.5 million – £2 million.
Australian auction results are modest by comparison. However, it is hard not to make comparisons when looking at the stratospheric increase in prices for Cressida Campbell’s work in the Australian auction room, including the wild surpassing of estimates. No other Australian artists’ prices for prints are anywhere close, except for Australian Grosvenor School disciples like Dorrit Black and Ethel Spowers whose work from the 1920s and 1930s has enjoyed great favour with collectors in recent years (as would be demonstrated with lot 62 in this sale).
Prices for Cressida Campbell’s incised hand-coloured woodblocks and their reverse image prints on paper (edition of 1 only) show no signs of abating in the secondary market when her most important works are offered.
Campbell’s current auction record of $420,000 was set by Menzies in 2022 for her incised woodblock The Verandah, 1987. At Smith & Singer, the print taken from this woodblock was estimated at $140,000 to $180,000 (lot 13) and was definitely destined to fly.
After frenetic bidding, this print achieved a hammer result of $340,000. This places it in third spot for Campbell’s auction prices and the highest price for a print – watch this space.
According the chairman Geoffrey Smith, the gold value of Robert Klippel’s No. 724 (King of the West), 1988 (lot 15) was $25,000 alone, forgetting the artistic merits of the delicate sculpture created for an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1989.
The gold rush was on at Smith & Singer, with gold diggers aplenty on the phone and in the room. Many of those would have been sorely disappointed at not being able to snap it up at its modest estimates of $10,000 – $15,000, as auctioneer Martin Gallon brought the gavel down finally at $50,000.
Perhaps more bidders would attend the auction room in person if they realised that the now UK based Martin Gallon is flown in each time to conduct Smith & Singer’s fine art sale.
Whilst Brett Whiteley’s tall bronze sculpture Green Heron (lot 18) failed to find a buyer on the night on hopes of $500,000 – $700,000 (but sold straight after the auction for the reserve price), his 1982 landscape The Breaking of the Drought (lot 19) found a new home selling for $400,000 on estimates of $400,000 – $600,000.
Keeping to the landscape motif, Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly: Crossing Bridge, 1964 (lot 21) combined one of his important Kelly paintings along with a signature landscape. With an impressive provenance, it sold for a magic million dollars (est. $1 million – $1.5 million). At its last appearance at auction with Sotheby’s Australia in 2002, it had sold for $225,000.
Emily Kngwarreye’s Mourning, 1991 (lot 22), with a beautiful warm colour palette and Delmore Gallery provenance, was strongly bid for and finally sold for $300,000 at the top of its estimates of $200,000 – $300,000.
The trajectory of John Coburn’s minimalist Trajectory, 1968 (lot 24) would have been difficult to fathom when it was purchased from Bonython Gallery in 1968 for just $2,500. After some years in the doldrums, Coburn’s paintings, reflected therefore in prices and expectations, have found favour with the market again. Now in 2024, Trajectory was offered with estimates of $150,000 to $250,000, selling for $150,000.
Conrad Martens’ Sydney from Lewis’s Ground, 1840 (lot 33), demonstrates the qualities of the earliest and best colonial era paintings. As the favourite artist of the young colony who was captivated by the splendour of Sydney Harbour, Martens’ importance to the history of Australian art cannot be overstated. Usually working in watercolours, a major oil painting like Sydney from Lewis’s Ground is a rare offering at auction indeed, hence the estimates of $600,000 – $800,000.
It is close to 20 years since an oil by Martens of this significance appeared at auction: it was in May 2005 that Sydney Harbour from Vaucluse, from the Fosters collection and also dating from 1840, was sold by Sotheby’s for $620,000. Due to the since increased buyer’s premium fees, Sydney from Lewis’s Ground has now set the auction record for the artist at $600,000 hammer price and $750,000 including buyer’s premium.
A Retainer of the Maharaja of Cutch, 1903 (lot 37), by Mortimer Menpes saw solid interest from both phone and room bidders alike, selling for twice the high estimates at $70,000 (est. $25,000 – $35,000), and setting another auction record on the night.
Albert Namatjira continues his run of much higher prices at auction, especially for his best examples. The less common larger format Jamieson Ranges (lot 56) 31 x 52 cm didn’t disappoint and sold for $47,000 to the internet, on hopes of $30,000 – $40,000. Meanwhile, the best works of traditionalist painter Septimus Power continue to do exceptionally well, with The Timber Team, ca 1920 (lot 58) selling well above expectations for $60,000 (est. $30,000 – $40,000).
It is rare to see a watercolour of the age of Vida Lahey’s Vermillion and Blue, 1932 (lot 59), in such sparkling condition. Colour and movement abound in what could hardly be described as a still life. It rightly claimed its spot as the third highest price for an artwork by Lahey, when it sold for $50,000 on estimates of $20,000 – $30,000.
Brilliant in its simplicity and colouration, important modernist Grosvenor School printmaker’s Ethel Spowers’ Tug of War, 1933 (lot 62) was in exceptional condition, given the fragility of these small and understated linocuts on paper. The $25,000 – $35,000 estimates seemed reasonable, however, five phone bidders went to battle over this charismatic example which only finished at a hammer price of $63,000.
The sale total for the auction was $9.12 million hammer price, and $11.19 million including buyer’s premium, with 91% sold by value and 73% sold by number.