The Australian art market: With the turmoil in both local and international stock markets caused by Donald Trump, are troubled 1 percenters ploughing their money into blue chip art? The bullish sales results by leading auctioneers in recent months – including Smith & Singer on 8 April with a turn-over of $8,697 million hammer price and Menzies the day after with $5,833 million – may be heralding a bumper year in the Australian market at least. After all, the values of the share portfolios of Australia’s richest will also have lost the most in real terms. So dropping the odd million or even $2.5 million on a painting might well be the safest bet against so much global uncertainty and disruption.
This has certainly paid great dividends for the vendor of art market darling Grace Cossington Smith’s The Winter Tree, Turramurra (Lot 12) from 1935, offered at Deutscher + Hackett’s 7 May auction, held once again in Sydney. The ultimate in modernist magic painting bought at Menzies in 2003 for $165,000 incl. buyer’s premium sailed past its $250,000-$300,000 expectations to $550,000 and $687,500 incl. buyer’s premium, now the second highest price paid for a work by Cossington Smith. Can we see a major painting by her breach the monumental $1 million mark?
Leading the charge front and centre of the art world and also in many fine art auctions like at Deutscher + Hackett were two classic examples of Clarice Beckett’s once forgotten and now highly lauded work. Bath Boxes, Beaumaris, c.1937 (Lot 1), estimated at $80,000-$100,000 offered the viewer a timeless scene of Australian beach life, surging beyond the high estimate to $140,000.
Foreshore and Figures, c.1925 (Lot 2) with its lady in the red skirt excited collectors just as much, and on more conservative estimates of $60,000-$80,000 sold for an equally impressive $120,000.
An almost perfect segue, we were treated to a delightful grouping of Grosvenor School prints by Australian modernists Ethel Spowers, Dorrit Black and Eveline Syme. The most sought after of these were Ethel Spowers’ Tug of War, 1933 (Lot 3) which sold for $58,000 on hopes of $30,000-$40,000, and Dorrit Black’s The Lawn Mower, c.1931-2 (Lot 4) selling for $55,000 on the same estimates.
At first glance, Alice Bale’s The Doorway, 1913 (Lot 8) in its brown tones and more traditional manner is a painting typical of its era. It is quite a beautiful study of light and composition which includes the artist’s father seated reading the paper. A contemplative and remarkable modern perspective, surprising then that it struggled to find a buyer at the $30,000-$40,000 estimates for such a consummate work. It did sell however at $18,000 at what looks to be a very favourable price.
The two following lots by her much more famous contemporary Arthur Streeton presented a tale of two pictures, both exceptional and important paintings by this founder and master of Australian impressionism. So why estimates of $500,000-$700,000 on the tiny painting of 21.5 x 15 cm Brander’s Ferry, 1889 (Lot 9)?
Convert this to inches which equates to 9” x 5”, and you realise it was included in the seminal 9 x 5 Impressionism exhibition in Melbourne in August 1889, and the surviving paintings from that exhibition are treasured, if not worshipped, in our public gallery spaces.
Meanwhile, lot 10 was a painting created almost 20 years later, when Streeton was on his now famous honeymoon in Venice. La Salute, 1908 (Lot 10) is a much larger and spectacular painting at 53.5 x 84.5 cm in its original opulent Chapman Brothers, London, frame, also with exceptional provenance and slightly lower expectations of $450,000-$650,000 than the 9 x 5 work.
Interesting to see how the auction room decides value with these two outstanding pictures side by side and pitched against each other to those Australian art collectors with the deepest of pockets. Would the academic and historically important painting of Brander’s Ferry win out against the beauty, wall power and trophy appeal of La Salute?
The market cast its vote emphatically, preferring the Grand Canal over the Yarra: while Brander’s Ferry sold at its (still significant) low estimate of $500,000, La Salute sold for $1.2 million, almost twice its high estimate, placing it firmly as one of the top ten sales for Streeton.
Three important paintings from the respective artists’ most significant series of works were offered in succession: Sidney Nolan’s Kelly and Floating Policeman, c.1964 (Lot 19), a very good picture estimated at $200,000-$300,000 failed to find a buyer on the night – perhaps the overall prettiness marred by the floating policeman’s grittiness.
No such issues however for Charles Blackman’s Head of Alice with Cup and Saucer, 1956 (Lot 20 ). Estimated at $250,000-$350,000, it sold just below for $230,000.
Meanwhile, Arthur Boyd’s Sleeping Bridegroom with Red Bouquet, 1961-62 (Lot 21), received considerable bidding interest and sold for $530,000, well above expectations of $350,000-$450,000.
It was also a sterling night for John Brack, where two of his rare still life paintings were offered. The mesmerising Iceland Poppies, 1954 (Lot 16) was particularly sought after and most determinedly by the front seated room bidder who looked as if he would have paid anything to secure the work. It sold for a significant $480,000 on hopes of $400,000-$600,000. Flowers and Leaves, 1958 (Lot 17) sold for $230,000, just below its estimates of $250,000-$350,000.
Another important Brack painting from a later distinct period of his work, Seven on the Table, 1990 (Lot 23 ) included his signature Pinocchio dolls and artist’s manikins. Collectors loved this one too, with the winner paying $530,000 (estimates $400,000-$600,000). Meanwhile, Study for Hand Balance, 1973 (Lot 40), estimated at $30,000-$40,000 was left unsold on the night, but Damian Hackett informs us sold post-auction.
The atmosphere in the room became as electric as Howard Arkley’s Neapolitan Delight, 1993 (Lot 24). The monumental and hyper-coloured and patterned painting of a lounge room setting was sold by Tolarno Galleries in 1994 for no doubt less than $20,000 to Swiss uber art collector Uli Sigg.
It was offered with the highest ever estimates for an Arkley painting of $1 million to $1.5 million. The previous high estimates of $800,000-$1.2 million led to an artist auction record of $1.25 million hammer price for Deluxe Setting, 1992, set the by Menzies in June 2019.
Arkley’s work has now entered another stratosphere of value of a $2 million dollar hammer price with the result for Neapolitan Delight at Deutscher + Hackett at exactly $2 million ($2.5 million incl. buyer’s premium) – a domain of very few Australian artists which includes other heavyweights Brett Whiteley, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Streeton, John Russell, Fred Williams, John Brack, Emily Kngwarreye, Russell Drysdale and Clifford Possum.
Buyers also appreciated the other Uli Sigg consignment, Howard Arkley’s monochrome Floral Interior, 1996 (Lot 25), selling well above hopes of $100,000-$150,000 for $195,000.
Ben Quilty’s later and less commercial paintings tend to struggle in the secondary market, but there are no such issues with paintings like Hank, 2004 (Lot 27), a classic and large painting of a budgie. The painting with its luscious brush strokes and strong colours was an effortless and effectual sale, which unsurprisingly went beyond expectations of $80,000-$120,000, selling for $130,000.
Still in a flying mood, two paintings no doubt on their way interstate are by sought after Western Australian artists: Howard Taylor’s Flight of a Magpie II, 1995 (Lot 30), sold comfortably for $80,000 (est. $60,000-$90,000) and Guy Grey-Smith’s Grass Trees, Darlington, 1967 (Lot 68) sold on its low estimate of $16,000.
As one would expect, the joys of Australian beach life look very differently through the eyes of Brett Whiteley against Clarice Beckett. A Day at Bondi, 1984 (Lot 39), a suite of 10 etchings plus a title page and a hand-coloured collaged flag offered much and unusually and perhaps uniquely, the busty bather’s ice cream is filled with white paint as is the sunscreen to the surf life saver – a nice touch and adding to the significance of this particular set of prints from the edition of 30. Liked much, it sold for $75,000, above estimates of $45,000-$65,000.
At the tail end of the auction, a delightful trio of watercolours by colonial master Conrad Martens was on offer and did well. First the late work painted a year before the artist’s death, Road Scene Approach to Crown Ridge, 1877 (Lot 71), sold comfortably for $40,000 (est. $20,000-$30,000). The much earlier Middle Harbour, c1850 (Lot 72), estimated higher at $30,000-$40,000, sold at the low end for $30,000. The even earlier delightful vista of Elizabeth Bay, Sydney (Lot 73), ca. 1840, sold for $48,000, on estimates of $25,000-$35,000.
The sale total was $10,073 million hammer, $12,362 million including buyer’s premium with 120% sold by value and 81% by number.
Exclusive report by Brigitte Banziger and David Hulme on the Australian art market for Australian Art Sales Digest, 8 May 2025
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