It was a wild night in Sydney at Smith & Singer’s auction of Australian art in more ways than one. The torrential rain proved no deterrent to the 60 or so people in the room. The atmosphere was buoyant and upbeat, as was freshly flown in from the UK leading fine art auctioneer Martin Gallon, who was excited about the night’s offering and professed to feel privileged in assisting these artworks find new homes.
In stark contrast to the weather outside, Emanuel Phillips Fox’ A Sunny Afternoon, 1913, (Lot 2) weathered well, selling nicely for $35,000, above the high estimate of $30,000.
Similarly, Bessie Davidson’s Red Tulips, ca. 1925 (Lot 4) inspired spring feelings and sold for $220,000, on estimates of $150,000-$200,000.
Important Australian Women Painters
Continuing the still life theme by important women painters, the much lauded and publicised major painting by Grace Cossington Smith Chair and Drapery, 1958 (Lot 6 ) elicited excitement. Estimated at $500,000-$700,000, strong opposing bids from the phones of company principals Geoffrey Smith and Gary Singer pushed the hammer price to $625,000, the second highest result ever at auction for the artist. The highest price was achieved in 2021, when Still Life with Chair, 1962, sold for just a smidgen above at $650,000 with Deutscher + Hackett. It will be interesting to see the outcomes for the paintings by GCS on offer next week at D+H, as there is again the potential for an auction record.
Although Ralph Balson’s green and mean Constructive Painting, 1948, (Lot 7) failed to sell on high hopes of $250,000-$350,000, there was no such reluctance for fellow modernist Rah Fizelle’s exquisite Sleeping Nude, c.1938-39 (Lot 8). It sold on the high estimate of $160,000, which set the artist’s new high auction record.
Legendary New Zealand Artist at Smith and Singer
A couple of small abstract paintings by legendary New Zealand Colin McCahon with fellow Kiwi Martin Browne provenance sold neatly at $100,000 (Lot 9) and $85,000 (Lot 10) respectively.
Arthur Streeton created Loch Ard Gorge, 1932 (Lot 15) close to the retirement age for most of us. However, there was nothing retiring about this painting, full of energy and joie de vivre, with several figures dancing on the beach. Bidders were just as carried away, two in particular who catapulted the painting to a spectacular $700,000 on wide hopes of $350,000-$550,000, selling for twice the low estimate and seven times the hammer price of $100,000 paid at its last outing with Christies in 2001.
Fred Williams’ gouache paintings now occasionally exceed the $100,000 mark, so the opportunity to pick up an original oil for $100,000-$150,000 looked enticing. Wilsons Promontory Landscape, 1969 (Lot 18), though modest in scale, this typical painting of a well-known locale sold for $110,000.
The much larger You Yangs (Lot 24) with the much greater expectations of $400,000-$600,000 sold exactly at the low estimate, whilst Sidney Nolan’s much offered Ned Kelly: The Return, 1964 (Lot 27) failed to raise any paddles on the night with $500,000-$600,000 hopes.
It was the opposite for the other large Ned Kelly picture (Lot 69), which on estimates of $200,000-$300,000 sold for the top end of its hopes.
Significant Brett Whiteley Artworks
With a number of significant Brett Whiteleys hitting the market in this round of auctions, Still Life in the Moonlight, 1981 (Lot 29) comfortably sold at $350,000, estimated at $300,000-$500,000.
Whiteley aficionados may have been waiting for an edition of his Pelican I sculpture (Lot 30), as there were numerous bidders for this bird, which sold mid-range the $500,000-$700,000 hopes for $600,000.
Lots 31 to 40 were from the estate of the late Sam and the late Janet Cullen. Sam Cullen was a former director of Smith & Singer (formerly Sotheby’s Australia), an ardent art collector and also an astute purchaser, as some of the extraordinary results attest.
If anyone was hoping to snap up Jeffrey Smart’s High C, 1957, (Lot 32) for the low estimate of $15,000, they hit the wrong note. This study for a much larger painting went to more like a High D at $50,000 hammer, or twice the high estimates.
Other stunning Cullen successes were for two early Margaret Olley depictions of pubs from 1948. Ipswich Hotel (Lot 33), bought in 2019 for $100,000, sold for $270,000, setting a new auction record for the artist to boot.
Meanwhile, Melbourne Hotel, South Brisbane (Lot 34) did just as well. Purchased also in 2019 at a $80,000 hammer price, it sold for $200,000, to an absentee bid no less, on estimates of $80,000-$120,000.
Russell Drysdale’s Boy with a Lizard, 1966 (Lot 35) provided one of the first spectacular surprises of the night. In 2017, it was bought for a hammer price of $440,000. Now estimated at high hopes of $600,000-$800,000, the painting sold for $100,000 above the high for $900,000.
The Cullens’ purchase of Albert Namatjira Waters of the Finke, 1958 (Lot 38) set the auction record for artist in 2022. Nonetheless, given its ownership of just 3 years, it still managed to sell at $180,000 on estimates of $180,000-$220,000.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, a very rare, large and attractive landscape by W.C. Piguenit, Pitt Water, Tasmania, 1910 (Lot 42) captured the imagination and wallets of several art collectors who carried expectations of $150,000 to $250,000 to the upper limits, selling for $250,000, a new auction record for the artist.
Tom Roberts provided another surprise: his Sherbrooke, 1920 (Lot 43), had been held in private hands since it was painted. The relatively small painting at 41.5 x 64 cm looked appropriately estimated at $200,000-$300,000 based on sales of comparable landscapes. With the battle for strongest impressionist landscape sales usually the domain of Streeton and Russell, Tom Roberts was back in the game, with a sparkling result of $430,000 for Sherbrooke.
Australian Impressionist John Russell
Speaking of John Russell: it was a rare treat to have three superb offerings by our favourite Australian expat painter who mixed his paint and his passion with the best of them, including Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin and Henri Matisse.
These early pictures by Russell reveal a colour palette so striking and far removed from anything another Australian painter was producing at the time. It is hard not to be moved by the fact that this bold Australian was so ahead of his time along with some of the world’s greatest artists.
All three paintings found new homes: the cover lot dating from 1895 (Lot 46) achieved the magic million dollars, while Ile de la Jatte a Neuilly, 1887 (Lot 45) fetched $220,000 (est. $150,000-$250,000), and the dreamy watercolour from 1907 (Lot 47) sold for $32,000 on estimates of $30,000-$50,000.
When offered in 2008, with a vague title of Coastline, New South Wales, Penleigh Boyd’s blue seascape failed to find a buyer estimated at $40,000-$50,000. However, now with a more conservative appraisal of its value at a modest $30,000-$50,000 and a definite location and date this time around, Austinmer, 1922 (Lot 55) turned out to be one of the most fought for artworks of the night. It sold for $135,000, well in the realms of Arthur Streeton values for this modestly sized work at 41 x 56 cm.
Howard Arkley Sparkling at Smith and Singer
In hindsight, Smith & Singer might have given Howard Arkley’s Contemporary Units, 1988 (Lot 60) front cover exposure, given the spectacular result for this quintessential Arkley hymn to the Australian home.
It’s not like it is without precedent for major Arkley pictures to sell for million-dollar figures, and indeed there has been a $2 million sale just in May at Deutscher + Hackett.
However, the very highest of prices have all been achieved for his interiors, and the highest price for a suburban house was $700,000 for High Fenced, in December 2023 also by Deutscher + Hackett.
The estimates of $700,000-$900,000 were not so understated then on this large (160 x 240.5 cm), graphically and colourfully pleasing example of Arkley’s spray painting practice which is clearly striking a chord with the biggest and brightest of Australian art collectors, setting on a $2 million hammer price.
Whilst it is impossible to predict other painters who will eventually break the 3 million dollar mark, it’s looking like a dead heat between Howard Arkley and Emily Kngwarreye.
Do those with the most offerings in a sale always win? No, well not always. There were 8 Arthur Boyd paintings in the sale, of which half sold, and half passed in on the night. Meanwhile, all of the 5 Margaret Olleys sold. Of the 4 Elioth Gruners, there were three passes.
Are Donald Friend’s prices on the rebound? There is certainly evidence of this in all of his work, be it Australian-inspired, Balinese or Sri Lankan. Evidence for his much sought-after Ceylon work is supported by Smith and Singer’s sale of Village Scene, Ceylon, estimated $20,000-$30,000 in November 2024, and selling for $50,000 – on our research, the highest price achieved for a Ceylon painting.
Shopping in the Pettah (Ceylon), 1961 (Lot 88) was estimated at $8,000-$12,000 and made a striking $38,000 at Smith and Singer last night, after it was sold in May 2016 from the Denis Savill collection for $15,000.
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