IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL ART

Lot 4

Bertram Mackennal Circe, c .1902 – 04 (detail)

Important Australian + International Fine Art

featuring significant works from the McClelland Collection, Langwarrin

w o rks from the Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

Lots 1 – 60

AUCTION | MELBOURNE | 28 AUGUST 2024

MELBOURNE | AUCTION + VIEW ING

105 commercial road, south yarra, victoria, 3141 telephone: 03 9865 6333 facsimile: 03 9865 6344 info@deutscherandhackett.com

SYDNEY | VIEWING

36 gosbell street, paddington, new south wales, 2021 telephone: 02 9287 0600 facsimile: 02 9287 0611 info@deutscherandhackett.com

LOTS 1 – 60 WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST

7:00 pm

105 commercial road south yarra, vic telephone: 03 9865 6333

TUESDAY 13 – SUNDAY 18 AUGUST

36 gosbell street paddington, nsw telephone: 02 9287 0600 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

THURSDAY 22 – TUESDAY 27 AUGUST

105 commercial road south yarra, vic telephone: 03 9865 6333 11:00 am – 6:00 pm

email bids to: info@deutscherandhackett.com telephone: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344 telephone bid form – p. 168 absentee bid form – p. 169 www.deutscherandhackett.com/watch-live-auction

www.deutscherandhackett.com | info@deutscherandhackett.com

s pecialists

CHRIS DEUTSCHER

executive director — melbourne

Chris is a graduate of Melbourne University and has over 40 years art dealing, auction and valuation experience as Director of Deutscher Fine Art and subsequently as co-founder and Executive Director of Deutscher~Menzies. He has extensively advised private, corporate and museum art collections and been responsible for numerous Australian art publications and landmark exhibitions. He is also an approved valuer under the Cultural Gifts Program.

FIONA HAYWARD

senior art specialist

After completing a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University, Fiona worked at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, leaving to join the newly established Melbourne auction rooms of Christie’s in 1990, rising to become an Associate Director. In 2006, Fiona joined Sotheby’s International as a Senior Paintings Specialist and later Deputy Director. In 2009, Sotheby’s International left the Australian auction market and established a franchise agreement with Sotheby’s Australia, where Fiona remained until the end of 2019 as a Senior Specialist in Australian Art. At the end of the franchise agreement with Sotheby’s Australia, Smith & Singer was established where Fiona worked until the end of 2020.

CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE

head of aboriginal art and senior art specialist

Crispin holds a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts and History) from Monash University. In 1995, he began working for Sotheby’s Australia, where he became the representative for Aboriginal art in Melbourne. In 2006 Crispin joined Joel Fine Art as head of Aboriginal and Contemporary Art and later was appointed head of the Sydney office. He possesses extensive knowledge of Aboriginal art and has over 20 years experience in the Australian fine art auction market.

ALEX CRESWICK

managing director / head of finance

With a Bachelor of Business Accounting at RMIT, Alex has almost 25 years experience within financial management roles. He has spent much of his early years within the corporate sector with companies such as IBM, Macquarie Bank and ANZ. With a strong passion for the arts more recently he was the Financial Controller for Ross Mollison Group, a leading provider of marketing services to the performing arts.

CAMILLE NICHOLLS

head of online auctions & social media

Camille has a dual BA in Arts (Fine Arts and Visual Culture) from Curtin University, Perth. She’s also completed studies in Conservation, Languages and Arts Law. She’s lived in Vanuatu, France and Bahrain and has experience in Collection Management, Curatorial, and Conservation with a focus on Oceanic, Modern and 15th–16th Century European Art. Camille has worked at the National Museum of Vanuatu, The Michoutouchkine & Pilioko Museum, Vanuatu, and HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast.

DANNY KNEEBONE

design and photography manager

With over 25 years in the art auction industry as both photographer and designer. Danny was Art Director at Christie’s from 2000–2007, Bonham's and Sotheby's 2007–2009 and then Sotheby’s Australia from 2009–2020. Specialist in design, photography, colour management and print production from fine art to fine jewellery. Danny is also an artist in his own right, holding regular solo and group exhibitions, winning over 50 national and international photography awards.

s pecialists

DAMIAN HACKETT

executive director — sydney

Damian has over 30 years experience in public and commercial galleries and the fine art auction market. After completing a BA (Visual Arts) at the University of New England, he was Assistant Director of the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and in 1993 joined Rex Irwin Art Dealer, a leading commercial gallery in Sydney. In 2001, Damian moved into the fine art auction market as Head of Australian and International art for Phillips de Pury and Luxembourg, and from 2002 – 2006 was National Director of Deutscher~Menzies.

HENRY MULHOLLAND

senior art specialist

Henry Mulholland is a graduate of the National Art School in Sydney, and has had a successful career as an exhibiting artist. Since 2000, Henry has also been a regular art critic on ABC Radio 702. He was artistic advisor to the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust Basil Sellers Sculpture Project, and since 2007 a regular feature of Sculpture by the Sea, leading tours for corporate stakeholders and conducting artist talks in Sydney, Tasmania and New Zealand. Prior to joining Deutscher & Hackett, Henry’s fine art consultancy provided a range of services, with a particular focus on collection management and acquiring artworks for clients on the secondary market.

VERONICA ANGELATOS

art specialist and senior researcher

Veronica has a Master of Arts (Art Curatorship and Museum Management), together with a Bachelor of Arts/Law (Honours) and Diploma of Modern Languages from the University of Melbourne. She has strong curatorial and research expertise, having worked at various art museums including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and National Gallery of Victoria, and more recently, in the commercial sphere as Senior Art Specialist at Deutscher~Menzies. She is also the author of numerous articles and publications on Australian and International Art.

ELIZA BURTON

registrar

Eliza has a Bachelor of Arts (English and Cultural Studies and History of Art) from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne. She has experience in exhibition management, commercial sales, and arts writing through her work for Sculpture by the Sea and The Sheila Foundation.

HANNAH JAMES

gallery manager – sydney

Hannah has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales together with a Master of Arts (Contemporary Art Theory) from the University of London. She has spent time living and working across London, Venice, Munich, and Sydney, in a range of roles including curation, exhibition management, artist liaison, art sales and gallery administration.

ANNABEL LEES

front of house manager – melbourne

Annabel holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Art History from the University of Melbourne as well as years of professional experience in art sales and gallery administration. Prior to this role Annabel worked at artnet in London, focusing on client engagement and strategic partnerships.

s pecialists for this

auction

Chris Deutscher

Dam ian Hackett 0411 350 150 0422 811 034

Henry Mulholland Fi ona Hayward 0424 487 738 0417 957 590

Crispin Gutteridge Ve ronica Angelatos 0411 883 052 04 09 963 094

ADMINISTRATION AND ACCOUNTS

Alex Creswick (Melbourne) Hannah James (Sydney) 03 9865 6333 02 9 287 0600

ABSENTEE AND TELEPHONE BIDS

Annabel Lees 03 9865 6333

SHIPPING

Eliza Burton 03 9865 6333

auctioneers

ROGER McILROY head auctioneer

Roger was the Chairman, Managing Director and auctioneer for Christie’s Australia and Asia from 1989 to 2006, having joined the firm in London in 1977. He presided over many significant auctions, including Alan Bond’s Dallhold Collection (1992) and The Harold E. Mertz Collection of Australian Art (2000). Since 2006, Roger has built a highly distinguished art consultancy in Australian and International works of art. Roger will continue to independently operate his privately-owned art dealing and consultancy business alongside his role at Deutscher and Hackett.

SCOTT LIVESEY auctioneer

Scott Livesey began his career in fine art with Leonard Joel Auctions from 1988 to 1994 before moving to Sotheby’s Australia in 1994, as auctioneer and specialist in Australian Art. Scott founded his eponymous gallery in 2000, which represents both emerging and established contemporary Australian artists, and includes a regular exhibition program of indigenous Art. Along with running his contemporary art gallery, Scott has been an auctioneer for Deutscher and Hackett since 2010.

Lot 8

Rupert Bunny

The Swing, c .1913 (detail)

significant works from the McClelland Collection page 12

various vendors page 42

works from the estate of John Barnes: Part I page 70

various vendors page 92 works from the estate of John Barnes: Part II page 120

various vendors page 130

prospective buyers and sellers guide page 164 conditions of auction and sale page 166 telephone bid form page 168 absentee bid form page 169 at tendee pre-registration form page 170 index page 183

Lot 19

Fred Williams Werribee Gorge No.8 , 1977 – 78 (detail)

Significant works from the McClelland Collection, Langwarrin

Significant works from the McClelland Collection, Langwarrin

In 1912, Harry McClelland and his sister Annie May ‘Nan’ McClelland, offspring of a prosperous pharmaceutical entrepreneur, relocated to Long Island, Frankston, with their mother. Unburdened by the demands of conventional employment, Harry pursued his passion for painting, while Nan found her creative outlet in poetry. By the 1920s, their residence had evolved into a gathering place for a bohemian collective of creative individuals from various strata of Victoria’s society, including notable figures such as Sir Daryl Lindsay, Percy Leason, and photographer Harold Cazneaux. Nan made a significant contribution to broadcasting history by hosting the first children’s radio program on the ABC. The local community eagerly anticipated New Year’s Eve, which was traditionally heralded by Harry parading down the street in full Drum-Major attire. A portrait of Harry McClelland, titled Drum-Major Harry McClelland, 1929 by William B. McInnes, was awarded the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1930.

Both Nan and Harry were dynamic contributors to Melbourne’s cultural scene and played instrumental roles in the evolution of Victoria’s arts community. Harry, who passed away in 1954, harboured a lifelong ambition to establish an art gallery and cultural centre on the Mornington Peninsula. Upon Nan’s passing in 1961, the responsibility of realising Harry’s dream was entrusted to friends of the McClelland’s, Molly and James Graham, bank manager Bill Harrison, and Dr. Steward Preston, who became the initial trustees tasked with the development of a Gallery. Sir Daryl Lindsay, Eric Westbrook, Alan McCulloch, and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE were also involved from the outset. With the historically significant bequest of funds and a twenty-acre parcel of land, the McClelland Gallery was inaugurated in 1971.

The McClelland Gallery, designed by Melbourne architects Colin Munro and Phillip Sargeant, initially housed a collection of 163 works, comprising 97 pieces from the Estate and a substantial donation of 66 additional works from Sir Daryl Lindsay and John Farmer, both of whom served as advisors to the Gallery during its formation. The significant brutalist-inspired building was sympathetically extended by Williams Boags and, more recently, the Sarah & Baillieu Myer Education Pavilion by Kerstin Thompson. McClelland has flourished due to the vision and generosity of dedicated philanthropic donors, most notably Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE, The Myer Family Foundations, The Calvert-Jones Foundation, Annamila Foundation, Balnaves Foundation, Packer Family Foundation, Lyn Williams AM and the Graham Family. This considerable collective support reinforces its legacy as the home of Australian sculptural scholarship at the Gateway to the Mornington Peninsula, where sculpture parks and outdoor sculpture collecting have thrived.

Annie May McClelland, c.1908 photographer, believed to be Stewart + Co, Melbourne

William Beckworth McInnes

The Drum Major (portrait of Harry McClelland), 1929 McClelland Collection

French Gallery extension with Lenton Parr, Roy Ward, Molly Graham, Simon Klose, Ann Miller, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Aidan J Graham, c.August 1987 photographer, believed to be Ron Daley

Architects Colin Munro (left) and Philip Sargeant (right) in the foyer of McClelland Gallery, during construction, c.1970 – 71, photographer unknown

State Library of Victoria

McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery photographer: John Gollings

As early as 1973, the Gallery began expressing interest in collecting sculpture, particularly those pieces that complemented the surrounding natural bushland. Australian sculpture quickly became a focal point of the collection policy and has seen substantial growth over the past 35 years. A significant initiative of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was the establishment of the Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Foundation in 1989, with the aim of aiding and promoting the development of the McClelland Gallery as a sculpture institution of international renown. Through the Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Foundation, the Gallery has been able to amass an impressive collection of Australian sculpture and support Australian sculptors through exhibitions, acquisitions, scholarships, and grants.

A further testament to the sculptural focus is the groundbreaking private-public partnership McClelland established with the Southern Way Trust of the then Director Robert Lindsay. This significant program remains the largest ongoing commitment to sculpture commissioning in Australia, spanning from 2012 to 2037.

In 2024, the McClelland Trustees reemphasised the collection’s representation of the home of Australian sculpture and broadened their understanding of landscape, nature, and spatial practice.

Importantly, this includes the perspectives and cultural practices of the longest living culture on earth, that of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This aligns with the expanded role that the museum occupies in the 21st century; it is no longer solely about the preservation and exhibition of objects, but has evolved into a place of social exchange, a meeting point for diverse groups and cultures, and a forum for discourse about culture, vitality, and sustainability. McClelland’s collection focus will be on modern and contemporary sculpture and spatial practice relevant to its original mandate of ‘art and nature’ by Australian artists, amplifying the diverse cultural experiences of Australia’s past and present.

With this in mind, and in accordance with its current collection policy, seven works have been selected for auction following the first major audit of the McClelland Collection. This will honour the significant foundational support for this unique cultural organisation and enable McClelland to continue to present high-quality Australian arts experiences for its local and broader community for over 50 years in the outer southern eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria.

LISA BYRNE

ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, M c CLELLAND

Peter Corlett, Tarax play sculpture , 1969, photographer: Mitch Pelns-Ross

John Meade: It's Personal!, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, November 2023 to March 2024, installation view, Image courtesy of McClelland, photographer: Andrew Curtis

CLARICE BECKETT

(1887 – 1935)

BOATS AT SUNSET, 1930 oil on canvas on board

31.0 x 41.0 cm

signed lower left: C. Beckett bears inscription verso: Eventide / by / Clarice Beckett / 23 / WAXED original John Thallon frame, Melbourne

ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000

PROVENANCE

Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne

John Farmer, Victoria, acquired from the above in 1930 McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, gifted from the above in 1971 (label attached verso, as ‘Ricketts Point, Beaumaris’)

EXHIBITED

Clarice Beckett, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, 15 – 25 October 1930, cat. 23

All Our Own Work , McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, December 1977 – January 1978, cat. 36 (as ‘Rickett’s Point, Beaumaris’)

All Our Own Work , McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 8 – 31 July 1979, cat. 8 (as ‘Rickett’s Point, Beaumaris’)

Clarice Beckett: Atmosphere, Geelong Gallery, Victoria, 1 April – 9 July 2023, cat. 64 (as ‘Ricketts Point (Even tide)’)

LITERATURE

Smith, J., Clarice Beckett: Atmosphere , Geelong Gallery, Victoria, 2023, cat. 64, p. 81 (illus., as ‘Ricketts Point (Even tide)’)

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

In Boats at Sunset , 1930, Clarice Beckett stands true to her earlier statement that her aim in painting was ‘to give a sincere and truthful representation of a portion of the beauty of Nature, and to show the charm of light and shade, which I try and set forth in correct tones so as to give nearly as possible an exact illusion of reality.’1 Indeed, the artist Sir William Dargie later described her as a ‘true Realist’ who was ‘clear-headed and firm about the theoretical basis on which she worked.’ 2 Stylistically, there are parallels to be found in similar depictions by Pictorialist Photographers of the time, whose quest was ‘to achieve beauty, (drawing) actively on their imagination and creativity… mimicking the graphic arts – especially mezzotints and etchings. Detail was suppressed and (images) were often manipulated, to increase tone and heighten contrast between light and shade.’3 Beckett’s absorption of similar intuitions was enhanced by her single year of study under the Tonalist Max Meldrum, as well as allied interest in the tenets of Theosophy, itself grounded in enquiry, poetics and spiritualism.

Rickett’s Point extends into Port Phillip Bay, twenty kilometres south of Melbourne. Long a place of sun-seeking pleasure for families and children, it is characterised by extensive sandstone platforms which hide secluded caverns and under-rock ledges hosting sponge gardens. The nearby cliffs reveal numerous shell middens and hand dug wells created by traditional owners, the Bunurong. Beckett lived nearby in Dalgetty Road and a number of her paintings feature the Point’s many moods at varied times of the day and in all kinds of weather, thus also capturing an environmental record of the changing coastline. Boats at Sunset, is set in a deepening dusk, alive to the interplay between the natural forms and three small fishing boats tied up for the night. Comprising a fluid array of greys and soft apricot, the painting is imbued with atmosphere and contemplative silence, the far rock ledge dissolving in the fading light. The slightest touch of burnt oxide animates two of the hulls. Meldrum considered Tonalism to be a science and in this painting, Beckett follows his method of close observation, articulating the scene as passages of rich tone. She painted swiftly, with the brushwork flat and the paint thinned, thence smoothed into the canvas.

The broad outlines of Beckett’s life story and early death are well known, inevitably adding intrigue in her story. What is also true is the neglect her work received following her death; however, during a landmark sequence of exhibitions organised by Rosalind Hollinrake, the Australian National Gallery (now National Gallery of Australia) led the way, purchasing a number of Beckett’s painting for the collection in 1971. What makes this more remarkable is that Beckett’s work was far smaller than the large-scaled canvases otherwise being sought by the Gallery, which led to Hollinrake’s perceptive comment that ‘[Beckett] did not think in terms of [large] masterpieces, nor did she produce what are commonly called ‘key or major works’. This was not how she viewed the process of painting. Is a whisper less than a shout?’4 Another admirer of Beckett’s paintings was her close friend, the Meldrumite artist John Farmer, who first owned Boats at Sunset, subsequently gifting it to the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin.

1. Beckett, C., Twenty Melbourne Painters 6th Annual Exhibition Catalogue, 1924, cited in Hollinrake, R., Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 1999, p. 19

2. Dargie, Sir W., Homage to Clarice Beckett (1887 – 1935): Idylls of Melbourne and Beaumaris, Rosalind Humphries Galleries, Melbourne, 30 October – 20 November 1971

3. Re eder, W., Sunlight and shadow: Pictorial photographs by John B. Eaton, FRPPS, (1881 –1966), Reeder Fine Art, Melbourne, 2006, p. 2

4. Ho llinrake, R., Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 1999, p. 6

ANDREW GAYNOR

EMANUEL PHILLIPS FOX (1865 – 1915) VANITY, c .1912 oil on canvas

81.0 x 100.0 cm

signed lower right: E. Phillips Fox bears inscription on label verso: Vanity original John Thallon frame, Melbourne

ESTIMATE: $350,000 – 550,000

PROVENANCE

The Estate of Ethel Carrick Fox, Melbourne

Collection of Pictures by the late E. Phillips Fox and E. Carrick Fox, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 26 September 1952, lot 33

Sir Keith Murdoch, Cruden Farm, Victoria Thence by descent

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Cruden Farm, Victoria McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, gifted from the above in 1979

EXHIBITED

Société Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6 – 31 December 1912, cat. 45 (as ‘Le Miroir’)

Catalogue of Paintings by E. Phillips-Fox , Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 17 June – 4 July 1913, cat. 12

Catalogue of Pictures by E. Phillips Fox,  The Royal Art Society, Sydney, 13 – 28 October 1913, cat. 12

Catalogue of Pictures by the Late E. Phillips Fox,  Upper Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 29 February – 18 March 1916, cat. 23

Exhibition of Oil Paintings by the Late E. Phillips Fox,  Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 22 July – 2 August 1919, cat. 16

LITERATURE

‘Mr. E. Phillips Fox’s Pictures,’  The Age,  Melbourne, 17 June 1913, p. 8

‘Mr Phillips Fox’s Paintings,’  Sydney Morning Herald,  Sydney, 13 October 1913, p. 4

‘The Work of the Late Mr. E. Phillips Fox,’  The Age,  Melbourne, 28 February 1916, p. 6

‘Pictures by the Late E. Phillips Fox,’  The Age,  Melbourne, 22 July 1919, p. 6

Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox: His Life and Art, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1995, cat. 410, pp. 143, 228

RELATED WORKS

Reclining Figure, c.1911, oil on canvas, 57.0 x 80.5 cm, in the collection of the University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane The end of the story, c.1911 – 12, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 100.5 cm, in the collection of Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Emanuel Phillips Fox married English born Ethel Carrick in 1905, after meeting her at the artists’ colony of St Ives in Cornwall. Carrick had studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and had clear artistic aspirations, as well as a strong independent streak, while Fox had begun his training at Melbourne’s National Gallery School, alongside Rupert Bunny and Frederick McCubbin, later studying in Paris at the Académie Julian and with Jean-Leon Gérôme. As newlyweds, they moved to Paris, living in a studio apartment at the Cité Fleurie in Montparnasse, which was described by Carrick as ‘quite a cosmopolitan little colony of hard working artists… thirty different nationalities being represented.’1 Together the couple shared a rich, creative life, supporting each other in their artistic endeavours and ambitions and the ensuing years witnessed development and professional recognition for both artists. Upon returning to Australia in 1913 for exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, Fox wrote that the works he had made in the years between his marriage and that time were simply ‘the best I have painted.’ 2

Colour and the varied effects of light were central to Fox’s art. Indeed, as Lionel Lindsay recalled, ‘He once told me that he no longer saw anything except as a colour-sensation… His gamut of greens is extraordinary fine

and varied, and the purity of his colour still holds the sunlight imprisoned in the pigment.’ 3 While he had been trained in an academic style, Fox always enjoyed the freedom of working outdoors, and the influence of French Impressionism – particularly as articulated by Renoir and Monet, whose work was easily accessible during Fox’s years in Paris –encouraged this, feeding in to what has been described as his natural ‘inclination towards colour, light and optical experience.’4

The example of the French intimiste painters, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, was also significant for Fox. Focussing on the figure in intimate domestic settings, their paintings are quiet and contemplative, and this influence can be seen clearly in Vanity, c.1912, which depicts a young woman lounging on a daybed, her book discarded in favour of the silver hand-held mirror which she uses to consider her reflection. The informality and intimacy of the scene – as if the viewer has just walked into the room – is emphasised by the slightly off-kilter composition of the painting and details like the framed pictures on the wall being only partially visible. Fox’s interest in the depiction of interior details and decoration, from the bold stripes of the daybed to the delicate floral-patterned wallpaper, is also clear, but what is most prominent

Emanuel Phillips Fox Reclining Figure , c.1911 oil on canvas

57.0 x 80.5 cm

University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane

58.0 x 92.0 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris

in this work is his focus on the depiction of textiles. Juliette Peers has observed, ‘What Fox’s detailed paintings offer is the materiality of fabrics – the profile of the drape; the details of waistbands; the hanging lace of cuffs; low shoulder lines and seams… parallel rows of tucking, ruching and frilling; satin ribbon appliqués.’ 5 The deviations in the stripes of the upholstery, pulled tautly over the backrest or as it falls to the ground, highlights the weight and texture of this fabric, just as the form of the gently slumped cushions enables the sheen and smooth touch of their apricot fabric covers to be eloquently described in paint and easily imagined. Without question however, the star of the show is the figure’s dress, a beautiful full-length tea gown with ruffles near the hem and a pink satin ribbon detail around the neckline and sleeve ends. Typical of fashionable woman’s attire of the day, this dress appears in numerous paintings by Fox that were made around this time, from The end of the story, c.1911 – 12 (Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art) to Étude de nu, 1910 (private collection), where it lies crumpled in the background, apparently discarded by the languorous reclining nude who is the subject of the work.6

Bringing together the focus on pattern and texture and the use of harmonious colour which were primary elements of Fox’s approach to picture-making, Vanity is a masterful expression of his distinctive vision of fin de siècle femininity. Highly regarded by the artist, it was brought to Australia for display in his 1913 solo exhibitions here, catching the attention of the Sydney Morning Herald critic who described it as ‘a harmony in pink, blue and gold [and] among the outstanding pictures in the exhibition.’7 The painting was later purchased at auction by Sir Keith Murdoch and in 1979, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch donated it to McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery.

1. Carrick Fox, cited in Goddard, A., ‘An Artistic Marriage’ in Art, Love & Life: Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox, Queensland Art Gallery I Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2011, p. 18

2. E. Phillips Fox, cited in Downey, G., ‘Cosmopolitans and expatriates’, in Art, Love & Life: Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox, ibid., p. 57

3. Lindsay, L., ‘E. Phillips Fox’, Art in Australia, series 1, number 5, 1918, cited in Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1994, p. 1

4. Zubans, ibid., p. 3

5. Pe ers, J., ‘Tall, graceful women sweep by’: Fashion and dress in the work of the Foxes’, in Art, Love & Life: Ethel Carrick and E. Phillips Fox, op. cit., p. 98

6. ibid.

7. ‘Mr. Phillips Fox’s Paintings’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 13 October 1913, p. 4

KIRSTY GRANT

Emanuel Phillips Fox Rêverie , 1903 oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

RUPERT BUNNY (1864 – 1947)

THE TELEGRAM, c .1908 oil on canvas

81.0 x 54.0 cm signed lower right: Rupert C W Bunny. bears inscription on label verso: no. 155 / The Telegram original Paris frame

ESTIMATE: $200,000 – 300,000 3

Mr and Mrs John Rowell, Melbourne McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, gifted by Mrs Jean Rowell and Mrs Ackland in memory of John Rowell, 24 November 1977 (label attached verso)

EXHIBITED

Société Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture , Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 5 – 31 December 1908, cat. 28 (as ‘Le Télégramme’)

‘Days and Nights in August’ by Rupert Bunny, The Baillie Gallery, London, 22 April – 12 May 1911, cat. 16

Exhibition of Pictures by Rupert Bunny, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 24 July – 14 August 1911, cat. 22

Exhibition of Pictures by Rupert Bunny, Lawson & Little Galleries, Sydney, 22 September – 1 October 1911

Paintings by Rupert Bunny from Private Collections , McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 25 November 1972 – 8 February 1973, cat. 4

All Our Own Work , McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, December 1977 – January 1978, cat. 14

All Our Own Work , McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 8 – 31 July 1979, cat. 17

LITERATURE

‘Quiet, Faithful Art. Mr Rupert Bunny’s Exhibition,’ The Sun, Sydney, 22 September 1911, p. 8 Gérard-Austin, A.,  The Greatest Voyage: Australian Painters in the Paris Salons, 1885 – 1939, doctoral thesis, Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, March 2014, vol. 2, pp. 17, 81, 126 (illus.)

Thomas, D.,  The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny, A Catalogue Raisonné in Two Volumes , Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2017, cat. O281, vol. II, p. 42

Rupert Bunny

La Coiffure , c.1908 oil on canvas

79.5 x 51.5 cm

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

‘Paris is the one place in the world to study for the man who wants to do really good work. Nowhere else does he get the atmosphere, the sympathy, which is indispensable to the serious student of painting… It is that there only is one in touch with a thousand theories and theorists with all kinds of movements, some profound, some merely eccentric, that make up the history of modern art… Nobody can have any idea… unless they have lived in Paris, and in Paris art circles, of the intense vitality of art there.’1

Rupert Bunny began his art training in the early 1880s, studying alongside Julian Ashton, Bertram Mackennal, Frederick McCubbin and Emanuel Phillips Fox, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne. Like most of his Australian peers however, Bunny’s goal was international recognition and success and travelling to England with his father in 1884, after a period of study there, he arrived in Paris, the centre of the contemporary art world and the place where the most progressive art students of the day congregated to learn, work and play. He studied for several years with Jean-Paul Laurens, a highly regarded French history painter, and in 1890, received an honourable mention for Tritons, c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) at the Old Salon. This was the first time

Bunny

A summer morning, c.1908 oil on canvas

222.0 x 181.5 cm

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

that an Australian artist had received such acknowledgement, although John Longstaff would follow in 1891 and in 1892, Arthur Streeton’s Golden Summer, Eaglemont , 1889 would be accorded the same honour. 2 Critical success continued and his most important accolade came in 1904 when Après le Bain, c.1904, now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, was acquired from the New Salon by the French Government. A complex multi-figure composition, the painting was very well received with one critic noting that, ‘There is, in fact, something in the decorative feeling, richness of colouring, and grace of the fine work that recalls the work of the Venetian school, especially, perhaps, of Tiepolo.’ 3

Bunny met Jeanne-Héloise Morel in 1892 and John Longstaff recalled that ‘the very night they met… he fell in love with her at first sight. She was a regular Dresden china girl with a deliciously tip-tilted nose.’4 An artist, and possibly an artist’s model, Morel quickly became Bunny’s favourite model and muse, and she appears in many portraits and subject pictures from this time on. As Deborah Edwards writes, ‘Morel fulfils a function oscillating between the real, the metaphoric and the decorative.’ 5 She is the subject of portraits, such as the charming

Rupert

Rupert Bunny Cherries , c.1908 oil on canvas

79.5 x 52.0 cm

Private collection

Portrait of the Artist’s Wife , c.1896 (National Gallery of Victoria) – so titled, even though they did not marry until 1902 – where she is pictured wearing a striking black and white striped dress and with her pet terrier. She also appears in paintings such as An idyll, 1901 (Art Gallery of South Australia) and Endormies , c.1904 (National Gallery of Victoria), imaginary dreamlike scenarios in which beautiful women represent symbolic figures.

The Telegram, painted around 1908, clearly demonstrates Bunny’s delight in the decorative, from details of the interior (the brocade of the curtain pulled back to reveal the floral-patterned wallpaper behind, for example) to the figures’ elaborate Edwardian-era clothing. It also demonstrates his interest in the play of light and indeed, his ability to represent it in paint, from the dappled sunlight shining through the window to the muted reflection of the standing figure in the mirror to the left of the scene. But The Telegram also adopts a narrative focus which propels it beyond the artist’s (and viewers’) pleasure in these pictorial details. Two women are depicted in an intimate interior, the standing figure – wearing a feathered hat and with gloves in hand, seemingly ready to go out – watches over as a young woman (modelled

Rupert Bunny Qui Vient?, c.1908 oil on canvas

81.0 x 54.0 cm

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

on Morel), seated to her right, pens a telegram message. The image prompts inevitable questions – what is the relationship between the two women; what events preceded this moment; is the content of the telegram good news or bad? – and the viewer is instantly engaged in the potential drama of the scene.

With its emphasis on beauty, elegance and decoration, The Telegram is typical of what the critic Roger Marx described as the work, ‘of a refined colourist, fond of unusual nuances and subtle harmonies emphasised for its own sake the charm of a gay and lively imagination… Mr Bunny… remains… the tender interpreter of his own vision. Each one of his works retains a tasteful charm never lacking in distinction.’6

1. Rupert Bunny, cited in ‘Art in Paris, Mr Bunny and the Post-Impressionists’, Sydney Morning H earld, 19 September 1911, p. 9, in Thomas, D., The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Thames and Hudson, Port Melbourne, 2017, p. 42

2. Se e Thomas, ibid., p. 53

3. Fr anz, H., cited in Studio, London, 1904, vol. XXXII, p.14, in Thomas, ibid., p. 123

4. Jo hn Longstaff, cited in Thomas, ibid., p. 79

5. E dwards, D., Rupert Bunny, artist in Paris, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2009, p. 73

6. Marx, R., ‘Exposition Rupert Bunny’, La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité, Supplément de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 4 March 1905, pp. 67 – 68, cited in Thomas, ibid., p. 128

KIRSTY GRANT

BERTRAM

MACKENNAL

(1863 – 1931)

CIRCE, c .1902 – 04 bronze

57.0 cm height

signed at base: B. MACKENNAL inscribed at base: KIP KH original black marble base

ESTIMATE: $180,000 – 240,000 4

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Cologne

Deutscher~Menzies, Sydney, 10 December 2008, lot 38 Company collection, Melbourne

Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 25

McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above

EXHIBITED

The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905, cat. 854 (another example)

The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1305 (another example)

Victorian Artists Society Exhibition, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, October 1910, cat. 1 (another example)

International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome, Italy, 1911 (another example)

Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 10 (another example)

Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 4 (another example)

Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932, cat. 26 (another example)

Commemorative exhibition of works by late members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 98 (another example)

British Sculpture 1850 – 1914,  Fine Art Society, London, UK, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 106 (another example)

Early Australian sculpture, from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, December 1976 – 15 March 1977, cat. 20 (another example)

Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example)

The New Sculpture in Australia: Australian Art Nouveau Sculpture, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 3 May – 5 June 1987, cat. 3 (another example)

Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890s – 1930s , Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 October – 26 November 1989 (another example)

Reverie, myth, sensuality: sculpture in Britain 1880 – 1910, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, 26 September – 29

November 1992 (another example)

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example)

Exposed: The Victorian Nude,  Tate Britain, London, UK, 1 November 2001 – 13 January 2002; and touring (another example)

Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example)

Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA, 28 February – 2 June 2013, cat. 89 (another example)

Archie Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 September 2020 – 7 March 2021 (another example)

LITERATURE

Spielmann, M. H.,  British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today,  Cassel, London, 1901, p. 134

Moore, W.,  The Story of Australian Art, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1934, vol. 1, p. 202 (illus., another example)

Badham, H.,  A Study of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1949, p. 136

Badham, H.,  A Gallery of Australian Art, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1954, pl. 101 (illus., another example)

McCulloch, A.,  Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Hutchinson, Richmond, 1968, p. 662

Cooper, J.,  Nineteenth-Century Romantic Bronzes , David and Charles, London, 1975, p. 92

Flower, C.,  Erotica: Aspects of The Erotic in Australian Art, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1977, pp. 24 – 25 (illus., another example)

Sturgeon, G.,  The Development of Australian Sculpture 1788 – 1975 , Thames & Hudson, London, 1978, pp. 64, 65 (illus., another example)

Scarlett, K.,  Australian Sculptors, Nelson, Melbourne, 1980, p. 405 Clark, J., et al.,  Golden Summers: Heidelberg and beyond, ICCA, Sydney, 1985, p. 181 (illus., another example)

Peer, J., ‘Angels, Harlots and Nymphs: Some themes in Australian Allegorical sculpture’, Art and Australia, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 1987, pp. 213 (illus., another example), 214

Thomas, D. (ed.),  Creating Australia: 200 years of art 1788 – 1988, ICCA, Sydney, 1988, p. 129 (illus., another example)

Lane, T.,  Nineteenth Century Australian Art in the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 116 – 117 (illus., another example)

Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 26, pp. 57, 100, 124 – 125 Edwards, D., et al.,  Bertram Mackennal,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, cover (illus., another example), pp. 30 (illus., another example), 31 – 34, 168 – 171, 211 (illus., detail), and catalogued in accompanying CD-ROM Trumble, A., and Wolk Rager, A. (eds),  Edwardian opulence: British art at the dawn of the twentieth century, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2013, cat. 89, pp. 349 (illus., another example), 351, 410 Grishin, S.,  Australian art: a history, The Miegunyah Press, Victoria, 2013, pl. 17.5, pp. 166, 167 (illus., another example), 548, 564

RELATED WORKS

Circe, 1893, bronze, 240.0 x 79.4 x 93.4 cm, in the collection of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1910 Other examples of this statuette are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

Circe , c.1902 – 04 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney photographer unknown

We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David’s writing in this catalogue entry.

Bertram Mackennal portrays the sorceress Circe in the moment of casting a spell – awesome, ominous and dangerously all-powerful. Beguiled by the beauty of the sensuous curves and naked body, her pose is confrontational and commanding. Mackennal’s public presentation of his sculpture of Circe was a triumph, bringing him fame and recognition. Exhibited prominently in the Paris Salon (Société des Artistes Français) of 1893, it received the added prestige of being illustrated in the catalogue. Not only were reviews highly favourable, Mackennal also received a mention honorable . Writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes , one French critic observed: ‘The tense, restrained, but triumphant beauty of the sorceress bears itself with a firm and elegant alertness which is free from all trace of vulgarity and all suggestion of the model: no small merit in our opinion at the present day’.1  The English critic, R. Jope-Slade, praised  Circe  for its ‘remarkable and distinctive individuality’. He continued: ‘This powerful woman with extended arms and drooping hands, and the serpent-filled tresses of a witch, stands erect, almost rigid in the pride of consciousness of the irresistible supremacy of her nudity; but form and face are devoid of voluptuousness, and her expression is one of scorn for her victims.’ 2

While the French had taken  Circe  in their stride, across the Channel at London’s Royal Academy she caused something of a sensation. Keen to show her in the 1894 exhibition, the prudish action of the hanging committee caused more than a sniff of scandal. Prominently displayed, they covered her base with a swathe of red baize to hide the erotic figuring, which Mackennal had described as ‘debased men and women who have drunk of Circe’s wine.’3 It had the opposite effect. Exciting the public’s imagination, it became the talk of the town.

The tale of the ancient goddess Circe is drawn from the pages of Homer’s  The Odyssey. Here we learn of her enticements, of turning men into wild beasts and Odysseus’ sailors into swine. Irresistible and all-conquering, Circe is the classic femme fatale, a fascination that gripped many of the creative minds of the fin de siècle. A memorable oil painting is Circe Invidiosa, painted in 1892 by the English artist J. W. Waterhouse (Art Gallery of South Australia). Favoured by the Symbolists, the femme fatale populated opera, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov devoted a symphonic suite to Scheherazade, and Aubrey Beardsley, Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde produced their own versions of Salome. These powerful figures also reflected contemporary interests in the women’s movement and the rise of feminine equality.4

As the century drew to a close, subjects from classical mythology grew in popularity, especially among the young Australian artists exhibiting in Paris and London. Rupert Bunny’s  Tritons , c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) gained a  mention honorable  at the Salon of 1890 and is believed to have been purchased by Alfred Felton. Bunny also exhibited  Pastoral, c.1893 (National Gallery of Australia) in the same 1893 Salon as Mackennal’s  Circe . Other notables in that same Salon included John Longstaff’s  The Sirens , 1892 and Aby Altson’s  The Golden Age , 1893 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria). The latter also received a  mention honorable

The life-sized sculpture of  Circe , which Mackennal exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1893 and London’s Royal Academy of 1894, was made of plaster, cast from the clay model. In Paris in 1901, Mackennal had it cast in bronze, the sculpture subsequently being acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria through the Felton Bequest in 1910. In response to the popularity of the work, Mackennal produced an edition of statuettes, of which the work on offer is one, cast in bronze in Paris between 1902 and 1904. Another is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which produced, from the original bronze, a limited edition of 100, hand-cast in bonded bronze powder and polymer resin during 1997 – 98. They are inscribed and numbered on the base: ‘B. Mackennal AGNSW …/100 Kip KH’.

At the time of completing  Circe  in 1893, Mackennal wrote to his Melbourne patron and friend Felix Meyer saying: ‘I feel that I am all in it… I put so much time, money and thought into my Circe…’ 5  Noted for its lively invention and technical excellence, indeed the sculpture’s blend of French and British aesthetics is seamless. Mackennal is seen at his brilliant best in his combination of naturalism and symbolism. Knighted in 1921, internationally he remains today one of Australia’s most successful artists.

1. ‘Les Salons des 1893: la Peinture au Champ du Mars et la Sculpture sans les deux s alons’, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. 118, July 1893, unpaginated, cited in Jope-Slade, R., ‘An Australian Quartette’, The Magazine of Art, London, 1895, vol. 18, p. 390

2. Jo pe-Slade, ibid.

3. Mackennal, B., Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 June 1894, p. 3

4. Lane, T., ‘An Homeric Goddess for The Modern Age: Circe 1893’, in Edwards, D. et al., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 168

5. Ma ckennal letter to Felix Meyer, 12 April 1893, Felix Meyer papers, cited in Lane, op. cit.

DAVID THOMAS

BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 – 1931) TRUTH, 1894

bronze 61.0 cm height

signed at base: MACKENNAL

dated and inscribed with title at base: JUNE 12 – 1894 LONDON / TRUTH

ESTIMATE: $100,000 – 150,000

PROVENANCE

Collection of the artist

Thence by descent

Pippin Drysdale, Perth

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 22 April 2008, lot 57 Company collection, Melbourne

Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 26 McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above through the Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Fund

EXHIBITED

The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 1905, cat. 848 (another example)

The Franco-British Exhibition, London, UK, 1908, cat. 1402 (another example)

Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 9 (another example)

Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 3 (another example) Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 82 (another example)

150 Years of Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 January – 25 April 1938, cat. 168 (another example)

Early Australian Sculpture: From its Beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, December 1976 – 15 March 1977, cat. 29 (another example)

Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example)

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 August – 3 December 2000 (another example)

Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example)

LITERATURE

Art in Australia, Series 3, no. 57, 15 November 1934, p. 44 (illus., another example)

Australasian Antique Collector, no. 20, 1980, cover (illus., another example)

Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 27, pp. 43 – 44, 53, 100, 125

Edwards, D., et al.,  Bertram Mackennal,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 2 (illus., detail), 36, 37 (illus., another example), 47, and catalogued in accompanying CD-ROM

RELATED WORKS

Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

‘Truth holds her mirror outwards on her breast for the entire world to see what may be reflected there. The little statuette is very finely finished and has been rightly and abundantly admired.’1

Widely acclaimed among the masterpieces of Mackennal’s oeuvre such as Circe (lot 4), Daphne , Victory and Salome (lot 6), Truth, 1894 eloquently encapsulates the Australian sculptor’s fluency in the radical style of late nineteenth-century British ‘New Sculpture’ with its Symbolist, Art Nouveau and Classicist tendencies and abiding interest in allegorical female imagery. Continuing a literary tradition that had long personified Truth as a naked woman, thus Mackennal here gives sculptural form to the idiomatic expression ‘naked truth’, thematising the attribute as a psychological act. As Deborah Hart elaborates, ‘…the figure’s nakedness [is] a metaphor for ‘unclothed’ truth, the tautness of her body carrying resonances of Circe’s force and sternness, her face frank, fearless and earnest, and her wings indicative of a being with the moral authority of a higher realm. Like Circe, her gesture

extends to the imagined viewer. Truth holds up a burnished disc which reflects a reality incapable of compromise…’ 2 Furthermore, with its self-conscious connection to Circe , and its burnished surfaces and idealised naturalism evoking the then well-established neo-Florentine tendencies of British sculpture, Truth powerfully demonstrated those means – poetic, allegorical, decorative, classicist – by which Mackennal would ultimately rise to the uppermost ranks of early twentieth-century sculptors. 3

Significantly, such embodiment of truth and its application in real life held particular resonance for Mackennal during these years, and it is not fanciful to suggest that the statuette was created by the young artist as a rebuke to the art establishments of Melbourne and London. Indeed, three years prior in 1891 while Mackennal was in Melbourne after studies in Paris and London, he had famously entered his Triumph of Truth, 1891 – a monumental achievement in the French Beaux-Arts style – into a competition for a major sculpture to adorn the front of the National Gallery of Victoria. To Mackennal’s great disappointment, his entry received only the faint praise of a second prize with no first being awarded as the Trustees considered that none of the designs proffered were worthy of the commission. The public outcry was loud, with many (including the famed French actress Sarah Bernhardt who was touring Melbourne at the time) considering the verdict both an insult to Mackennal and an indication of how poorly European avant-garde art was understood in Australia.4 Encouraging him to seek acceptance in a more international, cosmopolitan market, thus Bernhardt and a group of wealthy Melbourne patrons provided financial support for Mackennal to return to Paris where he did finally receive that elusive recognition. In 1892, two sculptures were accepted into the Paris Salon, and in 1893, his life-sized, Symbolist-inspired Circe received an esteemed mention honorable from the Salon Jury. The following year, his seductive sorceress was accepted for the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, making him the first Australian artist to exhibit there –although the overt sexuality of the pedestal frieze depicting tumbling orgiastic nudes was too much for the prudish sensibilities of the hanging committee and the work was accordingly placed on display with the base covered. Not surprisingly, both the quality of the work and the cause célèbre of its censorship guaranteed the young artist notoriety, and his career was launched.

Modelled in London in 1894 and cast in bronze in Paris around 1897 – 98, Truth was notably conceived and first editioned as a token of appreciation for those wealthy Melburnians who had generously initiated a trust fund to enable Mackennal and his family to live and work in Paris from 1892 onwards. Perhaps not coincidentally, the sculpture echoed the subject of his original, failed entry for the National Gallery of Victoria commission – with the choice of truth no doubt a veiled allusion to the ‘rightness’ of both Mackennal’s art and those far-sighted patrons. Notably, when one such supporter, Mr Frank Stuart, clothing manufacturer, land speculator and politician, subsequently displayed Truth in the window of Allen’s music shop in Collins Street, Melbourne in October 1897, it represented the first mature example of Mackennal’s sculpture to be seen by ordinary Melburnians who could not afford to travel abroad to Britain and the continent. Art critics were unanimously ecstatic about not only the sculptor’s unparalleled talent, but the charisma and presence of the statuette itself, celebrating the work as a touchstone to the exceptional career that was unfolding half a world away. 5 ‘The expression on the face is frank, fearless and earnest, and the pose carries the same idea, heightened perhaps by an indefinable suggestion of sternness, even defiance. That the modelling is faultless need scarcely be said… around the base are mythological heads, beautifully executed, and every detail is worked out perfectly.’6

Without doubt, Mackennal had a special fondness for Truth, featuring casts in a number of prominent exhibitions at all stages of his career including his solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1901; the groundbreaking First Exhibition of statuettes by sculptors of Today, English and French sculpture for the home at the Fine Arts Society, London in 1902; the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition in Edinburgh in 1925; and the sell-out Macquarie Galleries exhibition in Sydney in 1926. Poignantly, Truth also appeared in the two memorial exhibitions for Mackennal upon his death – namely, a commercial show at the London Fine Arts Society, and the loan exhibition at the Royal Academy.7

1. The Sun, M elbourne, 29 October 1897, p. 13

2. Ed wards, D., Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 37

3. ib id.

4. Se e Peers, J., catalogue entry for lot 81, in Bonhams, Important Australian Art From the Collection of Reg Grundy AC OBE and Joy Chambers-Grundy, Sydney, 26 June 2013

5. ib id.

6. Table Talk, Melbourne, 29 October 1897, p. 4

7. Pe ers, op. cit.

Bertram Mackennal in his London studio, c.1898

Courtesy: Pauline Kraay

VERONICA ANGELATOS

BERTRAM MACKENNAL (1863 – 1931)

SALOME, 1897 bronze

29.0 cm height

signed at base: B. MACKENNAL

inscribed with title at base: SALOME original black marble base

ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 25,000

PROVENANCE

Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

Dr Jean Campbell, Sydney and Canberra McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, acquired from the above on 24 June 1992

EXHIBITED

Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, May 1897, cat. 2053 (another example)

Bertram Mackennal sculpture from the Stawell Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, February 1901 (another example)

First Exhibition of Statuettes by the Sculptors of To-day, British and French, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 1902, cat. 37 (another example)

Exhibition of bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 7 – 20 October 1926, cat. 18 (another example)

Exhibition of Bronzes by Sir Bertram Mackennal K.C.V.O., R.A., Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 16 – 29 May 1928, cat. 7 (another example)

Memorial exhibition of statuettes by the Late Sir Bertram Mackennal, K.C.V.O, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, May 1932, cat. 21 (another example)

Commemorative Exhibition of Works by Late Members, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 7 January – 11 March 1933, cat. 586 (another example)

British Sculpture 1850 – 1914, Fine Art Society, London, UK, 30 September – 30 October 1968, cat. 108 (another example)

S.H. Ervin Memorial Exhibition, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 18 May – 17 December 1979, cat. 34 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 2, another example)

Treasures of the National Trust, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 5 March – 26 April 1982, cat. 89 (another example)

Renaissance References in Australian Art, University Gallery, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 14 August – 20 September 1985, cat. 9 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 9, another example)

Australian Sculpture 1890 – 1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 January – 22 February 1987 (another example)

The New Sculpture in Australia: Australian Art Nouveau Sculpture, McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, 3 May – 5 June 1987, cat. 7 (another example)

Bertram Mackennal: The Fifth Balnaves Sculpture Project,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 August – 4 November 2007; and touring to National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 30 November 2007 – 24 February 2008 (another example)

LITERATURE

Australasian Antique Collector, no. 20, 1980, cover (illus., another example), p. 51 (illus., another example)

Peer, J., ‘Angels, Harlots and Nymphs: Some themes in Australian Allegorical sculpture’, Art and Australia, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 1987, p. 214

McCulloch, A., and McCulloch, S., The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994, p. 455 (illus., another example)

Tranter, R. R., Bertram Mackennal: A Career, Parker Pattinson Publishing, New South Wales, 2004, cat. 40, pp. 44, 130 Edwards, D.,  Bertram Mackennal, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, pp. 5 (illus., another example), 47, 114, 115 (illus., another example), 148, 172, and catalogued in accompanying CD-ROM

RELATED WORKS

Other examples of this work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria

We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David’s writing in this catalogue entry.

The legend of Salome derives from the Gospels of Matthew (14: 3 – 11) and Mark (6: 17 – 18). Both tell of Salome, daughter of Herodias (wife of Herod Antipas), whose dance so pleased her stepfather (who was also her uncle) that he promised her whatever she desired as a reward. At the bidding of her mother, who was fuelled by a vendetta, Salome requested the head of St John the Baptist on a dish.

During the 1890s, Bertram Mackennal’s mind was very much occupied, like many of the best fin de siècle artists and writers, with the  femme fatales  of both his time and of past ages – smart, alluring women capable of persuasion and emasculation. While his several portrayals of Sarah Bernhardt – the living image of that mesmerisingly seductive woman – included her in the role of Cleopatra, and a bold bronze relief in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, his interest in the power of womanhood also extended to include Eve and several versions of Queen Victoria. As noted elsewhere, Circe too made her dramatic appearance, and he rounded off the decade with that marvellous marble bust of Dame Nellie Melba of 1899 now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria through the generosity of the diva herself. Salome, that tantalising femme fatale from the Bible was a particular favourite in

late nineteenth century Paris, epitomising the femme fatale  of the past as Bernhardt did of the present. Gustave Moreau painted a number of famous versions, and friend and compatriot Rupert Bunny produced a colour monotype of Salome in 1898 showing the direct influence of Oscar Wilde’s infamous one act play,  Salomé . Wilde wrote his play in French in 1891, expanding upon the verses from the New Testament and accentuating the dance by which Salome seduces and manipulates her lust-crazed stepfather/uncle . It was first published in French in 1893, with the English translation appearing the following year accompanied by the sinuously brilliant drawings of Aubrey Beardsley. Obligingly, as if to add to the public interest in and promotion of Salome and Wilde’s play, the 1892 rehearsals for its London debut were stopped by the Lord Chamberlain. Eventually it premiered in Paris in 1896.

The subject was ripe for exploitation and Mackennal responded, his bronze statuette being cast in Paris that same year. When translating the story of Salome into paint and print, artists usually confronted this stepdaughter of Herod Antipas with the decapitated head of John the Baptist. The delight of her mother Herodias was contrasted with the horror of Herod, who had unwisely offered to grant Salome’s wish in reward for her dance of the seven veils. Here however, Mackennal chose to focus on the seductively naked body of Salome, the only reference to the beheading being the broad-bladed sword she holds behind her back as an allusion her destructive power.

DAVID THOMAS

Bertram Mackennal with Salome gelatin silver photograph 20.6 x 15.5 cm

National Art Archive, Art Gallery of New South Wales © Art Gallery of New South Wales

FREDERICK M c CUBBIN (1855 – 1917)

RAINBOW OVER BURNLEY, 1910 oil on wood panel

25.0 x 35.5 cm

bears inscription verso: Burnley Quarry / by F McCubbin / 1910 letter of authenticity attached verso, signed by Louis McCubbin, dated 29 June 1949

ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000

PROVENANCE

Sedon Galleries, Melbourne

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Cruden Farm, Victoria, acquired in 1949 McClelland Collection, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, gifted from the above in 1989 (label attached verso)

EXHIBITED

Exhibition of paintings by the late Fred McCubbin, Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, 2 – 12 August 1949, cat. 21 (as ‘The Rainbow’) 'A happy life': Frederick McCubbin’s small paintings and oil sketches , National Gallery of Victoria touring exhibition; City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 30 November 1991 – 12 January 1992, Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria, 1 February – 2 March 1992, City of Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria, 24 March – 21 April 1992, Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre, Victoria, 8 May – 5 July 1992, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, 23 July – 13 September 1992, and Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, Victoria, 2 – 31 October 1992, cat. 29 (label attached verso)

McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907 – 17, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 14 August – 1 November 2009; and touring to Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 12 December 2009 – 28 March 2010, and Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 24 April – 25 July 2010, cat. 31 (label attached verso, as ‘The rainbow (Rainbow over Burnley)’)

LITERATURE

Clark, J., 'A happy life': Frederick McCubbin small paintings and oil sketches,  National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1991, cat. 29, pp. 11 (illus.), 22 Gray, A., McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907 – 17, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2009, cat. 31, pp. 85, 100 (illus. as ‘The rainbow (Rainbow over Burnley)’)

RELATED WORKS

Autumn (Stone crusher, Richmond Quarry), 1908, oil on canvas on plywood, 50.5 x 76.0 cm, in the collection of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

The old stone crusher (The quarry), 1911, oil on canvas, 76.0 x 91.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

The stone crusher, c.1912, oil on canvas on board, 25.5 x 35.5 cm, in the collection of the Castlemaine Art Museum, Victoria

For six decades, the bluestone quarries of Richmond provided basalt for building and road construction throughout Melbourne. Located south of Coppin Street in the area known locally as Cremorne, they operated until extensive flooding in 1918 sealed their fate and the resultant lakes were opened to the river, leaving Herring Island their wake. The stone crusher was a centrepiece of the operations, a noisy, smoky machine to most, but to Frederick McCubbin, a wonderful subject which he would paint on a number of occasions from the family home ‘Carlesberg’ situated directly across the Yarra, a ‘charming old colonial house of stone, cool on the hottest days, perched right over the Yarra with three acres of garden and trees.’1 His daughter Kathleen Mangan would later recall how McCubbin ‘loved that old stone crusher, and it was so accessible to painting – looking across from our hill.’ 2 Rainbow over Burnley, 1910 is a striking study of the crusher, unusual in the fact that McCubbin has now travelled across the river and inspects the machine up close.

The McCubbins had lived at Carlesberg since 1909, two years after the artist’s first and only journey overseas. McCubbin stayed for three months, predominantly in England with shorter visits to France and Italy. He spent much of that time in galleries, intensely studying impressive works by his heroes, particularly JMW Turner, whose paintings had a profound effect on him. Even so, McCubbin wrote in a letter to his colleague Tom Roberts that ‘I actually thought I was somebody over in England, right up against Rembrandt, Turner, Velasquez, Gainsborough, Reynolds. I felt quite in good company.’3 In Rainbow over Burnley Monet is in there too, McCubbin having seen his work in Paris. Further, he stated emphatically that he now did not want to ‘‘arrest Nature’, but rather to emulate the spirit of great landscape masters of the past… whom he felt had ‘caught it alive.’’4 On his return, McCubbin’s painting technique underwent a radical change of direction. In this new approach, as vividly expressed in Rainbow over Burnley, McCubbin built up a rich surface of overlapping paint layers using palette knives and brushes. In some places, he wiped the paint back to reveal the texture of the canvas or wood; in others he left the paint thick or scratched into it using the handle of his paintbrush. ‘By this method the underneath colours would show through the over-paintings, and the effect of transparency and broken colour was accentuated; advantage could also be taken of ‘accident’… [pictures were] painted at concert pitch for themselves.’5

Nature was McCubbin’s supreme entity, but he was fascinated too by humanity’s impact upon it. In Rainbow over Burnley, the stone crusher stands proudly, suddenly graced by the presence of a rainbow, ‘alluding

to notions of both the metaphysical and physical.’6 With this painting, as well as related works The old stone crusher (The quarry), 1911 (Art Gallery of South Australia) and The stone crusher, c.1912 (Castlemaine Art Gallery), he gives ‘industry a central place, he transformed and ennobled the building.’7 In 1942, Sir Keith Murdoch opened a memorial exhibition of McCubbin’s paintings, and seven years later, his wife Dame Elisabeth purchased Rainbow over Burnley, later gifting it to the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. 8

1. Frederick McCubbin, Letter to Tom Roberts, late December 1907, cited in McKenzie, A., Frederick McCubbin 1855 – 1917: ‘The Proff’ and his art, Mannagum Press, Melbourne, 1990, p. 269

2. McKenzie, ibid., p. 170

3. Frederick McCubbin, Letter to Tom Roberts, 1907, op. cit.

4. Frederick McCubbin, correspondence, 27 January 1909, cited in Clark, J., ‘A happy life’: Frederick McCubbin’s small paintings and oil sketches, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1991, p. 6

5. McCubbin, L., Bulletin of the National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, vol. V, no.1, July 1943

6. Gr ay, A. (ed.), McCubbin: Last Impressions 1907 – 17, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2009, p. 100

7. ib id., p. 134

8. Se e ibid., p. 100

ANDREW GAYNOR

The property of various vendors

Lots 8 – 17

Lot 14

Rosalie Gascoigne Plaza, 1988 (detail)

RUPERT BUNNY (1864 – 1947)

THE SWING, c .1913 oil on canvas

80.5 x 54.0 cm

signed lower right: Rupert C W Bunny

ESTIMATE: $450,000 – 650,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Chile

Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane D. Johnston, Perth

Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 22 November 1998, lot 302

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Rupert Bunny: Artist in Paris, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 November 2009 – 21 February 2010; and touring to The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 26 March – 4 July 2010, and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 23 July – 4 October 2010, cat. 37 (label attached verso)

LITERATURE

‘$4 million art auction’, Australian Jewish News, Melbourne, 13 November 1998, p. 6 (illus.)

Maslen, G., ‘Art-sale upswing marks challenge by newcomer’, The Age, 23 November 1998, p. 8 (illus.)

Edwards, D.,  Rupert Bunny: Artist in Paris , Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2009, pp. 82, 98 (illus.), 205

Thomas, D.,  The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny, A Catalogue Raisonné in Two Volumes , Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2017, cat. O375, vol. I, pp. 12 (illus.), 52, vol. II, p. 51

Melbourne-born Rupert Bunny lived much of his adult life in France. First arriving in Paris in the 1880s, he established a studio on rue Notre Dame des Champs and began exhibiting at the Old Salon in 1888, having his first critical success there two years later when Tritons, c.1890 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) received an honourable mention. Bunny worked hard, but being sociable and outgoing, he also enjoyed a rich social life in the City of Light, frequenting popular meeting places such as the Café de Dôme, attending concerts and the theatre, and counting Sarah Bernhardt (who acquired his work) among his many friends.1 While Bunny maintained strong family connections with Australia and sent paintings home for exhibition, he did not visit again until 1911. He received a warm welcome on this occasion however, being described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘perhaps the most eminent painter that Australia has yet produced’2 and mounted successful exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney from which the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia all acquired works for their collections. During this extended visit, Bunny also undertook numerous portrait commissions of notable figures who recognised his skill and status within the contemporary artistic

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Les hasards heureux de l'escarpolette (The Swing), 1767 oil on canvas

81.0 x 64.0 cm

The Wallace Collection, London

fraternity. Writing at the time, William Moore, declared that ‘Bunny is an artist with an international reputation, his record being unapproached by any other Australian painter… Two of his best-known pictures were purchased by the French Government for the [Musée du] Luxembourg, which is the highest honour that French Art can bestow on a living artist.’ 3

The Swing was painted around 1913 and like so many of Bunny’s works, the female figure in the picture was modelled on his wife, JeanneHéloise Morel. Also a practising artist, Morel worked in oil, as well as making monotypes and embroideries, and exhibited at the Société des Artistes Français and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. The pair met in 1892 and almost instantly she became Bunny’s favourite model, her ‘ravishing beauty… violet eyes, raven hair, slightly retroussé nose’4 a distinctive and memorable feature of many paintings. Identified as the sitter in portraits such as The Straw Hat , c.1895 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), and Portrait of the Artist’s Wife , c.1896 (National Gallery of Victoria), she also represented a more symbolic and timeless image of femininity and womanhood in paintings including A Summer

Morning , c.1908 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), and Who comes?, c.1908 (National Gallery of Australia). The couple married in 1902 and as Bunny scholar, David Thomas, has observed, his depictions of Morel are ‘essays on the ineffable in feminine beauty, they convey love, admiration and an elegance that sets them apart.’5

Bunny appreciated beauty in all its forms and many of his best-known paintings depict graceful women, either alone or in intimate groups, attired in the elaborate and beautiful fashions of the day. The Swing is no exception and the woman, who is shown seated on an outdoor swing, dreamily looking off into the distance, wears a long sheath-style dress and wrap in shades of apricot with cream and green highlights. What distinguishes this painting from many of Bunny’s images is its focus on a lush garden setting – his attention here is as much on the visual beauty of the natural environment as it is on the stylish elegance of his female subject. A variegated green grassy foreground leads to a view of distant water beyond the figure who is surrounded by flowering bushes and willow branches which frame the upper left corner of the scene. While the subject of a girl on a swing is a familiar theme from historical French

Pierre–Auguste Renoir

The Swing , 1876 oil on canvas

92.0 x 73.0 cm

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

art – evoking similar images by artists such as Fragonard, Boucher and Re noir, among others – Bunny’s handling of paint in this work clearly shows the influence of Impressionism. Delicate brushstrokes of colour are laid down on the canvas side by side, carefully building up rich chromatic depth, and there is an emphasis on the representation of the changing qualities of light and shadow which recalls the singular painterly approach of Claude Monet. As David Thomas has written, The Swing is ‘one of the finest examples of Bunny’s impressionistic figure subjects, his interest now focussed on sparkling light and ravishing colour, combined with a technique that is equally vivacious in its handling and breadth. Brushstrokes seem to dance across the canvas with colou rs of a higher key.’6

1. For more information see ‘Biographical notes’ in Edwards, D., Rupert Bunny, artist in Paris, A rt Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2009, pp. 188 – 196

2. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1911, cited in Thomas, D., The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2017, p. 145

3. William Moore, cited in Thomas, ibid, p. 148

4. Th omas, ibid., p. 79

5. ib id.

6. ib id., p. 152

KIRSTY GRANT

BRETT

WHITELEY (1939 – 1992)

THE DEAD RABBIT, 1979 oil, Liquitex, gouache, charcoal, collage and hair on card on composition board with silk mounts in artist’s Perspex frame

132.0 x 74.5 cm

signed, stamped with initials, dated and inscribed with title lower right: 12 / Aug / 79 / ‘the dead rabbit’ / (on the Bathurst Road west of Oberon, N.S.W.) / brett Whiteley / BW

ESTIMATE: $200,000 – 300,000

PROVENANCE

Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1979

EXHIBITED

Brett Whiteley: Portraits: Crucifixions: (a paddock at) Oberon, David Reid’s Gallery (by Robin Gibson), Sydney, 26 April – 17 May 1980, cat. 28

LITERATURE

Sutherland, K., Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné , Schwartz Publishing, Melbourne, 2020, cat. 139.79, vol. 7, p. 483

‘Of all the subjects Whiteley painted in his career, landscape gave him the greatest sense of release…’1

Awarded the prestigious Wynne Prize for Australian landscape painting in 1977, 1978 and 1984, Brett Whiteley possessed a universally admired talent for capturing the natural environment. As Barry Pearce elaborates, Nature offered Whiteley both inspiration and solace from the expectations of the art world and the unrelenting pressures he had come to experience in a life fuelled by creativity and addiction: ‘…if in many of his other themes Whiteley confronted the difficult questions of his psyche, landscape provided a means of escape, an unencumbered absorption into a painless, floating world.’ 2

Following a tumultuous decade abroad, in 1969 Brett Whiteley returned to Australia and, in the tradition of many expatriate artists before him, thus embarked upon an artistic pilgrimage to rediscover his homeland. Captivated afresh by the beauty, vastness and variety of the Australian landscape, he thus explored the shifting chromatic illusions and ‘optical ecstasy’ of Sydney’s Lavender Bay in sumptuous tableaux redolent of Matisse, before subsequently revisiting the country of his boyhood in the central west region of New South Wales. Indelibly embedded in his imagination, ‘the rounded, monumental, full-breasted hills and open spaces’3 that surrounded his boarding school in Bathurst had been not only an important impetus for his precocious endeavours, but an endless source of inspiration over the intervening decades. Equally influential were the compositions of Lloyd Rees which Whiteley had first admired at Macquarie Galleries one day after school – landscapes deeply poetic in their contemplation of soft curves and arabesques all rendered with impeccable tonality. As he later recalled, ‘…They contained nature and

ideas, they contained naturalism but seemed also very invented, and the adventure of them was that they showed the decisions and revisions that had been made while they had been painted…’4

Characterised by restorative sojourns in the countryside (where the Whiteleys would invariably stay at the home of prominent radio host, John Laws, in Oberon, or Michael Hobbs in Carcoar), the late seventies witnessed the production of some of the most beautiful, serene landscapes of Whiteley’s career – aptly earning him the epithet of ‘chronologist of the golden paddocks, sensual hills and willowstrewn rivers of the central west.’5 Created during this halcyon period, notably The Dead Rabbit , 1979 was first unveiled in the artist’s highly acclaimed solo exhibition organised by Robin Gibson Galleries, Sydney in 1980 which juxtaposed lyrical pastorals immortalising the central west alongside Whiteley’s more tortured explorations of the Crucifixion theme featuring the ravaged body of his close friend and sculptor, Joel Elenberg, as the dying Christ. While ostensibly these landscapes were intended as a peaceful antidote to his darker, more painful musings, it could be argued that the present instead straddles both extremes of this complex duality. Indeed, amidst the exquisitely rendered passages of sensuous, sun-parched landscape here, complete with Whiteley’s graceful, gliding river, the intrusion of the road abruptly dividing the picture plane, together with the vivid, somewhat macabre depiction of roadkill (complete with collaged animal fur) hints at an underlying menace strikingly reminiscent of his turbulent, multi-panelled magnum opus Alchemy, 1972 – 73 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) conceived earlier that decade.

An impressive example from these pivotal years when the artist was arguably at the height of his creative powers and critical success, thus The Dead Rabbit encapsulates brilliantly the antithesis that so distinguished both Whiteley’s personality and his art; as Sandra McGrath elucidates, ‘…in truth he was living out one of his constant themes – good and evil, optimism and pessimism… all meshed into one overall psychological and pictorial design, one lifelong attempt to reconcile extremes, one eternal battle to identify the truth that E.M. Forster recognised as being accessible only by experiencing opposites.’6

1 Pearce, B., Brett Whiteley: Art and Life, A rt Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, p. 196

2. Ibid.

3. Mc Grath, S., Brett Whiteley, Bay Books, Victoria, 1979, p. 206

4. Whiteley cited in Klepac, L., Lloyd Rees – Brett Whiteley: On the Road to Berry, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 1993, p. 7

5. H opkirk, F., Brett Whiteley 1958 – 1989: The Central West, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, 1990

6. Mc Grath, op. cit., p. 94

VERONICA ANGELATOS

BRETT WHITELEY (1939 – 1992)

THE WILLOW, 1979 brush and ink on paper on composition board

153.5 x 101.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: brett whiteley 79 ‘the willow’ stamped lower left with artist’s monogram bears inscription verso: 27 original Brett Lichtenstein frame, Sydney

ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000

PROVENANCE

Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Sydney Thence by descent

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2009

EXHIBITED

Brett Whiteley: Portraits: Crucifixions: (a paddock at) Oberon, David Reid’s Gallery (by Robin Gibson), Sydney, 26 April – 17 May 1980, cat. 27 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, as ‘The Willow, 1890’ [sic])

LITERATURE

Sutherland, K.,  Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné , Schwartz Publishing, Melbourne, 2020, cat. 153.80, vol. 7, p. 520 (dated 1980)

counterbalanced by periods of extreme dependence on narcotics and restorative sojourns in the Central Tablelands of west New South Wales. The landscape was a conceptual and real escape from the realities of daily existence and the equally clamorous pressures of Whiteley’s successes and vices. Products of the artist’s joyful communion with the natural world, the most beautiful and lyrical landscapes of Whiteley’s career were created during these trips. Indeed, in addition to featuring alone in many works on paper, the (often golden yellow) riverside willow appears in many larger and acclaimed painted compositions of this time and later throughout the 1980s, including Alchemy, 1972 – 73; River at Carcoar, 1977; Summer at Carcoar, 1977; The Wren, 1978 and Autumn (Near Bathurst), 1987 – 88.

Drawing was the cornerstone of Brett Whiteley’s artistic practice, and his diverse works on paper informed and supported the major paintings and sculptures produced throughout his lifetime, often exploring alternate compositional emphases with fluid mastery of each of his chosen mediums. The Willow, 1979 depicting a weeping willow tree bent over a river bend with semi-submerged boulders, is entirely composed of sinuous lines of black ink, placed on a fresh sheet of paper with expressive and confident immediacy. The effect is striking in its sparse and graphic simplicity. In paring back his subject matter, Whiteley makes his recurrent motifs of a meandering river and a statuesque tree into synecdoches - the isolated elements of his beloved pastoral landscapes becoming shorthand symbols of the larger restorative natural forces of this countryside.1

The late 1970s were decidedly tumultuous years in the lives of Brett and Wendy Whiteley, peppered with astounding highs such as the artist’s winning of both the Wynne and Sulman prizes in 1977, and then of all three, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman the following year,

Returning to a region familiar from his childhood stirred feelings of tenderness in the artist, which in turn imbued certain pastoral compositions with a hint of magical realism and whimsical naiveté, aesthetically removed from his brash meditations on city living. Whiteley’s introspective focus was informed by his admiration for Zen Buddhist philosophy and the meditative process of brush-and-ink calligraphy borrowed from Asian art. Whiteley described Zen as the ‘theology of drawing’ 2 and viewed this ancient medium as ‘the great unalterable’ 3 , its application requiring the utmost confidence and mindfulness. The resulting works on paper bear a spontaneous and fluid quality, lyrically balancing deep black inks with the negative space of the unaltered paper sheet. Whiteley’s characteristic freehand brushstrokes describe the interlocking curves of a short segment of this meandering river and the willow’s knotted trunk, its fronds gracefully trailing over the water and radiating from the centre of the composition like a suspended firework. In just a few lines, with great agility, Whiteley has captured and preserved a moment in time, suspending in stillness the gently swaying branches of the tree and the current of the river as it is gently diverted around the rocks.

1. The same could be said for the recurrent motifs of Palm and Jacaranda trees, and various birds.

2. Mc Grath, S., Brett Whiteley, Bay Books, Sydney, 1979, p. 168

3. Drawing and How to Get it On, 1975, illus. in McGrath, ibid., p. 183

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

CRESSIDA CAMPBELL

born 1960

LILIES AND PARROT SHAWL, 2006

unique colour woodblock print

119.5 x 25.0 cm (image)

130.5 x 45.5 cm (sheet)

signed lower right: Cressida Campbell signed below image lower left: Cressida Campbell

ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000

PROVENANCE

Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2007

EXHIBITED

Cressida Campbell, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, 9 October – 3 November 2007, cat. 30

Within this long and narrow scroll-like composition, Cressida Campbell’s unopened lilies vie for attention against shimming, multicoloured parrots frozen in the silk threads of the background drapery. A tightly cropped asymmetric sliver of a still life arrangement, printed in sumptuous pigments in a unique impression, Lilies and Parrot Shawl, 2006 becomes an artistic exercise in competing patterns and modes of pictorial representation. The artist winks at the mythological origins of painting, in which the ancient Greek Zeuxis tricks birds with his realistic depiction of a bunch of grapes. Here, Campbell’s parrots are the ones who have been artistically stylised, embroidered into richly coloured silk, carved and then painted, while the recurring white lilies of her still lives, although appearing in realistic detail in comparison, are tantalisingly truncated.

Lilies and Parrot Shawl is closely related to a larger still life composition – Still Life with Lilies and Ranunculus , of the same year – also created with her signature mirrored process of incised woodblock and its unique printed impression. In contrast to the larger composition which includes a table and places the titular flowers in vases, Campbell’s narrow focus on one sprig of blooms set against a patterned fabric emphasises the screen-like shallow pictorial space for which she is so well-known. By sharing oblique views and isolating often overlooked details, Campbell conjures a sense of shared intimacy with her viewers.

Although sculptural white lilies feature habitually in her still lives and interiors (from early works such as Lilies with Indian Cloth , 1994 to Lilies with Yellow Plate and Interior with White Lilies, 2003), here, for a brief suspended moment, the closed blooms do not distract from the magnificence of the woven leaves, branches and plumed parrots of the Indian shawl.

Long before Campbell overtly described this process in the title of a work ( Journey Around My Room, 2019), she created images that gently coax viewers to travel through time and space, living vicariously through the artist and her personal recollections, both known and imagined. To collect is to travel, and the artist displays clearly her love for the objects in her collection through her careful attention. She explained this impetus in 1997 ‘things that I love, if I have not made them into a picture, I feel I have not fully experienced them.’1 The artist displays in her home (and in her artworks) these collections of artworks and ceramics. She also collects textiles, most acquired or borrowed from her sister, Sally, who deals in handmade Indian textiles. 2 These bolts of fabric, delicately or boldly patterned, are regularly used by the artist as stimulating backgrounds for still-life compositions, placed as tablecloths on horizontal surfaces, or, as in this composition, hung in a screen behind a floral arrangement.

A quiet achiever, Cressida Campbell has charmed Australian art lovers for over four decades, staying steadfastly true to her artistic vision and laboriously producing complex artworks of serene and seductive still lives, interiors and landscape views. Working at the intersection of painting and printmaking, she conjures beautiful unique images whose often prosaic subject matter conceals their meticulous conception. These works, on paper and on painted woodblock, are testaments to Campbell’s sophisticated visual intelligence and unwavering dedication to her artistic practice. With their unassuming beauty, they cannot help but remind us to slow down and to appreciate the visual beauty present in the everyday.

1. Campbell, cited in Wright, M., ‘Arts’, Australian Financial Review Magazine, Sydney, 26 September 1997, p. 112

2. Campbell, Interview with Rebecca Edwards, ‘Cressida Campbell and the Art of Collecting’, Cressida Campbell, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2022, p. 48

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

BRONWYN OLIVER (1959 – 2006) CLASP, 2006

copper

215.0 x 20.0 x 20.0 cm

ESTIMATE: $250,000 – 350,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of the artist, Sydney Private collection, Italy, from 2009 Menzies, Melbourne, 9 February 2017, lot 34 Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Bronwyn Oliver (1959 – 2006), Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 10 August – 2 September 2006

LITERATURE

Fink, H., Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things , Piper Press, Sydney, 2017, p. 221 (as ‘Clasp II’)

‘When the ideas, the formal elements and the medium all work together, a sculpture will ‘sing’ with a kind of rightness. It takes on a life, a presence, which is removed from this world. It belongs to a mythical other life, without a place in time.’1

One of Australia’s most innovative contemporary sculptors, Bronwyn Oliver remains celebrated for her extraordinary ability to produce meticulously articulated works of immense beauty and grace which unite timeless, organic forms of the natural world with the abstract logic of geometry. As elucidated by Hannah Fink in her introduction to the artist’s posthumous exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in August 2006 which notably featured the present Clasp, 2006, ‘...Bronwyn was modest, yet utterly sure of her vision, secure in the confidence of her originality. Her art was fully resolved – perfect, really – and she stands alone in the annals of Australian art history. There was no-one like her: she invented her own deeply intelligent form, and entered fully into the world that it opened out to her.’ 2

Created only months before her untimely death in 2006, Clasp offers a superb, albeit poignant, example of Oliver’s delicately woven copper and bronze assemblages that universally seek to surprise and inspire

– beguiling both the eye and mind through their enigmatic presence. Arguably echoing the paradoxes inherent within the artist own personality3 , her works are simple yet complicated, fragile yet strong, eccentric though oddly straightforward. Moreover, with their tactility and anatomical physicality, such intricately executed forms invariably elicit a temptation to touch – the sensual, prehistorically scaled versions of natural phenomena thus reminding us that the world is a corporeal place.

Yet too often the easy, voluptuous curves of Oliver’s objects belie the punishing, labour intensive process to which the artist was so tenaciously committed. As intimated by the present sculpture’s allusive title meaning to hold tightly or to fasten something with one’s hands, Oliver would painstakingly manipulate dizzying twistings and welds of pliant copper wire to create her signature ‘weave’ – the microstructure of her organic sculptural forms which gradually became more open and geometric to allow light to permeate and exaggerate their optical aspect. Indeed, the shadows cast by her objects – whether vertically mounted, flowing tendril shapes (such as the present sculpture), calligraphic sweeping curves, or seed and pod-like spheres – are so intrinsic to the formalist geometry of each piece that at times the shadow itself almost becomes more powerful... becomes the object. 4 Evoking a duality between that which is immobile and inert, yet also active and dynamic, thus the interplay between these aspects suggests, as Natasha Bullock notes, ‘… a passage from one place to another, a journey from a material dimension into an imaginative other world.’5

Elegant and refined,  Clasp  encapsulates well Oliver’s unique legacy of beauty, wonder, strength and life – her skilful mastery of form, space and material to create flawless sculptural works that, although unmistakably contemporary in their construction, simultaneously betray a timeless, ethereal quality that resonates deeply within the human soul.

1. Oliver cited in Sturgeon, G., ‘Bronwyn Oliver’, Contemporary Australian Sculpture, Craftsman H ouse, Sydney, 1991 p. 74

2. Fink, H., ‘Exhibition Essay’ in Bronwyn Oliver (1959 – 2006), Roslyn Oxley9, Sydney, 2006, see: https://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/exhibition/bronwyn-oliver-1959-2006/46saa

3. ibid.

4. ibid.

5. Natasha Bullock cited in Bond, A. and Tunnicliffe, W., (eds.), Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, p. 326

ANGELATOS

VERONICA

BRONWYN OLIVER

(1959 – 2006) FLOW, 2002

copper

80.0 cm diameter

ESTIMATE: $250,000 – 350,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, New South Wales, a private commission from the artist in 2002

EXHIBITED

Bronwyn Oliver, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 21 November – 14 December 2002

LITERATURE

Fink, H.,  Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things , Piper Press, Sydney, 2017, pp. 145, 148 (illus.), 149 (illus.), 220

photographer unknown ©

Flow in situ in the garden at Jamberoo House, New South Wales

Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

A large swirling orb, with fluid bristles and filaments emanating from its surface, the aptly titled Flow, 2002 echoes the joyful organic rhythms and structures that govern the natural world within which it was placed. Described as ‘perhaps Oliver’s most successfully realised garden work’1, Flow was commissioned privately at the height of the late sculptor’s fame, in the first years of the new millennium, a period during which her work was dominated by two essential hollow forms: the sphere and the ovoid. In 1999, Oliver received her first major sculptural commission from the City of Sydney, for which she created a pair of oversized seed forms made of welded copper, Palm and Magnolia (Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney). Following the public success of these sculptures, in the early 2000s, she experienced a flurry of private commissions. For many of these, she proposed a series of unstable orb-like forms with filigreed carapaces realised in monumental dimensions when installed outdoors, with others retaining an intimate and domestic scale. Flow, realised with a skilful smooth manipulation of individual copper rods, each terminating abruptly in a small bulb, is amongst Oliver’s most fluid and self-assured compositions.

‘The structure of the sphere should echo the vitality of the growth around it. This sphere has a gently spiralling density. From within the structure, a profusion of hairs emerges, each with a blunt tip which

curves around the spiral but remains within the fibrous husk of the form. The lichen on the garden bench has a kind of woolliness. There is a very delicate texture of fuzz in the tiny vine spreading over the tree leading down to the garden and the grasses are hairy and shaggy. This hairy growth habit became the subject for sculpture and the sphere seemed the natural form.’ 2

Understanding Flow within the context of the above artistic rationale, supplied to the present owners alongside a maquette and proposal ahead of the commission, the relationship of poetic associations with the sculpture’s intended garden site becomes clear. Oliver continually denied any overt naturalistic inspiration in her work, occasionally explaining that any organic associations would have arisen naturally from her post-modern practice learned at the Chelsea School of Art, which was grounded in the action of creation and infused with profound respect for materials. The ‘hairs’ that create the surface of Flow’s orb, loosely and organically follow the pattern of magnetic radiation between two poles, becoming longitudinal lines emanating from the northernmost pole before converging at its base. 3

Although many of Oliver’s commissions from this period had smooth closely woven surfaces and smooth profiles, such as Core , Orb and

Bronwyn Oliver Globe , 2002 copper

250.0 cm diameter

University of New South Wales, Sydney

© Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Globe , Flow’s contours are uniquely rippled, its regular undulations echoing the overlapping branches of trees and creating an enticing tactile quality. This is an unusual form, with Oliver’s usual copper wire not woven into a web of intersecting fenestrations, but instead kept intact in long threads of copper wire (of a uniform gauge) loosely combed together in flowing strands. As Graeme Sturgeon noted, as early as 1991, the structural principles that determine Oliver’s forms can be distilled to the consistent actions of ‘spiralling, wrapping, binding, swelling, expanding and stretching’4 , all processes of becoming or clear movement, often clearly repeated in the sculptor’s concise choice of title with emphatic one-word verbs, such as Flow

Although its imposing dimensions ensure the sculpture maintains its own integrity within a densely vegetated outdoor setting, Flow ’s hollow interior and open form fret-work allow for modest transparency and for the work, in the right atmospheric conditions, to ‘appear filled with light.’5 Flow was created specifically for Rob and Robin White’s country residence, Jamberoo House, to be nestled in the valley below the award-winning house designed by Glenn Murcutt. Intended to become

Bronwyn Oliver Palm, 1999 copper

190.0 x 180.0 x 180.0 cm

Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney © Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

a collaborative presence within the garden, Flow reflects and emulates the contours of the surrounding animate and inanimate objects, perched on a boulder beside a staircase hewn into the rock.

One of Australia’s most highly regarded contemporary sculptors, Bronwyn Oliver remains celebrated for her extraordinary ability to produce meticulously articulated works of immense beauty and grace which unite timeless, organic forms of the natural world with the abstract logic of geometry. Oliver's delicately woven and enduring copper forms continue to surprise and inspire – their enigmatic presence beguiling both the eye and the mind.

1. Fink, H., Bronwyn Oliver. Strange Things, Piper Press, Sydney, 2017, p. 145

2. Ar tist’s rationale, 2002, reproduced ibid.

3. Wi th the neat flatness of these poles, Oliver has (perhaps unknowingly) illustrated a mathematical theorem of topology colloquially known as the ‘Hairy Ball Theorem’.

4. St urgeon, G., Contemporary Australian Sculpture, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 73

5. Al though speaking of another contemporaneous commission in Massachusetts, Orb, the same effect has been created with Flow

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

PROVENANCE

ROSALIE GASCOIGNE

(1917 – 1999)

PLAZA, 1988

sawn retroreflective plywood road signs on plywood

148.0 x 84.5 cm

signed, dated and inscribed verso: ‘Plaza’ / 1988 / Rosalie Gascoigne

ESTIMATE: $160,000 – 220,000

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso)

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above on 26 October 1989

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 25 August 2015, lot 14

Private collection, Sydney

Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Rosalie Gascoigne , Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne, 28 September – 15 October 1988, cat. 2

Rosalie Gascoigne , Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 31 October – 18 November 1989, cat. 7

LITERATURE

Allen, C., ‘Bill Robinson; Rosalie Gascoigne’, Art Monthly Australia, December 1989 – January 1990, p. 19

MacDonald, V., Rosalie Gascoigne , Regaro, Sydney, 1998, p. 106

Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne: A Catalogue Raisonné, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 2019, cat. 336, pp. 234 (illus.), 331, 332

With regular square tiles radiating warmth and marked by palpable traces of human activity, Rosalie Gascoigne’s vibrant orangey-red assemblage, Plaza, 1988 poetically reflects our built environment and its interaction with the larger, untameable landscape. While during the early years of Gascoigne’s foraging practice, she favoured the pale weathered timber of discarded apiary boxes and soft-drink crates, the discovery of a cache of discarded and cut-up road signs in a depot near Collector in 1985 stimulated an unlikely adoption of these bold artefacts into her panel reliefs.1 ‘We all look at road signs an awful lot, and they do get into the consciousness’, she explained. 2 These retro-reflective panels emblazoned with stark black capitalised text against highvisibility yellow and red, would become a defining signature material of Gascoigne’s mature works. Plaza was amongst the first works made of the darker hue, one of four exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery in 1988 (alongside Persimmon, 1987; Chart, 1988; and Party Piece , 1988).

Coming to art in mid-life, Gascoigne’s artworks were infused with the traces of previous experiences and honed talents, for example, an interest in botany and Ikebana or, perhaps more enduringly, a love of

language and wordplay – her acute poetic aptitude anchored by having read English at university. Gascoigne had already incorporated text into her works in the form of meaningless brand names from the late 1970s, but it was only through roadsigns that her mastery of text fragmentation and abstract re-distribution of divorced syllables was fully displayed. The critic Christopher Allen noted this difference in how the artist employed the new roadsigns, singling out her use of square sections rather than thin strips, and her preference for isolating individual letters and syllables rather than preserving intact words. 3 This can be ascribed to the artist’s desire to erase all functional meaning from her original foraged materials, creating in its place a semi-abstract design, with elusive readability. More often than not, a poetry of association can be found in the artist’s choice of title for her finished assemblages. Plaza, like previous works with titles centred around ideas of civil engineering and its associated semiotics, has summery connotations of warm Mediterranean paving stones and outdoor meeting places of organic social congregation.

Plaza is arranged in a strict Modernist grid. Its large vertical rectangle comprises five rows of three identical square units, each with at least one fragment of black text, some with up to two intact letters. The relative size of the lettering is uneven, as is their vertical justification. The effect is airy and scattered, with ‘sequences that can be read across from one tile to another’4 (for example P/EN in the centre right), creating a sensation of fluid horizontal movement. For all of Gascoigne’s apparent adherence to the ultra-modernist rigour of planar and gridbased constructions, painterly surface effects of weathering: scratches, gouges and palimpsests, transform these panels into contemporary expressionist abstractions to be admired for their purely formal qualities. This is further accentuated through Gascoigne’s subtle use of panels bearing retro-reflective film, to be encountered par hasard, ‘meant, like roadsigns in daylight, to glance and smile at you, then sulk and go away… remain a transient, living, pulsing thing.’5

1. ‘A byproduct of the new road through to Goulburn’, in Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne: A C atalogue Raisonné, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 2019, pp. 88, 220

2. Ro salie Gascoigne, ‘Canberra School of Art Lecture’, 1985, cited ibid., p. 221

3. Allen, C., ‘Bill Robinson: Rosalie Gascoigne’, Art Monthly Australia, Dec 1989 – Jan 1990, no. 27, p. 19

4. ibid.

5. Ro salie Gascoigne discussing retroreflection in 1990 with reference to Lamplit, 1989, although the effect is general and applicable to several works, see: Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne: A Catalogue Raisonné, ibid., p. 238

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

WILLIAM SCOTT

(British, 1913 – 1989)

NEW STILL LIFE STUDY, 1983 oil on canvas

167.5 x 172.5 cm

signed and dated verso: W SCOTT 83 original Robert Sielle frame

ESTIMATE: $300,000 – 400,000

PROVENANCE

Gimpel Fils Gallery, London (label attached verso)

Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York

Private collection, New York, acquired from the above in June 1983

Sotheby’s, London, 4 November 1992, lot 120 (as ‘Untitled’)

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London

Annandale Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso, as ‘New Life Study’)

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1999

EXHIBITED

William Scott, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York, USA, 26 April – 28 May 1983

William Scott: A Retrospective, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK, 3 April – 11 May 1997

William Scott: paintings & works on paper, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, in association with Bernard Jacobson Gallery London, 11 May – 12 June 1999, cat. 5

LITERATURE

Whitfield, S. (ed.),  William Scott: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings , Thames & Hudson, London, in association with the William Scott Foundation, 2013, cat. A166, vol. 4, p. 378

Despite being one of the most influential modern British painters of the 20th century, William Scott remains an enigmatic figure in recent art history. He is, as is too often said, ‘a painters’ painter’. Praised and admired by other artists for his lifelong dedication to his craft, for his handling of paint, and for his extraordinary capacity to breathe life into a relatively limited range of subject matter, Scott’s work is rightly celebrated for its pictorial eloquence and for the way in which it elegantly hovers between representation and abstraction. As the artist remarked in 1955: ‘I seem to paint the same subject, whether it is still life, figure or landscape. There is no escaping. One can develop it, but never change it.’1

Born of humble origins in Greenock, Scotland, William Scott grew up in his father’s hometown of Enniskillen, in Northern Ireland. Scott took local art classes from the age of eleven, leaving school at fifteen to study at Belfast College of Art before gaining a place in the sculpture school of the Royal Academy of Art in London in 1931 (Scott transferred to painting in 1941). After his marriage to fellow artist Mary Lucas in 1937, the couple lived for a period in Italy, and then, Pont-Aven in Brittany, France; finally settling, in 1941, in Hallatrow in Somerset. Scott joined the army in 1942, serving initially with the Royal Army Ordinance Corps before working as a lithographic draughtsman for the Royal Engineers. Although not demobilised until January 1946, he was fortunate to be able to both paint and exhibit during this time. On the other side of the war, Scott found himself an artist on the rise. He was appointed

William Scott

Still Life With Orange Note , 1970 oil on canvas

168.0 x 172.0 cm

National Museums Northern Ireland, Belfast © Estate of William Scott

Senior Painting Master at the Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court in Wiltshire, England in 1946 (where, amongst his students was Harold Hodgkin) and was to represent Britain, along with Kenneth Armitage and William Hayter, at the Venice Biennale in 1958.

The years after WWII heralded a period of experimentation for Scott, who, like many artists at the time, struggled to grasp the relevance and contribution of art after such global devastation, and with finding a way, personally, to move it forward. 2 During a trip to New York in 1953, Scott became one of the first British artists to meet and experience the work of American Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko, who was to become a long-term correspondent and friend. However, despite being impressed by the scale, ambition and confidence of their work, this encounter only served to reinforce the roots of Scott’s own practice in the European tradition. 3 As he reflected: ‘There’s a whole tradition from Chardin to Cézanne and Braque and Bonnard which has no part in American painting, and that is the tradition I’ve always held to.’4

By the time Scott made New Still Life Study in 1983, he had been painting his still life compositions of kitchen paraphernalia—pots, pans, bottles, jugs, bowls and knives—for close to four decades, finding endless inspiration in the formal qualities of these mundane everyday items and in their capacity to hold both space and form. As he wrote in 1953:

‘About four years ago I painted a picture of a frying pan and a whole napkin. I had been interested in the work of Braque for a long time, but I felt that it was dishonest to merely take as some people have done the guitar, the carafe and the French loaf. I felt that in painting my own familiar objects I might imbue them with a conviction characteristic of both myself and my race, if the guitar was to Braque his Madonna, the frying pan could be my guitar, black was a colour I was fond of and I possessed at that moment a very black pan.’5

By the 1980s however, the occasional foodstuffs – eggs, fish and lemons, for example, and tilted tabletops of his earlier work had disappeared, replaced by his now signature kitchen objects abstracted and floating in space. Reduced to the sparest of means in New Still Life Study, the frying pan, with its handle pointing straight up, is viewed from above, while the bowls and cups are seen in profile. The artist’s formerly rich handling of paint is similarly reduced to the sparest of means – thin veils of monochromatic colour that seem to amplify the sense of stillness and suspension contained within the square of the

William Scott , 1972 photographer: Jorge Lewinski © The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth All Rights Reserved 2024 / Bridgeman Images

composition. Interestingly, for Scott, framing was also an essential part of realising (and controlling) his vision. The simple, dark wooden frame of New Still Life Study, made by Scott’s long-term framer Robert Sielle, 6 at once contains and amplifies the emblematic forms within it, encouraging a sense of stillness and contemplation. Created by an artist at the height of his powers, within this beautiful work, nothing is left to chance.

1. Russell, J., ‘Prologue’ in Lyon, N., William Scott, T hames & Hudson, London, 2004, p. 8

2. ‘W illiam Scott and Abstraction, TateShots, Tate, 2013, see: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CfhHZSpFzYQ (accessed 28 June 2024)

3. Ly on, op. cit., p. 465

4. ib id. p. 7

5. ‘A rchive Blog – November 2016. William Scott: a painter of pots and pans…’, William Scott Foundation, see: http://williamscott.org/2016/11/07/archive-blog-november-2016/ (accessed 28 June 2024)

6. Whitfield, S. (ed.), William Scott: Catalogue Raisonée of Oil Paintings 1969 – 1989 Catalogue Numbers 657 – 935, Thames & Hudson in association with William Scott Foundation, London, 2013, pp. 11, 378.

KELLY GELLATLY

ROSS BLECKNER

American, born 1949 MOLECULAR BASIS, 1998 oil on canvas

213.0 x 152.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: Ross Bleckner / Ross Bleckner / 1998 / Molecular / Basis

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA (label attached verso) Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in January 1999

EXHIBITED

Ross Bleckner: New Paintings , Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA, December 1998 – January 1999

ROSS BLECKNER Paintings 1996 – 1999, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, 3 – 29 November 1999, cat. 4 (illus. in exhibition catalogue); Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, 6 – 24 December 1999

LITERATURE

ROSS BLECKNER Paintings 1996 – 1999, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, 1999, pp. 10, 11 (illus.), 35

Presenting an intricate expanse of abutting cells, each composed of countless identical spherical particles, Molecular Basis , 1998 is a hypnotic investigation into the inherent vulnerabilities in the underlying architecture of human life. Replicating in a luminous grey palette a pellicle of human tissue from a pathology slide and enlarging its microscopic code to a vast painterly format, Ross Bleckner mirrors the contemporary scientific developments which have shed light on invisible threats.

American painter Ross Bleckner first came into prominence in the 1980s, steadfastly creating diaphanous and technically refined tableaux in oils, flying in the face of dissenters who decried the ‘death of painting’ – viewing it as an obsolete practice being superseded by the advent of conceptual and post-modern art. In New York, Bleckner’s immediate community was heavily impacted by the AIDS epidemic, a cataclysmic event that has informed his artistic and activist practices ever since. The artist later reflected: ‘I think the awareness of AIDS – first a slow, creeping awareness, then that very explosive, devastating awareness politicised me a lot – like many gay men... it forced me to play my hand more directly... I wanted whatever had been more latent in my work

to be more explicit.’1 An acute understanding of bodily vulnerability and mortality hence has underpinned Bleckner’s paintings, op-art abstractions and Rococo dreamscape interiors alike, infusing their formal decorative appearance with an elegiac quality. Although these decorative patterned surfaces are ‘concerned with the same classic complex of themes: questions of the beginning and the end, life and death, light and darkness, and bound up with them the desire for order and a yearning for beauty’, they remain fundamentally realist paintings describing a clear landscape of cellular structures as viewed through an electron microscope. 2

Molecular Basis was painted at the height of Bleckner’s ‘Cell painting’ period, evoking the tenuous links of life clearly and profoundly. While Molecular Basis’ lattice-like surface echoes Yayoi Kusama’s iconic infinity nets and Terry Winters’ biomorphic gestural abstraction, Bleckner’s network of stylised clusters of cells is scientifically and physically distanced from individual human experience. Instead of retaining painterly brushstrokes, Bleckner’s paint begins as a random distribution of nuclei and all traces of human agency are slickly airbrushed away, leaving a translucent and uniformly matte surface. The idiosyncrasies of Bleckner’s new technique were detailed in a review of his two 1999 solo exhibitions in the periodical Art in America : ‘To create the look of multitudes of three-dimensional ‘cells’, he places the canvas on the floor and sprinkles it with dots of oil pigment. While still wet, each dot is blasted with a powerful, finely focused airbrush, which smooths out the paint into a more-or-less round spot with dark edges and a lighter-hued, translucent centre; sometimes bare canvas is revealed, at other times a coloured ground.’3

Bleckner’s work was first shown in Australia during the 1988 Biennale of Sydney, appearing again in the nineties at the National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition on artworks responding to the AIDS crisis: ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’. Molecular Basis was purchased in the United States and later included in Bleckner’s first solo exhibition in Australia, presented by Martin Browne and Gabrielle Pizzi.

1. Interview with Dan Cameron, Art Forum, New York, March 2003, vol. 41, no. 7, see https:// www.artforum.com/columns/ross-bleckner-165808 / (accessed 29 May 2024)

2. Fischer, P., ‘Ross Bleckner’, In The Power of Painting, Alesco AG, Zurich, 2000, p. 121

3. Eb ony, D., ‘Ross Bleckner at Mary Boone and Lehmann Maupin’, Art in America, April 1999, p. 139

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

MARILYN MINTER

American, born 1948

QUAIL’S EGG, 2003 enamel on metal 213.0 x 122.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: “QUAILS EGG” / M. MINTER 2003

ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000

PROVENANCE

Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA (label attached verso)

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in January 2005

EXHIBITED

Marilyn Minter: New Paintings and Photographs, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, USA, 26 November – 22 December 2004

New Work: Marilyn Minter, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA, 1 April – 24 July 2005 (label attached verso, dated as 2004)

LITERATURE

Shirkey, J., ‘New Work: Marilyn Minter’, New Work: Marilyn Minter, exhibition brochure, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, 2005, n.p. (illus., dated as 2004)

Sinclair, A., ‘Interview with Marilyn Minter and Alicia Thacker’, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, August 2008 (illus., dated as 2004), https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/with-marilyn-minteralicia-thacker/1509 (accessed April 2024)

Burton, J., et al., Marilyn Minter, Gregory R. Miller & Co., New York, 2010, pp. 8 (illus., detail), 26 (illus., dated as 2004), 73 (illus., dated as 2004), 104 (illus., dated as 2004)

Simmons, W. J., ‘Laurie Simmons / Marilyn Minter’, King Kong Magazine , vol. 2, 2016, p. 97 (illus., dated as 2004) ‘Fertile inspiration: how the humble egg has played an enduring role in women’s art’, The Art Newspaper, 30 November 2022 (illus., dated as 2004), https://www.theartnewspaper. com/2022/11/29/fertile-inspiration-how-the-humble-egg-hasplayed-an-enduring-role-in-womens-art (accessed April 2024)

Highly polished, technically ingenious and with a classical understanding of theatrical staging, Marilyn Minter’s luscious enamel paintings on metal borrow and parody narrative codes from commercial fashion photography and advertising to seduce and confound audiences. Although the trailblazing artist had been producing visceral feminist artworks since the 1960s, she only found sudden fame at the turn of the millennium. Her star continues to rise as her glossy billboard-sized representations of flawed and unapologetic female desire speak to the contemporary experience. At first recycling images from the mass-

media machine, in the 1990s Minter began to stage and photograph her own source imagery for paintings. This allowed her to champion underrepresented populations and to tweak common compositions such as this extreme close-up of a woman’s open mouth, from which dribbles the viscous yolk of a small, freshly broken egg – according to the artist, ‘a real fashion trope.’1

Minter purposefully ‘eliminates the narrative’ within her images by tightly cropping her view of the model to just one feature. 2 In Quail’s Egg , 2003 the image is dominated by the plump, rouge-stained pout rendered iconic by advertisements for Revlon cosmetics in the 1950s and later disembodied as a Pop Art motif by Tom Wesselman. Throughout her career, Minter has addressed the erotic associations between food and the female body, with an open mouth becoming for her an easily legible symbol of insatiable desire, both in a sensual and consumerist sense. In Minter’s other images from the same period, a cascade of pearls tumble grotesquely from the same open mouth in an orgy of excess.

Although her compositions copy fashion spreads presenting perfection, Minter undermines this association by seeking out models with freckles and presenting them in unpolished, vernacular scenarios – with sweat-beaded skin, teeth smudged with lipstick, downy upper lips and shoes encrusted with street grime. Minter further emphasises the unrepresented ‘realness’ of her photographic images by including fleeting, obscuring and magnifying effects of moisture drips, spills, splashes, steam and sweat. These various droplets are then meticulously and laboriously painted in layers onto the gleaming metal surface by the artist, with the aid of a staff of highly trained assistants.

Minter’s work suffered from a period of institutional repudiation in the 1990s when she dared to address pornography unabashedly. Her later works, including Quail’s Egg, while still harnessing the power of sexual suggestion, ambiguously address both limbic impulses of disgust and desire. Mirroring the oscillation of her images’ surface between painted gesture and photographic exactitude is the fine line between revulsion and pleasure.

1. Minter, M. and Burton, J., Marilyn Minter, Gregory Miller & Co., New York, 2007, p. 26

2 Richards, J. O., Oral history interview with Marilyn Minter, 29 – 30 November 2011, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, see https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/ oral-history-interview-marilyn-minter-16001 (accessed 27 May 2024)

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

Works from the Estate of John Barnes,

Melbourne: Part I

Lots 18 – 24

John Barnes – A discreet collector

Melbourne surgeon and collector, Dr. John Barnes (1938 – 2024), enjoyed an enduring enthusiasm for art and architecture. A lifelong resident of Melbourne, John graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine in 1962, before pursuing further studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, specialising in the aliments of the ear, nose and throat. He dedicated his life to this field of medicine, working as an ENT surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 1969 to 1988, and Senior ENT surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Preston and Northcote Community Hospital and the Northern Hospital from 1972 to 2005. John also served as an ENT Surgeon to the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve between 1972 – 2003, attaining the rank of Wing Commander.

Outside of medicine, John embraced many interests, but it was art and architecture that became his greatest fascination. His frequent travels overseas saw him seeking out examples of important architecture, visiting historical monuments and spending countless hours exploring art galleries and museums across the globe. In the early 1980s, he embarked upon curating his own personal art collection, regularly frequenting galleries across metropolitan Melbourne to select paintings and sculpture pieces that appealed to his keen eye. Although initially collecting quite broadly, including fine examples by modern masters such as Fred Williams (lot 19) and Arthur Boyd (lot 18), he later developed a particular passion

Dr John Barnes receiving the Reserve Force Decoration for his years of service with the RAAF

for abstraction and minimalism with a focus on art and sculpture from the 1960s though to the 1980s – no doubt ignited by a visit years earlier to the landmark Field exhibition at the newly opened National Gallery of Victoria in 1968 . He consequently spent decades carefully collecting quality pieces from galleries and auction houses, and building relationships with gallerists such as Charles Nodrum who would propose examples to augment his collection. Collecting in bursts, by the end of the first decade of the twenty first century, his art collection adorned the walls of his similarly restrained Toorak home, designed by the acclaimed post-war modernist Australian architect, Guilford Bell. Reflecting his abstractionist sensibilities, Barnes’ art collection thus featured paintings by Ralph Balson (lot 38), Tony Tuckson (lot 24) and John Olsen (lot 23) which complemented Bell’s aesthetic restraint, strong forms and symmetry – all of which combined the tenets of post-war modernism with classical principles. Accompanying the paintings were sculptural pieces by celebrated artists such as Inge King (lot 22), George Baldessin (lot 20) and Clement Meadmore (lot 21) which filled voids or stood in courtyards within the home.

Deutscher and Hackett are pleased to offer this first tranche of paintings and sculpture from the collection of Dr. John Barnes, with further works from the collection appearing in a dedicated single owner D+H ONLINE auction in September.

ARTHUR BOYD

(1920 – 1999)

RIVER-BUSH HOMAGE TO POLLOCK, 1976 oil on canvas

152.5 x 122.0 cm

signed lower right: Arthur Boyd

ESTIMATE: $200,000 – 300,000

PROVENANCE

Bonython–Meadmore Gallery, Adelaide Leasefin Corporation Limited, Melbourne

The Leasefin Sale of Australian Pictures, Christie’s, Melbourne, 28 July 1991, lot 1

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

LITERATURE

McGrath, S., The Artist and the River, Bay Books, Sydney, 1982, pl. 179, pp. 178, 179 (illus.)

‘The natural beauty of the Shoalhaven area caused Boyd to marvel constantly. His paintings are a celebration of grandeur and wonder of Nature. It is to Boyd’s credit that a single landscape can inspire such diversity of work. He gives us the impression that there are infinite possibilities, as long as we train ourselves to see.’1

Eager to rediscover his roots, his ‘Australianism’, after more than a decade abroad, in 1971 Arthur Boyd returned to the country of his birth to take up a Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian National University in Canberra. Over the blazing summer of 1971 – 72, Boyd and his wife Yvonne were invited by the Sydney art dealer Frank McDonald to visit Bundanon for the weekend, staying at a home he shared on the south coast of New South Wales with art historian Sandra McGrath and her husband Tony. Here the artist’s joyful rediscovery of the Australian bush with its stark contrasts and clarity of light was nothing short of an epiphany, and thus in 1974, Boyd purchased the nearby property Riversdale on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. Once again the magic of the dour, untamed Australian landscape became the impetus for his art, and over the subsequent twenty-five years until his death in 1999, Boyd would dedicate himself almost exclusively to capturing the myriad moods of the Shoalhaven in images that are today imprinted upon the national psyche as some of our most beloved and iconic.

Soul-piercing in its beauty, the Shoalhaven region offered both refreshing solace for the artist’s world-weary eyes, and endless potential as a subject – ‘the variation in the area with its great deep tones and high keys’ bearing strong affinities with music. As Boyd elaborated, ‘in the desert there is only one note, just one low singing note. In this landscape the tonal range – not tonal in the obvious sense of colour, but the actual fact of the horizon which can vary from very high to low, to infinite, depending on your line of vision – makes it a greater challenge. It has a knife-edged clarity. Impressionism could never have been born here, but Wagner could easily have composed here…In fact,’ he added with characteristic playfulness, ‘I actually think Wagner lived in the Shoalhaven.’ 2 Wild and primordial, the region differed completely from the ordered English countryside to which he had grown accustomed and thus, a new vision was required to unlock its tangled mysteries. If previously Breughel and Rembrandt had offered inspiration, now Von Guérard, Piguenit and Buvelot became Boyd’s spiritual mentors

Painted a world away in his studio in England, River-Bush Homage to Pollock , 1976 offers a monumental example of the ‘pure’ Shoalhaven landscapes which – devoid of the mythological creatures and symbolic narrative punctuating versions elsewhere – simply pays homage to the sheer grandeur and beauty of Nature. Perhaps owing to its execution abroad, the work arguably bears a more cerebral, abstract quality than those iterations undertaken in the Shoalhaven, while Boyd’s title alludes to his unique experimentation here with the revolutionary technique of his radical New York abstract expressionist predecessor: ‘I call it ‘Homage to Pollock’ because in the details I used the same drip patternmaking approach that Pollock used.’ 3 Exuding a primeval stillness notwithstanding its painterly innovation, River-Bush Homage to Pollock is a poignant reminder of how Boyd, comfortable once more with the eternal diversity of the Australian landscape, ultimately  did  tame his wilderness: ‘...what was unfamiliar became familiar, what was menacing became friendly, what was awesome became intimate.’4

1. McKenzie, J., Arthur Boyd at Bundanon, Academy Editions, London, 1994, p. 42

2. Boyd quoted in Pearce, B., Arthur Boyd Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1993, pp. 26 – 27

3. Boyd cited in McGrath, S., The Artist and the Shoalhaven, Bay Books, Sydney, 1982, p. 178 4. Mc Grath, ibid., p. 79

ANGELATOS

VERONICA

FRED WILLIAMS

(1927 – 1982)

WERRIBEE GORGE NO. 8, 1977 – 78 oil on canvas

106.5 x 101.0 cm

signed upper right: Fred Williams bears inscription on stretcher bar verso: 1978.2

ESTIMATE: $250,000 – 350,000

PROVENANCE

Realities Gallery, Melbourne

Joseph Brown, Melbourne

The ANZ Art Collection, Melbourne

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 21 August 1995, lot 10

Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne (label attached verso)

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Fred Williams , Realities Gallery, Melbourne, 7 June – 1 July 1978, cat. 18

LITERATURE

Lindsay, F. (ed.), The ANZ Art Collection, ANZ, Melbourne, 1988, p. 74 (illus.)

An invitation in 1975 to mount a solo exhibition of gouaches at the Museum of Modern Art in New York marked the beginning of an intensely productive period in Fred Williams’ career. He was the first Australian artist to be honoured in this way and the exhibition, which opened in March 1977, acknowledged the significance of his art and its unique vision of the landscape within a national context – both to audiences who were familiar with the country his paintings described, and beyond. Introducing the exhibition, the Director of MoMA’s Department of Drawings, William S. Lieberman, wrote: ‘Fred Williams knows Australia. He is not an artist who would disdain a gum tree. He is not a foreigner seeking to impose a natural paradise on some strange, exotic land. He is, however, a romantic artist and his approach to landscape is narrative. His images may at first seem abstract, but they in fact describe actual times and places… Fred Williams’s colours are those of the continent itself… Fred Williams’s vision is authentic.’1

Williams’ celebrated series of gorge paintings began in late 1975 following two sketching excursions to Werribee, a short distance southwest of Melbourne. The drama and varied features of the landscape obviously appealed to the artist, who returned early the following year, making a further eight visits to the area in just over two months, painting oil sketches as well as taking photographs, which he used as aides-mémoire . He worked in a different location each time –

Fred Williams

Dry Creek Bed, Werribee Gorge I, 1977 oil on canvas

182.3 x 152.2 cm

Tate, London © Estate of Fred Williams / Copyright Agency

from Picnic Point, which offered a broad view over the cliffs to the dry creek bed and surrounding bush below, to Kelly’s Creek, where the perspective was closer and more intimate, noting in his diary, ‘These last three or four months have been the driest in fifty three years? so it has been a great opportunity to be doing the “Gorge” – visually it could not be seen under better conditions.’ 2 Williams also wrote, ‘It is quite fascinating to think of the You Yangs looking like a saw-tooth – & just a few miles away the “Gorge” doing the same thing in reverse.’ 3 This recognition of the connection between the geography of Werribee Gorge and the You Yangs – the subject of an important series of paintings produced the previous decade – provides an insight into the depth of Williams’ understanding and careful observation of the landscapes in which he worked.

In making these paintings, Williams solidified the practice of beginning studio paintings soon after a sketching trip, while the visual and physical memory of the experience was still strong, and there was now little difference between what he termed the ‘outside’ paintings and the ‘inside’ works. Recording his excitement about this new aspect of the creative process, he wrote, ‘this is something of a milestone for me –to paint the sketch on the spot and then paint the picture!’4 One of the consequences of this way of working is an immediacy in the application of paint which echoes marks made directly in front of the motif, as the

hand directs the brush to record an impression of what the eye is seeing, capturing both the appearance and the feeling of the landscape. From all-over compositions like The River, Werribee Gorge , 1977 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) in which the river, seen from above, meanders through a densely treed area, to more sparse images like Dry Creek Bed, Werribee Gorge I, 1977 (Tate Gallery, London), it is the diversity of brushstrokes and a certain lightness of touch that prevails.

At first glance, Werribee Gorge No. 8 , 1977 – 78 appears to show Williams at his most abstract. An all-over ground of pale ochre sits behind a dense array of varied brushstrokes which reads like a catalogue of the extraordinary range of his mark-making, from characteristic dots, daubs and dashes, to sparsely applied paint (in the lower right corner, for example) which has been brushed on in the thinnest of layers. The palette is similarly rich and the subtlety of colour across the canvas, from deep blues and burgundy to vivid orange and white highlights, reflects Williams’ consummate skill as a colourist. The visual complexity of the image conjures up something of the creative energy involved in its making, as well as the artist’s command of painterly gesture and his ability to communicate through these means both a sense of the landscape as it appears and as it is experienced physically. The longer one looks at this painting however, the less abstract it seems and the more prominent the path of the gorge through the gentle undulations

Fred Williams

The River, Werribee Gorge , 1977 oil on canvas

182.4 x 152.0 cm

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

© Estate of Fred Williams / Copyright Agency

of the landscape becomes. In addition to demonstrating the way that Williams interpreted his subject in terms of paint, this painting typifies the tension that runs throughout his oeuvre in its push and pull between representation and abstraction.

The Werribee Gorge paintings reveal the hand and imagination of a mature artist who is confident in his abilities and yet not content to rest on the successes of the past. Exploring new territory, both physically and artistically, Williams skilfully describes a specific location while at the time presenting a symbolic representation of the landscape which is imbued with a profound depth and emotional resonance. As Patrick McCaughey explained, ‘Each image forms a metaphor to focus the landscape and give it a new expressive power and purpose. Together, the series forms a new consciousness in Williams’s art… [reflecting] how much Williams wanted to combine inner compulsion and structural design and let them flow and be seen to flow from each other.’5

1. Lieberman, W. S., Fred Williams – Landscapes of a Continent, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1977, n.p.

2. Fred Williams Diary, 21 April 1976, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery & Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 205

3. Fred Williams Diary, 30 March 1976, cited ibid.

4. Fred Williams Diary, 30 April 1976, cited in Hart, D., Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 1487

5. Mc Caughey, op. cit., p. 284

KIRSTY GRANT

GEORGE BALDESSIN (1939 – 1978) TRAPEZE, 1965

bronze and synthetic polymer paint

178.0 x 63.5 x 63.0 cm

edition: 1/4

stamped and numbered on base: Victorian College of the Arts Foundry 1/4

ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Melbourne

Menzies, Sydney, 21 March 2013, lot 20 John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

New Trends in Australian Art, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, June 1965, cat. 1 (another example)

George Baldessin: Sculpture and Etchings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 8 August – 18 September 1983, cat. 108 (another example)

Baldessin/Whiteley: P a rallel Visions, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 31 August 2018 – 28 January 2019 (another example)

LITERATURE

Lindsay, R., and Holloway, M. J.,  George Baldessin: Sculpture and Etchings, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1983, cat. 108, pp. 118, 119 (illus., another example)

Edquist, H.,  George Baldessin – Paradox & Persuasion, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 52 (illus., another example), 53, 246 Grishin, S.,  Baldessin/Whiteley: Parallel Visions , The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 2018, p. 191

RELATED WORK

Another edition of this sculpture is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Despite the fact that George Baldessin never revealed his immigrant roots to his artist colleagues and friends, when he decided to further extend his art education, he chose his native Italy, studying at the Brera Academy in Milan in 1963. The aspiring artist had worked his passage as a waiter on a ship to London, and before arriving in Italy, attended the printmaking department at the Chelsea School of Art, following in the footsteps of former student Fred Williams. Baldessin was determined to be an artist and was committed to honing his skills. As Patrick McCaughey stated after the artist’s untimely death: ‘George Baldessin was the example of what it meant to be an artist. His singlemindedness, his capacity for sustained hard work and the ambition of his imagination were rightly taken as exemplary ways for the artist to follow.’1

At the Brera Academy, Baldessin studied under sculptor Mario Marini and his assistant Alik Cavalieri. While it was an article on Marini that first compelled Baldessin to apply, 2 in the end it was the haunting, surreal work of Cavalieri, and his expertise in bronze casting, that was to have the greatest influence. 3 Baldessin’s own unique language across printmaking and sculpture was to soon display the sense of alienation and existential angst that was a hallmark of Cavalieri’s practice. After returning to Melbourne in 1963, Baldessin held his first solo exhibition at the Argus Gallery, Melbourne in 1964 and was included in the seminal Mildura Sculpture Triennial that same year. On the strength of these achievements, he was invited to join the stable of Sydney art dealer Rudy Komon, holding his first exhibition at the gallery in 1965.

The artist’s fascination with circus performers began with his first etchings in 1963, which were inspired by the etchings that Fred Williams had made of London’s music halls in 1955 – 56. 4 While performers featured in Baldessin’s prints across 1963 and 1964, Trapeze , 1965 also provides an early indication of his preoccupation with the human body and particularly the female form, her movement often suspended in a moment of contortion heightened by its frozen state. With her extended hip (or buttock?) and leg, elongated arms and entwined hands, the body of Baldessin’s trapeze artist challenges the limits of human anatomy, as if the death-defying and graceful movements she would make in mid-air have crashed to the ground, only to be gathered up and put together in the wrong configuration. The addition of white paint to the work’s bronze surface only adds to this sense of distortion, perhaps signalling a pair of tights, but only part of. While the figure’s form is drawn from the sense of magic that experience of the trapeze inspires, the performer’s barely rendered face and pitted and scarred body imbues this sense of joy with an air of melancholy.

1. McCaughey, P., ‘Preface’ in Lindsay, R. & Holloway, M.J., George Baldessin: Sculpture and Etchings. A Memorial Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1983, p. 8

2. Baldessin read the article on Marini in Art and America in the library of the Chelsea School of Art, see Lindsay, R., ‘Biographical Notes’ in ibid. p. 10

3. Ho lloway, M.J., ‘Venus in Sackcloth: Eroticism and Ritual in the Work of George Baldessin’, ibid., p. 29

4. Williams proofed and printed these works at the RMIT printmaking studio while Baldessin was a student. The Thursday evening and later, Friday classes were reserved for already practicing artists and included the likes of Williams, John Brack and Leonard French, among others.

KELLY GELLATLY

George Baldessin in his Winfield Building studio, Melbourne 1975

photographer unknown

Australian Galleries, Melbourne

CLEMENT MEADMORE

(1929 – 2005) RIFF, 1996 bronze

41.0 x 100.0 x 43.0 cm edition: 2/4

signed, dated and numbered at base: Meadmore 1996 2/4 dated, numbered and inscribed with title on base: Riff / 1996 2/4 / A. R. T.

ESTIMATE: $70,000 – 90,000

PROVENANCE

Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Melbourne

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 17 May 2011, lot 18

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above  The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Clement Meadmore: Sculptures from 1972 to 2004, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney, 17 November – 12 December 2007, cat. 16

LITERATURE

Denholm, M., ‘Reviews: Clement Meadmore’, Art and Australia, vol. 35, no. 2, 1997, pp. 293 (illus., related work), 294

RELATED WORK

Riff, 1996, monumental version, in the collection of Pt Leo Estate Sculpture Park, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

‘I am interested in geometry as a grammar which, if understood, can be used with great flexibility and expressiveness.’1

One of the most highly regarded and internationally acclaimed Australian artists of his generation, Clement Meadmore remains revered for thoughtful, impeccably executed sculptures that unify pure stark geometry with expressive gesture. Invariably constructed from one single square-sectioned beam that has been bent and coiled to the artistic aim of the artist, indeed his masterful constructions evince a seemingly implausible sense of dynamism and musical rhythm that belies their unyielding medium. Whether monumental outdoor commissions or smaller scale domestic maquettes, Meadmore’s forms typically twist, turn and writhe – their suggested animation thus adding a humanising balance to the all-too-often bland immobility and visual harshness of our modern built environments. As Gibson

astutely observes, the opposition between line and mass lies at the very core of Meadmore’s sculptures: ‘…in their form they suggest the rapid motion through space of a limb or body… or the residue of such motion. They have more in common with purely aesthetic things such as a drawn line, than with a recognisable object existing in the world even though, by virtue of their sheer physical bulk and size and scale, they are undeniably that…’ 2

With its title no doubt inspired by the artist’s amateur musicianship and in particular, his predilection for jazz, Riff, 1996 offers a superb example of Meadmore’s constructions from his final decade during which he returned to his dense, coiled sculptures of the 1960s and early 1970s. Such free-flowing exchange of ideas within his own oeuvre was not uncommon for Meadmore, and thus the present maquette – like its large-scale version in painted steel situated in the Pt Leo Estate Sculpture Park on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula – is strongly reminiscent of earlier works such Dervish, 1972 (Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne) or  Split-Level, 1971 (University of Houston, Texas).

Closely related to Wingspan , 1996 executed the same year, Riff nevertheless departs from these coil configurations of previous decades in its more pronounced Baroque flavour. Winding from a central access to a lateral spread with the horizontal axis parallel to the ground and the wings of the sculpture running left and right, each side in different length from the other, the sculpture holds its form and pushes into space convincingly – as so appositely intimated by its title. Evolving in an intuitive manner from a geometric vocabulary in a similar way to a Jazz improvisation, indeed the sculpture encapsulates brilliantly the musical genre of which Meadmore was such a well-known aficionado; as Gibson suggests, ‘Rhythms gather and are released – they pick up momentum and slow down, begin with sudden intensity and stop with equal abruptness. His sculptures simultaneously suggest uninterrupted flow and caesura.’ 3

1. Meadmore cited at: https://bluefruitdesign.blogspot.com/2012/01/clement-meadmore-notjust-s... (accessed July 2024)

2. Gibson, E., The Sculpture of Clement Meadmore, Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1994, p. 52

3. ib id., p. 57

VERONICA ANGELATOS

INGE

KING (1915 – 2016)

BLACK SUN, 1974

enamel paint on steel

62.0 x 60.0 x 22.0 cm edition of 3 and artist's proof

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Australian Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Sydney Sotheby’s, Sydney, 31 August 2010, lot 9

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

The Kings, City of Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria, September – October 1975; and touring to McClelland Gallery, Langwarrin, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria, Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria, and Sale Regional Art Centre, Victoria, throughout 1975 – 76, cat. 43 (another example)

Inge King: Sculptures, Realities Gallery, Melbourne, 24 March – 21 April 1977 (another example)

Spring Exhibition 1979, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 17 – 30 October 1979, cat. 176 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, another example)

Inge King Sculpture 1945 – 1982: A Survey, University Gallery, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 14 September – 22 October 1982, cat. 10 (another example)

Inge King: Small Sculptures, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 6 September – 8 October 1995, cat. 17 (another example)

Inge King: Small Sculptures , McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Langwarrin, 8 August – 26 September 2004, cat. 33 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, another example)

Inge King: Constellation, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1 May – 31 August 2014 (another example)

LITERATURE

Zimmer, J., Inge King Sculpture 1945 – 1982: A Survey, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 1982, pp. 16, 21

Thomas, D., Inge King: Small Sculptures, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 1995, pp. 7, 25, 30 (illus., another example)

Trimble, J., Inge King: Sculptor, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996, pp. 106, 109, 135, 190, 200

Grishin, S.,  The Art of Inge King Sculptor, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2014, pp. 147 – 148, 322 (illus., another example), 369 Hurlston, D., and Eckett, J., Inge King: Constellation, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, pp. 18, 66 (illus., another example), 130

RELATED WORKS

Other editions of this sculpture are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and Deakin University Museum of Art, Melbourne Black Sun, 1975, painted mild steel, 239.0 x 208.0 x 72.0 cm, in the collection of the Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria Black Sun II, 1975, painted mild steel, 239.0 x 208.0 x 72.0 cm, is in the collection of the Australian National University, Canberra

Inge King

Black Sun, 1975 painted mild steel

239.0 x 208.0 x 72.0 cm photographer unknown

Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria

Black Sun, 1974 is one of Inge King’s most significant sculptures of the 1970s, encapsulating the command of both material and form that saw her become one of Australia’s most highly regarded modernist sculptors. Signalling a radical departure from the artist’s expressive and heavily textured work of the 1960s, the precise, streamlined curves of Black Sun and works such as Forward Surge , 1976 (commissioned for the Arts Centre, Melbourne) emerged after a three-month trip to Europe and the United States with husband and fellow artist Grahame King in 1969 – 70.1 King was influenced by the scale and ambition (but not style) of the large Minimalist sculpture she saw in public spaces during their travels, 2 and on her return, as her reputation grew, she was correspondingly able to realise her own work on a large-scale for the first time. King’s 1973 exhibition at Melbourne’s Powell Street Gallery, Works for Monumental Sculptures , was one of the first public declarations of the importance of the maquette to both her practice and artistic vision, as the maquettes were not for sale, but were instead displayed to invite public commissions.

Initially conceived as a maquette for a competition in Western Australia, Black Sun was of such importance to King that she withdrew the maquette from the acquisitive prize that she had entered so that she could keep the piece and enlarge it for a ‘different occasion’. 3 The result was the monumental Black Sun, 1975, which was exhibited in the Sixth Mildura Sculpture Triennial at Mildura Arts Centre in 1975 and subsequently awarded the acquisitive prize. A second large-scale version, Black Sun II, 1975 was acquired by the Australian National University, Canberra. As artist James Gleeson rightly noted in an interview with King five years after the work’s creation, ‘In a way … Black Sun ’s almost become like a signature tune for Inge King. Everyone associates with it.’4

The success of Black Sun lies in its deceptively simple form – two semicircular shapes set at a slight angle to each other, intersected by a slit than runs vertically between the two. This simple device allows light to penetrate the work’s elegant and seemingly self-contained mass,

Inge King

Forward Surge , 1976 painted mild steel

516.0 x 1514.0 x 1368.0 cm

photographer unknown Arts Centre, Melbourne

creating a sense of physical engagement for the viewer as the play of light that penetrates the seam passes across the work’s surface at different times of the day. As art historian Jane Eckett has recognised, the three separate maquettes that King made prior to the final version (this work is the third, and the only realised in steel) attest to the thought behind the determination of the exact angle required to activate light and shadow 5 , almost as if they are part of the work itself. Despite being described by the artist as a ‘maquette’, the fact that King oversaw editioning of this smaller version of Black Sun equally reveals her belief in its capacity to exist as a sculpture in its own right:

‘But even I do small sculptures. I don’t always call them maquettes, because sometimes I might have them with me for six months or a year before I decide whether they will enlarge, or not. It’s not a technical question, it’s just a question [of] whether they will work on a larger scale and look better, because I’m not concerned just to produce large sculptures. With some of them I feel they’re completed in the size, you know, of the existent. That’s it.’6

1. Hurlston, D., ‘Inge King: Constellation’ in Hurlston, D. & Eckett, J., Inge King: Constellation, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, p. 60

2. Trimble, J., Inge King: Sculptor, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1996, p. 71

3. Gl eeson, J., ‘James Gleeson Interviews Inge King’, 18 October 1979, James Gleeson Oral History Collection, National Gallery of Australia, see: https://nga.gov.au/on-demand/ingeking-interview/ (accessed 1 July 2024)

4. ibid.

5. Eckett, J., ‘Binary Star: Inge and Grahame King’, Inge King: Constellation, p. 18. The first two maquettes are: Black Sun, Maquette, First Version, 1974, black synthetic polymer paint on Balsa wood, 8.3 x 7.1 x 3.3 cm, and Black Sun, Maquette, Second Version, 1974, black synthetic polymer paint on cardboard, black synthetic polymer paint on composition board base, 30.9 x 29.0 x 11.8 cm

6. In ge King, cited in Gleeson, op. cit.

KELLY GELLATLY

JOHN OLSEN (1928 – 2023)

AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE, 1962 oil on composition board

87.0 x 91.0 cm

signed with initials lower right: J O

ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, USA

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 28 August 2006, lot 102 John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

LITERATURE

McGregor, K., and Zimmer, J.,  John Olsen: Journeys Into the You Beaut Country, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2016, pp. 30 – 31 (illus.), 337

We are grateful to Kylie Norton, Editor, John Olsen Catalogue Raisonné, for her assistance with this catalogue entry.

When John Olsen departed Australia for Europe in 1957, he left one European tradition behind and embraced another. In Sydney he had studied under John Passmore, a disciplinarian with a steadfast interest in Cezanne. In France, and eventually Spain, Olsen encountered a mid20th century avant-garde, a free-wheeling and expressive attitude, his natural temperament, which shaped his art for the remainder of his life.

Olsen saw the lyrical, gestural and frequently wilful expressive work of artists connected with Art Informel and Tachisme. They discarded the formal elements of the modernists a generation before them – Cubism was their anathema. After a few months in Paris where he studied etching under S.W. Hayter, Olsen went to Deià, a village in Majorca in 1958. In Spain, Olsen saw the work of Antoni Tàpies (1923 – 2012) whose paintings applied various materials, surfaces were scratched, gouged and brushed marks were often inspired by neighbourhood graffiti.

Olsen was attracted to the dark temperament of Spanish painting as a way in which to express observed life at. ‘The Spanish lineage did not explain itself in floral tributes but in blacks, leather browns, burnt reds, blood like crimsons, chamois and candle whites.’1

From portraits to The Disasters of War, Goya’s art is an obvious marker of this quality.

Australian Landscape is the embodiment of a defining moment, one which foreshadowed Olsen’s approach to art which would evolve over decades. Lineal painterliness is sometimes described as calligraphic, too often a loosely applied catch-all. In this work we see it as a precise description. Paint is applied wet over dry, gestures, sweeps and considered daubs are placed with a pigment-loaded brush and done in one action without carefully nuanced halftones. Everything is confident and conveys the power of deliberateness without a skerrick of timidity or hesitation.

Olsen had begun reading about Zen Buddhism, and in his journal of 1958, he wrote, ‘…Zen realises that our nature is at one with objective nature… in the sense that we live in nature and nature lives within us…attuning the mind to the utmost fluidity or mobility, to acquire the spontaneity of natural growth.’ This might not only have been a note relevant for its time, but also a prescient encapsulation of his whole career.

Olsen returned to Australia in 1960 and soon after painted Spanish Encounter, a vast triptych, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased it before year’s end. The expansive, black-brushed drawing clearly connects with the surface personality in Australian Landscape. It also echoes the brooding dramatic darkness of Granada, 1959 (National Gallery of Victoria).

In Olsen’s Journey into the You Beaut Country paintings of 1961 his palette lightens, and we see an openness and painterly spontaneity where all elements are choreographed across the surface.

Within this context, Australian Landscape, 1962 is a critically important painting – one which not only marks a shift in Olsen’s early career, but notably anticipates work for the following decades.

1. John Olsen cited in ‘Interview with Maudie Palmer’ in In Search of Open Country 1961 – 1986 , H eide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, 1986, p. 7

DOUG HALL AM

TONY TUCKSON (1921 – 1973)

UNTITLED, c .1962 synthetic polymer paint on composition board 121.0 x 121.0 cm bears inscription on frame verso: T. TUCKSON / CAT 9.

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of Tony Tuckson, Sydney Watters Gallery, Sydney Fred and Carol Storch, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1979 Art Galleries Schubert, Queensland (label attached verso)

Private collection, Brisbane, acquired from the above in 2002 Sotheby’s, Sydney, 24 November 2015, lot 50 John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Tuckson ’62 – ’65 , Watters Gallery, Sydney, 27 August – 13 September 1975, cat. 9

Widely regarded as one of the finest abstract artists of his generation, Tony Tuckson held only two solo exhibitions during his lifetime. Following the second at Watters Gallery, Sydney – and his premature death – in 1973, Sandra McGrath wrote in  Art and Australia  that ‘[he] was recognised almost overnight for what he was – the best Action Painter in Australia and one of the country’s most important artists.’1 Born to British parents, Tuckson had studied art in England from 1937 – 40 and after the Second World War, at the East Sydney Technical College, including what he described as his most influential lessons with pioneering abstract artists Grace Crowley and Ralph Balson. By the time of the 1973 exhibition he had been painting for more than thirty years, but few apart from a handful of intimates had ever seen his work. 2 The reason for this was the conflict he rightly perceived between his art practice and his professional role at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where he worked from 1950 until 1973, as assistant director and then deputy to Hal Missingham.

Although he worked in isolation, Tuckson was deeply immersed in the world of art and his role at the Gallery exposed him to a wide range of creative influences. Links with contemporary abstraction, and especially the work of American abstract expressionists, are clear. Tuckson established the Gallery’s Aboriginal and Melanesian art

collections and his deep knowledge of Indigenous Australian art was another influence which, according to his wife Margaret, ‘first interested him for its casual way of filling an area, the lack of worry about shapes spilling over outlines.’ 3

Untitled , c.1962, is part of Tuckson’s second series of abstracts, a group of paintings made during the first half of the 1960s, which are distinguished by a bold palette restricted to three colours – namely red, black and white. Applied with a broad brush, blocks of colour reverberate against one another, as loose linear forms and dots of paint punctuate the open fields of colour. In this and related works, including Large shapes, red black , c.1961 (National Gallery of Australia), the gestural freedom of Tuckson’s intuitive style and his belief that ‘when you start worrying about the position of a mark, you cease to paint’4 , are on clear display. Something of Tuckson’s process is also visible in this work, the dribbles of red and black paint (especially in the bottom half of the panel) which point to the immediacy of his approach, and the layers that reveal the ‘incessant activity of concealment, correction and accumulation’ of his painting, creating both visual and physical texture.5

Reviewing Tuckson’s 1973 exhibition, James Gleeson wrote, ‘What he is on about is the act of painting. His pictures are about what it feels like to paint a picture’.6  This interpretation, and its emphasis on the significance for Tuckson of the physical act of painting itself, is echoed by the eloquent words of another abstract artist, Aida Tomescu who has recently written, ‘Tuckson’s paintings transcend being pinned down to one meaning, one subject. What is being expressed here is painting itself; its capacity to be about everything at once, its subjects and meanings always multiple.’7

1. McGrath, S., ‘Tony Tuckson’, Art and Australia, Sydney, vol. 12, no. 2, 1974, p. 156

2. Tu ckson occasionally submitted works to group exhibitions during the 1950s but had stopped exhibiting by the 1960s, by which time his responsibilities and public profile at the AGNSW had increased. The decision to exhibit publicly in 1970 and 1973 coincided with a scaling back of curatorial responsibilities, apart from his work with the Aboriginal and Melanesian art collections: see Mimmocchi, D., ‘Tony Tuckson: The Art of Transformation’ in Mimmocchi, D. (ed.), Tony Tuckson, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2018, p. 20

3. Margaret Tuckson cited in Thomas, D., Free, R. and Legge, G., Tony Tuckson, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989, p. 39

4. To ny Tuckson cited in McGrath, op. cit., p. 156

5. Se e Mimmocchi, op. cit., pp. 42 – 45

6. Gl eeson, J., ‘The travail of painting’, Sun-Herald, Sydney, 22 April 1973

7. To mescu, A., ‘Fluid Construction’ in Mimmocchi, op. cit., p. 77

KIRSTY GRANT

THOMAS BALCOMBE

(1810 – 1861)

ABORIGINAL ENCAMPMENT, 1847 oil on canvas

33.0 x 45.5 cm

signed and dated lower left: T. Balcombe / 1847

ESTIMATE: $100,000 – 150,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, United Kingdom

Christie’s, London, 25 May 1983, lot 177 (as ‘A Group of Aborigines

Gathered Around a Camp Fire’)

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Australian Paintings Colonial/Contemporary, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 2 – 19 April 1984, cat. 5 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

The Artist and the Patron, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2 March – 1 May 1988, cat. 82

LITERATURE

McDonald, P., and Pearce, B., The Artist and the Patron, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1988, cat. 82, pp. 101 (illus.), 102

Thomas Balcombe Gundaroo Natives , 1853

ink and pencil on paper

18.0 x 25.0 cm

Courtesy of Menzies

Pavel Mikailov (after)

Natives of New Holland (Bungaree and his family) plate 22 in The Voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas , 1819-21

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Schramm

Native Encampment in South Australia, c.1859 oil on canvas

49.5 x 67.5 cm

Private collection

This important painting of an Aboriginal family at rest is one of the few such oil paintings remaining in private hands. It has not been seen in public since its inclusion in the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ bicentenary exhibition of colonial New South Wales art in 1988.1 Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe was born in 1810 on the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, where Napoleon was subsequently imprisoned (1815 – 1821). The Balcombe family became friendly with the ex-Emperor, such that father William was recalled to England in 1818 for over-familiarity. Six years later, the Balcombe family emigrated to New South Wales when William was appointed colonial treasurer of the colony. From the age of twenty, Thomas worked in the Surveyor-General’s Department, firstly as draftsman and then surveyor, travelling widely for his work, including on Major Thomas Mitchell’s third expedition through southern Australia. During this time, he met and observed Aboriginal communities, and sketches he made later served as inspiration for his paintings. In the 1840s, Balcombe began producing sporting lithographs and, by the end of the decade, he was exhibiting oil paintings in local societies and art unions. Wide-ranging in his subject matter and media, Balcombe produced portraits of racehorses, prized dogs and stock; stockmen and Sydney identities; and capitalised on the interest in the goldfields with visual documentation and humorous illustration. But it is his scenes of

Aboriginal activity – at a time by which customary life was violently and in creasingly constrained by colonists – that are of the most significance for examination and interpretation today.

In this substantial oil painting, Balcombe depicts a family sheltering under gunyahs made of large sheets of bark arranged on forked branches. The group, comprising three bearded men, three women and a toddler, are relaxed, conversing by a small fire, the child playing with their mother’s hair. A small dog sleeps, curled up by woven fibre baskets while the standing man looks calmly towards the viewer. In the distance, an adult and child suggest an extended community. Balcombe shows the family continuing to live traditionally, with arm and headbands and ritual scarification marks, hunting with boomerang and spears, and using stone axes. Yet colonial impact is also evident: the men are wrapped with blankets with patterned borders, of the kind distributed annually, the women smoke clay pipes, and a metal container sits by the fire. Most unusually, a gun rests against the shelter, an implement rarely possessed by Aboriginal men.

In 2019, an archive of preparatory sketches and art by Balcombe was sold by descendants and acquired by the National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales and elsewhere. Among these was an

Alexander

Eugene von Guérard

Aborigines met on the road to the diggings , 1854 oil on canvas

46.0 x 75.5 cm

Geelong Gallery, Victoria

1853 study titled Gundaroo natives that depicts another family, probably Gandangara or Ngunnawal people, seated by a similar gunyah, behind which a man strips bark from a gum tree. This family, however, is fully covered by garments and cloaks or blankets, facing towards the viewer as though posed for a photograph, their postures not of self-contained contentment but resignation, with eyes downcast.

Further studies by Balcombe are more mannered, including a wellmuscled man poised to spear fish (a study for night fishing paintings) and a head study that confirms Balcombe as the artist of a dramatic oil painting that was first exhibited in 1850. 2 In this, an Aboriginal man ‘in pursuit of game’ strides determinedly over a rocky landscape, his possum-skin cloak swirling around him, revealing his torso like a gladiatorial statue.

The painting on offer, however, does not appear heroised, nor derogatory (as was increasingly the case in colonial visual imagery of Aboriginal people), but seems more likely to record a family met during the course of Balcombe’s surveying. The important role played by Indigenous guides and local knowledge holders in assisting, sometimes saving, explorers, surveyors and collectors is now well recognised. 3 Balcombe would have known Wiradjuri man Piper who accompanied Mitchell’s

party in 1836. Similarly, artists such as Russian visitor to Sydney Pavel Mikailov, Eugene von Guérard in Victoria and Alexander Schramm in South Australia also recorded family groups that they met on their travels. Schramm often showed Aboriginal people impacted by invasion, using pipes, clothing, axes and mirrors; in contrast, von Guérard’s significant painting, Aborigines met on the way to the diggings, 1854 depicts active interaction in which both parties trade valued goods. Balcombe’s painting might be regarded as merging aspects of such encounters, the group making use of both customary and introduced apparel and utensils, while the central man, whose face Balcombe depicts with care, may be an individual known to their party, valued for his abilities and entrusted with a gun to assist them with provisions.

1. Pearce, B. and McDonald, P., The Artist and the Patron: Aspects of Colonial Art in New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1988

2. Se e State Library of New South Wales SSV/162, study for ML 1453, ML 1454; P2/578, study for ML 568.

3. Se e for example, Olsen, P. and Russell, L., Australia’s First Naturalists, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2019, and Clark, P., Aboriginal Plant Collectors, Rosenberg Publishing, Sydney, 2008

ALISA BUNBURY

HANS

HEYSEN (1877 – 1968)

MORNING LIGHT, 1938

watercolour on paper on card

50.0 x 65.0 cm

signed and dated lower left: HANS HEYSEN 1938.

ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000

PROVENANCE

Artarmon Galleries, Sydney

Mrs W. S. Strang, Sydney, acquired in February 1939

Artarmon Galleries, Sydney

Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

probably The Wynne Prize, 1938 , National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 January – 20 February 1939

LITERATURE

Ure Smith, S. (ed.), Australian Art Annual 1939, Ure Smith Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1939, pl. 7 (illus. ‘Collection Mrs W.S. Strang’)

Ure Smith, S. (ed.), Present Day Art in Australia, Ure Smith Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1949, p. 36 (illus. ‘In the possession of Mrs W.S. Strang’)

We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David’s writing in this catalogue entry.

Hans Heysen and the village of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills are almost synonymous. The picturesque Hahndorf near Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills was named after Captain Dirk Hahn of the ship  Zebra , which brought out the Prussian Lutheran families who settled there in 1839. During the First World War the South Australian Government changed many of the German place names, Hahndorf becoming Ambleside, after a town in northwest England. It remained so until 1930. Heysen used

both names in his numerous watercolours and oil paintings of the area. Heysen and his wife Sallie moved to Hahndorf in 1908. They lived in rented accommodation before buying the nearby property ‘The Cedars’ in 1912. It was to be his home for over fifty years.

Heysen rejoiced in the beauty of the area, painting it throughout the changing seasons and times of day – of mists or the brightness of spring, early morning light and the hazy heat of midday, to the gentle light of day’s end. The constant throughout his art was the noble gum. As the artist wrote:

‘The subtlety of the tree combined with the beauty; the bulk, the solidity of the tree, and the character of its growth... It’s wonderful just to watch the combination of characters; sometimes you get a group of gums and you see how they combine, grow into interesting shapes, and suggest various things, ...I had my special trees, and they altered their appearance - the time of the year and the angle of the sun made all the difference. You could paint a tree one day and get all its various facets. And the next day it would be a different tree...’1

Painted in the Hahndorf landscape surrounding ‘The Cedars’, Morning Light , 1938 captures this iconic motif of the gums, bathed in the dappled morning sunshine. Redolent with the serenity Heysen found here, and gently reigned over by the grandeur of the ancient trees, it is a lyrical vision of nature in all her plenitude, painted in a mature period in Heysen’s art.

1.

DAVID THOMAS

Thiele, C., Heysen of Hahndorf , David Heysen productions, Adelaide, 2001, p. 147

ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902 – 1959)

RANGES 10 MILES NORTH FROM ALICE SPRINGS, c .1954 watercolour on paper

26.0 x 37.0 cm

signed lower right: ALBERT NAMATJIRA

signed and inscribed with title verso: Ranges 10 Miles North from Alice Springs / Albert Namatjira

ESTIMATE: $35,000 – 45,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection

Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 16 April 1986, lot 30 Joy Willis, Sydney

Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Australian Icons , Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, Greenway Gallery, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, 19 – 23 August 1992

LITERATURE

Herbert, X., Poor Fellow My Country, Collins Australia, Sydney, 1975, cover (illus.)

Luck, P., Australian Icons, Things that make us what we are , William Heinemann, Australia, 1992, pp. 26, 27 (illus.)

RELATED WORKS

Alice Springs Country, c.1955 – 59, watercolour on paper, 37.5 x 53.0 cm, private collection, illus. in French, A. (ed.), Seeing the Centre ; The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902 – 1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p. 143 North Ranges Looking South, 1950s, watercolour on paper, 30.5 x 41.0 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

‘Albert Namatjira…emerges…as an artist of genuine creativity, whose work embodied the love of, and identification with the land.’1

A household name by the 1950s, Albert Namatjira set the foundations for the Indigenous art movement that emerged thirty years later and is still flourishing today. 'In skillfully adopting the methods and materials of Western landscape painting, he challenged the relegation of Aboriginal art to the realm of archaeology and ethnography.’ 2

Painted in the final years of the artist’s life, and replete with the artist’s recurring motifs, Ranges 10 Miles North from Alice Springs epitomises Namatjira’s later works. Located in the foreground, a majestic ghost gum, ( Eucalyptus papuana), known as ilwempe to the Western Arrernte, frames the viewpoint which is carefully controlled by the artist who directs the viewer to the distant peaks through the placement of intervening slopes in the middle distance, and then to the outlying mountain peaks beyond. Presenting a more open, horizontal and expansive experience of the landscape, Namatjira’s familiarity with this country is evident in these views where ‘trees, peaks and monoliths provide a rich range of possibilities and responses that arise from constantly re-engaging with the same subject.’3

In transporting his evocative landscapes of Central Australia into the lounge rooms of White Australia in the mid-twentieth century, his depictions of country were fundamental to how Australians viewed their island home. Namatjira’s entry into the Australian art world was both inspired and inspiring. Despite his personal vicissitudes, he inspired his own and subsequent generations of Aboriginal people and artists across Australia and sought to educated non-indigenous Australians about the spiritual link between indigenous people and land. Brenda Croft contends that the artist’s gift to indigenous and non-indigenous people is ‘more than the sum parts of watercolour paints on paper. It is an essence that resides in the strength of Namatjira’s work – his courage, his sorrow, his spirituality… where the enduring influence of this one man upon the entire indigenous arts and culture industry continues to be felt.’4

1. Nuggett Coombs, H.C., ‘Introduction’ in Amadio, N., Albert Namatjira; The Life and Work of an Australian Painter, Macmillan, Melbourne 1986, p. vii

2. Watson, K., ‘Poetic Justice: an overview of Indigenous Art’, in Perkins, H., One Sun, One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 20

3. French, A., Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira 1902 – 1959, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002, p. 97

4. Croft, B., ‘Albert’s Gift’ in French, ibid., p. 148

CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE

JOHN BRACK (1920 – 1999)

THREE JOCKEYS, 1956 ink and watercolour on paper  34.0 x 52.0 cm

signed and dated upper left: John Brack 56

ESTIMATE: $100,000 – 150,000

PROVENANCE

Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne

Douglas Carnegie and Margaret Carnegie AO, New South Wales, acquired from the above

Allan D. Christensen, California and Perth Private collection, Perth, acquired from the above in 1981

EXHIBITED

John Brack: The Racecourse Series, Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne, 5 – 15 November 1956, cat. 15

John Brack: The sport of kings and other paintings, Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, 27 March – 8 April 1957, cat. 6

LITERATURE

Shannon, M., ‘The art collectors 4: Margaret Carnegie’, Art and Australia, vol. 4, no. 1, June 1966, pp. 34, 36 (illus.)

Catalano, G., The Years of Hope: Australian art and criticism 1959 – 1968 , Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1981, p. 53 (illus.)

Lindsay, R.,  John Brack, A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1987, pp. 118 – 119

Grishin, S.,  The Art of John Brack , Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, vol. 2, cat. p51, pp. 47, 201 (illus.)

Working two days a week as the art master at Melbourne Grammar School from mid-1952, John Brack was able to dedicate significant time to working in the studio. The following years witnessed a succession of solo exhibitions which included paintings that would, in time, rank among his most beloved and iconic. Men’s wear, 1953 (National Gallery of Australia) and The new house, 1953 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) featured in his first solo exhibition at Melbourne’s Peter Bray Gallery in October 1953; The bar, 1954 (National Gallery of Victoria) was included in a 1955 solo show and Collins St., 5 p.m., 1955 (National Gallery of Victoria), was first shown in a one-person presentation in March 1956.

In November that year Brack held a second solo exhibition in Melbourne. The Racecourse Series comprised twenty-one works on paper (drawings in pen and ink and watercolour) and a small group of etchings which

document a day in the life of the so-called sport of kings. Extending his practice of finding subject matter in the people and places around him, Brack had spent Saturday afternoons during the winter of 1956 at Flemington Racecourse, sketchbook in hand, observing and recording the characters and activities of the racetrack. Inspired by artistic predecessors such as Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, who had previously explored this theme in memorable images, Brack’s experience of racing in 1950s Melbourne was however, not exactly as he had anticipated: ‘I was scarcely prepared for the almost total absence of gaiety. Artists in the 19th Century… dealt with horse racing in a more or less festive spirit. It seemed to have little or no relation to the solemn ritual which ruled Melbourne racecourses.’1

While the overall mood of the series and the attitude of the depicted figures is rather dour – rather like a Melbourne winter – Brack’s lively drawing emits a palpable energy as well as an immediacy that speaks of his direct experience of and engagement with the subject. There is also obvious delight in the vivid colours and designs of the jockeys’ silks, especially in works such as Three jockeys , 1956, where the subject provides the opportunity to play with combinations of colour and contrasting graphic patterns. Brack was an insightful observer of those around him, with a deep interest in human nature and behaviour, and in this work, he ruminates on the passing of time, charting the path from innocence to experience in the variously fresh and wizened faces of the jockeys.

Reviewing the exhibition in The Argus , critic Arnold Shore highlighted the ‘pungent commentary’ and ‘austere artistry’ of the series. 2 Brack’s images clearly struck a chord with contemporary audiences and about half of the watercolours were sold, including The tree , which was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria. Margaret Carnegie AO, a noted art collector and patron, purchased Three jockeys later and as her note on the back of the frame indicates, it was long cherished and enjoyed.

1. John Brack, ‘Brack on Brack’, Council of Adult Education, Discussion Group Art Notes, M elbourne, ref. no. A 401, 1957, p. 1

2. Sh ore, A., ‘Even our Art goes to the races’, The Argus, Melbourne, 6 November 1956, p. 14

KIRSTY GRANT

CHARLES

BLACKMAN (1928 – 2018) SUITE, 1961 oil on composition board

129.0 x 122.0 cm

signed and dated upper right: BLACKMAN 61

ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000

PROVENANCE

The Matthiesen Gallery, London Private collection, Sydney With Mason Gray, Sydney, June 1988 Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Paintings and Drawings: Charles Blackman, The Matthiesen Gallery, London, UK, 3 – 25 November 1961, cat. 12 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

‘…Part of their essential character springs from the interpretation, marvellously developed and sustained, between the tenderness and grace of the personages contained in the paintings and the fiercely implacably controlled means taken to give these personages life and eloquence within the terms of painting itself…’1

At the time of unveiling his seminal solo show at Matthiesen Gallery in London in November 1961 (in which the present Suite,  1961 was exhibited), Charles Blackman’s star was in the ascendent. In 1958, one of his Alice paintings had been acquired by the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris (a remarkable feat for any Australian artist), and in June 1960, his solo exhibition at the Johnstone Gallery had completely sold out, realising approximately £4,500 pounds and enabling the Blackmans to buy a house in St Lucia, Queensland. Two months later he was awarded the prestigious Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship for his celebrated  Suites I – IV (now housed in the collections of the state galleries of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia), and by the following February, he and his family had relocated to London where they would remain for the next five years. In June 1961, three of his paintings were featured in the groundbreaking Recent Australian Painting exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, alongside major works by Boyd, Nolan, Tucker and Whiteley, and later that year, he was selected, together with Whiteley and Lawrence Daws, to represent Australia at the progressive Biennale des Jeunes  organised by the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.

An impressive achievement both in scale and conceptual breadth, Suite  comprises one of a select few works created during this pivotal period in Blackman’s oeuvre when, stimulated by the dynamic

European art scene, he was at the height of his artistic powers and critical success. As one London newspaper critic observed of his representation at the Whitechapel show, ‘The most moving – and the discovery of the exhibition – are the three remarkable paintings by Charles Blackman… It is fanciful to see in this painting not only a new and original talent but a sign that Australian painting is at last moving away from its obsession with the outback…’ 2 Meanwhile, English art critic Bryan Robertson, an early champion of the young Antipodean’s work, was so impressed that he offered to arrange the subsequent solo exhibition for Blackman at the Matthiesen Gallery, writing in the Preface to that catalogue: ‘These are some of the strongest, most urgent and forceful paintings by a young artist that I have seen in the past ten years.’ 3

Possibly with the present work in mind, Robertson continued: ‘… Perhaps the dense blacks refer to the discrepancy between innocence and experience, making a further parallel with the tension between the idea and its projection, its shape and surface. We are given a curious impression, often of a double image, positive and negative, as well as of the space between people… The formal roots of Blackman’s paintings extend beyond the Renaissance to Byzantium. He has made icons from the commonplace material of domestic life. The fragile gestures and spontaneous movements among people in the streets around us are caught and made eloquent...’4 Separated into three voyeuristic vignettes, the present Suite is populated entirely by female forms in various poses and guises – one silhouetted in bright light, and the other two reposing figures surrounded by vaguely threatening shadows. Tough yet tender, firm of outline but fragile of psyche, indeed the work typifies brilliantly the formal, iconographic and emotional ambiguity of these early London pictures which brought Blackman such acclaim. Exuding both a sense of desolate loneliness and curious serenity, Blackman’s enigmatic dreamworld thus offers a rich matrix for the viewer’s imagination – for what Ray Matthew called ‘introspection distanced… by identification with others.’5

1. Robertson, B., ‘Preface’, Charles Blackman: Paintings and Drawings, The Matthiesen Gallery, L ondon, 1961, n.p.

2. Pr ingle, J. D., ‘The Australian Painters’, Observer, London, 4 June 1961, n.p.

3. Ro bertson, op. cit.

4. ibid.

5. Mathew, R., ‘London’s Blackman’, Art and Australia, Sydney, vol. 3, no. 4, March 1966, p. 283

VERONICA ANGELATOS

ARTHUR BOYD

(1920 – 1999)

WIMMERA LANDSCAPE WITH THICKET, c .1985 oil on composition board

91.5 x 122.0 cm

signed lower right: Arthur Boyd

ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000

PROVENANCE

probably Blue Boy Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above

RELATED WORKS

Wimmera Landscape , oil on copper, 24.0 x 30.5 cm, private collection

Wimmera Landscape , oil and tempera on board, 72.5 x 95.5 cm, formerly in the collections of Kym Bonython, Adelaide and The Harold E. Mertz collection, Texas

An untiring and extremely skilful painter of landscapes, Arthur Boyd is undoubtedly among Australia’s most revered artists with his highly personalised images of his homeland now iconic within the national consciousness. Among the more revelatory and widely acclaimed of his achievements, the extended sequence of luminous, sun-parched landscapes inspired by his travels to the Wimmera region in north-west Victoria are particularly celebrated. As Janet McKenzie elaborates, ‘… [in these paintings] Boyd created an archetypal Australian landscape. Possessing both a poetic lyricism and a down to earth quality and capturing the glorious light, these works… [offer] a sense of acceptance that many country-dwelling Australians could identify with.’1

Boyd first encountered the Wimmera region during the summer of 1948 – 49 when he accompanied the poet Jack Stevenson on a number of expeditions to Horsham in north-west Victoria. With its flat, semi-arid paddocks and endless horizons, the wheat-farming district presented Boyd with such a stark contrast to the verdant, undulating hills of Berwick and Harkaway (where he had recently undertaken an expansive mural series of Brughelesque idylls at his uncle’s property, The Grange) that he found himself required to develop a new visual vocabulary in order to capture this desolate landscape. Although the Wimmera could not be described as ‘uninhabitable’, it was for Boyd, his first glimpse of the vastness of Australia’s interior. As Barry Pearce notes, ‘…He discovered there a hint of something that had drawn other painters of his generation, a subject tentatively recorded by a few artists of the nineteenth century and touched on by even fewer of the twentieth: the empty spaces of the great interior. Of course, the Wimmera was wheat country and not by any means forbidding, nor forsaken. But in hot dry weather it could have, over sparse, unbroken horizons, a searing expanse of sky that elicited an acute sense of the infinite…’ 2

When initially unveiled at the David Jones Gallery in 1950, the Wimmera landscapes were greeted with universal acclaim – no doubt, as more than one author has observed, ‘because their sun-parched colours were so reminiscent of the Heidelberg school.’ 3 Significantly the paintings resonated not only amongst the public, but also with institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria who purchased arguably the most famous work from the series,  Irrigation Lake, Wimmera, 1950, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales who acquired  Midday, The Wimmera, 1948 – 49 – thereby representing the first works by Boyd to enter a major public collection. Imbued with the spirit of the land, these works represented for many their first encounter with these ‘more intimate aspects of the Australian landscape’4 and thus, not only established Boyd’s reputation as ‘an interpreter of the rural Australian environment’5 , but moreover, launched his career on the international stage, with Boyd subsequently awarded the honour of representing Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1958.

So profound was the impact of the stark simplicity and shimmering light of the Wimmera upon Boyd’s psyche that he would subsequently revisit the subject on several occasions over the following decades – whether painting at his property ‘Riversdale’ on the Shoalhaven river in southern New South Wales, or abroad while residing in England and Italy. A later iteration most likely completed during the late seventies or early eighties,  Wimmera Landscape with Thicket is one such ‘re-imagining’ of the Wimmera region, illustrating well the complexity of Boyd’s vision which is invariably an amalgam of visual observation, artistic experience and emotional response. Offering a sophisticated reappraisal of the theme in its absolute sparseness, economy of detail and restrained palette, the image is one of intimacy and warmth, infused with a sense of joyous optimism. Here there is no angst, no challenge, no dramatic dialogue between man and nature as may be found elsewhere in Boyd’s oeuvre; to the contrary, the work exudes a mood of stillness and calm acceptance, as Franz Philipp astutely observes of such Wimmera paintings ‘…the phrase ‘landscapes of love’ comes to mind.’6

1. McKenzie, J., Arthur Boyd: art and life, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967, p. 62

2. Pearce, B., Arthur Boyd Retrospective, The Art Gallery of New South Wales and The Beagle Press, Sydney, 1993, p. 20

3. Campbell, R., ‘Arthur Boyd (1920 – )’, Australia: Paintings by Arthur Streeton and Arthur Boyd, XXIX Biennale, Venice, 1958, n. p.

4. Pe arce, op. cit., p. 20

5. Philipp, F., Arthur Boyd, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967, p. 67

6. ib id., p. 64

ANGELATOS

VERONICA

FRED WILLIAMS

(1927 – 1982)

TREES, 1958 – 59 oil on composition board

51.0 x 68.0 cm

signed lower right: Fred Williams

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Australian Galleries, Melbourne

Private collection, Melbourne, acquired in 1959

Private collection, Melbourne, acquired in 1968

Gould Galleries, Melbourne

Private collection, Canberra, acquired in 2007

EXHIBITED

possibly Recent Landscape and Still Life Paintings – Fred Williams , Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 12 – 21 May 1959, cat. 17

Gould Galleries, AAADA Antiques & Art Fair, Sydney, 22 – 26 August 2007, cat. 24

Like so many artists of his generation, Fred Williams left Australia, travelling overseas at the end of 1951, seeking exposure to broader artistic and cultural influences than those available to him in midcentury Melbourne. While his training had emphasised the centrality of the figure in Western art, following five years in London Williams saw opportunity and creative potential in the landscape of his own country and the focus of his art changed direction. His friend, John Brack, expressed reservations about the landscape – and particularly the ubiquitous gum tree – as a valid subject for contemporary painting, but Williams recognised it as part of a longstanding and respected artistic tradition which was ripe for new interpretation. Similarly, although the anti-picturesque qualities of his homeland seemed uninspiring to some, for Williams it represented the ideal subject:

‘It’s perfectly true, it is monotonous… There is no focal point, and obviously it was too good a thing for me to pass up… the fact [that] if there’s going to be no focal point in a landscape [then] it had to [be built] into the paint… I’m basically an artist who sees things in terms of paint.’1

Writing about the landscapes Williams painted during the late 1950s, in the years immediately following his return to Australia, James Mollison observed that ‘his art swung from very expressive painting, frequently employing lush, thick paint freely applied, to austerity of paint and very simple means.’ 2 Trees , 1958 – 59 clearly falls into the former category and the artist’s pleasure in his medium, its fluidity and capacity for rich textural and painterly possibilities, is on full display. Williams’ skill as a colourist is also in evidence here; from the subtlety of the sky –progressing left to right from a delicate palette of greens and blues to an almost pearlescent glow – to the foreground foliage which is enlivened by dots and daubs of vivid colour. While such flashes of red, orange, yellow and purple are unexpected among the familiar muted tones of the Australian bush, here, they are perfectly realised and seem entirely at home.

The decision to paint the landscape was momentous for Williams and for the history of Australian art. The extensive oeuvre of paintings, prints and drawings that he created presented a new and unique vision of Australia – whether he was depicting a semi-rural hillside covered with scrubby bushes and trees, or an abstract aerial view of the desert thousands of kilometres away from any city centre – which would influence the way Australians saw and imagined their own country. Importantly, this focus also provided Williams with a rich and endlessly varied subject matter that would challenge his artistic development and sustain his interest throughout his career. This singular vision was recognised by the Sydney Morning Herald art critic who, soon after Trees was made, proclaimed, ‘There is every chance he will go down in history as Australia’s greatest landscape artist… Williams clarifies our vision, develops our understanding, defines our land.’3

1. Fred Williams, interviewed by James Gleeson, 3 October 1978, cited in Mollison, J., Fred W illiams: A Singular Vision, Australian National Gallery & Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 35

2. Mo llison, ibid., p. 44

3. Th ornton, W., cited in Grant, K. & Phipps, J., Fred Williams: The Pilbara Series, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2002, p. 17

KIRSTY GRANT

RALPH BALSON (1890 – 1964)

NON–OBJECTIVE PAINTING, 1956 oil on composition board

70.5 x 107.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: R. Balson. / 56 bears inscription verso: No 12

ESTIMATE: $35,000 – 45,000

PROVENANCE

The artist’s family, Adelaide Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 29 August 2007, lot 66 Private collection, Melbourne

While we can appreciate Ralph Balson’s virtuosity in isolation from Sydney’s mid-20th century artistic milieu, a fuller story is revealed when we see him at the height amongst a generation of like-minded Australian abstract painters. It remains an enduring achievement in modern Australian art history, an account of Australia internationalising itself, resisting other desires of colloquially observed expression.

Balson’s career is a patchwork of autodidacticism, vast curiosity and connection with those where accommodating convention was at odds with their instincts. Born in Dorset in 1890, he attended the local village school, became apprenticed to a plumber and house painter at age 13. He came to Australia in 1923 and enrolled in weekend classes at the Julian Ashton Art School – Grace Crowley and Anne Dangar were teachers. Crowley and Balson were to become lifelong friends, with the former observing of their diverse artistic journeys, ‘Balson I believe to have been born an abstract painter. He was born that way, while I had to be educated that way.’1

Crowley went to France for five years and studied under Albert Gleizes and André Lhôte, both pursuing a search for an expanded role for Cubism. In 1932 and back in Sydney, Crowley and Rah Fizelle established a School. Balson assisted by painting the premises and studied there. In 1939, he was included in Exhibition 1 at David Jones Gallery, the first exhibition in Australia of artists working with abstraction. And in 1941, Balson exhibited ‘Constructive Paintings’ at Anthony Hordern & Sons Gallery – geometric abstractions of interlocking and overlapping planes of colour.

Across all Balson’s paintings there is a beautifully controlled viscous quality where the distinctive hand of the artist is ever-present. The later ‘Non-Objective Paintings’, from the mid-late 1950s, consist of complex fields of orchestrated single-brush strokes, a multipart ensemble becoming a unified whole.

Non-Objective Painting was painted in 1956, the year that Balson , John Olsen, John Passmore, Robert Klippel, Eric Smith and William Rose came together in a group exhibition at Macquarie Galleries, Direction 1 It has been credited as the first Abstract Expressionist exhibition in Australia.

In 1960, Balson wrote to Daniel Thomas (then curator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales) in response to a cataloguing query about Painting No. 9 1959, elaborating in an expansive and breathless esoteric narrative: ‘…I have long held the belief that the Arts of Man is his expression in terms of a particular Medium of his Concept of the Universe [sic].’ He continued invoking everything from the Egyptians, Tintoretto, astronomers, Copernicus, Newton and the source of life and ‘absolute time’. 2

The letter offers an insight into his belief that art complements and expands upon human knowledge and experience. ‘They depend upon an empirical and experimental relationship with the substance of paint that evokes a reality we cannot directly observe, such as the atomic and subatomic world, or the process of entropy. As he puts it, “…I try to find out what the substance of paint will give me, to make a Painting a Matter Painting”.’ 3

Non-Objective Painting 1956 is a masterful expression of Balson’s idiosyncratic and expanding approach to the possibilities of abstraction.

1. Crowley, Interview with Hazel de Berg, 1966, National Library of Australia

2 Balson, ‘Letter to Daniel Thomas’, 29 March 1960, Balson Archive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, cited in Stephen, A., et al., Modernism & Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917 – 1967, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2006, pp. 700 – 701

3. Balson cited in Reed, J., New Painting 1952 – 62, Longmans, Melbourne, 1963

DOUG HALL AM

CLIFFORD LAST (British/Australian, 1918 – 1991)

BIRD FORM, 1953

almond wood

88.0 cm height

signed with initial in base: L

ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000

PROVENANCE

Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne

Gordon King, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1953

Amanda Addams Auctions, Melbourne, 10 March 2002, lot 299 Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Sculpture by Clifford Last, Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne, 13 – 22 October 1953 (either cat. 5 or 6)

Clifford Last Sculpture: a Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 23 November 1989 – 29 January 1990, cat. 14

LITERATURE

‘Art Notes: Sculptors Experiment in Exhibition’, The Age, Melbourne, 13 October 1953, p. 2

Edwards, G., Clifford Last Sculpture: a Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989, cat. 14, cover (illus.), pp. 39 (illus.), 67

Dimmack, M., Clifford Last, The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1972, pl. 11, p. 55 (illus.)

RELATED WORK

Bird Form, 1953, almond wood, 88.0 x 19.5 x 16.5 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

JOHN OLSEN (1928 – 2023)

TUSCAN KITCHEN, 2004 oil on linen

122.0 x 152.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: John Olsen 04 signed, dated and inscribed with title on frame verso: John Olsen 04 "Tuscan Kitchen"

ESTIMATE: $120,000 – 180,000

PROVENANCE

Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso) Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2004

EXHIBITED

John Olsen, Recent Works 2004, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, 19 October – 6 November 2004, cat. 6

LITERATURE

McGregor, K., and Zimmer, J., John Olsen: Journeys Into the You Beaut Country, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2016, pp. 238 (illus.), 340

We are grateful to Kylie Norton, Editor, John Olsen Catalogue Raisonné, for her assistance with this catalogue entry.

In many ways Olsen’s life and his art are inseparable. His oeuvre represents the cumulative response of an artist intoxicated with the landscape, its people and their attitudes towards food, life and art. Olsen’s dedication to the good life was legendary and this, along with his love of poetry, inspired much of the artist’s work. In fact, over many years the artist has been known to create entire exhibitions on the theme of food and cooking.

In her monograph on the artist in 1991, Deborah Hart revealed that it was necessity that introduced Olsen to the world of fine food: ‘In Ibiza and Deya, Olsen worked for brief periods as an apprentice chef. Before he left Australia, he was hard pressed to boil an egg; by the time he returned he had developed a great admiration for Mediterranean attitudes to food and wine – the joy of preparing and sharing meals with feeling – which, even when enjoying the simplest ingredients, had the potential to add to the richness and celebration of life. This sensibility would remain with him always, and the subject of food, and paella in particular, would recur in his later paintings and drawings.’1

Olsen infuses his paintings with a life beyond the literal. They do not simply present a subject as a static image, but as a rollicking yarn which unravels across the painting’s surface in great detail. Olsen’s Tuscan Kitchen, 2004 is a cacophony of activity, with the artist’s characteristic repertoire of wristy marks.

The focal point of the work is the kitchen table where the meal will be prepared and then shared. In a nod to Paul Cézanne the table is tilted forward, almost facing the viewer. In the upper left and right corners we see two figures; the one on the right (which may well be a self-portrait) appears as a floating head with tendrils flowing down around the table surface as though conjuring the meal. The circular dishes appear as small palettes laden with daubs of paint, which could easily be read as rustic Tuscan pizzas. Olsen presents the artist as the consummate creator, celebrator and consumer of the good life. Smaller, birdlike life forms dart and flit around the work and appear ready to pilfer ingredients at any moment.

As with most Olsen paintings, the line is central to the artist’s language as it forms the arteries that pulse colour around the canvas and bring life to the painting. The entire scene is upturned, and conventional perspective is abandoned. In its place is a field of action comprised of broad areas of colour which support the myriad marks that dart or meander across the surface. Where necessary, lines mass into forms which become focal points for the eye to settle upon just long enough to grasp the narrative, before moving on to the next pocket of activity.

The parallels between cooking and painting are many – the kitchen and the studio, the table and the canvas, the ingredients and the paint. Even the line between kitchen utensils and the artist’s tools had blurred in recent decades, with Olsen’s adaption of a culinary methodology to studio life blending the two inseparably in his work. Perhaps it is this merged celebration of life which has ensured his paintings still feel so vibrant and nourished over decades of artistic practice.

1. Hart. D., John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 42

HENRY MULHOLLAND

JOHN OLSEN (1928 – 2023)

INSCAPE BROOME, 1999 watercolour, gouache and pastel on paper 159.0 x 121.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title lower left: “Inscape – Broome” / John Olsen 99

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney

Gould Galleries, Melbourne

Private collection

Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 21 August 2000, lot 8

Private collection, Melbourne

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 7 May 2007, lot 70

Private collection, New South Wales

EXHIBITED

John Olsen: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, 7 – 22 December 1999, cat. 12 Twentieth Century Australian Art: A Major Collectors’ Exhibition, Gould Galleries, Melbourne, 25 March – 30 April 2000; Gould Galleries, Sydney, 13 May – 11 June 2000, cat. 48 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

LITERATURE

Olsen J., and McGregor, K.,  John Olsen: Drawing – The Human Touch,  Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2014, p. 296 (illus., incorrectly titled as ‘Edge of the Void’) McGregor, K., and Zimmer, J.,  John Olsen: Journeys Into the You Beaut Country, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2016, pp. 209 (illus. as ‘Broome Landscape’), 339

We are grateful to Kylie Norton, Editor, John Olsen Catalogue Raisonné, for her assistance with this catalogue entry.

Throughout John Olsen’s long and productive career, he was continuously held in thrall of the natural world, translating its myriad of forms and colours into exuberant oil paintings and fluid works on paper. Olsen sought out, in particular, remote areas of the continent that had retained a ‘mystical ancient appeal’, returning regularly to these touchstone locations such as Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) in South Australia and the Great Western Desert, where Inscape Broome was painted in 1999.1 The artist first visited the multicultural pearling settlement of Broome in 1982 during a ‘modern exploration’ to North-West Australia,

supported by the Christensen Fund, in the company of Mary Durack, Geoffrey Dutton, Vincent Serventy and Alex Bortignon. The paintings and drawings from this first interaction with this ancient landscape were later published under the title The Land Beyond Time . Since then, the vast fields of red ochre and their astounding contradictions have featured in dozens of artworks painted during subsequent travels to this remote corner of the continent, often grouped in coherent, documentary exhibitions such as The Flight to Broome , held in 2005.

The remoteness and enormous scale of this region of Australia are perfectly suited to Olsen’s use of aerial map-like views of the landscape, drawn from views hanging out the side of a light aircraft. Continuing his investigations of ideas of ‘the edge’ and ‘the void’ that had fed into his work since the 1970s, Inscape Broome is defined by a large central area of negative space and bears compositional similarities to Olsen’s paintings and watercolours of Lake Eyre. Using extensive notes of aerial views and vignettes of colour palettes from his travel diaries, Olsen balances the aesthetic and metaphorical power of a vast basin set against the deep red earth of the Australian centre. Here, the desert meets the sea with a typically Olsen-like porous border. The reddish banks of the coast cling to the paper’s edge while meandering watery lines make incursions into the unknowable void ballooning throughout the centre of the paper sheet. These organic squiggles depict countless organisms and geological features, both large and minute.

Olsen fancied himself an explorer, making intrepid expeditions out into the landscape, travelling across it by plane in order to grasp both the awe-inspiring expansiveness and a schematic map-like view of the landscape’s defining contours. ‘The Great Western Desert with its scorched red earth and polka-dotted spinifex – a landscape ancient and worn. Thoughts stain the mind, the landscape appears to radiate in magnetic fields, it draws you in, but holds you back - and it is aloof to intimacy. Then, like a magician’s trick, hey presto, all is gone, suddenly the nacreous waters of Roebuck Bay, Broome. The journey to Broome has revitalised me.’ 2

1. Olsen, J., et al., Land Beyond Time, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1983, n.p.

2. Olsen, cited in Zimmer, J. and McGregor, K., Journeys into the ‘You Beaut Country’, revised edition, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2016, p. 216

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

FRED WILLIAMS

(1927 – 1982)

UNTITLED LANDSCAPE I, c .1966 gouache on paper

75.0 x 57.0 cm

signed lower left: Fred Williams

ESTIMATE: $45,000 – 65,000

PROVENANCE

Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney

James Cromie, Sydney

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

Art Equity, Sydney

Private collection, Malaysia

Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 28 November 2018, lot 26

Private collection, Melbourne

Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, signed and dated 29 July 2010.

We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance in cataloguing this work.

Fred Williams reached his maturity as a painter in the mid-1960s, elevating his idiosyncratic style of landscape painting to unprecedented levels of critical acclaim and positive public reception. Consolidating and refining his stylistic devices to a rapid shorthand, Williams began working more frequently en plein air with quick drying gouache capable of recording immediate observations of the landscape. Williams worked restlessly in series, exploring in each of them a new set of formal precepts rather than a subject or motif. Works such as Untitled Landscape I, c.1966 show the points of junction between series, where defining elements of previous investigations were carried over to the next, providing stylistic bridges to unify his oeuvre.

Untitled Landscape I is a quintessential example of Williams’ painterly simplification of the vast Australian landscape to its most defining elements: colour, space and a random smattering of marks illustrating essential topographical features. Created shortly after his return from the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship, back at home at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, this work displays the defining feature of the Upwey landscapes, a shallow vertical depth with a razor-edge horizon line bisecting the painting both compositionally and spatially. Williams presents a bold dichotomy between delicately nuanced washes of yellow ochre gouache and a narrow strip of stark white sky.

Williams’ radical abridgement and abstraction of the Australian country provided a modern alternative to the lyrical narrative landscapes of the Heidelberg school and the nationalistic mythology of the Angry Penguins group, exploring instead how the basic building blocks of colour and form alone could communicate what the artist felt was the pictorial truth of the land, recorded lucidly and without hierarchy. Untitled Landscape I, like many of Williams’ works of this period, both in gouache and oil, evokes the overwhelming scale of the Australian landscape. By tampering with linear perspective and reducing the points of reference, Williams creates a wall-like section of landscape populated with trees and scrub whose scale and spatial relationships remain ambiguous.

Williams suggests the monumentality and vastness of the Australian landscape in rural Victoria with a remarkably relaxed facture. Anchored by the bold vertical marks of tree trunks in the centre of the composition, the image is counterbalanced by a painterly canopy of gum trees exploding in liberated gesture beyond the horizon line. These flourishes demonstrate Williams was being drawn further away from the panoramic ambiguity of the You Yang works and the literal formalism of the earlier Sherbrooke Forest series, prefiguring the delicate and light-filled touch that would characterise the Lysterfield works yet to come.

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

PROVENANCE

EARLY MORNING

FRED WILLIAMS

(1927 – 1982)

RIVER REFLECTIONS, 1971 gouache on paper

55.0 x 76.0 cm

signed lower left: Fred Williams

ESTIMATE: $45,000 – 65,000

Vivienne Sharpe Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, Perth Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney (label attached verso) Corporate collection, Victoria Sotheby’s, Sydney, 7 May 2007, lot 112 Private collection, New South Wales

EXHIBITED

Fred Williams , Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, 26 May – 13 June 1987, cat. 7

Fred Williams’ contribution to the tradition of landscape painting in Australia can be counted among the most significant of the twentieth century. His painted and printed works, founded on physical interaction with the landscape, were formally inventive – creating a distinctive visual vocabulary that altered the collective perception of the country. Fascinated by the extreme variation of landscape views across the continent, Williams documented a distillation of its identifying features in situ, en plein air. Gouache, a quick-drying medium of watercolour mixed with a white pigment to render it opaque, was Williams’ primary medium for painting outdoors, also easily transportable back to the studio to inform larger works in oil.

At the close of the 1960s, Fred Williams felt the pressures of keeping up with contemporary trends in art making, writing in his diary in January 1971, ‘perhaps my most critical year’s work ever! – certainly, my work is at a stage where it needs only a slight push one way or another’.1 Indeed, Williams’ works of the 1970s radically changed. His oil paintings transformed under the influence of acrylic polymer paints, and an enthusiastic adoption of colour values never before used in his work, while the works on paper followed a new, ‘strip’, format ideal for depicting waterways and panoramic vistas. By masking off large

portions of his standard-size sheet of watercolour paper, Williams could vary the dimensions of his gouaches to narrow his focus on an isolated motif of the landscape and its continuous relationship to the horizon. These strips were often multiplied into groups of two or three views of the same subject on one sheet, a repetition of theme and variation. Reinvigorated, Williams utilised this format extensively throughout the summer of 1970 – 71 to depict seascapes around Sorrento, Queenscliff and Waratah Bay.

This tripartite composition of a riverbank mirrored on the surface of the water, Early Morning River Reflections , 1971 is closely related to a painting, of synthetic polymer paint on composition board, titled Early Morning on the Murray River, 1971. 2 Both works are said to have originated from polaroid photographs taken at a roadside rest point at Tocumwal, on the A39 highway between Melbourne and Brisbane in August of that year. Williams and his family had been travelling north, on their way to Springbrook, Albert Tucker’s property in South-East Queensland where they were to holiday for several weeks. 3

Williams had been captivated by the crystalline stillness of the mighty Murray River, as it snaked its way through the Riverina on the border of Victoria and New South Wales. Red river gums bordering the Barmah National Park form the reflected motif highlighted in Williams’ cropped view. This scumbled grove of spindly tree trunks surges from the opposite bank of the river, darkly and imperfectly reflected in the water below. The three images are each bisected by a double horizon line in vibrant violet and orange paint, of varying intensity across the panels. The remaining low-lying vegetation of the riverbank is rendered fuzzily with a dry brush and swift strokes. This soft focus and lack of sharp detail surely mimic the resolution of the Polaroid photographs that Williams had taken as a record of the scene. Reflecting on a brief moment of early-morning calm during a long and noisy car trip up the coast, Williams produced a serene work that would later inform careerdefining commissions such as the murals of the Murray River at Loxton produced in 1972 for the new Adelaide Festival Theatre.

1. Fred Williams Diary, 10 January 1971, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred W illiams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 152

2. Illustrated in Mollison, ibid., p. 154

3. Se e ibid. Indeed, it was at Tucker’s insistence that Williams first experimented with acrylic paint, which he diligently undertook throughout this holiday in 1971.

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

RALPH BALSON (1890 – 1964)

NON-OBJECTIVE PAINTING, 1964

oil and synthetic enamel on composition board

98.5 x 137.5 cm

ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000

PROVENANCE

Gallery A, Sydney

Ann Lewis AO, Sydney (label attached verso)

The Estate of Ann Lewis AO, Mossgreen, Sydney, 7 November 2011, lot 125

Private collection, Perth, acquired from the above Bonhams, Sydney, 16 June 2015, lot 6

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Paintings by the late Ralph Balson, 1960 – 64: The third and final Memorial Exhibition, Gallery A, Sydney, 27 May – 14 June 1969; Gallery A, Melbourne, 8 – 25 July 1969, cat. 35

Ralph Balson: A Retrospective, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, 15 August – 24 September 1989; and touring to Newcastle Region Art Gallery, New South Wales, 6 October – 19 November 1989, Wollongong City Gallery, New South Wales, 1 December 1989 – 28 January 1990, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 14 February – 1 April 1990, and University Art Museum, Brisbane, 12 April – 24 May 1990, cat. 60

LITERATURE

Adams, B.,  Ralph Balson: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Victoria, 1989, cat. 60, pp. 35, 89, 97 (illus.)

In the early 1950s, the first of these tipping points, Balson released himself from the impersonal and serene rigour of his constructivism and allowed himself to embrace the ever-changing fluidity of the universe. His new style of lyrical and painterly abstraction was one that Daniel Thomas qualified as the ‘climax of his career’, created at precisely the time when Romantic abstraction became fashionable in the circles of Contemporary art in Sydney. 2

The present  Non-Objective Painting , 1954 represents a vision of the infinite through a complex and vibrant kaleidoscope of layered staccato marks. With a variety of vertical brushstrokes, Balson has distributed the colours throughout this composition with the utmost care, associating unexpected colour variations to create a delicate vibrating motion. With no clear focal point, the eye is drawn around the painting, attracted by joyful and bold tonal associations, such as stippled highlights of soft pink, yellow and cadmium red, over daubs of green and cobalt blue.  Non-Objective Painting  is a superb example of Balson’s increasingly gestural, impressionist interpretation of the underlying fabric of the universe.

Throughout his career, Ralph Balson tirelessly sought a process of abstract painting that would respect the physical qualities of paint while illustrating what he would call the ‘ineffable’: the sublime and invisible forces of the universe.1 This pursuit led him through a disciplined, logical progression of different styles of abstract painting – from the planar geometry of his ‘Constructive’ works, to painterly fragmentation in the ‘Non-Objective’ paintings, and finally, the poured ‘Matter Paintings’.

Significantly, Non-Objective Painting was created at a pivotal point in Balson’s career. While he remained for most of his life a quiet man removed from the social scene of the Sydney art world, it was in 1953 that Balson finally started to receive a solid critical reception. Not only did the Art Gallery of New South Wales acquire one of his Constructive Paintings for their permanent collection, but the Conference of Interstate Gallery Directors (a meeting of the directors of Australia’s major art museums) selected two of his paintings, both from the 1950s, to be included in a major diplomatic exhibition in London of the best contemporary Australian Art,  Twelve Australian Artists , alongside established artists Russell Drysdale, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. 3

1. Adams, B., ‘Metaphors of Scientific Idealism: The theoretical background to the paintings of Ralph Balson’ in Bradley, A. and Smith, T. (eds), Australian Art and Architecture: Essays presented to Bernard Smith, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980, p. 188

2. Th omas, D., ‘Ralph Balson’, Art and Australia, vol. 2, no. 4, March 1965, p. 257

3. Th omas, D., ‘Ralph Balson and Gallery A’, Gallery A Sydney 1964 – 1983, Campbelltown Arts Centre, New South Wales, 2009, p.106

LUCIE REEVES SMITH

YVONNE AUDETTE

born 1930

CONSTRUCTION IN COLOUR, 1960

synthetic polymer paint on cardboard on composition board

100.5 x 70.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: Audette 1960 signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: Audette 1960 / ‘Construction in Colour’

ESTIMATE: $50,000 – 70,000

PROVENANCE

Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2008 Sotheby’s, Sydney, 3 May 2017, lot 66

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Yvonne Audette: Different Directions 1954 – 1966 , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 13 September 2007 – 17 February 2008 (label attached verso)

Yvonne Audette 1950s – 2008: A Selling Retrospective Exhibition, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne, 16 October –5 November 2008, cat. 14 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

LITERATURE

Heathcote, C., Adams, B., Vaughan, G., and Grant, K.,  Yvonne

Audette: Paintings and Drawings 1949 – 2003 , Macmillan, Melbourne, 2003, pl. 63, pp. 106 (illus.), 247

In contrast to most of her peers, Australian artist Yvonne Audette spent her formative years in 1950s New York, absorbing the influences of avant-garde abstract expressionism before taking these and settling in Italy at the precocious age of 26. With a luminous springtime palette and emanating fragile warmth from beneath milky layers of paint, Construction in Colour, 1960 was painted there, between 1958 and 1960, in parallel with the artist’s more structured geometric and linear arrangements, which she named the Cantata series.1 Processing with confidence the aesthetic experiences of the American painters exhibiting at in the 1958 Venice Biennale and l’art informel of Paris the following year, Audette’s works became more atmospheric and lyrically focussed on subtle colour harmonies, although several retained the urban-inflected ‘construction’ title of her earliest oils. The diaphanous quality of Construction in Colour, interspersed with rhythmic squares of saturated hues, was surely informed by the artist’s initial delicate gouache-and-ink studies of tone, shape and movement. 2

Although anchored by a woven lattice of cumulative blocky brushstrokes and shapes, the final composition of Construction in Colour is almost entirely devoid of clear linear marks. Audette has thinly painted over her work with waves of translucent white and pale green pigment, carefully building up and removing layers to reveal the luminous hues beneath and leave traces of raw gesture on the painting’s chalky surface. These are not, however, the gestures of a dramatic and spontaneous abstract expressionist – each brushstroke is considered and carefully placed, combined with supreme serenity. The arrangement of iterated strokes, hatchings, and scumbled squares jostle against each other with sometimes startling colour contrasts, layered in complex palimpsests that confuse a clear reading of the artist’s process. The artist described this technique as: ‘transparent glazes can send lines and colours back into space so that other lines and forms can come forward. Whitewashes over the existing marks and colours are often used to destroy, also scraping back and scratching at the work opens up new possibilities. This allows freedom for an accident to happen, as well as enabling mind and imagination expansion.’ 3

Audette’s lyrical abstract compositions reflected the multilayered histories she encountered in the ancient towns of Europe where she lived: ‘When I went to Europe in the mid-50s… my work responded to the layering of society itself – the remnants of murals on walls, the frescoes, the whole antiquity of the civilisation.’4 She had shared an interest in ancient haphazard marks left on Italian walls with American artist and neighbour, Cy Twombly – both artists then incorporating doodled and scratched surfaces into their abstract paintings. Audette’s mark-making, either repetitious and patterned or arranged with raucous randomness, contains a musical quality of harmony, fugue or discord. Construction in Colour, quiet and peaceful, is a harmonious painting of the highest artistic order, demonstrating Audette’s mature orchestration of opacity, gesture and subtle colour variation.

1. Heathcote, C. et al., Yvonne Audette: Paintings and Drawings 1949 – 2014, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2014, pp. 106 (illus.), 247

2. C .f. Study for Oil Painting, 1959, and Moving Squares, 1959, illustrated ibid, pl. 77 and 78, pp. 116 – 117

3. Yv onne Audette, cited in Yvonne Audette: Different Directions 1954 – 1966 , National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, n. p.

4. Yv onne Audette, cited in McCulloch-Uehlin, S., ‘Abstraction’s Forgotten Generation’, The Australian, 23 April 1999, p. 9

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

JUSTIN O’BRIEN (1917 – 1996) RESURRECTION, c .1956 oil on canvas

77.5 x 57.0 cm

signed upper right: O’BRIEN inscribed with title verso: The Resurrection bears artist’s name and title on metal plaque: RESURRECTION / Justin O’Brien

ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000

PROVENANCE

Macquarie Galleries, Sydney

Sydney University Union, Sydney

Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne (label attached verso)

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Justin O’Brien, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 22 August –3 September 1956, cat. 10

Modern Australian Paintings , Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 21 May – 4 June 1986, cat. 17 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

LITERATURE

France, C., Justin O’Brien: Image and Icon, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1987, p. 21

RELATED WORK

Study for The Resurrection, 1956, oil on paper on board, 76.5 x 56.0 cm, private collection, Queensland

‘The religious experience should not be confused with the spiritual experience...’1

When Justin O’Brien was awarded the inaugural Blake Prize for Religious Art in Sydney in 1951, he was formally recognised as one of Australia’s leading religious painters. Notably, the prizewinning painting,  The Virgin Enthroned, 1951, was subsequently acquired through the Felton Bequest by the National Gallery of Victoria, being greatly admired for its Byzantine riches – ‘a superb, eye-enchanting fiesta of colour burning with oriental splendour…’ 2 Indeed, it could be argued that were it not for the creation of the Blake Prize, the odds of modernism could have worked more pronouncedly against O’Brien – despite his exceptional knowledge of, and sympathies for, French Post-Impressionism. However, certain passionate supporters, realising that there was much more to

the artist’s vision than mere biblical illustration, kept his motivation alive against a burgeoning secular mainstream and the rising tide of abstraction. Writing in 1947, Harry Tatlock Miller noted: ‘Palpitating with kaleidoscopic patterns of harmonies and dissonances of colour, the massed effect of Justin O’Brien’s painting is like an incessant madrigal which stimulates to the point of intoxication.’ 3 And in 1950, James Gleeson similarly enthused: ‘The canvas is saturated with colour, yet never spills over into chaos, for the control is assured and complete. O’Brien uses colour as a composer uses sound.’4

Painted in Sydney at a time when O’Brien and his peers were reaping the artistic rewards of affordable international travel and unfettered access to original masterpieces, thus The Resurrection, c.1956 reflects O’Brien’s predilection for classical subject matter and techniques, gleaned from his firsthand experience of Italian Renaissance art in Florence and Siena during his European sojourn of 1948 – 50. As O’Brien later reflected, ‘It was in Siena… where I first really had a proper aesthetic experience, the first time I really felt design and colours.’ 5 Inspired particularly by the sumptuous palette of the Byzantine-influenced Sienese artist, Duccio, and the serene humanism and aura of stillness espoused by Quattrocento master Piero della Francesca, such works encapsulate well the artist’s distinctive, highly stylised pictorial style which included the embrace of non-representational primary colour, refusal of linear perspective, and a geometric flattening of the pictorial plane. Whether interpreting a biblical scene within the landscape, as in the present case, or portraying a naturalistic still life, indeed his works suggest the deeply felt moment, irrespective of time; as Sasha Grishin observes, ‘O’Brien balances the extreme emotionalism of the subject matter with the utmost restraint and depersonalised treatment to create a profound sense of pathos.’6

1. O’Brien cited in Grishin, S., Justin O’Brien: A Survey Exhibition 1938 – 1999, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 2006, p. 15

2. Michael Scott cited in Crumlin, R., The Blake Prize for Religious Art – The First 25 Years. A Survey, Monash University, Melbourne, 1984, p. 7

3. Tatlock Miller, H., ‘Recent Paintings by Justin O’Brien’, Art and Design, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1949, pp. 6 – 7

4. Gl eeson, cited in Pearce, B. and Wilson, N., Justin O’Brien: The Sacred Music of Colour, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, p. 61

5. O’Brien, cited in France, C., Justin O’Brien: Image and Icon, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1997, p. 17

6. Gr ishin, op. cit., p. 9

VERONICA ANGELATOS

ROY DE MAISTRE

(1894 – 1968)

TRIPTYCH, 1959

oil, gouache, ink and pencil on paper

30.5 x 48.5 cm (triptych – framed overall) centre panel signed lower right: R. de Maistre right panel initialled lower right: M

ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000

PROVENANCE

Harold E. Mertz, New York, USA

Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, a gift from the above in 1972 (label attached verso)

The Harold E Mertz Collection of Australian Art, Christie’s, Melbourne, 28 June 2000, lot 99

Private collection, Hong Kong

Christie’s, Melbourne, 22 August 2005, lot 155

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

A retrospective exhibition of paintings and drawings 1917 – 1960, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK, May – June 1960, cat. 130

On loan to the Herbert Museum, Coventry, London, UK (label attached verso)

The Mertz Collection of Contemporary Australian Painting, National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 10 – 26 March 1966, cat. 23 (label attached verso)

The Australian Painters 1964 – 1966: Contemporary Australian Painting from the Mertz Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, USA, 10 March – 16 April 1967, cat. 90

The Australian Painters: 1964 – 1966, from the Mertz Collection, The American Federation of Arts, New York, USA, May 1967 – December 1968, cat. 20 (label attached verso)

LITERATURE

Luck, R., The Australian Painters 1964 – 1966: Contemporary Australian Painting from the Mertz Collection, The Griffin Press, Adelaide, 1967, cat. 90, pp. 29, 72 (illus.)

RELATED WORK

Crucifixion, c.1957, tempera and gold leaf on wood panel, 28.0 x 21.0 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

DONALD FRIEND (1915 – 1989)

HILL END, c .1942 oil on board

18.5 x 24.0 cm

signed lower left: DONALD signed upper left: Donald Friend. inscribed with title verso: Hill End

ESTIMATE: $8,000 – 12,000

PROVENANCE

Tony and Ann Shaw

Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, c.1989 (label attached verso, as ‘Hills End’)

Private collection, Perth

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 22 August 1994, lot 46

(as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire (Hill End)’)

Private collection

Christie’s, Melbourne, 22 August 2005, lot 122A (as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire (Hill End)’)

Savill Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso, as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire (Hill End)’)

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 10 May 2016, lot 5 (as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire’)

John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above

The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Australian Modernism: The Complexity and the Diversity, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 30 July – 28 August 1992, cat. 19 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 18, as ‘(Soldiers Making a Bonfire), c.1945’)

Donald Friend, Savill Galleries, Melbourne, 18 May – 17 June 2006, cat. 6 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire (Hills End), c.1950’)

Donald Friend, Savill Galleries, Sydney, 6 – 31 March 2012, cat. 6 (illus. in exhibition catalogue as ‘Soldiers Making a Bonfire (Hills End)')

KEN WHISSON (1927 – 2022)

FROM HERE AND FROM THERE, 2001 oil on linen

119.5 x 100.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: Artist: Ken Whisson / Title: “From Here and from / There” / Painted: 1/4/2001 + 23/12/01 / + 25 + 27/12/2001

ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000

PROVENANCE

Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne Menzies, Sydney, 8 December 2011, lot 103 John Barnes, Melbourne, acquired from the above The Estate of John Barnes, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Paintings 1947 – 1999, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 29 October – 23 November 2002, cat. 6

Ken Whisson holds a unique place in Australian modernism from the second half of the 20th century. He was quite unlike many now famous self-promoters he met in his late teens. He listened to Albert Tucker and met Nolan, but he really admired the work of Joy Hester. Whisson welcomed recognition, however his determination to be an artist, uncompromisingly honest within himself, meant that any deftly arranged public persona eluded him.

He never rated highly a couple of years at art school. But Whisson’s time with Danila Vassilieff in 1945 – 46 was a crucial introduction to figurative expressionism in Melbourne. Vassilieff’s Koornong School was in Warrandyte, east of Melbourne and a stone’s throw from Lilydale, where Whisson was born.

He would make do with part time employment, often menial jobs. The seeming awkwardness of his distorted figuration and compositions that veer towards abstraction were unplaceable in Australia’s contemporary context. Any suggestion of technical proficiency and good taste held no appeal.

Despite exhibiting sporadically with modest critical reaction and commercial interest, a fuller appreciation of his art took hold in the mid1970s and James Mollison, Director, National Gallery of Australia, played an influential role – his acquisitions and advocacy were generous.

Whisson had travelled widely but in in 1977 he left Australia for Perugia, Italy, lived unpretentiously and used his kitchen table as his studio. His resoluteness to being an artist transcended being ‘professional’ in his outlook. But what we now see is a career that holds perennial interest.

He does not fit into a common art historical pattern where early work develops into fully-fledged maturity, where stages of repetitive familiarity might be expected, and moments of brilliance mark individual distinctiveness. It is Whisson’s art as a whole career which holds our interest. His work has always been in plain sight but was seldom given its due until later in life.

From Here and From There, 2001 includes life-long traits which combine in a single work. Intuition, as de Kooning put it, ‘an unsure atmosphere of reflection… a poetic frame where something could be possible, where an artist could practice his intuition’. And memory, ‘…has to come from a whole process of intuitive processes, from the intuitive focusing of memories, ideas, emotions including the seeds of new beginnings left somewhere in the past work…’1

Whisson offered his idea of technique in a 1994 lecture. He had listened to the Italian theatre director, Dario Fo speak, and found a parallel with his own work as a painter, ‘There are times when the actor has to make use of all the techniques at his disposal. However, he must make every effort not to use any of them unless it is unavoidable – he will gain every time… his and the audience’s imagination are given room to move.’ 2

1.

2. Whisson, cited op. cit., p. 6

DOUG HALL AM

De Kooning, cited in Sprague, Q., Ken Whisson: Painting & Drawing, D rill Hall Gallery Publishing, Canberra & The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2023, p. 2

ROSALIE GASCOIGNE

(1917 – 1999)

ON A CLEAR DAY, 1988

weathered, sawn plywood on weathered galvanized iron on plywood

132.0 x 91.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: “ON A CLEAR DAY” / 1988 / Rosalie Gascoigne

ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000 44

PROVENANCE

Pinacotheca, Melbourne

Private collection, Queensland, acquired from the above in 1988

EXHIBITED

Rosalie Gascoigne, Pinacotheca, Melbourne, 28 September – 15 October 1988, cat. 19

LITERATURE

MacDonald, V., Rosalie Gascoigne, Regaro, Sydney, 1998, p. 106

Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne: A Catalogue Raisonné , Australian National University Press, Canberra, 2019, cat. 329, pp. 233 (illus.), 331

When Rosalie Gascoigne made On a Clear Day in 1988, she had been exhibiting for just 14 years, not yet quite classifiable, at the age of 71, as a mid-career artist. However, in this relatively short space of time, her work had already been included in a raft of significant exhibitions, including two Sydney Biennales (1979 and 1988), and she had been honoured, in 1982, as the first woman to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.1 She was at the height of her powers.

As an artist, Gascoigne seemed to emerge fully formed, capturing the art world’s imagination as a result. But she had, as curator and art historian Deborah Clark has acknowledged, ‘been rehearsing for it all her life.’2 With a background in Sogetsu Ikebana, a sharp and inquisitive intellect, and a keen eye, Gascoigne had been making ‘arrangements’ with things selected from the natural world for most of her life, and it is from this experience that she developed the unique visual language that was to catapult her to international success. While Gascoigne proposed

that the seemingly singular nature of her practice stemmed from the fact that her vision was neither tainted nor influenced by her being taught the ‘rules’, the necessity and power of her art nevertheless remained for her an essential truth. As she stated:

‘For me, the bottom line in art is honesty. It depends on how much you have inside yourself, as to how much you can put into a work of art. I look for the eternal truths in nature, the rhythms, cycles, seasons, shapes, regeneration, restorative powers, spirit. I’m showing what I believe to be interesting and beautiful.’ 3

Gascoigne loved weathered wood, which she collected from dumps, building sites and recycling centres, and the composition of On a Clear Day would have resulted from her moving the different pieces of found plywood around until they ‘fell into place’. The influence of ikebana is clearly embodied in the work’s restrained and elegant aesthetic; its quiet solemnity derived as much from the marriage of simple shapes and restricted palette as from what is left out. Indeed, its success comes from a knowing combination of intuition and discipline and the artist’s concentrated search for an essential form that is equally based upon a ruthless sense of acceptance or rejection. The work’s title, which would have been given to the piece after its completion, adds the final touch – evoking both the way in which forms in the natural world are crisply delineated on a clear day, and the lyrics of the song from the 1965 Broadway musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, made famous by Barbara Streisand in the 1970 film adaptation: ‘On a clear day / Rise and look around you / And you’ll see who / You are … And on a clear day / On that clear day / You can see forever and ever / And ever / And evermore’.

1. Technically, Thea Proctor (1879 – 1966) was the first Australian woman to have her work exhibited at the Venice Biennale (in 1912), but her work was shown as part of the British representation.

2. Clark, D., ‘Rosalie Gascoigne 1917 – 1999’, Art Monthly Australia, no. 127, December 1999, p. 38

3. Ha wley, J. ‘A Late Developer’, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald 15 November 1997, p. 44

KELLY GELLATLY

IMANTS TILLERS

born 1950

ORNAMENTAL DESPAIR, 1989 synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 54 canvas boards

227.0 x 229.0 cm (overall) each panel numbered sequentially with stencil verso: 19918 – 19971

ESTIMATE: $50,000 – 70,000 (54)

PROVENANCE

Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Imants Tillers: Poem of Ecstasy, Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne, 28 February – 24 March 1990, cat. 4 (illus. exhibition catalogue)

LITERATURE

Curnow, W.,  Imants Tillers and the ‘Book of Power’, Craftsman House, G+B Arts International, Sydney, 1998, pl. 12, pp. 37 (illus.), 161, 169

the fact that “the self”, like art and life itself, is continuously open to interpretation—mutable, never fully understandable and always in a state of becoming.’ 2

Iconic New Zealand artist Colin McCahon has long been a subject of interest (and use) for Tillers, and McCahon’s distinctive and instantly identifiable handwriting and quotation from the Book of Ecclesiastes fills the composition of Ornamental Despair, 1989. 3 McCahon’s existential fascination with identity, faith and doubt, and the human condition clearly resonates with Tillers, just as the opening line from Ecclesiastes echoes his own conceptual practice and interest in the figure of the artist as a conduit for ideas: ‘There is a constant tension between the search for meaning, the desire for transcendence and a pervasive, immovable scepticism. It is this aspect of McCahon that I find most interesting and most relevant to our condition today.’4

Over the last five decades, Imants Tillers has consistently investigated issues of cultural identity and displacement and concerns about origins and originality, rightly establishing his reputation as one of Australia’s foremost postmodern artists. Forging his international career in the 1970s and into the 80s, Tillers was included in the XIII Bienal de São Paulo , Brazil in 1975, in Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany in 1982, and in exhibitions at PS1, New York and The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC (both 1984); culminating in his representation of Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1986, at the age of thirty-five.

At the heart of Tillers’ intriguing oeuvre is a conceptual, practical and material framework that he developed in the 1980s. Known as The Book of Power,1 this system sees the artist work on small canvas boards that are numbered, stacked and then hung in order in grids; their individual contents coming together in large-scale installations of complex imagery drawn from a variety of visual sources. While none of the appropriated imagery within an Imants Tillers painting is the artist’s ‘own’, his work remains immediately recognisable as ‘a Tillers’, with the found imagery within his work creating new possibilities and ideas through their careful juxtaposition. Importantly, Tillers’ transcription of the art of others is never exact – like the act of reproduction, it too is open to slippage and change. As curator Deborah Hart has noted, Tillers ‘… cherishes

True to form, however, this is not a conversation between Tillers and McCahon alone. Tillers interrupts McCahon’s incantation in Ornamental Despair with a brown column-like form, introducing both colour and light (and a possible source of revelation or redemption?) into McCahon’s previously monochromatic work. This totemic form is in turn overlaid by an almost whimsical play of architectural ornament, drawn from the work of American abstractionist Philip Taaffe. 5 Taaffe, like Tillers, is known for his use of found imagery (in Taaffe’s case, found abstraction) and for his creative reinvention and reworking of the history of art. In this knowing combination of McCahon, Taaffe and Tillers in Ornamental Despair, images and intentions coalesce across time and space, coming together in new ways that reflect Tillers’ ongoing quest to investigate the complexities and potential meaning of our existence through his art.

1. The idea for the Book of Power was inspired by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, whose free verse poem of 1897, Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hazard (A throw of the dice will never abolish chance), with its unusual typographic layout, is said to have anticipated concrete poetry.

2. Hart, D., Imants Tillers: One World Many Visions, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2006, p. 3

3. This is drawn from McCahon’s painting Is there anything of which one can say look this is new?, 1982, Bank of New Zealand Collection, Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, see: https://www. mccahon.co.nz/cm001300

4. C urnow, W. Imants Tillers and the ‘Book of Power’, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, p. 146, cited in Hart, op. cit., p. 33

5. I am g rateful to Mary Eagle for this connection. See Eagle, M., “Imants Tillers” in Imants Tillers: Poem of Ecstasy, Deutscher Brunswick Street, Melbourne, 1990, p. 5

KELLY GELLATLY

JOHN KELLY born 1965 PAINTED LABYRINTH, 1996 oil on linen

91.5 x 137.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: Klly [sic] 96 dated and inscribed with title verso: PAINTED LABYRINTH / 1996

ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000

PROVENANCE

Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above

Standing out in the centre of this tightly packed array of cow’s hinds, arranged in a continuous running bond pattern like bricks, is a lone bull – his small head turned towards the viewer as if animated with conscious and independent thought. Australian painter John Kelly created Painted Labyrinth, 1996 during a prolific period while studying at the Slade School of Art in London after winning the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 1995. Kelly has been internationally acclaimed for these works featuring his obsessive bovine theme, which beyond cartoonish humour is anchored in surreal historical fact and images from modern Australian art history. While Russell Drysdale’s paintings and Sidney Nolan’s photographs of emaciated, drought-stricken livestock certainly informed the cultural and geographic relevance of Kelly’s chosen avatars, it is the oftenrelated story of William Dobell’s wartime papier-mâché decoys that truly provided the impetus and the stranger-than-fiction scenes that have appeared in a large majority of Kelly’s works.

Australian painter William Dobell during World War Two served as a camouflage labourer. Almost inconceivably bizarre was his task of making papier-mâché cows, intended to be dotted around airfields and other military targets to lead enemy pilots into thinking the land was merely pastoral. By 1996, Kelly had been steadily painting imagined scenes of Dobell’s decoy cows for several years. While in some scenes the boxy figures of the cows are clearly static sculptures (unfinished,

unpainted and upended on trestle tables, for example), other paintings by Kelly present them in tightly cropped vignettes that give little indication of the broader context. Here, the painted rectangular bodies are arranged neatly in rows, awaiting deployment onto the field, mimicking real cows corralled into cattle yards. Laid out individually rather than in volumetric stacks as they appear in the artist’s sculptures, perhaps these cows have been stored indoors in a hangar? Kelly’s semiabstract repeating pattern of near-identical units, as far as the eye can see, creates the walls of this Painted Labyrinth, a humorous title for what appears named in other paintings as merely the storage ‘depot’ for these wartime resources.

Now living and working in Ireland, the artist has since elaborated: ‘They were never merely paintings of cows anyway’; ‘they [the cows] were symbols which represented something else.’1 Indeed, here the cows, en masse and indistinguishable from one another, become vehicles for more complex aesthetic concerns for the artist on the development of Modern Art. The lone bull in the crowd spotlit in the centre of the composition undercuts the inanimate conformity of this array. Although devoid of facial features, the head turned towards the viewer humanises this scene and draws a personal and whimsical dimension into the vast industrial scale of modern warfare. Elegantly weaving in ideas of subterfuge, concealment and misdirection, Kelly regularly revisited this maze-like composition throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Some artworks in which the cows are disembodied become purely abstract compositions, and others are combined with his later painting-withina-painting mise en abyme technique, later versions even introduced a red kangaroo logo, a branding figure misappropriated from the Australia Council for the Arts.

1. Bellamy, L., ‘Bull Market for Niagara’, The Age, Melbourne, 24 April 2003, p. 15

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

JOHN OLSEN (1928 – 2023) WET SEASON

watercolour and pastel on paper

98.5 x 95.0 cm

signed and inscribed with title lower right: Wet Season / John Olsen

ESTIMATE: $45,000 – 65,000

PROVENANCE

Greenhill Galleries, Perth

Private collection, Perth, acquired from the above in the late 1980s

We are grateful to Kylie Norton, Editor, John Olsen Catalogue Raisonné, for her assistance with this catalogue entry.

With his distinctive meandering line, exuberant mark-making and mastery of colour, John Olsen is universally revered as one of the most important artists in a generation that defined the way Australia perceived its natural environment. Throughout his vast career spanning more than seven decades, he revealed an unerring fascination with the natural world in all its myriad forms, creating evocative depictions of the landscape that arguably capture the spirit and character of this country more eloquently than any other non-indigenous artist before him. From the pulsating energy of his You Beaut Country  series, to the quieter, more metaphysical paintings inspired by his expeditions to Lake Eyre, or the exquisitely lyrical works immortalising his halcyon days in Clarendon, his signature technique fusing painting and drawing as one reveals the hand and eye of the artist with every stroke – the act of creation thus imbuing the painted surface with a powerful sense of the artist’s own exuberant energy and palpable joie de vivre. As Deborah Hart, curator and author of several authoritative publications on the artist, asserts, ‘Olsen has confronted and helped redefine our basic conception of landscape… providing a psychological encounter with place, not only as seen but as experienced, resulting in a fresh, exhilarating vision.’1

A superb example of Olsen’s talent as a ‘master watercolourist’, Wet Season tangibly attests to the artist’s exceptional ability to create atmosphere, to embody the sight as well as feel of his subject – in this instance, the dampness and humidity accompanying a deluge of tropical abundance. Here thunderclouds full of life-giving rain are reflected in the transparent waters below, with both upper and lower parts of the composition further united by the runs of blue and green paint down the picture plane, thus tangibly evoking memories of water running down the windowpane on a wet day. Amidst dark areas of wash, deft lines of pastel provide stable touches and delineate the various bird species which sport with playful abandon in the downpour. Watercolour is the ideal medium, its fluidity and adroit execution capturing brilliantly the sensations of the moment; the work not only looks wet, it feels wet.

Resonating with a vitalistic energy, indeed the work betrays a sense of not only keen observation, but joyful celebration derived from a lifetime dedicated to physical and spiritual immersion in the landscape. For ultimately, as Olsen poignantly mused, the Australian outback offered more than mere topographical phenomena to be accurately recorded. More fundamentally, the experience was the catalyst for a myriad or ideas and metaphorical connections that reaffirmed his Taoist belief in the total interconnectedness of all living forms, thereby heralding a new spirituality in his art: ‘The enigma of it all. It is a desert and it can be full. After the rains, it is so incredibly abundant; so what you are looking at in one place, as if through an act of the Dao, becomes full… It has an effect on you when you are there because all the time it is impossible for you to accept fully the sense of impermanence and transitoriness… Somehow it affects you – you realise that you are looking at an  illusion  really. I don’t think that there is anything more Buddhist than that.’2

1.

2.

Hart, D., John Olsen, Cr aftsman House, Sydney, 2000, p. 207

Olsen, cited in Hart, ibid., p. 135

VERONICA ANGELATOS

JOHN OLSEN (1928 – 2023)

FROG SPAWN, 1996

watercolour, pastel and gouache on paper

100.0 x 89.5 cm

signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: Frog Spawn / John Olsen ‘96

ESTIMATE: $45,000 – 65,000

PROVENANCE

Maunsell Wickes, Sydney Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above c.1998

We are grateful to Kylie Norton, Editor, John Olsen Catalogue Raisonné, for her assistance with this catalogue entry.

‘The urge for life is a staggering thing and we just ought to take notice… There is such fecundity in this universe called a lily pond.’1

Upon the invitation of film-makers Ken Duncan and Robert Raymond, and esteemed naturalist Vince Serventy, John Olsen first ventured to the Australian interior in the early 1970s to participate in the ‘Wild Australia’ film series commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Immediately awestruck by the incredible diversity of the various ecosystems he encountered during the journey, Olsen thus began his enduring fascination with observing and painting the teeming life of rainforests, wetlands, estuaries and lily ponds – stimulated not only by individual species, but a sense of the whole, pulsating mass, ‘a carnival of life’. Indeed, Olsen’s sheer wonderment at the miracle of mother nature and her life-affirming properties is especially palpable in his reflections upon travelling to Lake Eyre in 1974 where he witnessed the arid, salt-encrusted plains of the South Australian desert erupting into life following the extraordinary floods of 1973 (only the second such occurrence since white settlement); ‘… I draw studies of insects, animals and birds that will eventually be realised as prints

and watercolours. My devotion to Chinese art and philosophy finds a fulfilment in this experience. Nothing too small or too strange should escape my attention – an insect’s wing, the leap of a frog, the flight pattern of dragonflies. They all induce poetic rapture.’ 2  Equally too, Olsen became acutely aware of the vast cycle of death that ensued when the water receded – thus reiterating his Taoist belief in the total interconnectedness of all living forms and heralding a new spirituality in his art.

Over the subsequent two decades, Olsen would continue his devotion to this fertile watery world with repeated visits to Lake Eyre and North Queensland providing the impetus for some of his most lyrical interpretations of the Australian landscape. Encouraging the viewer to appreciate the relationship between the tiny and the vast, the microcosm and the macrocosm,  Frog Spawn, 1996 is an enchanting example of such works on the subject from his mature period. Now confronted with the realities of old age, significantly Olsen does not abandon hope in the redemptive, life-enhancing possibilities of nature; to the contrary, he embraces the principle of ecological integration and its capacity to enliven the spirit. As he poignantly mused in 1993, ‘A search for completeness and ecstasy so lacking in our time. Probably will fail… Examination of different frogs, some sleek and streamlined with delicate fingers. Tiny tree frogs that hang from wet leaves, green on top and yellow underbelly, with spongy pads on feet and hands.’ 3 With joyous abandon, Olsen thus here eloquently captures the essential energy and agility of this tiny amphibian in the very act of spawning life – all the while bathing the work in broad washes of ochre, olive and opalescent blue to evoke the jewel-like richness of this fragile universe he so revered.

1. John Olsen, cited in Hart, D., John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 123

2. Jo hn Olsen, cited in Olsen, J., Drawn from Life, Duffy and Snellgrove, Sydney, 1997, p. 116

3. ib id., pp. 307 – 308

VERONICA ANGELATOS

GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH

(1892 – 1984)

GUM BLOSSOM, c .1928 – 32 oil on board

33.0 x 27.0 cm

signed upper left: G Cossington Smith bears inscription verso: GUM BLOSSOM

ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, New South Wales

Sotheby’s, Sydney, 25 August 2003 (private sale) Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

Paintings and Drawings by Grace Cossington Smith, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 21 July 1937, cat. 2

Enid Cambridge and Grace Cossington Smith, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 22 July – 3 August 1942, cat. 7 Grace Cossington Smith, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 13 – 25 June 1945, cat. 19

Gum Blossom, c.1928 – 32 by Grace Cossington Smith is a radiant, even ecstatic, paean to the sublime effects of light and colour. It was painted at a time when the artist was creating some of the most memorable works in her long career, including Bridge in Curve , 1930 (National Gallery of Victoria); The Gully, 1928 (Kerry Stokes Collection); and the delightfully intimate Krinkley Konks Sleeping , 1927 – 28 (private collection), an affectionate study of the family’s bulldog built upon keen observation and a pattern of short brushstrokes. Cossington Smith remains one of the most distinctive early modernists that this country has produced – an artist who used still lifes as ‘as a lens for aesthetically honing in on the sensations of a private universe’1 as the rhythmic pulse of paintings such as Gum Blossom perfectly encapsulates.

Cossington Smith studied during World War One alongside Roy de Maistre, Roland Wakelin and Constance Tempe Manning at the forward-looking atelier run by the Italian expatriate Antonio DattiloRubbo. All were energised by aesthetic ideas then emerging from Europe, particularly Post-Impressionism, and Cossington Smith’s early masterwork The Sock Knitter, 1915 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) is cited as being Australia’s first ‘modern’ painting. Cézanne was a touchstone for the students and Wakelin would later write of this, noting particularly Cézanne’s concept of the ‘rhythmic flow of line

– that concentric feeling in the design, the feeling of “radiation from the centre”’ 2; again, a notion that can be keenly detected within Gum Blossom spectacular array of colour vibrations. In developing her own direction, Cossington Smith was also inspired by the writings of Beatrice Irwin, an English poet-performer who travelled the world, including Australia, giving ‘Colour-Poem’ recitals which underpinned her widely read book The New Science of Color (1915). Irwin was ‘interested in radiating colours: in colour waves, auras and vibrations, and in the capacity of colour to transform our state of mind.’ 3 After her studies, Cossington Smith continued her experiments in the relative isolation of the family home on Sydney’s north shore, but following de Maistre’s return in late 1925 from a Travelling Scholarship in Europe, the two renewed their friendship and went on a number of painting excursions together in the Southern Highlands. It was during this period that she received some salient advice: ‘I can remember Roy de Maistre saying years ago, ‘You don’t want to make your skies so heavy’, and I said, ‘But the blue is such a very deep blue… and he said, ‘Yes, it is deep blue, but you’ve got to remember that it’s also light.’ And that’s just it.’4 De Maistre also encouraged her use of clearly delineated brushstrokes, seen expressively in the background of Gum Blossom, as well as in Bridge in Curve , where the sky swells with vigorous marks blue paint underscored by penetrating whites. In both paintings, ‘rhythm and energy have become… primary vehicles (implying) the larger, eternal movement and unity of all matter.’5

Cossington Smith included Gum Blossom in a two-person exhibition with her friend Enid Cambridge at the renowned Macquarie Galleries in Sydney and it is a characteristic example, executed in the artist’s distinctive ‘firm, separate notes of clear, unworried colour.’6

1. Mimmocchi, D., ‘Still life as laboratory’ in Sydney Moderns: Art for a New World, A rt Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2013, p. 200

2. Wakelin, R., ‘The modern movement in Australia’, Art in Australia, no. 26, December 1928, n.p.

3. Hart, D. (ed.), Grace Cossington Smith, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2005, p. 27

4. Gr ace Cossington Smith, Interview with Alan Roberts, 28 April 1970, National Gallery of Australia, cited in Hart, D. ibid., p. 39, fn 104

5. Ed wards, D., ‘Landscapes of modernity 1920s – 40s’ in Mimmocchi, D., ibid., p. 217

6. Gr ace Cossington Smith, cited in Thomas, D., Grace Cossington Smith, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973, p. 6

ANDREW GAYNOR

ELIOTH GRUNER  (1882 – 1939)

A MOUNTAIN CASTLE, ITALY, c .1924

oil on wood panel

37.5 x 46.0 cm

signed lower right: GRUNER

inscribed with title verso: A Mountain Castle, Italy bears inscription verso: 18986 / E GRUNER / CAPRI 1924

ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000

PROVENANCE

Elioth Gruner, until at least 1929

Mrs John Maund, Sydney, by 1940

Artarmon Galleries, Sydney

Private collection, Sydney, acquired in 1982

EXHIBITED

Salon de la Société National des Beaux Arts , Grand Palais, Paris, 1928

Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition,  National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April – 31 May 1940, cat. 35 (label attached verso, lent by Mrs  John Maund)

Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition,  National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 5 July – 4 August 1940, cat. 13 (lent by Mrs John Maund)

Elioth Gruner 1882 – 1939,  Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 July – 4 September 1983, cat. 44 (label attached verso ‘CAPRI, 1924’)

Director’s Choice , Artarmon Galleries, Sydney, 13 – 30 April, 2013, cat. 64 (as ‘Capri, 1924’)

LITERATURE

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds), The Recent Work of Elioth Gruner, Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd series, no. 27, March 1929, pl. 34 (illus. as ‘Capri / Oil painting’)

Campbell, R., ‘The Art of Gruner’, Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd Series, no. 79, 23 May 1940, p. 31

GRACE COSSINGTON SMITH (1892 – 1984)

FENCE AND DRY HILL, 1930 oil on board

29.0 x 32.5 cm

signed and dated lower left: G Cossington Smith 30

signed and inscribed with title verso: Fence and Dry Hill / Grace Cossington Smith

signed and inscribed with title on artist’s handwritten label verso: Fence and Dry Hill / Grace Cossington Smith

ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000

PROVENANCE

Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne

Mrs H. R. Thomas

Daniel Thomas, Sydney and Tasmania

Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne (label attached verso)

Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1999

51 EXHIBITED

Grace Cossington Smith, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 18 February – 2 March 1970, cat. 24 (label attached verso)

Annual Collectors’ Exhibition 1999, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 5 June – 3 July 1999, cat. 42 (illus. in exhibition catalogue p. 34, dated c.1938)

RELATED WORK

Drought at Moss Vale , c.1938, oil on pulpboard, 41.5 x 49.0 cm, illus. in Thomas, D., Grace Cossington Smith, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973, cat. 46

MARGARET PRESTON

(1875 – 1963)

WARATAHS ETC, 1949

colour stencil on black card

42.0 x 33.0 cm

signed with initials in image lower right: M.P. dated lower right: 1949 inscribed with title lower left: Waratahs Etc / monotype

ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, USA

EXHIBITED

Margaret Preston Survey (Nine Paintings and Thirteen Prints by Margaret Preston), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 4 June –16 September 1959 (another example)

Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 December 1985 – 9 February 1986 (another example)

State of the Waratah, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 1 September – 8 October 2000 (another example)

LITERATURE

Butel, E.,  Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Penguin Books & Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1985, cat. P.72, p. 93, as ‘Waratahs etc (c.1953 – 57)’ [sic] (another example)

Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1987, cat. 351, pp. 270 (illus., another example), 271

RELATED WORKS

There are only two other recorded examples of this stencil: one is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and the other, formerly in the collection of Sydney Ure Smith, Sydney sold to a private collection by Deutscher and Hackett (2 December 2015, lot 4).

“The simplicity of the stencil cuttings and the traditional way of colouring, which leaves a large section of the black background untouched, suggests that this is Preston’s earliest stencil print in this series.” – Butler, R., p. 271

MARGARET PRESTON

(1875 – 1963)

GUM BLOSSOM, 1928 hand–coloured woodcut

27.5 x 26.5 cm (image)

33.0 x 27.5 cm (sheet) edition: 22nd copy signed, numbered and inscribed with title below image: 22 copy Gum blossom Margaret Preston

ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000

PROVENANCE

Private collection, Sydney

Thence by descent

Private collection, Brisbane

EXHIBITED

Christmas Exhibition of Batik and Woodcuts,  Grosvenor Galleries, Sydney, December 1928 (another example, as ‘Gum Blossoms’) Exhibition by Leading Members of the Australian Society of Artists, Fine Arts Salon, Wellington, New Zealand, 4 July – 2 August 1930, cat. 13 (another example)

Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 December 1985 – 9 February 1986 (another example)

Margaret Preston in Mosman, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, 7 September – 13 October 2002 (another example, illus. in exhibition catalogue)

Margaret Preston retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 July – 23 October 2005; and touring (another example) brick vase clay cup jug, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 July 2023 – 7 January 2024 (another example)

LITERATURE

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds), Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd Series, no. 26, December 1928, p. 121 (illus. as ‘Gum Blossoms’,  another example)

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds), The Home: an Australian Quarterly, Sydney, vol. 9, no. 12, 1 December 1928, p. 25 (illus. as ‘Gum Blossoms’, another example)

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds), The Home: an Australian Quarterly, Sydney, vol. 13, no. 12, 1 December 1932, p. 84 (illus., another example)

Radford, R. (ed.),  Outlines of Australian Printmaking: Prints of Australian from the Last Third of the 18th Century until the Present Time, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 1976, n.p. Butel, M.,  Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement,  Penguin Books & Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1985, cat. P.19, cover (illus., another example), pp. 32, 88 Butler, R.,  The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné , Australian National Gallery, Canberra and Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987, cat. 124, pp. 135 (illus. as ‘Gum blossoms’, another example), 335

Lebovic, J.,  Australian women printmakers, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney, 1988, cat. 94a, pp. 2, 12 (another example)

Edwards, D., Peel, R. and Mimmocchi, D.,  Margaret Preston,  exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005, pp. 88 (illus., another example), 127, 286

RELATED WORKS

Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria

MARGARET

PRESTON (1875 – 1963)

HIBISCUS, 1925 hand-coloured woodcut

24.5 x 25.0 cm edition: 2nd proof signed with initials in image lower right: M.P. signed, dated, numbered and inscribed with title below image: 2nd proof [indistinctly] Flowers No 2 Margaret Preston 25

PROVENANCE

Private collection

Lawsons, Sydney, 12 July 1988, lot 105 Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane

ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000

Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1991

Thence by descent

Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED

The Society of Artists Exhibition, Dunster Galleries, Adelaide, 4 – 20 November, 1925, cat. 100 (another example, as ‘Flowers’)

Thea Proctor and Margaret Preston Exhibition, Grosvenor Galleries, Sydney, 18 November – 2 December 1925, cat. 14 (another example)  Exhibition of Woodcuts by Margaret Preston, Dunster Galleries, Adelaide, September 1926, cat. 63 (another example)

LITERATURE

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds),  Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd Series, no. 14, December 1925, n.p., (illus. as ‘Flowers’, another example)

‘MARGARET PRESTON’S WOODCUTS; Exhibition at Dunster Galleries’,  The Register, Adelaide, 8 September 1926, p. 11 (another example)

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds), The Home: The Australian Journal of Quality, Art in Australia, Sydney, vol. 8, no. 8, 1 August 1927, pp. 26 (illus., another example), 32 (illus., another example)

Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds),  Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd Series, no. 22, December 1927, pl. 34 (illus., another example)  Ure Smith, S., and Gellert, L. (eds),  Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd Series, no. 57, November 1934, p. 17 (illus., another example) Butler, R.,  The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1987, cat. 97, pp. 114, 115 (illus., another example), 335 Gray, A., et al.,  Modern Australian Women Artists: The Andrée Harkness Collection, Museum Victoria Publishing, Melbourne, 2020, pp. 8 (illus. detail, another example), 9, 166, 167 (illus., another example), 234

RELATED WORKS

Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

CLARICE

BECKETT (1887 – 1935)

BEACH ROAD, BEAUMARIS, c .1919 oil on board

35.0 x 25.0 cm

signed lower right: C. Beckett bears inscription verso: Beach Rd Beaumaris / ALAN MARTIN / 42 PARK RD / ELTHAM bears inscription on label verso: Beach Road Beaumaris

ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000

PROVENANCE

Benjamin Dunbar Ratcliff, Melbourne

Thence by descent

Norman Dunbar Ratcliff, Melbourne

Alan and Lesly Martin, Melbourne, by bequest in the late 1950s

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Paintings from the Martin Collection, The Eltham Community Centre, Melbourne, March 1985 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)

Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect,  Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and touring to S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Orange Regional Gallery, New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, and Burnie Regional Art Gallery, Tasmania, 5 February 1999 – 22 May 2000, cat. 4 (label attached verso)

LITERATURE

Hollinrake, R.,  Clarice Beckett: Politically Incorrect, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 1999, cat. 4, pp. 15, 34 (illus.), 75

Eureka Street: A magazine of public affairs, the arts and theology, Melbourne, vol. 9, no. 4, May 1999, cover (illus.)

RELATED WORK

Beach Road after the rain (Street scene), c.1927, oil on cardboard, 35.5 x 25.5 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

The first owner of Beach Road, Beaumaris was Benjamin Dunbar Ratcliff (1868 – 1956) – a successful businessman who was notably also the first major patron and collector of Max Meldrum’s French and Australian paintings, having been introduced to his work by the painter A.E. Newbury in 1916. Meldrum painted portraits of Ratcliff, his wife

Jean Ratcliff and second born daughter Doris. As well as a collector of Meldrum’s work, Ratcliff financed the publication, Max Meldrum: His Art and Views edited by Colin Colahan and published by Alexander McCubbin in 1919. Ratcliff ran a thriving grocery business which by 1936 had expanded to twenty-two branches situated in various parts of Melbourne. In the early 1940s, the shops of ‘Ratcliff Bros.’ were sold to the grocery chain, Moran & Cato. Ratcliff was also an early significant patron of Clarice Beckett’s paintings having collected over twenty-five works from 1919 to 1933. Possibly to fund further grocery stores, Ratcliff started to sell part of his extensive art collection in 1933 through Joel Gallery at 362 Little Collins Street Melbourne – included in the offering were examples of Meldrum’s earlier French period, as well as a number of smaller Australian landscapes. Also for sale were eight landscapes by Clarice Beckett, together with paintings by Louis Buvelot, John Mather, Walter Withers, Louis McCubbin and Charles Wheeler.1 Almost ten years later in February 1942, Ratcliff again offered works by Meldrum and Beckett through Leonard Joel, having sold his large family home, Avondale at 22 Berkeley Street, Hawthorn to move into a smaller house in Camberwell. 2

As to Beckett’s subject matter, art historian Siobhan Byford has written, ‘The reception of Beckett’s landscapes varied.’ To one critic, ‘her paintings were puzzling scenes of unsensational bits of suburban roads,’ yet to another more admiring commentator, Beckett ‘made the telegraph-pole artistically respectable… in her art, a tarred road… acquired a new beauty.’ 3 Moreover, as art critic and painter Alexander Colquhoun observed in his series Australian Artists Of To-Day, ‘A favourite subject with Miss Beckett is a wet suburban road reflecting a watery evening sky, with a motor car slipping ghost like into the mist, the only positive bit of colour being its vanishing tail light – an unambitious motive truly, but an indication that to the truly seeing eye beauty lies ever close at hand, and can be enjoyed without any arduous journeying in search of mountain scenery.’4

1. ‘Meldrum Pictures to be Sold’, The Age, M elbourne, 20 September 1933, p. 9

2. ‘P aintings by Max Meldrum’, The Argus, Melbourne, 25 February 1942, p. 2

3. B yford, S., Clarice Beckett (1887 – 1935): The Artist’s Life and Her Lost Exhibitions, 1887 to 1970, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, April 2021, p. 43. See also: The Age, Melbourne, 26 November 1929, p. 9, and The Bulletin, Sydney, 28 October 1931, p. 18

4. ‘Australian Artists of To-Day, Miss Clarice Beckett by Alexander Colquhoun’, The Age, Melbourne, 18 July 1931, p. 7

CLARICE BECKETT

(1887 – 1935)

WINTER MORNING, c .1923 oil on board

30.0 x 40.5 cm

signed lower left: C. Beckett bears inscription on label verso: WINTER MORNING

ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000

PROVENANCE

Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne

Benjamin Dunbar Ratcliff, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1923

Thence by descent

Norman Dunbar Ratcliff, Melbourne

Alan and Lesly Martin, Melbourne, by bequest in the late 1950s

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Catalogue of Paintings by Miss Clarice Beckett, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 5 – 20 June 1923, cat. 19

Paintings from the Martin Collection,  The Eltham Community Centre, Melbourne, March 1985

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

Winter Morning, c.1923 was notably included in Clarice Beckett’s first solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne in 1923. Highly acclaimed, the show received enthusiastic praise from the press with one critic, writing for The Bulletin, noting: ‘Max Meldrum approves of her dash into the limelight, and generously declares her his most promising pupil – a compliment of great value to the young painter, though she refuses to exploit it for advertising purposes. She is content to set down aspects of Nature as she sees them with uncompromising sincerely, and let her work speak for itself.’1 Meanwhile The Age reviewer observed ‘The landscapes are noticeable for their delicacy of treatment and subtle tone values’ 2, and The Sun suggested, ‘Her work denotes a fine appreciation for natural beauty.’ 3

Much has been written since Beckett’s work was relaunched in October 1971 with the exhibition, Homage to Clarice Beckett (1887 – 1935) Idylls of Melbourne and Beaumaris at the Rosalind Humphries Galleries, Melbourne. However, many do not recall that from as early as 1959 many Melbourne art auction houses had regarded Clarice Beckett as Australia’s finest woman artist – see for example, Decoration Co. then in Collins Street, and Graham Joel, Auctioneer at Leonard Joel.4

1. The Bulletin, M elbourne, 14 June 1923, p. 20

2. The Age, Melbourne, 5June 1923, p. 4

3. ‘Vases and Flowers: Miss Beckett’s Art’, The Sun, 5 June 1923, p. 9

4. S ee Important Collection of Valuable Australian Paintings, Decoration Co., Melbourne, 6 October 1959, lot 101, Around Port Phillip, 'Australia’s finest woman artist'; and Australiana, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 12 – 13 July 1962, lot 227, Tranquil Sea, 'Regarded as Australia’s finest woman painter'.

MAX MELDRUM (1875 – 1955) REHEARSAL, 1944

oil on canvas on composition board

60.0 x 50.0 cm

signed lower right: Meldrum

signed verso: Max Meldrum

ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of Max Meldrum, Melbourne

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

LITERATURE

Esch, F. W. L., ‘Max Meldrum Rated World’s Best Living Artist’, Pix Magazine, Sydney, vol. 14, no. 25, 30 December 1944, p. 10 (illus.)

RELATED WORKS

The rehearsal, 1944, oil on canvas on composition board, 86.5 x 104.5 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

The Studio, 1945, oil on composition board, 61.0 x 51.0 cm, in the collection of Geelong Gallery, Victoria

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

In 1944, Max Meldrum painted two interior scenes featuring his daughter playing the piano, each bearing essentially the same title –namely The rehearsal, purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 1981, and the present work, simply titled Rehearsal. They were painted in Meldrum’s studio in Kew and depict Oscar Mendelsohn (1896 – 1978) on the far right – polymath, writer, public analyst, musician and art collector – together with Meldrum’s second daughter Elsa Meldrum playing the piano, while the artist’s other daughter, Ida, is seated listening to the music. The same year as the two versions were painted, Mendelsohn had circulated a letter to a group of Meldrum supporters seeking to raise a fund of 350 pounds towards the employment of a shorthand-typist and a photographer so Meldrum could complete a publication on depictive art. By February 1945, a contribution from sixteen supporters was sent to Meldrum with a letter stating in part: ‘We think it is important that the transcending work you have done during your life as an investigator in what you so aptly call the science of appearances, should be written down by you in a definitive form, so that there can be no risk of distortion. It is equally important that your teachings should reach a wide a field as possible.’1 The Science of Appearances was finally published in 1950, with a deluxe edition priced at 10 guineas and a cloth edition at 4 guineas. Significantly, the central portrait on the studio wall is a self-portrait painted in 1944 and today housed in the collection of the Benalla Art Gallery.

1.

Letter to Max Meldrum from Oscar Mendelsohn and Friends, dated 24 February 1945, held by John S. Rydge.

MAX MELDRUM (1875 – 1955)

SELF PORTRAIT, 1950 oil on composition board

61.0 x 51.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: Meldrum / 1950 bears inscription verso: Tartan / MELDRUM

ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of Max Meldrum, Melbourne

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Archibald Prize 1950,  National Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney, 20 January – 4 March 1951

Twenty Melbourne Painters: 35th Annual Exhibition, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 15 – 26 September 1953, cat. 49

A Retrospective Exhibition of the Paintings of Max Meldrum,  National Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney, July – August 1954; and touring to Queensland National Art Gallery, Brisbane, August – September 1954, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, September –October 1954, cat. 45

Max Meldrum & Associates Their Art, Lives and Influences, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria, 1 February – 15 March 1998; and touring regionally, cat. 13

Max Meldrum and Family,  Victorian Artists Society Gallery, Melbourne, 23 October – 4 November 1998, cat. 58 (as ‘Check Dressing Gown - Self Portrait’)

LITERATURE

Archibald Prize Illustrated 1950, National Art Gallery of N.S.W., McLaren & Co., Melbourne, January 1951, pl. 22 (illus., n. p.)

‘Exhibition opens’, Brisbane Telegraph, Brisbane, 25 August 1954, p. 24 (illus.)

RELATED WORK

Self Portrait, oil on canvas on composition board, 45.5 x 37.5 cm, in the collection of the Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

Max Meldrum had submitted twenty-two portraits for the Archibald Prize from the first exhibition held in 1921 to his last in 1953, with six being self-portraits. Held by the Meldrum family, this work was exhibited in the 1950 Archibald Prize and illustrated in the accompanying publication. In 1939, Meldrum had won the Archibald Prize with a portrait of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable G.J. Bell, CMG, DSO, VD, commissioned by the Commonwealth Government in 1938. At the time, Will Ashton, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and winner of the Wynne Prize, observed of his fellow artist friend: ‘I have known him for forty years and I have a great admiration for him and his work. He is a tremendously sincere painter with very definite views on art.’1 The following year, Meldrum again won the coveted Prize with a portrait of Dr. J. Forbes McKenzie, Vice-Chancellor, Melbourne University (now in the collection of St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne). In 1949, the year prior to the present entry, Meldrum had notably submitted another self-portrait depicting himself only in a pair of bathers. Later purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1977, the work was described by curator Natalie Wilson accordingly: ‘This semi-naked portrait of his seventy-five-year-old self-attracted frenzied attention, much to Meldrum’s vainglorious delight.’ 2

1. ‘Art Awards – Keen Competition’, The Age, 20 January 1940, p. 29

2. Wilson, N., ‘Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2021, p. 170

MAX MELDRUM (1875 – 1955) CORNFLOWERS AND CARNATIONS, 1929 oil on canvas on board

38.0 x 46.0 cm

signed and dated lower right: Meldrum 1929 signed, dated, and inscribed with title verso: Max Meldrum / Paris 1929 / Cornflowers + Carnations

ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 8,000

PROVENANCE

Estate of Max Meldrum, Melbourne

Thence by descent

Private collection, Melbourne

EXHIBITED

Paintings by Max Meldrum, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 18 – 29 August 1931, cat. 32

Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Max Meldrum, The Meldrum Gallery, Melbourne, 6 – 24 December 1932, cat. 28

Exhibition of Pictures by Max Meldrum, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 23 March – 17 April 1937, cat. 31

Max Meldrum and Family,  Victorian Artists Society Gallery, Melbourne, 23 October – 4 November 1998, cat. 31 (as ‘Wild Flowers’)

We are grateful to Peter Perry for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

Although Meldrum painted mostly landscapes, streetscapes and river scenes with their bridges along the Seine while living in Paris for a second period from 1926 to 1931, he did undertake the occasional flower piece. This work, Cornflowers and Carnations, 1929 was exhibited in his solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, held in August 1931 upon his return to Australia, and demonstrates Meldrum at his finest when painting the effect of light on his subject with the minimum of brushstrokes.

BERNARD BUFFET

(French, 1928 – 1999)

ENVIRONS DE SAINT–GILLES, 1975 oil on canvas

89.5 x 130.0 cm

signed upper right: Bernard Buffet dated upper left: 1975

inscribed verso: environs de / Saint - Gilles / (Yonne) / AH 75 / La cure / et les Roches

ESTIMATE: $60,000 – 80,000

PROVENANCE

Galerie Maurice Garnier, Paris (bears gallery stamp verso)

Galerie Taménaga, Japan (label attached verso)

Private collection, Japan

Thence by descent

Private collection, Queensland

We are grateful to Galerie Maurice Garnier, Paris, for their assistance with this catalogue entry

By 1975, Bernard Buffet, once hailed as France’s finest post-war painter,1 had weathered the worst of institutional and critical denigration in his home country, finally being elected into the Académie des BeauxArts in March 1974, the youngest member to hold a seat within the venerable institution. Now, some thirty years after his death, Buffet’s abundant oeuvre and its influence on the course of modern art are being comprehensively reevaluated. Growing up in occupied France and coming of age during the material privations and societal malaise that followed World War Two, Buffet’s acclaimed early works were infused with Gallic spleen 2, sapped of colour and spatial depth. In stark contrast to these spiky, grey, and anguished paintings, Buffet’s picturesque landscapes of the 1970s display a yearning for bucolic tranquillity and a re-affirmation of his links with the great artists of the French pantheon whom he idolised, namely the 19th-century painter, Gustave Courbet.

Mirroring the semi-rural setting of his magnificent medieval residence, the Château Villers Le Mahieu – the Buffets’ family residence from 1971 to 1979 – the artist’s artworks throughout the seventies had familiar and comfortable subject matter: his young children, boats and harbours, and local landscapes of the French countryside. Environs de Saint-Gilles, 1975 depicts a dramatic landscape dominated by a steep valley through which runs a fast-flowing stream. Counterbalancing a row of towering quivering poplar trees growing on the riverbanks is a rugged limestone cliff face surging from the landscape on the right-hand side of the composition. Although Buffet was approximative with the

exact locations of his landscapes in his titles, often using words such as ‘near to’ and ‘surrounds of’, this defining geological feature was singled out within his title as ‘Les Rochers’. In contrast to previous picturepostcard views of notable landmarks, Environs de Saint-Gilles, and many other paintings from this period were conceived (and marketed in solo exhibitions at Garnier Gallery) as typical and unremarkable landscapes, familiar to many local audiences and quaintly French to his many admirers overseas.

A member of the L’Homme Témoin (Man as Witness) group supporting expressive social realism as opposed to modern abstraction, Buffet emphasised the everyday nature of his subject matter, insisting ‘realist painting for me is concreteness… the representation of things.’ 3 In this vein, Buffet’s early landscapes were mostly restricted to flat deserted cityscapes, whose rectilinear structure and sepulchral greyness suited the artist’s recognisable graphic style. Here, Environs de Saint-Gilles, although also devoid of human presence and painted with a reduced tonal palette, radiates with soft organic untidiness and vital forces. Buffet looked to Courbet, a painter he most admired, for the comforting indeterminacy of his landscape; the conception of the landscape as a reflection of one’s mood (this painting was created during a rare period of sobriety in Buffet’s life), as well as for guidance on the technical savoir-faire of creating a realist landscape. Echoing Courbet’s paintings of rocky outcrops and streams of Ornans, Environs de Saint-Gilles used foundational black ground over which texture is palpably built up with the use of a palette knife and expressive scumbling. Courbet was a titanic figure in the post-war discourse on painting, a guiding figure for opposing stylistic factions of social realists and formal abstractionists.4

For Buffet, Courbet was ‘the painter’ upon whom he modelled himself, and in whom he found comfort during difficult and lonely periods of his long life.

1. Connaissance des Arts, P aris, No. 36, 15th February 1955

2. Co ined by writer Charles Baudelaire, ‘spleen’ describes a French feeling of melancholy and existential ennui.

3. Charbonnier, G., Le Monologue du peintre, Julliard, Paris, 1959, reprinted 2002, pp. 213 – 214

4. Ro ob, A., ‘Bernard Buffet - Terrain Vague - Dangerous Terrain’, Melton Prior Institute, 2008, see https://meltonpriorinstitut.org/content/en/bernard-buffet-terrain-vague-dangerousterrain-alexander-roob-2/ (accessed 27 May 2024)

LUCIE REEVES-SMITH

for appraisals please contact MELBOURNE • 03 9865 6333

SYDNEY • 02 9287 0600 info@deutscherandhackett.com www.deutscherandhackett.com

prospective buyers and sellers guide

ALL PARTIES ARE STRONGLY URGED TO READ THE CONDITIONS OF AUCTION AND SALE INCLUDED IN THIS CATALOGUE

1. PRIOR TO AUCTION

CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Catalogues can be obtained at Deutscher and Hackett offices or by subscription (see the Catalogue Subscription Form at the back of this catalogue or online for more information).

PRE-SALE ESTIMATES

The price range estimated against each lot reflects the opinion of our art specialists as to the hammer price expected for the lot at auction and is informed by realised prices for comparable works as well as the particularities of each lot including condition, quality, provenance and rarity. While presale estimates are intended as a guide for prospective buyers, lots can be sold outside of these ranges. Pre-sale estimates include GST (if any) on a lot but do not include the buyer’s premium or other charges where applicable.

RESERVES

The reserve is the minimum price including GST (if any) that the vendor will accept for a lot and below which the lot will not normally be sold.

PRE-AUCTION VIEWINGS

In both Sydney and Melbourne pre-auction viewings are scheduled for several days in advance of each auction. Deutscher and Hackett specialists are available to give obligation free advice at viewings or by appointment and prospective buyers are strongly encouraged to thoroughly examine and request condition reports for potential purchases. Pre-auction viewings are open to the public and are free to attend.

SYMBOL KEY

▲ Unless ownership is clearly stated in the provenance, this symbol is used where a lot is offered which Deutscher and Hackett owns in whole or in part. In these instances, Deutscher and Hackett has a direct financial interest in the property or means that Deutscher and Hackett has guaranteed a minimum price.

● Used to indicate lots for sale without a reserve.

EXPLANATION OF CATALOGUING PRACTICE AND TERMS

All information published in Deutscher and Hackett catalogues represent statements of opinion and should not be relied upon as fact. All dimensions are listed in centimetres, height before width and are approximate. All prices are in Australian dollars.

ARTIST’S NAMES

All reference to artists make use of common and not full names in accordance with the standards outlined in the National Gallery of Australia reference publication Australian Art: Artist’s working names authority list. For instance, John Brack rather than Cecil John Brack; Roy de Maistre rather than Leroy Leveson Laurent De Maistre; Rosalie Gascoigne rather than Rosalie Norah Gascoigne.

Terms used in this catalogue have the meanings ascribed to them below:

a. NI CHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work by the artist.

b. At tributed to NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, probably a work by the artist, in whole or in part.

c. Circle of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work showing the influence and style of the artist and of the artist’s period.

d. Studio/Workshop of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work possibly executed under the supervision of the artist.

e. School of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work by a follower or student of the artist.

f. Manner of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a wo rk created in the style, but not necessarily in the period, of the artist.

g. Af ter NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a copy of a w ork by the artist.

h. “signed” / “dated” in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, the work has been signed/dated by the artist.

i. “b ears signature” / “bears date” in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, the work has possibly been signed/dated by someone other than the artist.

PROVENANCE

Where appropriate, Deutscher and Hackett will include the known provenance, or history of ownership of lots. Non disclosure may indicate that prior owners are unknown or that the seller wishes to maintain confidentiality.

2. THE AUCTION

Auctions are open to the public and are free to attend. Deutscher and Hackett may exclude any person at any time in its discretion.

REGISTRATION

Bidders must register to bid prior to the commencement of an auction. Deutscher and Hackett may impose other obligations on the registration of bidders in its discretion.

CONDUCT OF AUCTION

Lots are offered for sale on a consecutive basis. Deutscher and Hackett will determine the conduct of the auction in its absolute discretion, including the regulation of bidding. Consecutive or responsive bids may be placed by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor up to the reserve.

ABSENTEE OR COMMISSION BIDS AND TELEPHONE BIDS

As a courtesy service, Deutscher and Hackett will make reasonable efforts to place bids for prospective buyers in absentia provided written or verbal instructions (as indicated on absentee bid forms included at the back of this catalogue or online) are received 24 hours prior to auction. Where successful, lots will be purchased at the lowest possible bid and in the event of identical absentee bids, the bid received earliest will take precedence. Deutscher and Hackett accepts no responsibility for errors and omissions in relation to this courtesy service and reserves the right to record telephone bids.

RESERVE

Unless indicated otherwise, all lots are subject to a confidential reserve price determined by the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett or the auctioneer may place any number of bids on behalf of the vendor below the reserve price and is not obliged to identify that the bids are being placed on behalf of the vendor.

BIDDING INCREMENTS

Bidding usually opens below the listed pre-sale estimate and proceeds in the following increments (the auctioneer may vary the bidding increments at his or her discretion):

$500 – 1,000 by $50

$1,000 – 2,000 by $100

$2,000 – 3,000 by $200

$3,000 – 5,000 by $200 / $500 / $800

$5,000 – 10,000 by $500

$10,000 – 20,000 by $1,000

$20,000 – 30,000 by $2,000

$30,000 – 50,000 by $2,000 / $5,000 / $8,000

$50,000 – 100,000 by $5,000

$100,000 – 200,000 by $10,000

$200,000 – 300,000 by $20,000

$300,000 – 500,000 by $20,000 / $50,000 / $80,000

$500,000 – 1,000,000 by $50,000

$1,000,000+ by $100,000

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

The fall of the auctioneer’s hammer indicates the final bid and the buyer assumes full responsibility for the lot from this time.

UNSOLD LOTS

Where a lot is unsold, the auctioneer will announce that the lot is “bought in”, “passed”, “withdrawn” or “returned to owner”.

3. AFTER THE AUCTION PAYMENTS

Payment must be made within seven days of the date of sale in Australian dollars by cash, cheque, direct deposit, approved credit cards or electronic funds transfer. If payment is made by credit card the price will increase by any merchant fees payable by Deutscher and Hackett (1.15% (including GST) for Visa and Mastercard and 1.65% (including GST) for American Express). In certain circumstances, extension of payment may be granted at the discretion of Deutscher and Hackett. Cleared funds will be held in an interest bearing trust account by Deutscher and Hackett until remitted to the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett will be entitled to retain any interest earned during this period. Payment by the vendor of any charge to Deutscher and Hackett is to be made within fourteen days of invoice.

PURCHASE PRICE AND BUYER’S PREMIUM

The purchase price will be the sum of the final bid price (including any GST) plus a buyer’s premium set at 25% (inclusive of GST) of the final bid price. Buyers may be liable for other charges reasonably incurred once ownership has passed.

GOODS AND SERVICES TAX

Buyers are required to pay a 10% G.S.T which sum is:

a. in cluded in the final bid prices where buying from a GST registered vendor; and b. in cluded in any additional fees charged by Deutscher and Hackett; and c. in cluded in the buyer’s premium.

Where GST applies to some lots the final bid price will be inclusive of the applicable GST. If a buyer is classified as a “non-resident” for the purpose of GST, the buyer may be able to recover GST paid on the final purchase price if certain conditions are met.

COLLECTION

Lots paid for in full may be collected from Deutscher and Hackett premises the day after the auction occurs but lots paid for by cheque may not be collected until all funds have cleared. Proof of identification is required upon collection and lots not collected within seven days of the sale may incur costs associated with external storage and freight.

LOSS OR DAMAGE

Risk in the lot, including risk of loss or damage, will pass to the buyer on either the date payment is due, whether or not it has been made, or on collection by the buyer, whichever is earlier. The buyer is therefore encouraged to make arrangements to ensure comprehensive cover is maintained from the payment due date.

TRANSPORT AND SHIPPING

Deutscher and Hackett directly offers services including storage, hanging and display, appraisals and valuations, collection management and research and in all instances will endeavour to coordinate or advise upon shipping and handling, insurance, transport, framing and conservation at the request and expense of the client. Deutscher and Hackett does not accept liability for the acts or omissions of contracted third parties.

EXPORT

Prospective bidders are advised to enquire about export licences — including endangered species licences and cultural heritage permits, where relevant — prior to bidding at auction. Telephone the Cultural Property and Gifts Section, Museums Section, Ministry for the Arts, on 1800 819 461 for further information. The delay or denial of such a licence will not be grounds for a rescission of sale.

COPYRIGHT

The copyright in the images and illustrations contained in this catalogue may be owned by third parties and used under licence by Deutscher and Hackett. As between Deutscher and Hackett and the buyer, Deutscher and Hackett retains all rights in the images and illustrations. Deutscher and Hackett retains copyright in the text contained in this catalogue. The buyer must not reproduce or otherwise use the images, illustrations or text without prior written consent.

conditions of auction and sale

ALL

PARTIES ARE STRONGLY URGED TO READ THE CONDITIONS OF AUCTION AND SALE INCLUDED IN THIS CATALOGUE

The terms and conditions of business set forth below are subject to amendment by verbal or written notice prior to and during the auction and sale. They constitute the entire contractual agreement with the buyer in respect to any lot offered at auction. By bidding at auction in any manner compliant with bidding procedures, the buyer and all bidders agree to be bound by these terms and conditions and the terms of the prospective buyers and sellers guide contained in this catalogue, as amended. To the extent that an agent acts on behalf of the buyer, liability for obligations arising from these conditions of business will pass to the buyer. Multiple buyers are jointly and severally liable for obligations arising from this agreement.

DEFINITIONS

1. Def inition of terms:

a. Th e ‘buyer’ refers to the party with the highest accepted bid for any lot at auction and/or such party’s principal where bidding as agent.

b. The ‘vendor’ refers to the party consigning property for sale and/or such party’s principal where acting as agent.

c. ‘D eutscher and Hackett’ refers to Deutscher and Hackett Pty Ltd ACN 123 119 022, its subsidiaries, officers, employees and agents.

d. Th e ‘hammer price’ refers to the final bid price (including any GST) accepted by the auctioneer, or in the case of a post-auction sale, the agreed sale price (including any GST).

e. Th e ‘buyer’s premium’ refers to the 25% (inclusive of GST) payable by the buyer calculated as a percentage of the hammer price.

f. ‘G ST’ refers to the goods and services tax imposed by the A New Tax System (Goods and Services) Act 1999 as amended.

g. Th e ‘lot’ refers to the item(s) described against any lot number in the catalogue.

h. Th e ‘reserve’ refers to the minimum price (including any GST) the consignor will accept for a lot.

PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS AND DISCLAIMER

2. Ag ency: Deutscher and Hackett acts as agent for the vendor and the contract of s ale for the lot will be between the buyer and the vendor.

3. Pr operty is sold ‘as is’: To the extent permitted by law:

a. no guarantees, warranties or representations are made (express or implied) by Deutscher and Hackett or the vendor in relation to the nature and condition of any lot; and

b. Deutscher and Hackett disclaims liability for any misrepresentations, errors or omissions, whether verbal or in writing, in the catalogue or any supplemental material.

All factual information provided by the vendor is merely passed on by Deutscher and Hackett from the vendor or other source. Deutscher and Hackett has made no attempt to verify this information. All additional statements of opinion represent the specialist opinions of Deutscher and Hackett employees and should not be relied upon as statements of fact.

4. Re sponsibility to inspect: Responsibility remains with the buyer to satisfy its, his or her self by inspection and evaluation prior to purchase as to the nature and condition of any property.

CONDITIONS AT AUCTION

5. Re gistration: Bidders must register to bid and obtain a bidder’s paddle prior to the commencement of the auction. Registration requires that bidders provide proof of identity and Deutscher and Hackett may impose other obligations on the registration of bidders in its discretion.

6. Au ctioneer’s discretion: Deutscher and Hackett reserves the right to absolute discretion over the conduct of the auction including the regulation of bidding and its increments. This discretion extends to the challenge or rejection of any bid, the right to withdraw any lot and the right to determine the successful bidder or reoffer a lot in the event of a dispute. The prospective buyers and sellers guide details an indicative process for the conduct of auctions. All parties are strongly urged to read the prospective buyers and sellers guide included in this catalogue.

7. Bid ding: Deutscher and Hackett may sell each lot to the highest bidder at auction provided the reserve price has been met or where the net amount accounted to the vendor is at least equivalent to the net amount that would have been achieved for a sale at the reserve price. The fall of the auctioneer’s hammer marks the acceptance of the highest bid and the conclusion of a contract for sale between the vendor and the buyer. Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Deutscher and Hackett, the individual physically present at the auction who signals the bid accepts personal liability to pay the purchase price, including the buyer’s premium and all additional fees, taxes and charges.

GOODS AND SERVICES TAX

8. Am ounts inclusive of GST: Unless otherwise specified, all amounts specified in this section as payable by the buyer, or otherwise used to calculate payment to Deutscher and Hackett, are inclusive of any GST component. Deutscher and Hackett will provide buyers with a tax invoice that meets the requirements of the Australian Taxation Office.

9. Application of GST to buyers: Buyers are required to pay a 10% GST which sum is:

a. in cluded in the final bid prices where buying from a GST registered vendor; and

b. in cluded in any additional fees charged by Deutscher and Hackett; and

c. in cluded in the buyer’s premium.

If a buyer is classified as a “non-resident” for the purpose of GST, the buyer may be able to recover GST paid on the final purchase price if certain conditions are met.

POST-SALE CONDITONS

10. Po st auction private sale: Should the lot fail to sell at auction, Deutscher and Hackett is authorised to sell the lot privately for a period of seven days in which event this agreement shall apply to the relevant buyer to the full extent of its provisions.

11. Payment: The buyer will not acquire title until payment has cleared in full. Interest at a rate of 17.5% p.a. will be charged over outstanding accounts where no extension of terms has been granted. Interest will be payable from the payment due date. With respect to each lot purchased, the buyer agrees to make the following payments within seven days from the date of sale:

a. Th e hammer price.

b. In e xchange for services rendered by Deutscher and Hackett, a buyer’s premium calculated at 25% (inclusive of GST) of the hammer price.

c. Po st sale packing, handling, shipping and storage where applicable.

d. If p ayment is made via Visa, Mastercard or American Express, any merchant fees payable by Deutscher and Hackett on the transaction as indicated in the prospective buyers and sellers guide. Payment must be made within seven days of the date of sale in Australian dollars by cash, cheque, direct deposit, approved credit cards or electronic funds transfer using the form and/or trust account details provided at the back of this catalogue. In certain circumstances, extension of payment may be granted at the discretion of Deutscher and Hackett. Once funds have cleared, the proceeds of the sale less the buyer’s Premium, GST and any commission or costs charged as agreed will be remitted to the vendor within thirty-five days of the date of sale provided payment has been received in full. Funds will be held in an interest bearing account by Deutscher and Hackett until remitted to the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett will be entitled to any interest earned during this period. Application for a cultural heritage export licence or any other licence in no way affects the buyer’s obligation to make payment or collection within the periods specified in sections 10 and 13a.

12. Ri sk and Title: Risk in the lot, including risk of loss or damage, will pass to the bu yer on the earlier of:

a. th e date payment is due, whether or not it has been made; and b. co llection by the buyer.

The buyer assumes risk for the property in all respects from this date and neither Deutscher and Hackett nor the vendor will be liable for loss or damage occurring after the payment due date. The buyer is encouraged to make arrangements to ensure comprehensive cover is maintained from this date. Title in the lot does not pass to the buyer, even if the lot is released to the buyer, until the buyer has paid all sums owing to Deutscher and Hackett. If a buyer makes a claim against Deutscher and Hackett for damage or loss after sale, the buyer’s premium and the final bid price shall be payable notwithstanding.

13. Fr eight:

a. Th e buyer may only remove a lot from the Deutscher and Hackett premises once payment has been cleared in full and must be removed no later than seven days after the date of sale. Should items not be removed by this time, storage and insurance costs may be charged to the buyer. If a lot has not been collected within 30 days after the date of sale and alternative arrangements have not been with Deutscher and Hackett, the lot may be re-sold by Deutscher and Hackett without reserve at the next auction and Deutscher and Hackett may set off any amounts owed for storage and insurance costs and its standard commission before remitting the proceeds to the buyer.

b. Bu yers are required to make their own arrangements for packing, handling, shipping and transit insurance for their property. Deutscher and Hackett does not accept responsibility or liability for the acts or omissions of any third party, such as a shipping agent, whether or not such a party has been recommended or suggested by Deutscher and Hackett.

14. Li mited Warranty of Authorship: If a buyer is able to establish that a lot is a forgery in accordance with these conditions for sale within five years of the date of sale, the buyer shall be entitled to rescind the sale and obtain a refund of the hammer price from the vendor. The buyer must return the lot in the state in which it was sold within fourteen days of notifying Deutscher and Hackett of the forgery allegations. For a lot to be established as a forgery, the following conditions must be satisfied:

a. th e buyer must supply two independent expert testimonies attesting to the forgery. Deutscher and Hackett is entitled to request further expert evidence where it deems the evidence provided to be unsatisfactory;

b. th ere must be no conflict of opinion among accepted experts in the field; and

c. th e forgery must be able to be proven through means that at the time of publication of the catalogue were commonly employed and that will not damage or otherwise put the lot in jeopardy.

The limited warranty and the right to rescind the sale is not assignable and the buyer must have retained title to the lot without disposing of any interest in it up until the buyer notifies Deutscher and Hackett of the forgery allegations. The buyer acknowledges that it has no rights directly against Deutscher and Hackett if a lot is established to be a forgery.

15. Te rmination, Breach and Legalities:

a. Deutscher and Hackett breach: To the extent permitted by law, the sole and maximum remedy to a buyer for breach of warranty is a refund of original purchase price, including buyer’s premium. In such an event the sale contract shall be rescinded and all costs associated with returning the property (in the state in which it was sold) to the premises of Deutscher and Hackett are to be borne by the buyer. Deutscher and Hackett is not liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage for any matter arising directly or indirectly as a result of the sale.

b. Bu yer breach: Deutscher and Hackett may, in addition to other remedies available by law, exercise one or more of the following rights or remedies for breach:

i. Cancel the sale and retain any payment or property in Deutscher and Hackett custody as collateral or liquidated damages.

ii. Charge the buyer interest at the rate of 2% above the rate fixed under section 2 of the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1984 (Vic).

iii. Re sell the property without reserve at the next auction or privately on five days notice. Any disparity between sale and resale prices, including associated costs such as, but not limited to, legal, storage and sale expenses, will be to the account of the defaulting buyer.

iv. Ap ply any part payment received from the buyer in respect of any lots at its discretion.

v. Retain any of the buyer’s property held by Deutscher and Hackett until the buyer has satisfied its obligations to Deutscher and Hackett.

vi. Take any other action Deutscher and Hackett deems necessary or appropriate.

vii. Refuse to permit the buyer to participate in future auctions.

viii. Provide the vendor with the buyer’s details to permit the vendor to take action against the buyer to recover the money.

16. Governing law and jurisdiction: These terms and conditions and any matters concerned with the foregoing fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the state in which the auction is held.

17. Se verability: In the event that any provisions of this agreement should be found unenforceable in a court of law, that part shall be discounted and the remaining conditions shall continue in full force and effect to the extent permitted by law.

TELEPHONE BID FORM

(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Name (please print)

Billing address (PO Box insufficient)

(required)

*Not including buyer’s premium or GST (where applicable). Bids are made in Australian dollars.

Please refer to the Prospective Buyers and Sellers Guide and the Conditions of Auction and Sale in this catalogue for information regarding sales.

By completing this form, I authorise DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT to contact me by telephone on the contact number(s) nominated. I understand it is my responsibility to enquire whether any Sale-Room Notices relate to any lot on which I intend to bid. I also understand that should my bid(s) be successful, a buyer’s premium of 25% (inclusive of GST), will be added to the final hammer price. I accept that DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT provides this complimentary service as a courtesy to its clients, that there are inherent risks to telephone bidding, and I will not hold DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT responsible for any error.

SALE CODE: Mc CLELLAND

SALE NO.: 079

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART

MELBOURNE AUCTION 28 AUGUST, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 – 60 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

please email, post or fax this completed form to:

DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

tel: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344

info@deutscherandhackett.com

INTERNAL USE ONLY

RECEIVED BY DATE TIME

SALE CODE: Mc CLELLAND

SALE NO.: 079

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART

MELBOURNE AUCTION 28 AUGUST, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 – 60 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

ABSENTEE BID FORM

(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Name (please print)

Billing address (PO Box insufficient)

please email, post or fax this completed form to:

AND HACKETT

info@deutscherandhackett.com

INTERNAL USE ONLY

RECEIVED BY DATE TIME

*Not including buyer’s premium or GST (where applicable). Bids are made in Australian dollars.

Absentee bids must be received a minimum of twenty-four hours prior to auction. All absentee bids received will be confirmed by phone or fax. In the event that confirmation is not received, please resubmit or contact our office.

Please refer to the Prospective Buyers and Sellers Guide and the Conditions of Auction and Sale in this catalogue for information regarding sales. By completing this form, absentee bidders request and authorise DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT to place the following bids acting as agent on their behalf up to and including the maximum bid specified. Lots will be bought at the lowest possible bid authorised by a bidder in absentia.

Should the bid be successful, the buyer will be obliged to pay the final bid price plus buyer’s premium of 25% (inclusive of GST) of the final bid price. DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT provides this complimentary service as a courtesy to clients and does not accept liability for errors and omissions in the execution of absentee bids.

ATTENDEE PRE-REGISTRATION FORM

(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Name (please print) Business

SALE CODE: Mc CLELLAND

SALE NO.: 079

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART

MELBOURNE AUCTION 28 AUGUST, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 – 60 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

please email, post or fax this completed form to:

DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL RD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

tel: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344

info@deutscherandhackett.com

SALE CODE: Mc CLELLAND

SALE NO.: 079

IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART

MELBOURNE AUCTION

28 AUGUST, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 – 60 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTION FORM

please email, post or fax this completed form to:

DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT

105 COMMERCIAL RD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141

tel: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344

info@deutscherandhackett.com

A Geelong Gallery exhibition 10 August to 3 November 2024 Free entry

Geelong Contemporary Art Prize

Exhibition partner Dimmick Foundation

Peter Atkins, Fruit and vegetables 2022, synthetic polymer paint on board, Courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, and GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide

4 MAY— 6 OCTOBER

image: Shih Yung-Chun, Braid Cabinet 2019, White Rabbit: Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Sydney

© Shih Yung-Chun, courtesy of Hive Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China

A love of art lives on through Elizabeth Fyffe’s enduring support. What will your legacy be?

Ethel Carrick’s A market in Kairouan c1919–20 was purchased with the support of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales through the Elizabeth Fyffe Bequest 2021 For further information or to discuss your bequest in confidence, visit agnsw.art/leave-a-gift or phone +61 2 9225 1746

MELBOURNE WINTER MASTERPIECES ®

PREMIUM PARTNER

LEARNING PARTNER WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF PRESENTING PARTNER

Head of a royal statue wearing the white crown, probably Pharaoh Thutmose III (detail) 18th Dynasty, reign of Thutmose III c. 1479–1457 BCE, Egypt, Thebes, Karnak. EA986 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Available in bookstores now

Harold Cazneaux

Artists of the National Library of Australia series

Over 80 stunning photographs curated and introduced by Max Dupain

Oudheden.

COPYRIGHT CREDITS

Lot 9 © Wendy Whiteley/Copyright Agency, 2024

Lot 10 © Wendy Whiteley/Copyright Agency, 2024

Lot 11 © Cressida Campbell/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 12 © Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Lot 13 © Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

Lot 14 © Rosalie Gascoigne/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 15 © Estate of William Scott

Lot 16 © Ross Bleckner. Courtesy of the artist and Petzel, New York

Lot 17 © Marilyn Minter

Lot 18 © Arthur Boyd/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 19 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 20 © George Baldessin/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 21 © Meadmore Sculptures, LLC/VAGA Copyright Agency, 2024

Lot 22 © Inge King/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 23 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 24 © Tony Tuckson/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 26 © Hans Heysen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 27 © Namatjira Legacy Trust/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 28 © courtesy of Helen Brack

Lot 29 © Charles Blackman/Copyright Agency 2024

CULTURAL HERITAGE PERMITS

Under the provisions of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act, 1986, buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items in this sale from the Cultural Property Section:

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts GPO Box 2154 Canberra ACT 2601

Email: movable.heritage@arts.gov.au Phone: 1800 819 461

RESALE ROYALTY

Some lots consigned for this sale may be subject to the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Act 2009 (Cth). Any payments due under the obligations of the Act will be paid by the vendor.

Design and Photography: Danny Kneebone

© Published by Deutscher and Hackett Pty Ltd 2024 978-0-6457871-4-6

Lot 30 © Arthur Boyd/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 31 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 33 © The Estate of Clifford Last

Lot 34 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 35 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 36 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 37 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 39 © Vivienne Yvonne Audette/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 41 © Courtesy of the artist's estate

Lot 42 © Donald Friend/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 43 © Ken Whisson/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 44 © Rosalie Gascoigne/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 45 © Imants Tillers/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 46 © John David Kelly/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 47 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 48 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 49 © The Estate of Grace Cossington-Smith

Lot 51 © The Estate of Grace Cossington-Smith

Lot 52 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 53 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 54 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency 2024

Lot 60 © Bernard Buffet / Copyright Agency, 2024

LOTS CONSIGNED BY GST REGISTERED ENTITIES

Lot 1 Clarice Beckett

Lot 2 Emanuel Phillips Fox

Lot 3 Rupert Bunny

Lot 4 Bertram Mackennal

Lot 5 Bertram Mackennal

Lot 6 Bertram Mackennal

Lot 7 Frederick McCubbin

Lot 8 Rupert Bunny

Lot 16 Ross Bleckner

Lot 17 Marilyn Minter

Lot 26 Hans Heysen

Lot 24 John Olsen

Lot 45 Imants Tillers

BAL COMBE, T. 25

B ALDESSIN, G. 20

B ALSON, R. 32, 38

BECKETT, C. 1, 5 5, 56

BLACKMAN, C. 29

BL ECKNER, R. 16

B OYD, A. 18 , 30

BRACK, J. 28

BUFFET, B. 60

BUNNY, R. 3, 8

C AMPBELL, C. 11

C OSSINGTON SMITH, G. 49, 51

ASCOIGNE, R. 14 , 44 GRUNER, E. 50

H. 26

M. 57, 58, 59 MINTER, M. 17

LIVER, B. 12, 13

J. 23, 3 4, 35, 47, 48

M. 52, 53, 54

specialist fine art auction house and private gallery