Submitted by aarAdmin on Fri, 05/08/2026 - 00:00
At its first appearance at auction after enhancing corporate and private collections for almost 60 years, Australian artist Fred Williams (1927-1982) highly significant landscape Pond in Landscape 1965 (lot 38) did not disappoint when it was knocked down for an above catalogue estimate of $850,000 ($1,043,182 including buyer’s premium) at Menzies Melbourne sale on May 7.
Following his return in 1965 from an intensive seven-month tour of Europe, Williams tossed descriptive modes of landscape painting to one side as he concentrated on innovative and concise visual shorthand paintings of the Australian bush.
Pond in Landscape is typical of this approach and is closely related to the gouache Lysterfield Landscape with Pool 1965, held in Canberra’s National Gallery of Australia.
One of Jeffrey Smart’s (1921-2013) signature works Outside the Ministry (lot 39) – typified by an office worker waiting at the bottom of steps framed by a rendered wall and blue cloudy sky – was another strong performer, changing hands for $705,682.
Another of his paintings, Four Seats, Venice Biennale 1983 (lot 36) also featured among the top 10 results at $184,091, the same price paid for Del Kathryn Barton’s So True, My Love…So True (lot 30).
The product of a Yorta Yorta Aboriginal father and Scottish mother and recognised as a master painter of great political intellect, Lin Onus (1948-1996) works are always popular every time they make an appearance on the secondary market.
This auction work Cloud Fish 1994 (lot 37) was no exception, selling for the bottom catalogue estimate of $300,000 ($368,182 with buyer’s premium).
More than three metres long, Tim Storrier’s giant work Landscape (Over the Night Road) 2008 (lot 35) was a pleasing above estimate performer at $331,164, easily surpassing the prices of another two of his paintings in the auction.
However, the surprise of the night was Brett Whiteley’s (1939-1992) charcoal on ink work Shampoo (lot 43) – a $306,818 purchase on a modest $70,000-$90,000 catalogue estimate.
Other artists to feature among the top 10 results were Ian Fairweather’s (1891-1974) Fascisimo 1963 (lot 40) that sold for $294,545, Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s (c1910-1996) The Anooralya Yam (lot 29) – a $270,000 result – and Arthur Boyd’s (1920-1999) Narcissus with Three Clouds (lot 41), well within its catalogue estimate at $171,818.
Another interesting result was the successful sale of five prized Clarice Beckett (1887-1935) paintings (lots 1-5) from the collection of Dale Trezise, wife of the late Victorian pathologist Neil Trezise, all making their auction debut.
Purchased over 25 years from Niagara Galleries and originally owned by the artist’s sister Hilda Mangan, the highest result of $67,500 for these works was for Marigolds in Meldrum’s Pot (lot 4).
