Submitted by aarAdmin on Fri, 12/10/2021 - 00:00
It probably came as no surprise that Jeffrey Smart’s (1921-2013) The Arezzo Turn-off II, 1973 (lot 5) scooped the auction pool at Deutscher and Hackett’s Melbourne sale on December 8.
It carried the highest catalogue estimate and reflected his love of Italy – to which he emigrated in 1963 acquiring the rustic farmhouse ‘Posticcia Nuova’ in central Tuscany – and sold for $1,350,000 including buyer’s premium.
The surrounding countryside became the venue for many of his paintings that showed symbols of modernity, urban pressure and activity in the form of freeways, road signs and trucks, which he manages to imbue with a great sense of stillness, virtually contradicting the chaotic world from whence they derive.
The painting contributed enormously to the $6,439,500 sale gross which reflected a 93 per cent by volume and 150 per cent by value auction result.
Fernando Botero’s sculpture Reclining Woman (Donna Sdraiata), 2009 (lot 7) filled second spot in the top 10 results, changing hands for $515,455.
John Perceval’s (1923-2000) Old Ships at Williamstown, 1959 (lot 2) was a solid within estimate $490,909, with New Zealand artist Charles Frederick Goldie (1870-1947) Memories, Ena Te Papatahi, a Chieftaness of the Ngapuhi Tribe, 1910 (lot 20) not far behind on $417,273.
Australian landscape icon Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) always performs well and Sunlight After Rain, 1938 (lot 15) did not disappoint, selling for $392,727 on a $150,000-$200,000 catalogue estimate.
Australian World War I war artist George Lambert (1873-1930) also is popular and his work Artist and his Batman, Light Horse Calvary, Jerusalem Heights, 1920 (lot 16) impressed with a more than double estimate $374,318 result and his Eyre and Wylie, 1908 (lot 17), showing explorer Edward John Eyre and his Aboriginal tracker, was a huge $227,045 on an estimate of $50,000-$80,000.
The final two places in the top 10 were filled by Tom Roberts (1856-1931) Kirribilli Point, Sydney, c1895 (lot 14) and British/Australian artist Benjamin Duterrau’s (1768-1851) Self Portrait, 1835 (lot 19) – each of which sold for $196,364.
