Submitted by aarAdmin on Thu, 02/24/2022 - 00:00
Jeffrey Smart’s (1921-2013) The Footbridge, 1975 (lot 6) – showing his trademark ability to evoke the classical stillness, geometry and light of Italian Renaissance paintings – fetched the top hammer price of $800,000 ($981,818 including buyer’s premium) at Deutscher and Hackett’s Melbourne National Australia Bank art auction on February 22.
The auction totalled $10,555,772 including buyers’ premiums, with 99 per cent sold by volume and 192 per cent by value in a sale notable for several artist auction records.
Arthur Streeton’s (1867-1943) Blue Vista from the Sundial, 1920 (lot 16) almost reached the same heights with a $750,000 final bid (920,455 including BP), while Howard Arkley’s (1951-1999)Waterfall 2, 1988 (lot 13) – the year the artist achieved critical and financial success with his first major exhibition devoted solely to paintings of suburban houses – was another bonus at $564,545, the same as that achieved for Frederick McCubbin’s (1855-1917) Williamstown Landscape, 1909 (lot 17).
These were closely followed by John Brack’s (1920-1999) Through the Window, 1972 (lot 4) for $552,273, a classic painting that shows both his technical skill and the distinctive ingenuity he brought to his art.
Other high flyers from an auction, where NAB auctioned 73 of its 2000 significant collection of paintings built up since the 1970s, included William Delafield Cook’s (1936-2015) A French Cliff (lot 15 - $515,455), John Olsen’s Dark Void, 1976 (lot 10 - $490,909) and his Small Streams Running into a Big River, 1990 (lot 12 - $454,091).
Fred Williams’ (1927-1982) Forest Pond, 1974 (lot 7) also brought a healthy $466,364 – the same price as Arthur Boyd’s (1920-1999) Shoalhaven Cliff and River, 1994 (lot 26).
