Important Australian Art

Outstanding results were achieved at Sotheby’s Australia’s August sale of Important Australian Art held at the InterContinental Sydney on 16 August.  Surveying major stylistic developments, the auction offered rare and prestigious examples of Colonial Art, Naturalism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Modernism, and Abstraction, along with ground-breaking paintings and works on paper by the most influential artistic innovators of historical, modern and contemporary Australian art.  With 97 works of art on offer, the sale realised $11.3 million with clearance rates of 125.4% by value.

The ground-breaking painting by Arthur Boyd, Moby Dick Hill (1949) sold for $1,220,000 becoming the third highest priced work by the artist at auction.  Sotheby's Australia now hold the five highest auction results for the artist.

E. Phillips Fox's impressionist masterpiece Monastery, San Lazzaro (1907) debuted for auction last night and became the new auction record for the artist at $1,061,400 nearly doubling the existing record.  Elioth Gruner's Silver Sands (Bondi) 1918 exceeded its high estimate selling for $244,000 setting a new auction record for the artist.

Exceptional prices were also achieved for Rick Amor, William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, John Perceval, Jeffrey Smart and Brett Whiteley.