21 December 2009

4 December 2009

20 November 2009

John Campbell "PERTH 1909"

John Campbell’s detailed work of Perth in 1909 from the Victoria Park area is one of the key offerings of our summer auction. It is a rare work as very few painted images of Victoria Park in 1909 are known to exist. The picture shows an expansive panorama from the east of the causeway down to Mosman Park, with particular attention to the buildings and dwellings in Victoria Park. It also features the residence of Heindrick Bevilaqua a well known businessman of the time who worked as a mortgage broker and served on the boards of notable Western Australian companies including Peet & Co. Perth 1909 is estimated to sell for $45,000 to $65,000.

Harold Percival "THE WEST AUSTRALIAN"

Dr Domonique Serventy’s "YOLLA DIARY"

Dr Domonique Serventy’s day book from the CSIRO research facility Yolla on the Fisher Island in the Bass Strait is another rarity on offer. In addition to over 50 drawings by major Australian and international painters, it contains original and unpublished verse by Russell Drysdale, Alan Moorehead; Mary Gillham; Eric Worrell and many others. It is a fascinating diary with irreplaceable and important material. We are pleased to be entrusted with its sale and it estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000. 

Kenneth Jack is represented with another monumental work painted in Western Australia. This time the gold mining town of Cue featuring the heritage listed Murchison Club Hotel and government buildings constructed using the locally quarried limestone. Jack has again painted this work during his favourite time of early evening, when the light for him had a magic quality. Cue is expected to sell for a price of $15,000 to $18,000 and is a considered depiction of the townsite using a small amount of artistic license to include what Kenneth Jack viewed as the essential ingredients.

Kenneth Jack "CUE, WESTERN AUSTRALIA"

Hayward Veal "LONDON"

We are also pleased to offer a noteworthy piece by John Mather painted in 1894 during the period known as The Golden Age of Australian Landscape Painting. This is another coup for GFL as first-rate oil paintings from this period are difficult to find - the major collecting and exhibiting institutions have absorbed most of them. If this work had not spent the greater part of its life in the United States, it is possible a similar destiny may have awaited it. Mather was a popular and influential figure in his time and served as a trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria – he was also a colleague of Streeton, Roberts and McCubbin and lectured at the artist’s camps in the Melbourne area.

John Mather "LANDSCAPE AT LILLYDALE"

Two works being offered as one lot represent Walter Paterson Meston. They are of Mandurah at a time when tourism was becoming the life-blood of the town. The important local employer The Peel Inlet Preserving Works had closed (due to over fishing) almost a decade earlier and the installation of a petrol bowser in the main street during 1920 caused a big influx of tourists from Perth and the goldfields escaping the summer heat. These 2 pieces by Meston have been together since painted and show a Mandurah in it’s infancy with none of the development of recent times. It is often thought that Meston started his career in Perth as a sign writer who drifted into art, but the research involved in cataloguing these works discovered that he actually commenced his career in Perth as an artist who drifted into sign writing.

Walter Meston "THE PEEL INLET RESERVING WORKS & THE FIRST GOVERNMENT JETTY, MANDURAH"

Just as well represented is the contemporary side of the market with another rare work being Guy Grey-Smith’s lime tempera Pink Hills, estimated to sell for between $35,000 to $45,000, it was exhibited in Sydney 1960 and is only one of two works in this medium known to exist. It is a pivotal piece and may have been instrumental in Grey-Smith switching to his well known oil and beeswax emulsion. Mac Betts early work Ledge Point is also a find – painted in the 70’s not long after his arrival from England, Betts was seeing the Western Australian light for the first time and was taken by its strength and clarity – he has merged sky and water into one, with the hint of a headland separating the two.

Some of the other contemporary painters whose work is being auction include major works by Robert Juniper; Marie Hobbs; Doug Chambers; Miriam Stannage; Frank Hodgkinson; Thomas Gleghorn; Howard Taylor; Sidney Nolan; Tim Maguire; Tim Storrier and Brian Mckay. There are nearly 150 lots included in this auction with a section devoted to Australian pottery.  

Mac Betts "LEDGE POINT"

29 June 2009

Though the weather was wet, windy and cold, the room was full and the bidding was brisk as bidders competed spiritedly for the items on offer. The top hammer price on the evening was $65,000* for Kenneth Jack’s portrait of Perth completed in 1979 at the time of the state’s sesquicentenary. This price represents a new auction record for Jack and was acquired for a Perth private collection against competition from the Eastern states and a local municipality.

Lot 43 Kenneth Jack "LATE AFTERNOON PERTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA" sold for $65,000*

Robert Juniper’s Road to Great Fingal was bought with one bid of $40,000* as those waiting to participate in the bidding were flattened by the determination of the phone bidder who advanced the opening bid from $28,000 to $40,000 with one call. “I was watching the room and the phones” said auctioneer Ian Flanagan “as I expected some fire works when this picture came up as it had been tremendously popular during the viewing. “We had 3 phones and at least 3 buyers in the room that I knew of, but the king hit of $40,000* stunned the others and despite giving them extra time to consider their position they were unable to regain their composure – it was a very clever bidding tactic on behalf of the new owner” Flanagan added.

Clearance rate on the night was 85% by volume and 85% by value and those painters making their auction debut fared well considering the lack of auction precedence. “The contemporary Western Australian painters are very popular within their region” said Glen Mileham warehouse and special events manager. “I was really pleased to see the audience responding to these new auction room painters - accordingly, there was a lot of new faces on the auction floor on Tuesday night” he added. “You are never sure how the clients will respond to the works and the prices were healthy considering that many were auction debut works.”  

Lot 47 Robert Juniper "THE ROAD TO GREAT FINGAL" sold for $40,000*

As well as being a standing room only in the rooms, the level of absentee and phone bidding was higher than normal. “I noticed the increase in internet activity as the day progressed” commented Tom Robbins IT manager. “On the day of the auction, the level of off site bidding was lower than usual which was a bit of a surprise as the viewing was strong, but as the day got longer and the rain kept coming the absentee bids and phone requests started in earnest” he added.

Patricia Flanagan company director commented “The move back to Nedlands to auction was very popular with our clients. “Our expanded facility allowed us to auction out of our rooms again and with the free car parking and ease of access to the rooms the bidder turn out was strong regardless of the weather conditions.”

Auction Price Realisation is now available

*Prices do not include 16.5% buyers premium

27 May 2009

One of the finest works by Kenneth Jack will go under the hammer in our rooms on Tuesday 23rd June – it has been estimated to sell for between $70,000 and $90,000. “It’s such an important painting showing Perth at an interesting time, just before a lot of modern changes were made and during the year of the sesquicentenary (150th year of the states foundation) – Perth’s population has doubled since then” said auction director Patricia Flanagan – “you can never be certain what price a painting of this quality may fetch” she added.

Kenneth Jack chose a position in Kings Park that allowed him to use his artistic license to include many of the highlights that Perth is well know for – he has been able to foreshorten the area and bring the viewer into immediate contact with the city from the proximity of the old Swan Brewery while not losing any of the volume of the locale he is portraying. The time of the year appears to be late Winter or early Spring as there appears to be the hint of new growth on some of the trees. Late afternoon is recorded as being Jack’s preferred time of day to depict as he considered the light to have a magic quality.

There are many other sensational paintings including a major work by Marie Tuck – she was cleaning Rupert Bunny’s studio at the time she painted this picture. But while Bunny was painting lovely young ladies posing and relaxing in the finest of silks, Marie Tuck couldn’t afford to pay for models and was in the markets of Paris and Etaples painting and recording the women at toil in anything but silk. Historically, Tuck painted the more interesting image and was one of the early social realist painters. She was also the first Australian woman to receive an honourable mention at the Paris Salon.

In addition there are some exciting works by many of the contemporary painters some of them making their auction debut through our rooms they include – Galliano Fardin; Doug Chambers; Cynthia Ellis; John Paul and Theo Koning.

The expansion of our gallery space means that we will be able to conduct the auction from our rooms for the first time since Autumn 2007.

10 February 2009

10 December 2007

The important work of Perth West Australia by Sir Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson was sold for $530,075 including buyer’s premium of 16.5% at our Summer 2007 Art Auction, conducted on December 4. The work is remaining in Western Australia. There were 9 registered phone bidders and at least 6 potential buyers on the auction room floor – the successful bid came from the floor.

“This is the most important piece of Western Australian art that we have offered” said Patricia Flanagan Company direct or and auction coordinator – “ it is a very exciting piece and we are privileged that the vender had chosen GFL to work with it” she added. “ Henderson was the first comptroller of convicts and arrived in Fremantle in 1850 with the first contingent and he remained here until 1863, “ this picture was painted 12 months before he returned to England.”

“The added personal advantages of working with pieces like this is the amount of information you uncover during the research process” Ms Flanagan said. “Things you never knew before, for example most West Australians know of our convict past, but few would know that the convicts arrived in the colony before the colonists knew the colony was to receive convicts. “The ship carrying the notice from the Colonial Office was overtaken by the ship carrying the convicts. “The colonialists weren’t prepared and the transportees had to be housed in a rented warehouse until facilities were built”

“Few would know that the convicts were specially selected because of the small amount of time they had left to serve on their sentences and they were I suppose what we call trustees today. “They could be granted a ticket of leave to work for the farmers who petitioned to have them sent out to the Swan River to provide a source of labour that was desperately short at the time – “ pictures like these carry you on a wonderful journey of discovery. “ Even Henderson himself, what a marvellous achiever he was. “ When he finished his assignment in the colony he returned to London and eventually became the Chief Commissioner of the London Police Force and established what is now Scotland Yard”

“Henderson’s version of Perth would be topographically correct and the detail is outstanding, but his artistic flair is apparent by the composition. “He shortened the distance between the Darling Range and the townsite to allow for definition and the area of Perth water has been reduced to bring the town forward in the composition. “I think he painted it in two stages because even today from the location Henderson chose to paint, the large modern city that is Perth now, is just a bit of a blur in respect of detail. “ I would guess that he painted the townsite from the north of Mt Eliza and then moved south to include the mount and the steam mills in the scene. “He was known for his panoramas and this one is very special to this state.”

“ Westralia Felix” by Ernest Philpot sold for $20,000 plus buyers premium	“ Pearling Lugger Broome” by Robert Juniper sold for $28,000 plus buyers premium
“ Dark Pool” by Mac Betts sold for $9,250 plus buyers premium	“Egret in Flight” by William Boissevain sold for $13,000 plus buyers premium