On Sunday 4 May at 1pm, Bonhams & Goodman will conduct a Bay East Art auction at its Waterloo rooms at 224 Young Street. The auction of nearly 400 lots includes many collectable traditional and contemporary works by leading Australian and international artists.
One of the more interesting lots is Rock Forms, Bondi circa 1903 by Petrus Van der Velden (1837-1913). Van der Velden emigrated to New Zealand from Holland with his wife and family in 1890, exhibiting with the Canterbury Society of Arts and setting up a studio for teaching in his Christchurch home. Although recognised as one of New Zealand’s most important nineteenth century landscape painter through his romantic realist description of the region of Otira Gorge, the artist struggled to make a living. In 1898 he moved to Sydney hoping to improve his financial circumstances. Although the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased a work from Van der Velden he failed to secure the success and income from his painting that he had sought. He returned to New Zealand in 1904 and moved to Wellington.
Rock Forms Bondi (illustrated) is an unfinished work from a series of paintings he completed in Australia around 1903. Although the painting remains in a partially unresolved state, it reveals considerable detail about the artist’s practice and working methods. The work is being sold under instructions from BDO Spicers (Christchurch) Limited for Orion International (in liquidation) and is expected to fetch between $12,000 -$15,000.
Other highlights in the Bay East Art auction include The Horsebreaker by Charles Gordon-Frazer (1863-1899) with an estimate of $5,000 -7,000 which has been in a private collection in the United Kingdom for the past 40 years and two works by Patrick Hockey (1948 – 1992) – Kakadu which is expected to bring $8,000 -10,000 and Dick and Belinda in the Bush House with an estimate of $4,000 – 6,000.
The sale also features contemporary paintings by Charles Blackman, David Bromley, James Gleeson, Geoffrey Proud, and Martin Sharp and works on paper by John Olsen, Garry Shead, Margaret Woodward, and Brett Whiteley. The sale includes interesting works by mid-century Modernists such as Elaine Haxton, , Arthur Murch, Frank Hinder, Justin O’Brien, Sidney Nolan, John Santry and Roland Wakelin.
The auction will commence at 1p m on Sunday 4 May and the pictures can be viewed Friday 2 May & Saturday 3 May from 10am to 4pm and on sale day from 10am.
Bonhams & Goodman’s Bay East Art auctions are rapidly gaining recognition for their diversity. “The works offered at Bay East Art auction appeal to a very broad audience,” says Virginia Mitchell, the senior specialist in charge of consigning and cataloguing works in the sale. “There is literally something on offer for everyone with works catering to all aesthetics and budgets,” adds Mitchell.
Auction info www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au