Menzies Fine Art Auction on the 23rd September
(PRWEB) September 16, 2014 -- What is probably the most important early Australian painting to be offered for sale in recent years is expected to fetch as much as $2 million including Buyer’s Premium.
Tim Abdallah, Menzies Head of Art, comments “Seeing the painting is like gazing 160 years down a telescope. Hobart, nestled under the protective mass of Mt Wellington, is beautifully and faithfully detailed in the painting, which looks as if it were painted yesterday. The distant snow-capped mountain and foreground showing a boating scene in the clear waters of the Derwent estuary are equally rendered in the crystalline style for which von Guérard is famous.”
Von Guérard, (1811-1901) born in Austria, and classically trained in Düsseldorf, lived and worked in various European royal courts before he arrived in Geelong 160 years ago to try his luck on the Goldfields. After a modest success he returned to painting, his true vocation. By 1856 he had established a studio catering to wealthy landowners and pastoralists. One such wealthy colonial was the buyer of View of Hobart Town, with Mount Wellington in the Background, Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety, founder of Dalgety & Co - a company that continued to play an important role in Australian rural affairs until the 1990’s. Dalgety, who arrived from Canada in 1834, made a fortune from wool broking before establishing himself in England at Lockerly Hall, Hampshire. The painting, together with several others by von Guérard, including the extraordinary View of Geelong 1856 (purchased by the Geelong Gallery from Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2006 for approximately $4 million) were shipped to England to decorate the Hall and hung there undisturbed for almost 130 years.
View of Hobart Town, with Mount Wellington in the Background 1856 is the centrepiece of Menzies September sale of Australian and International Fine Art and Sculpture. More than 450 lots with an estimate range of $10.8 – 14.4 million will be auctioned over 2 days on the 23rd and 24th of September.
For further details of the painting and the auction please contact:
Tim Abdallah, Head of Art Southern Region on 0411 079 252 [email protected]
On View in Melbourne (a selection of works)
Menzies Gallery at Stonington
336 Glenferrie Road, Malvern VIC 3144
10th – 14th September
11am – 6pm Daily
On View in Sydney
Menzies Gallery
12 Todman Avenue, Kensington NSW 2033
18th – 23rd September
11am – 6pm Daily (Sunday from 1pm)
Auction Evening Sale
Menzies Gallery
12 Todman Avenue, Kensington NSW 2033
23rd September, 6.30pm
Auction Day Sale (Lots 201 onwards)
Menzies Gallery
12 Todman Avenue, Kensington NSW 2033
24th September, 2.00pm
Coralie Stow, Menzies Art Brands, http://www.menziesartbrands.com, +61 398328700, [email protected]
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