Melburnians have until this Sunday to view a Brett Whiteley work that is expected to break all Australian art records when it goes under the hammer in Sydney on 26 November.
Henri’s Armchair, an exceptionally large oil, ink and charcoal on canvas work from the artist’s famous Lavender Bay series, painted in 1974, is expected to fetch between $5m and $7m when it goes to auction in just under three weeks.
The price estimate is set to easily tip the longstanding record for an artwork sold in Australia, set by Sidney Nolan’s First-class Marksman from his Ned Kelly series, which the Art Gallery of New South Wales paid $5.4m for in 2010.
Justin Turner, head of art at Menzies Art Brands, which also sold the Nolan, said he believed the Whiteley would “breeze through” the record books.
Renown barrister Clive Evatt QC bought the painting directly from the artist in 1975, where it hung in the lawyer’s Turramurra home until his death in 2018.
In what has surprisingly turned out to be a booming art market in 2020, his widow Elizabeth Evatt has now decided to sell the work, Turner said.
“In 2020 we have seen 20 new artist price records set at auction,” Turner said.
“Despite the global pandemic, it has been an incredibly buoyant year for the Australian art market, with numerous new artist auction price records being set and clearance rates across the major art auction houses, both by value and volume, proving to be exceptionally strong.”
Turner said Henri’s Armchair was Whiteley’s nod to French impressionist Henri Matisse, who once claimed art should “be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue”.
The work arrives in Sydney next week, with by-appointment-only viewings beginning in Kensington on 12 November.
