A Brett Whiteley oil painting celebrating the sun and surf of Byron Bay has sold at auction for $1 million.
Never previously offered on the secondary market, Midday at Wategos Beach, Byron Bay was created during the summer of 1989-1990.
The work is part of a series inspired by the far north coast of NSW holiday town and was painted following a time of upheaval for Whiteley, who had recently returned from travels to Morocco, London and Paris. He died in 1992.
"He was very happy and content, and felt that he was coping with his addiction issues, and he just found the landscape of Byron Bay incredibly exhilarating and inspiring," said Geoffrey Smith from auction house Smith and Singer.
The result, in the middle of the expected range, includes a buyer's premium charged by the auction house.
With a reserve of $800,000 and high estimate of $1.2 million including buyer's premium, several parties had shown interest ahead of the auction, Smith said.
But will the painting end up adorning the walls of a Byron Bay rich-lister? Who can say, but Smith hoped the buyer would at least be home to keep an eye on the valuable artwork.
"They may not want works of that value hanging in their homes if they're not permanent places of residence, but what better than to have one of Australia's greatest artists painting Byron Bay, hanging on your wall, wherever you may live," he said.
More than 40 works by Whiteley have previously sold for more than the $1 million mark, according to Art Sales Digest.
The auction record for the artist is $6.1 million for Henri's Armchair (1974-75) which went under the hammer in 2020 and also set a record auction result for an Australian painting.
Several other Whiteleys were also listed for sale at the auction held in Sydney on Tuesday night, the least expensive a linocut with a low estimate of $9000.
Also among the 63 lots were works by well-known Australian artists Hans Heysen, Margaret Preston, Charles Blackman, Sidney Nolan, William Dobell, Albert Tucker, Del Kathryn Barton and Criss Canning.
A modernist landscape by Adelaide-born Dorrit Black, Sicilian Mountain (1928) set an auction record for the artist, selling for $687,500 - far above its high estimate of $180,000.
The painting had been held in the artist's family for decades, and never before offered on the secondary market.
But the buyer may have to wait some months before they can hang it on their walls: the artwork is currently on show in Sydney as part of the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890-1940.
