Saleroom: Make a bid for a masterpiece

By DON MILNE

Dunbar Sloane snr, director of the eponymous auction firm, tells a good story about the great New Zealand painter Frances Hodgkins.

On a visit to London in the late 1970s, he met art critic Sir Kenneth (Civilisation) Clark, and the conversation turned to Hodgkins, at that time probably more highly regarded in Britain than in her homeland.

Hodgkins, said Clark, would be seen as one of the greatest women artists of the 20th century, although it would take the art world 50 years to realise it. "Collect as many as you can afford," he advised.

Sloane did, and finished up with 17 - most now sold, to his great regret, to satisfy debts as a Lloyds Name.

But he also bought, and sold in Wellington, after the death of Sir Kenneth - by then Lord Clark - Clark's prime Hodgkins, Pumpkins and Pimenti.

That went to the Fletcher Trust for $220,000, understood to be still an auction record for Hodgkins.

While her attractive early watercolours surface from time to time, fetching prices from around $30,000 to $50,000, none of her later oils has reached the saleroom for some years.

So it is remarkable that not one, but two very fine Hodgkins oils will be up for sale in Auckland over the next few weeks - and both from the same collection in Canada.

First up is a typical Hodgkins still life with landscape - painted around 1930, and daring for its time. Estimated to sell for between $250,000 and $350,000, it is one of many highlights at Webb's sale next Tuesday.

Webb's have described this as their best sale, a not unreasonable claim for an offering that includes four more works by Hodgkins, an outstanding Maori portrait by Goldie, several works by McCahon (including No 2, estimated to sell as high as $850,000) and, not least, a watercolour of Rotterdam by the great J.M.W. Turner.

Then there's an important Gordon Walters koru painting in a rare red-brown ochre palette (estimate $300,000-$400,000), plus fine works by Michael Smither, Peter Siddell, Tony Fomison, Rita Angus - the list goes on.

A month later, on May 7, the highlight of Dunbar Sloane's sale will be another major Hodgkins, Green Jug and Jade Sea. This was painted five or six years after the Webb's work, probably on the island of Ibiza, and around the same time as Pumpkins and Pimenti.

Both works came through the family of the late Prudence Heward, a Canadian artist who lived in Montreal and much admired Hodgkins. One of them seems sure to set an auction record; perhaps both will?

Last month saw the International Art Centre's first sale of the year, with top price of $200,000 (before 10 per cent premium and GST) paid by the Turnbull Library for an early view of Wellington by Charles Decimus Barraud. Dated 1851, it is possibly Barraud's earliest major work.

A portrait of Thames chief Paikia by soldier-artist H.G. Robley went for $13,500, and an appealing Raymond Ching watercolour of a pukeko chick for $12,000.

Auckland buyers still do not seem excited by the works of Otago artist William James Reed, in which this gallery has specialised. They struggled to reach their lower estimates. Are they from too far south of the Bombay hills?

* Coming up: Webb's next week, on Tuesday (art), Wednesday (jewellery) and Thursday (decorative arts), with the next affordable art sale on May 20.

Cordys have a big tribal art sale on April 14, followed by antiques and art the next day.

Dunbar Sloane has a Wellington art sale on May 1, featuring a major Hotere, and its Auckland sale on May 7.