Eighteen years go by. In Sydney on August 31 Sotheby's Australia sells Ned Kelly - Crossing bridge, oil on board 122 x 153 cm painted in November 1964, lot 17 estimated A $ 800K.
Ned Kelly has clearly lost the game. His morphology has become human but he is diving over a river. At the same height as him, his horse falls freely all four legs up in the air. This picture is not a victory of civilization against the brutal monster of the bush. The landscape is hostile in a great violence of brushstrokes and colors.
A painting from the same series showing Ned riding the horse in high flight over the landscape before the fall was sold for A $ 590K including premium by Menzies on June 23, 2016.
A similar atmosphere of apocalypse animates another oil titled River Bank painted three weeks earlier in the same size. The river separates two worlds. In the foreground a Lady Godiva on her mule is alone and wanders aimlessly. The background shows a burned city under a stifling sky.
River Bank was sold for A $ 1.65M including premium by Sotheby's Australia on May 10, 2016 over a lower estimate of A $ 600K.
unsold
#SidneyNolan #HowardArkley & more Australian artists take center stage in Aug https://t.co/7iFATNzpPA @SothebysAUST pic.twitter.com/ECM56GLONa
— Invaluable (@InvaluableLive) August 20, 2016