Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

r The Financial Review 3 Febr uary 19 84 a. Saleroom Thanks partly to a British com– pany which went into liquidation last year with substantial sums owing, the Queensland Art Gallery has added to its varied collection ef paintings: Queensland's Good Golly lady. with Terry Ingram Portrait of a lady hangs over Brisbane, by golly I T HE Queensland Art Gallery hos maintained its rep- utation ror buying paint· ings with an unusual prov– enance. It is following up its acquis• i1ion or a "throw-out" from 1he Pasadena An Museum and a painling 1ha1 had been in a car crash wi1h 1he purchue or a painting which was 1he prop• erty of Good Golly Producu Lid (in liquida1lon) of the UK. The latest acquisition is a portrait or a lady, half leng1h, In a red and white dress, wilh blue bows. The 83cm x 63cm portrait (lhe work of the 17th cen1ury Anglo-Du1ch artist Cornel ius Jonson) was acquired for £5,940 al Chris• "tie's important English picture sale or ovember 18. The painting was lot 32 in 1he ca1alogtte. Lot 32a was also a Cornelius Jonson and ii shared wilh Jonson's por1rai1 of a iady, a connection wilh 1roubled rinancial circum• slances. For Lot 32n had been the properly of Sydney art dealer Colin S1anley-Hill. Colin S1anley-Hill. Numerous pain1ings from lhe Slaniey-Hill Gallery were 1old al Sydney auctions last year under inslructions from e Sydney Sheriff and in mailers of bills of sale. Earlier in the year a judgment was handed down against him in a civil suil which called into queslion lhe authenticity of a Rembrandt he had sold. The Stanley-Hill Jonson was ca1alogued unhesitalingly as the work of 1he artist and was described as a porlrail ofa boy, hair leng1h, wearing • red &lashed doublet wth white lace collar. As Portrait of a You11g Nobl,man, ii is understood 10 have been valued at $9,000 by lhe Queensland finance corn• pany which advanced money on it and which presumably put it in the sale. The company, Permanent Finance, mu s1 ha ve been quietly pleased wi1h the resull. The pain1ing made almost lhal, being knocked down well above the estimales at £6,480. The pre-sale es1imales were £2,500 to £3,500. Ten per cent commission and freight costs, or course, have to be deduc1ed rrom the proceeds. While bo1h painlings sold well, 1he ar1is1 may acquire unfortunate financial assocl•• lions if any more forced sales of his work have to be made. Good Golly Products went Into 1iQuida1ion last year with 1ubstan1ial sums owing. It was one or a group of companle1 run by Keith Alfred Hunt, a alogued as "VINCENT - S1ill Life" (oil on wood panel, 13Y,in • 14V,in: sold for S70. "The work is on 11oood 1.3cm thick and measu res 37cm • 34cm (aboul 15in • 13Y,in," Mr Dale said. "The pain1ing is signed on lhe righl bottom Ru de Laval Vincent and is a 11111 life typical of his Paris Perio1 1886-89 during which he pro- ab1olu1el y au1hrn1,c These included lh e Picasso, Be ll e Holland aise. now 10 1he Queensla nd An Gallery. commodity and futures dealer who laimed a secret system for analysing the marke1s and adveni,ed • record of hand– some returns. Mr Hunt, who opera ted out of London, was la11 s•en being chased by two of his employees. He left debts runni ,,g into tens of millions of poun ds. Pain1ings sold by Chris1ie's for the liquidator have grossed £40I,I SS. Th n was also a Jacob van h is poss ibl) 1hrough 1hh fine ponrai1, of a Du1cb girl, 1ha1 1he gallery's commilment 10 por1rai1ure. which in recent years has 1aken ii back lo I81h, ond no w 17th cen1ury England, possibl y can be I raced. duced ano_ther 85 re~orded The gallery's ance51or wor• still -lifes. V1ncen1 hved in Ruf, ' ship is a reasonably economic 1 cull as depreciation of English portraiture since Du veen has alm o11 matched the apprecia– tion of "Vincen1s" since the Ellenden sale. In 1978 lhe gallery acquired a fine Rae• 'A pcnchnnl for mnturc ladies, rad1er than young girls, clearly cli 1ched the Good Golly Jonson.' , burn portrait of a young ensign Loo, Portrait nfa Boy In Black, de Laval (wilh his brolher fo!. $22,7 16 1hrough London's in the Queensland finance Theo) from February 27, 1886 Fine An Socie1y and a ponrail company mane, which hod unlil June 1886 before moving of Lady Campbe ll in her mob been valued al Si 2,000. This to 54 Rue Lepic, 3rd Ooor. Rue cap by 1he same anisl for work, like the Jonson, prob• de Laval is now renamed Rue $4,90.S ably had been originally Vlc1or Masse. Wi1h fu nhcr purchases by acqui red from a Mayfair gal• " D_uring the period lh is 1he Qu<ensland Gallery, lery wi1h which Mr S1anley• painting was produced V1nce~1 including a Ramsay, ilS hold· Hill had some dealings 1n made regular use of l~e studio ~t ings and those of 1he Na1ional earlier days. of Fernand Cormon. Gallery of Vic1oria and 1he An A penchanl for mature Bill Ellenden was ~ot. so Gallery of South Australia, ladies, ralhcr than young girls, dogmo1ic about lhe allnbullon represenl a sound hcri1age of not always usual in 1he public of his piclures. He catal~gued English ponra i1s, udly gallery worid, clearly clinched them as "a small c~!lecllon of reduced by the An Gallery or the Good Golly Jonson ra1her una11nbu1ed works a nd lhe NSW's de-accession or the fine than 1he Sydney-sourced pie• best price..in the_s~le was only sporti ng portra it by Francis lure, for Brisbane. $325 for Boudin · Barlow lo raise funds for 1he The Queensland An Gal• A "Gauguin" went oul for gallery, in 1982. lery's last unusually sourced ~60, 1 "T~_rner" for S 4 5, and a Penh china pain1er1 enjoy a pa inting was a mediaeval Ceza_nne f~r $40. high profile - no1 high profiu panel, Virgin and Child by the , MaJor Rubin, of course, had - as inadver1en1iy reponcd in Master of Frankfurt, de-acces• some paintings which were lasl week's Sa/,room. sioned by the Pasadena An Museum. lls other acquisitions of recrnl years have included a Rubens which was badly dam• aged in a car crash. But unusual provenances appear to enjoy a premium In Queensland. Readers of the classifi d columns of nr, Syd• n,y Morning lltrald late iasl year would have found , among the small prinl, that if they had $875,000 cash 1hey could have acquire a "Van Gough". The advertisement was placed by Mr Langliam Dale, of Sydney Marketi ng and Agencies, who said he was acting as agent for 1he own :r who assured him of lhe auth, nlicity of the painting. He said 1he painting, a still-life, , ad been purchased at a Sydney sale of works from lhe es1a1e of lhe late Major H•rold de Yahl Rubin and had been allowed to sell cheap• ly,deliberately for certain unspecified reasons. Could this pai n1ing, ol" bollles on i 1able, have been lot 118 In Winiam S. Ellenden's sale of Aur,usl 27, 1974? Other buyers at 1he sale will be mightily Jr • 1ified ir it is, for the subsequent financial improvemen•, if Mr Dale finds a buyer for the picture, l1 utounding. Lot 118, cat•