WORK by a Bognor-born artist has sold for £1.8 million.
Mossgreen auction house in Australia sold Russell Drysdale’s painting Grandma’s Sunday Walk 1972 in Adelaide.
This makes a new auction world record price for the artist and the fifth highest auction price ever for any Australian artwork.
Paul Sumner, of Mossgreen, said it was a “truly iconic image of the Australian outback by one of Australia’s most important artists”.
Drysdale was born in Bognor in 1912 to an Anglo-Australian farming family and later settled in Melbourne.
The painting had not been for sale for some 30 years. Multiple bidders chased the work to its final selling price.
Mr Sumner said: “The painting was created for a show at Leicester Galleries London in 1972 as the artist showed mostly there at that time. Sir Russell was from a wealthy family, so was not a struggling artist. He felt a great and unusual affection for Aboriginal people and was the first non-indigenous Australian artist to unromantically depict and celebrate the culture.”
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