$150,000 paper trail: Why NGA’s Namatjira buy is all about provenance
By the time Nick Mitzevich spotted lot 47 in the catalogue for Deutscher and Hackett’s major auction in August, the director of the National Gallery of Australia already knew he wanted it for the museum.
Darwin, 1950, was a “fabulous” watercolour painting by the fabled Western Arrarnta artist Albert Namatjira, Mitzevich told Saleroom this week. It was done shortly after Namatjira saw the ocean for the first time, and had spent an entire day just looking at it in wonder.
The National Gallery of Australia bought Albert Namatjira’s painting, Darwin, 1950, for $150,000 (including buyer’s premium) at Deutscher + Hackett’s August 27 auction in Melbourne this year.
Darwin had been on long-term loan to the NGA but had not been displayed for some time.
“We were aware of the sale so we were waiting for the catalogue to be released,” Mitzevich said. Buying the work would be in line with the NGA’s commitment to collecting the work of Namatjira as comprehensively as possible.
So, on August 27, an agent – bidding at the Melbourne auction on behalf of the NGA for confidentiality purposes – secured the picture for $150,000 against its pre-sale estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. (The sale price includes 25 per cent buyer’s premium.)
The work was acquired through a fund set up by prominent philanthropist Marilyn Darling to honour her late husband Gordon Darling. Darwin will be unveiled at a small gathering at the NGA on Thursday night.
In line with the NGA’s collecting policy, Mitzevich was careful to examine the provenance of Darwin before he bought it.
As the catalogue reveals, the provenance is short but clear. Darwin was acquired on a visit to central Australia in the 1950s by Norman Neil McLean. It then went by descent to a private collection in Queensland.
Saleroom asked Deutscher and Hackett what evidence they had to support the link between the painting and Norman Neil McLean.
Director Damian Hackett provided a letter written by a family friend of McLean’s elderly daughter-in-law, the vendor, revealing that McLean was a Melbourne accountant who died in the early 1960s.
At some point during the 1950s, McLean took a bus trip to the Northern Territory. There, according to McLean family recollection, Namatjira gave him the painting in appreciation for advice or for buying him some supplies.
“Whatever the reason, Namatjira gave the painting to Norman in appreciation for the help. The painting has since been held in the family,” the letter said.
This kind of letter is gold, in a world where an artwork’s provenance or history of ownership is often lost from one generation to the next, according to David Hulme of Banziger Hulme Fine Art Consultants, Sydney.