SYDNEY.- Bonhams Australia announced the sale of works from the Estate of Lady Nolan and the Australian arm of The IBM Collection, to be offered in the Important Australian Art Auction in Sydney on Wednesday 26 June 2019. Highlights include 120 works by acclaimed Australian artist Sidney Nolan including his 1964 Antarctica series; three early works by one of Australia's most desirable contemporary artists Cressida Campbell; a unique and impressive large-scale Susan Norrie tapestry; a recently re-discovered Ian Fairweather work and notable works by artists such as Paddy Bedford, Arthur Boyd, John Mawurndjul, Margaret Olley, John Olsen, and William Robinson.

Director of Bonhams Australia, Merryn Schriever, said, "Our Important Australian Art Sale 2019 presents an exciting and diverse offering with the largest number of Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly pictures from Lady Nolan's Estate, key Australian artists from The IBM Collection and the remarkable Tyrrell Collection of 101 early photographs of Aboriginal people.”

After Sidney Nolan's death in 1992 his estate passed to his wife, Mary, herself an artist and member of the Boyd dynasty whose influence spanned art, literature and architecture. Following Lady Nolan's death in 2016, Bonhams is now offering these works for the first time on behalf of her estate. Included are four important paintings from the 1964 Antarctic series which was the artist's last major body of work examining the making of legends, a subject he had previously delved into with the Kelly and Burke and Wills series. Five similar works have recently entered the National Gallery of Australia Collection.

Additionally, there are more than 30 original Ned Kelly works on paper that span the 1950s and 60's - the peak of his international fame - the most ever to come to market.

"Although we have the largest ever offering of Nolan's iconic Ned Kelly pictures in this auction it is the diversity of Nolan's work that is evident here. There are other heroes and anti-heroes from Burke and Wills to the early Antarctic explorers such as Mawson, Scott and Shackleton; but alongside these are outstanding images of desert landscapes, flowers, African animals, portraits of anonymous women Nolan glimpsed in the Australian sunshine and giant cockerels strutting like kings", comments Mark Fraser, Art Advisor to The Estate of Lady Nolan.

Also offered in the sale is the Australian arm of The IBM Collection. Consisting of 22 works that were acquired for their corporate collection throughout the 1980's-90s, the works include three early prints by acclaimed Australian artist Cressida Campbell titled Native Pear, 1984; Mixed Bunch, 1984 and Chrysanthemums, 1984.

Other highlights include Birkdale Farmyard 1, 1985 by William Robinson, a major Farmyard Construction painting from a seminal period when the artist felt great liberation in discovering his own identity; a unique and impressive large-scale Susan Norrie tapestry, commissioned by IBM and woven by the Victoria Tapestry Workshop it is the only tapestry completed by the artist; as well as paintings by notable artists David Aspden, Dale Frank, Aida Tomescu and Imants Tillers.

The sale will offer a recently re-discovered painting by Ian Fairweather, titled Spring, 1964. Previously considered 'whereabouts unknown', this major painting from the 1960s belongs to a series when Ian Fairweather, like many artists before him, embarked on a personalised portrayal of the four seasons. Summer, 1964, was once part of the Norman Schureck gift to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Also included in the auction is a collection of 101 early photographs of Aboriginal people from the Tyrrell Collection. Including ten studio proofs from Kerry & Co, 48 portraits by Charles Kerry (1858-1928) and Henry King (1855-1923); 25 photographs of rites and ceremonies by Charles Kerry; ten portraits by John William Lindt (1845-1926), three portraits by Paul Foelsche (1831-1914); a portrait of King Moran of Dyraaba c.1910 by an unknown photographer; a camp scene by Carl Ehlers (active 1880s); two portraits by Charles Woolley (1834-1922) and a sepia toned photograph c.1880 of Governor Davey's proclamation to the Aborigines 1816.

This remarkable collection of photographs come from the collection of prominent Sydney bookseller and publisher James Robert Tyrrell (1875-1961). Tyrrell's early career with Angus and Robertson allowed him to develop an extensive knowledge of Australiana and to build a network of major collectors in this field.

Other notable artists whose works are included in the auction are John Olsen, Arthur Boyd, Justin O'Brien, Norman Lindsay, Margaret Olley, Frederick McCubbin, Paddy Bedford and John Mawurndjul.