Breuer family collection to be auctioned
Presented as 24 consecutive lots, the Collection of Thomas & Eva Breuer (lots 25-49) reveals the breadth and discernment of Thomas and Eva’s collecting interests over four decades.
The family collection of prominent Sydney art dealer Eva Breuer and her husband Thomas is to be offered in Menzies’ forthcoming auction of Important Australian & International Art. The sale, to be held in Melbourne on March 29, will celebrate the auctioneer’s 25th year of operation.
Thomas and Eva Breuer (née Fenyves) met in Sydney during the early 1960s. Both had emigrated to Australia from Hungary after World War II, having survived the horrors of Nazi occupation. In the 1980s, after enduring her first bout of breast cancer, Eva began to buy and sell works of art from her Bellevue Hill home. Eva Breuer Art Dealer opened in 1994, in a small shopfront on Moncur Street, Woollahra. The gallery soon found its place at the forefront of the secondary market for modern and contemporary Australian art.
Presented as 24 consecutive lots, the Collection of Thomas & Eva Breuer (lots 25-49) reveals the breadth and discernment of Thomas and Eva’s collecting interests over four decades.
A highlight of the collection is William Robinson’s magnificent Farm II 1982 (estimate $200,000-$300,000), the auction’s “cover lot”. This painting from the artist’s breakthrough Farmyard series shows a broad aerial perspective of Robinson’s former home at Birkdale, east of Brisbane. Farm II appears at auction for the first time, having been one of the few privately held works to be included in the Queensland Art Gallery’s major William Robinson retrospective in 2001.
Other notable works from the Collection of Thomas & Eva Breuer include Landscape with Camel 1966 (estimate $180,000-$250,000), an outstanding example of Sidney Nolan’s Burke and Wills series acquired from the artist’s estate.
Tim Maguire’s luminous still-lifes – Untitled 95.03 1995 (estimate $100,000-$150,000) and Untitled 94 1994 (estimate $55,000-$80,000) – are testament to Eva Breuer’s patronage of this artist at a vital stage of his international career.
The collection also demonstrates Thomas and Eva’s interest in female Australian artists, with works by Joy Hester (estimate $15,000-$20,000), Julie Rrapp (estimate $10,000-$15,000) and Mirka Mora (estimate $5,000-$7,000) making their auction debut alongside Cressida Campbell’s woodblock Chrysanthemums 1984 (estimate $30,000-$50,000).
The mixed vendor portion of the sale presents a showcase of Australian modernism, led by John Coburn’s monumental painting, White Bird c1974 (estimate $150,000-$200,000). Created at the height of Coburn’s career, the painting was privately commissioned and will be presented to the public for the first time.
Also fresh to auction is View from the Window, Lavender Bay 1977 (estimate $140,000-$180,000), a rare gem from the most celebrated period of Brett Whiteley’s oeuvre.
Jeffrey Smart is represented by three superb paintings, Study for the Petrol Station 1975 (estimate $80,000-$120,000), First Study for Waiting for the Hovercraft, Boulogne 1986-87 (estimate $100,000-$150,000) and Bus by the Tiber 1977-78 (estimate $600,000-$700,000).
Menzies Important Australian & International Art collection will be exhibited in Sydney from March 16-19, 10am-5pm, at Menzies Gallery,
12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.
The collection will be auctioned in Melbourne on March 29 at 6.30pm at Menzies Gallery,
1 Darling Street, South Yarra.
Online bidding options are available. To view the catalogue, and for auction details, visit menziesartbrands.com
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