Courtesy Sotheby's

Jeffrey Smart, "The Painted Factory—Tuscany" (1979)

November 2009 Auction Reviews

Asia Week

Lyon and Turnbull

Leslie Hindman

Koller

Heritage

Bonhams and Goodman

Dorotheum

Christie's

Bonhams

David Rago

Rene Magritte Fernand Leger YSL/Bergé Auction Fetches Double Its Estimate Remembrance of Things Past The Persistence of Time Pop Stars Magritte Stolen in Armed Robbery James Ensor

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

MELBOURNE—Top lot: Although the Adelaide-born artist Jeffrey Smart studied in the 1950s in Paris with Fernand Léger, his dreamlike canvases, with their air of unease, are often more evocative of Magritte. Smart’s old teacher nevertheless receives a sly homage in the mural depicted in The Painted Factory — Tuscany (1979), which brought a sale-high $A870,000 ($759,161).

"In Brief: Sotheby's" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2009 Table of Contents.