Top-100 artists:
We use our proprietary AI - LiveArt Estimate™ to calculate current market value for each artwork. Based on this data LiveArt is able to provide numerous insights into artist and artwork financial performance, including:
See the measure of artist investment performance relative to risk. A higher ratio suggests better risk-adjusted returns, indicating more consistent performance with less risk.
Explore the most prolific periods in an artist's career based on artwork production volume and current market value. It also segments these periods by category, offering insights into when the most valuable pieces were created in each category.
Free to sign up. No credit card required.
| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sep 10, 2024 | Bonhams | Sydney | Important Australian Art | 32 | $****** - ****** | The New Book | |||
Apr 13, 1988 | Leonard Joel | South Yarra | Oil Paintings & Watercolours | 40 | Estimates not disclosed | The new book |
paintings
79 x 63 cm (31.1 x 24.8 in)
oil on canvas
signed lower right: "Rupert C.W. Bunny"
Dr and Mrs Lennard Travers, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 13 April 1988, lot 40
Mrs P.M. Young, Melbourne
Private collection, Sydney
Goodmans Auctioneers, Sydney, 8 November 1999, lot 111
Savill Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso)
Private collection, Sydney
Exhibition of Pictures by Rupert Bunny , Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 24 July - 14 August 1911, cat. 51
Clive Turnbull and Tristan Buesst, The Art of Rupert Bunny , Ure Smith Pty. Ltd, Sydney 1948 p. 75
David Thomas, Rupert Bunny , Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1970, cat. 0135
David Thomas, The Life and Art of Rupert Bunny , Thames and Hudson, Melbourne, 2017, p. 47, cat. O325
Following his marriage in 1902 to beautiful Frenchwoman Jeanne Heloise Morel, Rupert Bunny turned to painting personal moments of feminine leisure set in domestic interiors. The subject was very popular, characteristic of the Belle Époque and its celebration of all things feminine. In his wife, Bunny found the perfect model to imbue his paintings with elegance and charm. Although he did not forsake the big subject picture, women played the predominant role in his large-scaled canvases, as seen in Bathers (c.1906) in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
The early 1900"s were a period of great productivity and peace for the artist, with the resulting works now considered to be his best. Après le bain, c.1904, was the first work by Bunny to be acquired by the French Government and is now in the collection of the Musée de Orsay, Paris. Endormies, c.1904, was presented to the National Gallery of Victoria by the Felton Bequest in 1911. Finally, Bunny"s largest painting, Summer Time, c.1907, alongside the later work A Summer Morning, c.1908, are now both in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
The first decade of the twentieth century saw Bunny reach new heights in his art, adding delightful outdoor scenes of relaxed moments in the Luxembourg Gardens and a series of portraits of Dame Nellie Melba, Percy Grainger and Aida Crossley. However, it is the series of portraits of Jeanne that are amongst the artist"s very finest. Jeanne reigns supreme in his paintings of this period, both in the grand paintings mentioned, and in the numerous, more intimate paintings of which The New Book, c. 1910, is a captivating example.
Notable for their vivacious use of paint and colour, priority is given to the sensuous play of light and shadow in moments of casual leisure. Of his art, Bunny claimed that "the aim of the artist should be the transmission of an emotion. He should paint only what appeals personally to himself. I do not believe in selecting extraordinary or unusual subjects. It is the quiet, everyday things that appeal to most people."1 Bunny was right in his judgement. Today they are considered by many to be amongst his very best works.
When Bunny held a large solo exhibition at Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, in 1917, the noted French art critic Gustave Geffroy wrote,
"In these decors of everyday existence seen in all their simplicity and fullness of meaning with their exact qualities of light and shade the artist shows us charming creatures, real women who look, reflect, breathe and who live. They are at home, they are in harmony with the flowers and the foliage of the gardens, with the furniture and the hangings of the rooms."2 His reference to "the luminous joy of daylight" in Bunny"s art expresses so well the appeal of The New Book and companion paintings.3 In all their elegance, refinement of colour and gentle harmonies, they evoke a mood of quiet pleasure and delight in the joy of living.
1 "The Art of Rupert Bunny", Sydney Morning Herald , 22 September
1911, p.7
2 Gustave Geffroy, "Rupert Bunny", Exposition Rupert C.W. Bunny, Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, p. 6
3 Ibid, p. 10
Rupert Bunny (1864-1947)
The New Book, c.1910
signed lower right: "Rupert C.W. Bunny"
oil on canvas
79.0 x 63.0cm (31 1/8 x 24 13/16in).
