Elioth Gruner Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1882 - d. 1939

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          • Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Pastoral Scenesold
            Aug. 29, 2023

            Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Pastoral Scene

            Est: AUD6,000 - AUD9,000

            Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Pastoral Scene signed lower right: 'E. Gruner' oil on board 24.5 x 29.5cm (9 5/8 x 11 5/8in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website

            Bonhams
          • ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Berry's Bay 1915 oil on canvas on board 22.5 x 29.5 cmsold
            Aug. 23, 2023

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Berry's Bay 1915 oil on canvas on board 22.5 x 29.5 cm

            Est: AUD40,000 - AUD60,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Berry's Bay 1915 oil on canvas on board signed and dated 'E. GRUNER / 1915' lower right 22.5 x 29.5 cm PROVENANCE Elioth Gruner, Sydney Miss Dulcie Stainton, Sydney Private Collection Australian and European Paintings, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 3 August 1999, lot 202 Gould Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney (stock 12,271), acquired from the above Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April - 31 May 1940, no. 81 Twentieth Century Australian Art: A Major Collectors' Exhibition, Gould Galleries, Melbourne, 25 March - 30 April 2000; Gould Galleries, Sydney, 13 May - 11 June 2000, no. 6, illustrated

            Smith & Singer
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932., Sepia Watercolour, 19.5x23cmsold
            Aug. 20, 2023

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932., Sepia Watercolour, 19.5x23cm

            Est: AUD1,000 - AUD2,000

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932. Signed indistinctly lower right. Old labels and receipts verso incl. S.A. Parker Sydney and Artarmon Galleries (identification number #20854) where purchased by current owner March 15th 2007. Original invoice included, with provenance notes. Sepia Watercolour 19.5x23cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Sydney.

            Davidson Auctions
          • ATTRIBUTED ELIOTH GRUNER (Australia 1882-1939), 'Bare Tree on a Hillside', oil on canvas on card, unsigned, later pencil attribution.sold
            Jun. 20, 2023

            ATTRIBUTED ELIOTH GRUNER (Australia 1882-1939), 'Bare Tree on a Hillside', oil on canvas on card, unsigned, later pencil attribution.

            Est: AUD800 - AUD1,200

            ATTRIBUTED ELIOTH GRUNER (Australia 1882-1939), 'Bare Tree on a Hillside', oil on canvas on card, unsigned, later pencil attribution verso, 10 x 16.5 cm, framed 23 x 30 cm. Provenance: Davidson Auctions, Australian & International Art, Sydney, 22/03/2020, lot 145. This work may have been a preparatory sketch for a later etching.

            Raffan Kelaher & Thomas
          • 1923 Elioth Gruner Dinner Programsold
            Jun. 02, 2023

            1923 Elioth Gruner Dinner Program

            Est: AUD500 - AUD600

            Program Dinner given to Elioth Gruner on the even of his departure for England by the Members of the Cavalier Club. Cavalier Restaurant. Sydney Feb, 6th 1923. Includes Musical Programs, toasts, and menu. 4 pages. Cover a little grubby and tipped image torn. Elioth Gruner [1882-1939] was born in New Zealand. For a time Gruner worked as the Julian Ashton’s Gallery Manager as well as a teacher at his Art School. It is after Gruner’s mothers death in 1922 which allowed him to travel. The Bulletin reports that the Society of the Artists gave him a farewell at the Cavalier Club wishing him luck with an exhibition of Australian Art in London (March 1 1923). Many well-known artists were there to bid him farewell including Julian Ashton, George Lambert, Sydney Ure Smith, Thea Proctor, Will Longstaff, Howard Hinton, BE Minns… There is one known copy of this book listed in Australian Libraries. It is not listed in the State Library of New South Wales.

            Sydney Rare Book Auctions
          • Elioth Grunersold
            May. 15, 2023

            Elioth Gruner

            Est: AUD60 - AUD80

            Two books about Elioth Gruner's work. 1) Light and Texture by Deborah Clark Canberra and Newcastle Museum catalogue. 2014. Paperback. Excellent copy. 2) Elioth Gruner 1882-1939 by Barry Pearce. Art Gallery of NSW, 1983

            Sydney Rare Book Auctions
          • Elioth Gruner Limited editionsold
            May. 15, 2023

            Elioth Gruner Limited edition

            Est: AUD150 - AUD200

            Artist monograph Elioth Gruner. With Twenty-four Reproductions in Colour from Original Oil Paintings. Foreword by Norman Lindsay. Sydney, The Shepherd Press, no date, c1947. [26]pp.+ 24 tipped-in full colour plates. Original cloth with gilt decoration. A very good copy. Number 256 of 2000 copies.

            Sydney Rare Book Auctions
          • ELIOTH GRUNER, THE MILL, MOUNT GILEAD, ALSO KNOWN AS THE OLD MILL, MENANGLE, 1926sold
            May. 03, 2023

            ELIOTH GRUNER, THE MILL, MOUNT GILEAD, ALSO KNOWN AS THE OLD MILL, MENANGLE, 1926

            Est: AUD20,000 - AUD30,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 - 1939) THE MILL, MOUNT GILEAD, ALSO KNOWN AS THE OLD MILL, MENANGLE, 1926 oil on wood panel 24.0 x 28.0 cm signed and dated lower right: GRUNER 1926 PROVENANCE Macquarie Galleries, Sydney Judge Edward, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1926 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, by 1940 (label attached verso) John Young, Sydney Thence by descent Mrs John Young, Sydney James R. Lawson Auctioneers, Sydney, 19 November 1940, lot 161 Private collection, Sydney Private collection, Sydney, a gift from the above in 1958 Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Elioth Gruner, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 10 – 21 August 1926, cat. 15 (as ‘Mount Gilead’) Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April – 31 May 1940, cat. 12 (label attached verso, as ‘The Old Mill, Menangle’) LITERATURE ‘The Studio: Mr. Gruner’s Oil Paintings’, The Australasian, Melbourne, 21 August 1926, p. 45 (as ‘Mount Gilead’) We are grateful to Steven Miller, Head of the Edmund and Joanna Capon Research Library and Archive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, for his assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY Elioth Gruner was a restless artist, uncomfortable with city life and undertook many journeys throughout Australia as a result, often for months at a time. In the first half of 1926, when The Mill, Mount Gilead, 1926 was painted, Gruner travelled from Sydney to Bellingen, inland from Coffs Harbour, down to Kelso, near Bathurst, and thence to Menangle, south of Campbelltown. In December, he would continue, heading from Bowral in the southern highlands of New South Wales to Cooma in the foothills of Mount Kosciusko. Gruner ‘worked from nature direct, living in camp or caravan for months on end, and would put up with flies, mosquitos and all the varying tortures imposed on the painter by the Australian climate, rather than succumb to what he regarded as the artificiality of the “easel painting” back in his studio.’1 The Mill, Mount Gilead is a classic example of the jewel-like scenes the artist sought to capture amidst, and in spite of, his physical privations.   Gruner was an exceptionally successful artist in his lifetime, winning the Wynne Prize for landscape painting a staggering seven times.2 His fascination with the effect of light on the landscape resulted in a number of masterworks, including Spring Frost, 1919, consistently rated as one of the most popular paintings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In August 1926, he held his first (and only) solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in Sydney, which was so admired that 26 of the 29 paintings were sold by its second day of viewing. Newspaper critics marvelled at his ‘progressive opening up new aspects of technique… brilliantly coping with some new problem.’3 However, Gruner’s star waned over subsequent decades and renewed appreciation has only ensued since curator Deborah Clark’s incisive exhibition Elioth Gruner: Texture of light held at the Canberra Museum and Gallery in 2014. His work is again seeing popularity with astute collectors as a result.   The Mill, Mount Gilead regards from afar the convict-built windmill which was erected in the 1830s on the highest ridge of Thomas Rose’s Mt Gilead farm, sited on the traditional lands of the Dharawal people. It originally had a domed roof and four large sails but fell into disrepair after wheat rust affected local crops in the 1860s. Gruner’s view is from an opposing hill and the warmth of the mid-morning sun captures the surviving stones of the tower.4 He aligns its peak with a passing row of low clouds, and perfectly counterbalances the rich greens of agriculture with the hazy blue of the background mountains, all surmounted by a cloud-whipped sky. The critic for The Australasian, who wrote of the Macquarie Galleries show, described the present work as ‘a cool and collected little study … which might be (set) in Holland, so neat and well-groomed and immaculate it is.’5 It was purchased from the exhibition by Judge Edward, who, it seems, sold it back to the Macquarie’s Director, John Young, who then gifted it to his wife Eva, herself a specialist in Australian artists, particularly Conrad Martens. The verso of this painting illustrates this connection with the distinctive Macquarie Galleries logo still affixed, designed by John D. Moore and featuring a woman standing in a doorway. The Mill, Mount Gilead has only been exhibited twice in its history and has not been seen publicly since Gruner’s memorial exhibition in 1940.                                                                                                                                 1. Daryl Lindsay, ‘Elioth Gruner: 1882 – 1939’ in Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, 1940, n.p. 2. Gruner was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1916, 1919, 1921, 1929, 1934, 1936, and 1937 3. ‘Oil Paintings. Mr. Gruner’s Exhibition’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 11 August 1926, p.10 4. Rose’s mill tower still stands today. 5. ‘The Studio: Mr. Gruner’s Oil Paintings’, Australasian, Melbourne, 21 August 1926, p.45. The critic referred to the painting by its catalogue name of ‘Mount Gilead.’   ANDREW GAYNOR

            Deutscher and Hackett
          • ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 (Still Life) 1933 oil on canvasboardsold
            May. 02, 2023

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 (Still Life) 1933 oil on canvasboard

            Est: AUD15,000 - AUD25,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 (Still Life) 1933 oil on canvasboard signed and dated 'GRUNER / 1933' lower right 31 x 40.5 cm PROVENANCE Elioth Gruner, Sydney Sidney Gilfillan, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney, by descent from the above Private Collection, Sydney Private Collection, United Kingdom, acquired from the above in 2010

            Smith & Singer
          • Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Figure at the Haystack, 1917sold
            Apr. 04, 2023

            Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Figure at the Haystack, 1917

            Est: AUD10,000 - AUD15,000

            Elioth Gruner (1882-1939) Figure at the Haystack, 1917 signed and dated lower right: 'E. GRÜNER / 1917' oil on panel 20.0 x 27.5cm (7 7/8 x 10 13/16in).

            Bonhams
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Rural Property Under Cloudy Skies, Oil on Canvas on Board (double sided), 20x25.5cmsold
            Mar. 19, 2023

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Rural Property Under Cloudy Skies, Oil on Canvas on Board (double sided), 20x25.5cm

            Est: AUD12,000 - AUD18,000

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) Rural Property Under Cloudy Skies Signed (incised) 'GRUNER' lower left. Sketch verso of European gardens (possibly Versailles). Oil on Canvas on Board (double sided) 20x25.5cm PROVENANCE: Sotheby's Melbourne 24th July 1988 (lot 257); private collection, Sydney.

            Davidson Auctions
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Cottage and Outbuilding, Pencil, 20.5x28.5cmsold
            Mar. 19, 2023

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Cottage and Outbuilding, Pencil, 20.5x28.5cm

            Est: AUD500 - AUD800

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) Cottage and Outbuilding Pencil 20.5x28.5cm

            Davidson Auctions
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932., Sepia Watercolour, 19.5x23cmsold
            Mar. 19, 2023

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932., Sepia Watercolour, 19.5x23cm

            Est: AUD1,500 - AUD2,500

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) 'Sun and Showers, Parramatta,' 1932. Signed indistinctly lower right. Old labels and receipts verso incl. S.A. Parker Sydney and Artarmon Galleries (identification number #20854) where purchased by current owner March 15th 2007. Original invoice included, with provenance notes. Sepia Watercolour 19.5x23cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Sydney.

            Davidson Auctions
          • ELIOTH GRUNER (1882-1939) TITLED MORNING - BACCHUS MARSH, VICTORIA, OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED LOWER RIGHT, GRUNER 1930, BEARS TITLE TO VERSO, MEASURES 49CM X 59CM,sold
            Jan. 12, 2023

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882-1939) TITLED MORNING - BACCHUS MARSH, VICTORIA, OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED LOWER RIGHT, GRUNER 1930, BEARS TITLE TO VERSO, MEASURES 49CM X 59CM,

            Est: AUD8,000 - AUD15,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882-1939) TITLED MORNING - BACCHUS MARSH, VICTORIA, OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED LOWER RIGHT, GRUNER 1930, BEARS TITLE TO VERSO, MEASURES 49CM X 59CM,

            Albion Antique Auction Centre
          • Elioth Grunersold
            Dec. 16, 2022

            Elioth Gruner

            Est: AUD150 - AUD200

            Elioth Gruner Twenty-Four Reproductions in Colour from Original Oil Paintings Foreword by Norman Lindsay. Published in Sydney by The Shepherd Press 1948. Twenty four tipped in colour plates. Hardback with the original clear glassine dustwrapper. A very good copy. Number 901 in an edition of 2000 copies

            Sydney Rare Book Auctions
          • ELIOTH GRUNER (1881 - 1939) Forest Creek drypoint etching, no. 27 10.5 x 15 cm (frame: 34 x 36 x 3 cm) signed lower rightsold
            Dec. 15, 2022

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1881 - 1939) Forest Creek drypoint etching, no. 27 10.5 x 15 cm (frame: 34 x 36 x 3 cm) signed lower right

            Est: AUD500 - AUD700

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1881 - 1939) Forest Creek drypoint etching, no. 27 10.5 x 15 cm (frame: 34 x 36 x 3 cm) signed lower right

            Lawsons
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'To the Hills', Etching 13/50, 12.5x15cm (plate)sold
            Dec. 04, 2022

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), 'To the Hills', Etching 13/50, 12.5x15cm (plate)

            Est: AUD500 - AUD1,000

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) 'To the Hills' Etching 13/50 12.5x15cm (plate) PROVENANCE: Deceased estate, Sydney.

            Davidson Auctions
          • ELIOTH GRUNER, ST. TROPEZ, 1924sold
            Dec. 01, 2022

            ELIOTH GRUNER, ST. TROPEZ, 1924

            Est: AUD20,000 - AUD30,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 - 1939) ST. TROPEZ, 1924 oil on board 35.0 x 44.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed lower right: E. GRUNER / FRANCE / 1924 inscribed with title verso: St. Tropez PROVENANCE J. Cannell, New South Wales, c.1928 Thence by descent Brian Cannell, New South Wales, by 1940 W. D. Gordon, Sydney Spink Auctions, Sydney, 8 October 1980, lot 144 Private collection, Sydney  EXHIBITED Salon National des Beaux Arts, Grand Palais, Paris, 1928 Loan Exhibition of the works of Elioth Gruner, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 December 1932 – 21 February 1933, cat. 99 Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April – 31 May 1940, cat. 26 (lent by Mr. Brian Cannell) Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 5 July – 4 August 1940, cat. 38 Elioth Gruner 1882 – 1939, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 July – 4 September 1983, cat. 45 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Art in Australia, The Recent Work of Elioth Gruner. Deluxe Edition, Third Series, Ure Smith Publishing, Sydney, no. 27, March 1929, pl. 23 (illus.) Pearce, B., Elioth Gruner 1882 – 1939, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1983, cat. 45, p. 47  RELATED WORK Aloes, St Tropez, c.1924, oil on canvas on board, 37.0 x 35.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide   ESSAY In 1923, Elioth Gruner sailed for London with financial assistance from his friend and patron, the collector Howard Hinton. This was the fulfilment of Gruner’s great desire to see the works of European artists in the flesh. A prodigy of Julian Ashton’s art school, Gruner later ran a small gallery in Bligh Street, Sydney that focussed solely on Australian painting. By the time he left the country, he had also been awarded the Wynne Prize three times and would subsequently win four more. With this in mind, Gruner was asked to manage a large touring exhibition of Australian art to be shown in London – to which he reluctantly agreed. Titled Exhibition of Works of Australian Artists, it was a show dominated by Australian plein air landscape paintings, which sensationally put Gruner at the sharp end of noted British artist Sir William Orpen, who roundly criticised Gruner in front of his paintings – unaware that he was the artist. Realising his mistake, Orpen then – more supportively – gave him a range of suggestions about form, composition and technique. It is to Gruner’s credit that he took these comments seriously. At the exhibition’s end, and possibly in company of Roy de Maistre, he travelled to Paris where, counter-intuitively to his previous studies, he absorbed himself in the work of Cézanne and Gauguin. From Paris, he went to St Tropez and set himself a series of post-impressionist challenges seen in a discrete number of works, of which St Tropez, 1924 is an early example.   One of Cézanne’s most influential statements was that a landscape painting is not real life; it is an image of real life. He flattened planes, stressed the importance of structure, and interrogated the use of paint. Cézanne’s art was the basis for cubism and in many ways, St Tropez recalls George Braque’s famous Houses at l’Estaque, 1908 (Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art), as Gruner crowds his middle ground with the jostle of houses located near the town square, each reduced to a basic planar form. Importantly, his overall small output of work was due to the ‘considerable time (he spent) in the careful pre-consideration of his subject matter and, frequently, a long time in the execution of his picture.’1 In St Tropez Gruner looks toward the Chapelle de la Miséricorde built in 1645 by a quasi-official religious order called the ‘black penitents.’ His subject choice of houses and the domed bell tower is already a marked change as, prior to Europe, urban buildings rarely featured in Gruner’s paintings (one example being The Bustle of Life, 1914, see lot 26) with stray barns and rustic cottages appearing instead. In St Tropez, however, they are the focus, a radical departure for such an artist. Large buildings, when they do appear in his earlier work, are mostly used anonymously as distant zones of delineation; they have no presence other than providing perspective. In reality, the Chapelle’s tower is glazed with green and gold tiles but here, Gruner reduces it to two small sections of soft brown. The distant mountains over the bay are likewise simplified to two solid tones of blue, echoed by a further two roof lines of purpled shadow.   Gruner returned in 1925 and began a fresh take on the Australian landscape. In 1929, his long-time supporter, Art in Australia magazine, published an issue devoted to his work. Reproduced were four of his St Tropez paintings, including this lot, plus one from a boat trip to Capri.2   1. Burdett, B., ‘The Later Work of Elioth Gruner’,  Art in Australia, Sydney, 3rd series, no. 27, 1 March 1929, n.p. 2. A fifth St Tropez painting is also known.   ANDREW GAYNOR

            Deutscher and Hackett
          • ELIOTH GRUNER, THE BUSTLE OF LIFE (also known as MARTIN PLACE, SYDNEY), 1914sold
            Dec. 01, 2022

            ELIOTH GRUNER, THE BUSTLE OF LIFE (also known as MARTIN PLACE, SYDNEY), 1914

            Est: AUD45,000 - AUD65,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 - 1939) THE BUSTLE OF LIFE (also known as MARTIN PLACE, SYDNEY), 1914 oil on wood panel 13.5 x 23.0 cm signed and dated lower right: E. GRUNER / 14 bears inscription verso [partially obscured]: … Hobart / 1914. PROVENANCE Mildred Lovett (Mrs Stanley Paterson), Hobart, acquired directly from the artist, 1914 Gordon Esling, Sydney James R. Jackson, Sydney, 1951 Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 7 May 2001, lot 121 (as ‘Paris’) Savill Galleries, Sydney Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Society of Artists’ Annual Exhibition, Society’s Rooms, Queen Victoria Markets, Sydney, November 1914, cat.165 (as ‘The Bustle of Life’, lent by Mildred Lovett) Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April – 31 May 1940, cat. 213 (as ‘Martin Place’, label attached verso, lent by Mrs S. Paterson) We are grateful to Steven Miller, Head of the Edmund and Joanna Capon Research Library and Archive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, for his assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY Elioth Gruner’s Bustle of Life 1914, is a painting filled with light and activity, intensified by its modest scale. Gruner stood next to the General Post Office (GPO) building and painted the view looking up the incline, creating what is known as an enfilade view in the process. Originally called Moore Street, though also known colloquially as ‘Post Office Street’ until the early 1920s, Martin Place no doubt follows an original track laid down by the Cadigal people as they took a short cut overland through what are now the Botanic Gardens, trekking between the two fishing grounds of the contemporary Circular Quay and Woolloomooloo Bay. The location was only 200 metres from the small gallery that Gruner managed in Bligh Street, and judging by the sunlight and midday shadows, probably began life as a paint sketch on one of his lunchbreaks, later finished in his studio.   Encouraged by his mother, Gruner displayed an early talent for art and, by the age of 12, was attending drawing lessons with Julian Ashton, enrolling formally at his art school two years later. In 1912, he worked at the Fine Arts Society’s gallery and part-time as school assistant to Ashton, but with the advent of World War One, the gallery closed and Gruner relied on teaching and painting sales to survive. He lived precariously, as recounted by John Brackenreg many years later, when Gruner told him that in 1913 ‘I had tuppence left in my pocket, so I walked in to Bondi Junction to catch a tram into city, wondering whether I had any luck to sell a picture (at The Society of Artists’ annual exhibition). (W)hen I got there they had sold the lot.’1 This was a 120-guinea windfall for the struggling artist. Starting with the arched colonnade of the GPO (opened 1874) at lower right, Gruner looks east up Moore Street from the George Street corner. Midway is the Pitt Street crossing where thoroughfare became a narrower laneway leading to Castlereagh Street and beyond. The tall building beyond the GPO housed the Reuters news agency, and in the distance may be seen the spire of St Stephen’s church. On the left stand a variety of office buildings containing shipping agents, government departments, accountants, dentists and other professional workers. Fashionable people, street barrows, and horses with carts populate the rest of Gruner’s scene.   This vista was radically changed by the early 1930s when the Place was widened and lengthened with a number of buildings, including St Stephen’s, demolished in the process. Controversially, the church was then rebuilt in Macquarie Street resulting in the lamented demolition of Burdekin House, long considered the most beautiful colonial house in Sydney. As such, Gruner’s Bustle of Life presents a lost moment in time – one of the last days of summer pleasure before the catastrophe of the war erupted in August. Within weeks, this scene had transformed into a major centre for volunteer soldier registration and was later filled with passionate crowds debating the divisive issue of conscription. In 1918, crowds again descended on Martin Place to celebrate the long-awaited Armistice.   1. John Brackenreg, 1982, cited in Pearce, B., Elioth Gruner 1882 – 1913, Art Gallery New South Wales, Sydney, 1983, p.14                                                                            ANDREW GAYNOR                                    

            Deutscher and Hackett
          • ELIOTH GRUNER, MITCHELL RIVER, VICTORIA, ALSO KNOWN AS GIPPSLAND LAKES, C.1930sold
            Sep. 14, 2022

            ELIOTH GRUNER, MITCHELL RIVER, VICTORIA, ALSO KNOWN AS GIPPSLAND LAKES, C.1930

            Est: AUD100,000 - AUD140,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 - 1939) MITCHELL RIVER, VICTORIA, ALSO KNOWN AS GIPPSLAND LAKES, c.1930 oil on canvas 65.0 x 79.0 cm signed lower right: GRUNER PROVENANCE Walter D. Pye, New South Wales, by 1933 Sotheby's, Melbourne, 14 August 1989, lot 408 (as ‘The Entrance’) James Fairfax AC, New South Wales Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Loan Exhibition of the Works of Elioth Gruner, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 December 1932 – 21 February 1933, cat. 73  LITERATURE Tildesley, B., ‘The Gruner Exhibition at the National Art Gallery’,  Sydney Mail, Sydney, 28 December 1932, p. 17 Elioth Gruner’s Oil Paintings, special issue of Art in Australia Sydney, 3rd series, no. 50, 15 June 1933, p. 25 (illus., as ‘Gippsland Lakes’) Dobson, R., Australia Land of Colour, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1962, p. 12 (illus., as ‘Gippsland Lakes, Victoria’) Ingram, T., ‘Art Market’, in Art and Australia, Fine Arts Press, Sydney, vol. 27, no. 2, Summer 1989, p. 293 (illus., as ‘The Entrance’)   We are grateful to the East Gippsland Historical Society; and Steven Miller, Head of the Edmund and Joanna Capon Research Library and Archive, Art Gallery of New South Wales, for their assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY In the early months of 1930, Elioth Gruner stood on top of the summit now known as Eagle Point, ten kilometres south of Bairnsdale. Here on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people he painted Mitchell River, Victoria, c.1930 which shows the junction of the river as it flows into Jones Bay through a cutting made by an earlier flood. In the distance are the hills to the north of Bairnsdale whilst in the foreground lie a series of farmlets below the ‘Bluff’ at Eagle Point. To the right, just out of frame, run the unusually long natural phenomena known as the Mitchell River silt jetties. It is a harmonious view of a bucolic land unmistakeably shaped by European hands. Until the early 1920s, Gruner had painted in the Barbizon-informed plein air manner championed by his teacher and then employer, Julian Ashton, for whom the young man was one of his favoured protégés. Gruner’s paintings of farmers and cattle in the frosty early morning were immensely popular and had already earned him three Wynne Prize awards between 1916 and 1921 (he went on to win another four by 1937). These earlier works were also distinguished by an almost impressionistic use of paint application and texture. He travelled to London in 1923 where he encountered the British artist Sir William Orpen, who openly criticised his work, advising Gruner to use a thinner, more pastel-like application of paint. Orpen also suggested that he place an increased emphasis on structure, pattern and rhythm of forms in the landscape, much in the manner of English modernist painters who also favoured painting such scenery from a high vantage point. Over the next years, Gruner concentrated on these ideas with increasing success and Mitchell River, Victoria Mitchell River, Victoria is one of four known works from this Gippsland journey, with the others being Lakes Entrance, last exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1940; Bairnsdale, Victoria, not seen publicly since its sale at auction in 1974; and Valley near Bairnsdale, 1930, sold through Deutscher and Hackett in November 2021. Mitchell River, Victoria was also reproduced in colour in Art in Australia (as ‘Gippsland Lakes’) in an edition devoted to Gruner’s work in 1933. The magazine was a solid supporter of the artist throughout his career and had similarly featured his paintings in an earlier volume in 1929. Mitchell River, Victoria has been owned by two distinguished collectors, Dr. Walter Pye, who donated his family’s Darling Point mansion ‘Lindesay’ to the National Trust in 1963; and his close friend Sir James Fairfax AC. The latter was forthright in his appreciation of Mitchell River, Victoria, and on Pye’s death, Fairfax purchased the painting, referring to it thereafter as ‘Walter’s Gruner.’ 1. ‘An impression of the Society of Artists’ Annual Exhibition’, Art in Australia, 3rd series, no. 34, October – November 1930, p. 16 ANDREW GAYNOR

            Deutscher and Hackett
          • ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Dawn 1937 oil on canvasboardsold
            Aug. 24, 2022

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Dawn 1937 oil on canvasboard

            Est: AUD20,000 - AUD30,000

            ELIOTH GRUNER 1882-1939 Dawn 1937 oil on canvasboard signed and dated 'GRUNER 1937' lower right 41 x 36 cm frame: original, S.A. Parker, Sydney PROVENANCE Elioth Gruner, Sydney Ethel Wise, Sydney Trevor Bussell Fine Art Gallery, Sydney Private Collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1987 Private Collection, Sydney, by descent from the above EXHIBITED Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April - 31 May 1940, no. 125 LITERATURE Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1940, p. 25

            Smith & Singer
          • GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Evening, Drypoint Etching no. 6, 13.5x17.5cm (plate)sold
            Aug. 21, 2022

            GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Evening, Drypoint Etching no. 6, 13.5x17.5cm (plate)

            Est: AUD700 - AUD1,200

            GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) Evening Signed and inscribed in pencil. Drypoint Etching no. 6 13.5x17.5cm (plate)

            Davidson Auctions
          • Attrib. GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Study for 'The Barn (Carting Hay)' c.1917., Oil on Board, 21x29cmsold
            Aug. 21, 2022

            Attrib. GRUNER Elioth (1882-1939), Study for 'The Barn (Carting Hay)' c.1917., Oil on Board, 21x29cm

            Est: AUD3,000 - AUD6,000

            Attrib. GRUNER, Elioth (1882-1939) Study for 'The Barn (Carting Hay)' c.1917. Work of this title and subject is in the collection of the Geelong Art Gallery (see image). This work is likely a preparatory sketch for the Geelong painting. Signed lower right 'E. GRUNER,' undated. Oil on Board 21x29cm PROVENANCE: Deceased estate, Sydney.

            Davidson Auctions
          • Elioth Gruner (1882-1939),sold
            Aug. 20, 2022

            Elioth Gruner (1882-1939),

            Est: AUD300 - AUD500

            The Poplars drypoint etching no.17 signed, titled and numbered below image 15.5cm x 18cm

            Aalders Auctions
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