Fred Williams Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1927 - d. 1982

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  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape (Diptych number 2) 1962 aquatint, engraving, and drypoint, ed. 56/65 15 x 23.5 cm (47 x 52cm fra...
    Sep. 08, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape (Diptych number 2) 1962 aquatint, engraving, and drypoint, ed. 56/65 15 x 23.5 cm (47 x 52cm fra...

    Est: $1,800 - $2,400

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape (Diptych number 2) 1962 aquatint, engraving, and drypoint, ed. 56/65 signed lower right: Fred Williams editioned lower left: 56 - 65 15 x 23.5 cm (47 x 52cm framed) PROVENANCE: The Estate of Sue Hewitt, Sydney (1941-2024) OTHER NOTES: The Art Gallery of New South Wales has later state (ix) 359.2005.48, after the plate has been cut in two. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), The Boyfriend, etching, aquatint, engraving and drypoint, ed. 13/18, 20 x 16 cm. (7.87 x 6.29 in.), frame: 30 x 26 x 1 cm. (11.81 x 10.24 x 0.39 in.)
    Aug. 31, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), The Boyfriend, etching, aquatint, engraving and drypoint, ed. 13/18, 20 x 16 cm. (7.87 x 6.29 in.), frame: 30 x 26 x 1 cm. (11.81 x 10.24 x 0.39 in.)

    Est: $2,500 - $3,500

    FRED WILLIAMS Australia, (1927 - 1982) The Boyfriend etching, aquatint, engraving and drypoint, ed. 13/18 editioned and signed to margin: Fred Williams

    Lawsons
  • FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), Upwey Landscape No. 1, 1965-66, etching, engraving and flat biting, State II/III; ed.20/30, 27.5 x 14.5 cm. (10.83 x 5.71 in.), frame: 50 x 38 x 2 cm. (19.67 x 14.96 x 0.79 in.)
    Aug. 31, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), Upwey Landscape No. 1, 1965-66, etching, engraving and flat biting, State II/III; ed.20/30, 27.5 x 14.5 cm. (10.83 x 5.71 in.), frame: 50 x 38 x 2 cm. (19.67 x 14.96 x 0.79 in.)

    Est: $3,000 - $5,000

    FRED WILLIAMS Australia, (1927 - 1982) Upwey Landscape No. 1, 1965-66 etching, engraving and flat biting, State II/III; ed.20/30 editioned and signed to margin: Fred Williams Rex Irwin Art Dealer label verso

    Lawsons
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982)
    Aug. 30, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982)

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    "Dancing Figures" Etching, Aquatint, Engraving and Drypoint on Paper 20x19.5 Plate Signed Lower Right Edition: 15/25 $2,000-3,000 Prov: Robert Steele Galleries, Vic

    Elder Fine Art
  • Fred Williams, Flinders Island, 1981
    Aug. 26, 2026

    Fred Williams, Flinders Island, 1981

    Est: $30,000 - $40,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Flinders Island, 1981 gouache on paper 57.0 x 75.0 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams.  PROVENANCE Michael Gleeson-White, AO, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist in 1981  Estate of the above, Sydney RELATED WORK Flinders Island, 1974, gouache and synthetic polymer paint on paper, 56.8 x 76.8 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY Flinders Island lies to the south of Victoria in eastern Bass Straight and is the largest of fifty islands known collectively as the Furneaux Group. It was the site of much sorrow for Indigenous Australians in the nineteenth century, but by the time Fred Williams visited in 1974, the resident population was sparse, subsisting on rural industries including fishing, muttonbirding, dairying and sheep farming. It was nonetheless a striking environment of great physical beauty and Williams completed there a small suite of robust yet atmospheric gouaches. He travelled to the island at the beginning of the year with his family and his painting colleague Fraser Fair, noting in his diary for 5 January, that he had decided to ‘try for finished pictures on the spot – rather than simply fact gathering.’1 Flinders Island, 1981, is an excellent example of this strategy, likely painted on Vinegar Hill looking west towards the peak of Mt Strzelecki, the tallest mountain on the island.   For more than a decade, Williams had been determinedly reinterpreting the Australian landscape, finding patches of otherwise nondescript bush and turning them into masterworks of painterly process. Indeed, it is now possible to visit areas outside Melbourne, particularly the You Yangs and the Dandenongs, and ‘see’ it anew through the artist’s eyes – a response achieved by only a handful of Australian artists. On Flinders Island, Williams was presented with a new range of possibilities from the granite ridges of Mt Strzelecki to the south and Mt Killiecrankie in the north, connected in between by extensive lowlands containing lagoons and marshes fringed by beaches with extensive views over Bass Strait. It was also a landscape of extremes often beset by howling winds which no doubt played havoc as Williams painted en plein air onto large sheets of watercolour paper. After two weeks, he wrote in his diary that ‘(t)he main character [of the island]… is the apparent hourly changes in the weather – and the main part of my next week’s work will try and include this more.’2 Flinders Island is painted using gouache, a most unforgiving medium that does not allow for subsequent corrections once it is dry, particularly when creating large sections of solid colour. It is a testament to Williams’ skill that areas such as the sky and the tonal gradations of the ground are applied so fluidly, with the more thickly textured clouds added later with an equally sure hand. The sparse scrub of the marshes is punctuated by the artist’s trademark dot-dash patches of colour, and he no doubt chose the particular location – a slight depression between hills – due to the inverted curved horizon line it provided. A description of his technique, observed two months later about nearby Erith Island, credits Williams with ‘working from the inside out – [starting] with the minutiae of a painting and [building] up these into a coherent whole.’3   Williams would subsequently develop some of the Flinders and Erith Island ideas into large scale paintings, but it is in these dramatic gouaches that the immediacy of his sensations is retained. A companion work of the same title and dimensions is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.                                                                                                          1. Fred Williams, 5 January 1974, cited in Mollison, J., A singular vision: the art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 166 2. Fred Williams, 18 January 1974, cited in ibid., p. 166 3. Turner, I., ‘Artists’ Camp Erith Island: March 1974’, Overland, no. 60, 1974, p. 42, cited in Hart, D., Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 121   ANDREW GAYNOR © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Barwon in flood II, 1978
    Aug. 26, 2026

    Fred Williams, Barwon in flood II, 1978

    Est: $250,000 - $350,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Barwon in flood II, 1978 oil on canvas 96.0 x 106.0 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams PROVENANCE Estate of the artist Lyn Williams, Melbourne (label attached verso)  Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney (label attached verso, as ‘Barwon in Flood’) Michael Gleeson-White AO, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1996  Estate of the above, Sydney EXHIBITED Fred Williams, Waterfall Paintings, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, 3 September – 5 October 1996, cat. 3 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)  RELATED WORK Barwon in Flood, 1979, oil on canvas, 96.0 x 106.5 cm, illus. in McCaughey, P., Fred Williams 1927 – 1982, revised edition, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1996, p. 22   We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY The late 1970s was an intensely productive period for Fred Williams. He travelled internationally and held a series of solo exhibitions and in 1975 was the first Australian artist to be honoured with an invitation to present a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition of gouaches opened in March 1977, acknowledging the significance of his art and its unique vision of the landscape within a national context, both to audiences who were familiar with the country his images described, and beyond. Introducing the exhibition, the Director of MoMA’s Department of Drawings, William S. Lieberman, wrote: ‘Fred Williams knows Australia. He is not an artist who would disdain a gum tree. He is not a foreigner seeking to impose a natural paradise on some strange, exotic land. He is, however, a romantic artist and his approach to landscape is narrative. His images may at first seem abstract, but they in fact describe actual times and places… Fred Williams’s colours are those of the continent itself… Fred Williams’s vision is authentic.’1 Following the celebrated series of Werribee Gorge paintings, he began another series focussing on waterfalls. As he later recalled, ‘My enthusiasm was fired by the [Eugene] von Guérard Waterfall at Strath Creek in the Sydney Gallery. It was a picture I’ve always admired, and I made a free copy of it about fifteen years ago and had forgotten about it and put it aside… One day I woke up and thought, well actually I wouldn’t mind going around and looking at more of them.’2 With this and other nineteenth-century paintings as inspiration, as well as the 1940s publication, Physiography of Victoria as a guide, Williams visited eleven waterfalls across southern Victoria during February and March 1979. Williams didn’t drive, so painting trips were often made in the company of artist friends. After visiting Strath Creek Falls at the start of February with fellow artist Andrew Sibley, he wrote in his diary: ‘After several abortive efforts we get there (It’s not easy to find – [Despite the frontal viewpoint of] the von Guérard painting it is only accessible from the top – absolutely splendid… It is all very superb to paint… The landscape was quite brilliant around the falls & I will certainly go back there.’3 Still absorbed by the possibilities of the subject, the next day, he wrote: ‘I keep thinking of the ‘Strath Falls’ & will attempt a series of (large) pictures of it.’4 It would appear, however, that the idea of waterfalls as a subject had been in his mind for several years. In 1977, he made a small group of paintings of the Lal Lal Falls and the following year, he visited Geelong with Fraser Fair planning to paint a waterfall on the Barwon River. When the pair arrived however, they discovered that the river was in flood, and this painting is one of the works that Williams made in response to the unexpected scene with which he was presented. His process during these years was to make oil sketches on the spot – the canvases were small, approximately one metre square, so that they could be easily transported – recording the essential elements of the landscape, its structure and geography, as well as the colours and qualities of the light. Some of these paintings were reworked later and used as the basis for large-scale studio works. James Mollison writes that in these paintings on finely textured American canvas Williams used pre-Second World War Winsor and Newton paints (bought from Alan Moore, who had been an official war artist).5 The dynamism and visual complexity of the scene described in Barwon in flood II, 1978, are echoed in the energy of the paint work which conjures up something of the creative energy involved in its making, as well as the artist’s command of painterly gesture. Using a diversity of brushstrokes – from the characteristic dots and daubs that describe the distant vegetation, to the lively dancing lines that represent the movement of the fast-flowing water – Williams captures both the appearance of the landscape and the feeling of being there. The palette is similarly rich, the luminous colours of the flat terrain beyond the river and the cool pale glow of the sky providing a dramatic contrast to the muddy browns and white highlights of the flooded river. The scene also includes three towering chimneys in the upper right, pointing to the nearby presence of industry and reminding us that this is very much a twentieth-century landscape. 1. Lieberman, W. S., Fred Williams – Landscapes of a Continent, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1977, unpaginated 2. Fred Williams, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 220 3. Fred Williams Diary, 1 February 1979, cited in Mollison, ibid., p. 223 4. Fred Williams Diary, 2 February 1979, cited in Mollison, ibid. 5. See Mollison, ibid., pp. 220 & 224 KIRSTY GRANT © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Saplings, 1961
    Aug. 26, 2026

    Fred Williams, Saplings, 1961

    Est: $180,000 - $240,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Saplings, 1961 oil on composition board 121.0 x 83.5 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams.  bears inscription verso: 9  PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Art Gallery, Sydney  Michael Gleeson-White AO, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1962  Estate of the above, Sydney EXHIBITED Fred Williams, Rudy Komon Art Gallery, Sydney, opened 29 August 1962, cat. 9 Art from the Collections of the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, 14 – 29 October 1981, cat. 32 (label attached verso) RELATED WORK Mittagong landscape, 1958, oil and tempera on composition board, 150.6 x 119.6 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Saplings, Mittagong, 1961-62, gouache and watercolour on paper, 52.8 x 37.1 cm (sheet), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra   We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY Saplings, 1961, belongs to a select group of early paintings by Fred Williams where he first successfully integrated the ideas of his great hero Paul Cézanne into a tangible reinterpretation of the Australian forest landscape. This group includes other significant paintings such as Landscape with steep road, 1958 (National Gallery of Australia) and The charcoal burner, 1959 (National Gallery of Victoria), in which Williams fragmented then reconstructed a view of the ‘not-very-distinguished-looking scrubby country [which was] known to everybody, but nobody had found the language with which to describe it.’1 Australia to that date had a long tradition of ‘painters of the bush’ from the Heidelberg School and its acolytes, through to the modernist breakthroughs of Clarice Beckett, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. Nonetheless, Williams was determined to bring his own concentrated study to the subject following a revelation in Fremantle as he was returning by ship to Melbourne in December 1956 after four years of study in London and was struck anew by the possibilities of the Australian light and expansiveness.   In Melbourne, he reconnected with former National Gallery School colleagues including John Brack who suggested that Williams visit his friends John and Joan Stephens who lived in Colo Vale, near Mittagong in New South Wales. Located on the traditional lands of the Gundungurra and Dharawal people, this is a region of eucalypt woodlands and open forests set amongst gullies and sandstone gorges cut through by the Nattai River. Williams arrived in August 1957, staying for a month and soon discovered that it was a ‘very romantic bit of country’, noting afterwards that ‘it was in Mittagong that I… formulated my ideas.’2 Such was his attraction that Williams returned again the following year, returning each time with a collection of images that marked a turning point in his career, ‘remarkable for their formal mastery and the originality of their vision.’3 He painted Saplings first as a gouache on site in 1958 and worked it into a larger painting three years later in his studio above his step-father’s hardware store in Exhibition Street, Melbourne. This became a common practice for Williams, bringing stand-alone studies back to the studio and putting them aside ‘for as long as possible… so that I am not emotionally involved.’4 He explained this desire to resist his original impulse as ‘a form of being more objective.’5 As with Cézanne and the Cubist painter Georges Braque, Williams recognised that a painting is not simply a replica of a landscape where an artist tries not ‘to reconstitute an anecdotal fact but [instead] constitute a pictorial fact.’6 The gouache version from 1958 is of a softer palette with a pronounced pink blush, whereas in Saplings, 1961, the tone is one of terracotta as if enduring an extended rainless spell. The brushwork too is more vigorous, particularly in the slope of the background gully wall, and he has added two imagined hilltops to the raised horizon line to increase the sense of distance. Additionally, Williams removes clouds and any cast shadows, causing the viewer to focus instead on the formal solidity of the trees and the undulation of their canopies set against the sharply angular lines of the surrounding terrain, a painterly strategy that was to preoccupy him throughout his subsequent career.   1. James Mollison, interviewed by Bala Starr, cited in Fred Williams: Pilbara series, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2000, p. 5 2. Fred Williams, cited in Mollison, J., A singular vision: the art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 36 3. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams 1927 – 1982, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1984 (revised ed. 2008), p. 138 4. Fred Williams, recorded by Film Australia. c.1976, cited in Mollison, op. cit., p. 166 5. ibid. 6. Georges Braque, cited in McCaughey, op. cit., p. 114   ANDREW GAYNOR © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Paraburdoo landscape, 1981
    Aug. 26, 2026

    Fred Williams, Paraburdoo landscape, 1981

    Est: $300,000 - $400,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Paraburdoo landscape, 1981 oil on canvas 96.0 x 107.0 cm signed upper right: Fred Williams.  bears inscription verso: 862  PROVENANCE Estate of the artist Lyn Williams, Melbourne Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney (label attached verso)  Michael Gleeson-White AO, Sydney, acquired from the above in May 1994  Estate of the above, Sydney EXHIBITED Rex Irwin Art Dealer at Art Asia, Hong Kong, 18 – 22 November 1993    We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY On 2 June 1979, Fred and Lyn Williams flew from Perth to Paraburdoo: ‘I am up at 4am. Don’t really sleep at all – and naturally I’m a wreck. We stagger out to the airport only to find that it’s closed by fog – sit there in a state of depression – finally leave at 7.30am. It’s raining at Carnarvon, and we don’t leave the plane. Fly inland and the rain quickly disappears. It staggers us the time it’s taken to get here – we could have flown to Paris or New York in less time…’1 This was the second trip to the Pilbara, a remote region in the far north-west of Australia, that Williams had made that year. The first trip had taken place in May at the invitation of Sir Roderick Carnegie, the artist’s friend who, at the time, was Chairman of Conzinc Rio Tinto of Australia Limited (CRA), now Rio Tinto. Carnegie had been impressed by the recent paintings of Weipa – a coastal mining town in far north Queensland – that he saw in Williams’ studio and recognised that the landscape of the Pilbara, where CRA had extensive mining operations, would introduce him to a dramatic new landscape unlike anything he had ever experienced and provide fresh creative inspiration. The Carnegie and Williams families travelled together during the school holidays, flying from Melbourne to Derby in the CRA jet, and then continuing on by light plane and road.2 The five day trip, which took them from diamond mines at Ellendale, to Broome, Dampier, Mount Tom Price, Hamersley and the Pilbara, was a revelation for Williams who painted gouaches on the spot and took hundreds of photographs of the landscape. On May 13 he wrote in his diary that it had been ‘A day when my head is full of images – to the point where I cannot think about today or tomorrow…’ and a few days later, before they returned to Melbourne, ‘The countryside is beautiful indeed and I would really like to work from [it]… we may well do this for a week soon?’3 Williams continued to paint more gouaches in the studio immediately after the second Pilbara visit, but it wasn’t until early 1981, almost two years later, that he began work on the related paintings. Once he started to paint however, the images flowed quickly in a process that was ‘sheer pleasure.’4 As James Mollison explained: ‘The pictures were put down rapidly, with the artist frequently using not his brush but scratchy old paint-hardened rags to wipe on land, sky and other elements of the landscape. Details were then drawn in, and the paintings were set aside to dry… Some were never touched after the first day’s work.’5 CRA subsequently purchased thirteen oils and eighteen gouaches – now known as The Pilbara Series – which were donated to the National Gallery of Victoria in 2001. The last major series Williams made before his premature death in 1982, it is a masterful expression of an artist working at the height of his powers, combining expansive views of the landscape with focussed close-up images of wildflowers and insects. Responding to the experience of flying over the area, Williams often adopts an aerial perspective, looking down on the open landscape to reveal its overwhelming scale, but he also depicts views from the ground, where flat country is interrupted by gorges, mountains and the distinctive flat-topped mesas. From rich reds and ochres of the earth to pastel-hues of early evening skies, the series is also characterised by striking colour. Paraburdoo landscape, 1981 is part of the broader series of paintings that Williams made following his experience of the Pilbara. An earthy red ground covers the canvas from edge to edge, but it is a delicate layer of paint – with brushstrokes visible in the lower right and the weave of the canvas discernible on the left – that suggests both the look and the feel of the dusty red earth of the region. Laid over this is a dazzling array of painterly marks – dots, daubs and lines of colour alongside areas of scumbled texture – that build up an impression of the landscape. Through this very singular abstracted visual language, Williams describes aspects of the area’s geography and the diversity of vegetation, communicating both the physical and emotional experience of being in the landscape. In this painting, both the energy with which it was painted and the pleasure the artist derived from the process are palpable. Indeed, as Williams mused, ‘anyone who could not paint in this particular country is probably in the wrong profession.’6 1. Fred Williams Diary, 2 June 1979, cited in Phipps, J., Fred Williams – The Pilbara Series, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2011, p. 41 2. Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 230 3. Fred Williams Diary, 13 May 1979, cited in Phipps, op. cit., p. 37 4. Lyn Williams, cited in Mollison, op. cit., p. 232 5. Mollison, ibid, pp. 232 – 233 6. Fred Williams Diary, 7 June 1979, cited in Phipps, op. cit., p. 42 KIRSTY GRANT © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Two green clouds, 1967
    Aug. 26, 2026

    Fred Williams, Two green clouds, 1967

    Est: $1,000,000 - $1,500,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Two green clouds, 1967 oil on canvas 122.0 x 152.0 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams bears inscription on typed label verso: Fred Williams / “Two Green Clouds” PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso) Walter McGrath, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1967 Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney Ray and Diana Kidd, Sydney, acquired from the above 1971 Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 17 November 2010, lot 11 (dated 1966) Private collection, Queensland EXHIBITED Fred Williams, Georges Gallery, Melbourne, 25 September – 14 October 1967, cat. 15 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 1967, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 January – 18 February 1968, cat. 92 LITERATURE McCaughey, P., Fred Williams, Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, pl. 8, p. 19 (illus.) Fred Williams, cited in McCaughey, P., and Timlin, J., The Diaries of Fred Williams. 1963 – 1970, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2024, pp. 217 (illus.), 236, 238, 248 RELATED WORK Green Cloud and Owl, 1965 – 66, oil on canvas, 183.0 x 152.0 cm, private collection, formerly Mertz Collection, USA Green Cloud and Owl II, 1966, oil on canvas, 150.0 x 120.0 cm, Private collection, USA Green Cloud I, 1967, oil on canvas, 152.5 x 183.0 cm, private collection Green cloud and owl, 1965, gouache on paper, 51.0 x 49.5 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY Like so many young artists of his generation, Fred Williams left Australia and travelled overseas at the end of 1951, seeking exposure to broader artistic and cultural influences than those which were available to him in mid-century Melbourne. While his training had emphasised the centrality of the figure in Western art, returning home after five years in London, Williams saw opportunity and creative potential in the landscape of his own country and the focus of his art changed direction. His friend, John Brack, expressed reservations about the landscape – and particularly the ubiquitous gum tree – as a valid subject for contemporary painting, but Williams recognised it as part of a longstanding and respected artistic tradition which was ripe for new interpretation. Similarly, although the anti-picturesque qualities of his homeland seemed uninspiring to some, for Williams it represented the ideal subject: ‘It's perfectly true, it is monotonous… There is no focal point, and obviously it was too good a thing for me to pass up… the fact [that] if there’s going to be no focal point in a landscape [then] it had to [be built] into the paint… I’m basically an artist who sees things in terms of paint.’1 Williams developed a distinctive painterly language and approach to the formal composition of landscape subjects that is now ingrained in our collective consciousness. Whether he is depicting a semi-rural hillside covered with scrubby bushes and trees, or an abstract aerial view of the desert thousands of kilometres away from any city centre, his images have come to influence the way Australians see and imagine their own country. This phenomenon and the significant place that Williams was carving out for himself within the history of Australian art were recognised early on: ‘Of all the modern Australians, he is said to be the one most likely to emerge as the finest landscapist since Tom Roberts.’2 The 1960s was an important decade for Williams. In 1963, he was invited to join the stable of artists represented by Sydney art dealer, Rudy Komon, and the monthly retainer he received gave Williams and his wife, Lyn, the financial confidence to buy a house at Upwey in the Dandenong Ranges, about thirty kilometres to the east of Melbourne. That same year, Williams was awarded the prestigious Helena Rubinstein Travelling Art Scholarship, travelling for seven months in Europe in 1964. The following year was also significant – ‘for the first time [Williams] was able to paint full-time. The concentration and energy, and the time he now brought to his art, resulted in four years of astonishing variety and contrast in his painting.’3 The You Yangs continued to feature as an important subject in his work alongside new landscapes that were based on Upwey and nearby Lysterfield. The composition of the Upwey landscapes reflected the view from his home studio, looking up a hillside from the base of a valley, and paintings from this series are characterised by a narrow band of sky running across the top of a steep and often treed slope. The response to these works which are now considered ‘classic’ Williams paintings was positive: the National Gallery of Victoria purchased Upwey landscape, 1965, directly from the studio in 1965; in 1966 Williams won the Georges Invitation Art Prize with another major Upwey picture; and the following year, an Upwey subject was awarded the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Since that time, major Upwey paintings have been acquired for the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Tate, London. In the words of Patrick McCaughey: ‘They were clearly paintings of substance, well-made and fully fashioned and yet they still allowed Williams’ touch to operate. They made of the drab and featureless bush, a landscape of enduring, even monumental proportions and dignity.’4 Part of the extended Upwey series, Two green clouds, 1967, is one of a small group of paintings that are linked by the presence of a distinctive pale green cloud (or in this case, a pair of clouds) which Williams had seen ‘as it passed its single way across the early evening sky at Upwey.’5 The origin of these works was a gouache painted outdoors on a summer evening during early 1965 with no light other than that emitted by the moon. Typical of Williams’ practice of working in various media – drawing on the material qualities, technical requirements and creative innovations of one to push his work in another in new directions – subsequent gouaches of this nocturnal scene were followed by a series of five etchings in which he used various intaglio printmaking techniques as expressively as he used a paintbrush, creating rich inky tones and texture on their paper support. James Mollison explains that one of these prints inspired a subsequent gouache painted in Prussian blue and that this, in turn, led to the painting of Green cloud and owl, 1965 – 66 (private collection, formerly the Harold E. Mertz Collection, New York).6 The present painting adopts the familiar composition of the Upwey landscapes. The top third of the canvas depicts a luminous band of summer sky – the sun has gone down but there is still light in the distance – which is interrupted only by the pair of amorphous green clouds that suggest the subtle movement of air on an otherwise still summer’s night. The hillside below, which fills most of the picture, is covered with tall vertical trees and one decisive horizontal in the lower centre representing a tree that has fallen or perhaps one that has been felled. Pictorial space is radically flattened and the foliage that extends beyond the horizon line is described in the painterly hieroglyphics so distinctive of Williams’ hand. At first glance it is the rich blue of the hillside and the black tree trunks that predominate, but a closer look reveals a typically complex palette where the artist has built up layers of non-representational colour, including green, red, ochres and white highlights, which nevertheless, still describe the subject in a manner that looks and feels like the scrubby local landscapes that we all know. Highly regarded at the time they were made, the Upwey paintings presented a singular vision that ‘revalued Australian landscape painting… and renewed hope in the genre’7, further cementing Williams’ place in the history of twentieth century Australian art. 1. Fred Williams interviewed by James Gleeson, 3 October 1978, cited in Mollison, J., Fred Williams: A Singular Vision, Australian National Gallery & Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 35 2. Millar, R., ‘Landscapist who is different’, The Australian student, Country Press, Sydney, undated, unpaginated, cited in Hart, D., Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 61 3. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams 1927 – 1982, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1996, p. 166 4. ibid., p. 170 5. Mollison, op. cit., p. 91 6. See Mollison, ibid., pp. 90 – 93 7. McCaughey, op. cit., p. 170 KIRSTY GRANT © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Young Saplings, Kew Billabong II (1975) oil on canvas signed ‘Fred Williams.’ lower right 117.5 x 91.5 cm
    Aug. 25, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Young Saplings, Kew Billabong II (1975) oil on canvas signed ‘Fred Williams.’ lower right 117.5 x 91.5 cm

    Est: $400,000 - $600,000

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Young Saplings, Kew Billabong II (1975) oil on canvas signed ‘Fred Williams.' lower right 117.5 x 91.5 cm PROVENANCE Fred Williams, Melbourne The Estate of Fred Williams, Melbourne (LW130) (label verso) Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne (stock 11,798) Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above on 15 August 1998

    Smith & Singer
  • FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Lysterfield Hills III (1969) charcoal and chalk on Arches paper signed ‘Fred Williams.’ lower centre 75.5 x 56
    Aug. 25, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Lysterfield Hills III (1969) charcoal and chalk on Arches paper signed ‘Fred Williams.’ lower centre 75.5 x 56

    Est: $35,000 - $55,000

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Lysterfield Hills III (1969) charcoal and chalk on Arches paper signed ‘Fred Williams.' lower centre 75.5 x 56 cm PROVENANCE Fred Williams, Melbourne The Estate of Fred Williams, Melbourne (DX1037) Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane Private Collection, acquired from the above in 2021 EXHIBITED Fred Williams: Gouaches and Drawings from the Artist's Estate, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 8 June – 3 July 2021, no. 16, illustrated LITERATURE Fred Williams: Gouaches and Drawings from the Artist's Estate, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 2021, pp. 28 (illustrated)

    Smith & Singer
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Landscape with a Goose, 1973, drypoint, roulette, electric hand-graving tool, burnisher and plate-tone, 24.5 x 19 cm
    Aug. 25, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Landscape with a Goose, 1973, drypoint, roulette, electric hand-graving tool, burnisher and plate-tone, 24.5 x 19 cm

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Landscape with a Goose, 1973 drypoint, roulette, electric hand-graving tool, burnisher and plate-tone edition: A/P, 3rd of three states, numbered and signed below image 'A Proof, Fred Williams'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Acacias I, 1974, etching, engraving, foul biting and electric hand tool, 27 x 22 cm
    Aug. 25, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Acacias I, 1974, etching, engraving, foul biting and electric hand tool, 27 x 22 cm

    Est: $2,500 - $3,500

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Acacias I, 1974 etching, engraving, foul biting and electric hand tool edition: 7/14, numbered, signed and dated below image '7/14, Fred Williams, 1974'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Hillock, Lysterfield, 1965/66, etching on paper, 22 x 12 cm
    Aug. 25, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Hillock, Lysterfield, 1965/66, etching on paper, 22 x 12 cm

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Hillock, Lysterfield, 1965/66 etching on paper edition: 21/21, numbered and signed below image '21-21, Fred Williams'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Acacias II, 1973/74, etching, rough biting, engraving and electric hand-engraving tool, foul-bite and plate tone, printed in sepia ink, 24 x 19 cm
    Aug. 25, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Acacias II, 1973/74, etching, rough biting, engraving and electric hand-engraving tool, foul-bite and plate tone, printed in sepia ink, 24 x 19 cm

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Acacias II, 1973/74 etching, rough biting, engraving and electric hand-engraving tool, foul-bite and plate tone, printed in sepia ink edition: proof 1/1, 1st of two states, numbered, signed and dated below image 'proof 1/1, Fred Williams, '74'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape 1960 watercolour on paper 26 x 27.5cm
    Jun. 30, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape 1960 watercolour on paper 26 x 27.5cm

    Est: $10,000 - $15,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape 1960 watercolour on paper signed and dated lower right: Fred Williams 60. titled on gallery label verso 26 x 27.5cm PROVENANCE: Australian Galleries, Melbourne (label verso) Private collection, Melbourne OTHER NOTES: © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Print Council of Australia (Lysterfield) 1968 etching, ed. 13/20 17cm (tondo); 50 x 31cm (sheet, reveal)
    Jun. 19, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Print Council of Australia (Lysterfield) 1968 etching, ed. 13/20 17cm (tondo); 50 x 31cm (sheet, reveal)

    Est: $2,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Print Council of Australia (Lysterfield) 1968 etching, ed. 13/20 signed and editioned below image 17cm (tondo); 50 x 31cm (sheet, reveal) PROVENANCE: The Collection of Print Council of Australia

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS, (1927 - 1982), Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn, 1971, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.0 cm; 55.0 x 49.5 cm (framed)
    Jun. 17, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, (1927 - 1982), Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn, 1971, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.0 cm; 55.0 x 49.5 cm (framed)

    Est: $15,000 - $20,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927 - 1982) Ian Armstrong at Wedderburn, 1971 oil on canvas signed lower right: Fred Williams.

    Lawsons
  • McCAUGHY, Patrick. Fred Williams 1927-1982
    Jun. 17, 2026

    McCAUGHY, Patrick. Fred Williams 1927-1982

    Est: $60 - $80

    McCAUGHY, Patrick. Fred Williams 1927-1982, hard cover with dust jacket, published by Murdoch Books, 2008

    Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
  • FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), My Godson, 1960, etching, ed.10/20, 19 x 13.5 cm; frame: 32 x 25.5 cm
    Jun. 10, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), My Godson, 1960, etching, ed.10/20, 19 x 13.5 cm; frame: 32 x 25.5 cm

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    FRED WILLIAMS Australia, (1927 - 1982) My Godson, 1960 etching, ed.10/20 signed "Fred Williams" lower right, editioned 10.20" lower left

    Lawsons
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Seated Female Nude pen on paper 33 x 47cm (50.5 x 42.5cm framed)
    Jun. 02, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Seated Female Nude pen on paper 33 x 47cm (50.5 x 42.5cm framed)

    Est: $1,000 - $2,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Seated Female Nude pen on paper signed lower right: Fred Williams 33 x 47cm (50.5 x 42.5cm framed) PROVENANCE: The Estate of Sue Hewitt, Sydney (1941-2024) OTHER NOTES: © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Lysterfield landscape, etching, 28/30, signed lower right "Fred Williams", titled verso, 30 x 40cm, 66 x 65cm overall.
    May. 31, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Lysterfield landscape, etching, 28/30, signed lower right "Fred Williams", titled verso, 30 x 40cm, 66 x 65cm overall.

    Est: $1,200 - $2,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Lysterfield landscape, etching, 28/30, signed lower right "Fred Williams", titled verso, 30 x 40cm, 66 x 65cm overall.

    Leski Auctions Pty Ltd
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Waterfall, colour lithograph, 51/200, signed lower right "Fred Williams", sheet size 75 x 57cm, 84 x 63cm overall.
    May. 31, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Waterfall, colour lithograph, 51/200, signed lower right "Fred Williams", sheet size 75 x 57cm, 84 x 63cm overall.

    Est: $600 - $1,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Waterfall, colour lithograph, 51/200, signed lower right "Fred Williams", sheet size 75 x 57cm, 84 x 63cm overall.

    Leski Auctions Pty Ltd
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Yellow Landscape, 1964, gouache on paper laid on board, 39 x 54 cm
    May. 19, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Yellow Landscape, 1964, gouache on paper laid on board, 39 x 54 cm

    Est: $28,000 - $36,000

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Yellow Landscape, 1964 gouache on paper laid on board signed and dated l.l.c. 'Fred Williams, '64'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Water Bird and Lily Ponds, Melbourne Botanic Gardens, VI 1970, gouache on paper, 36 x 77 cm
    May. 19, 2026

    Fred Williams, (1927-1982), Water Bird and Lily Ponds, Melbourne Botanic Gardens, VI 1970, gouache on paper, 36 x 77 cm

    Est: $40,000 - $60,000

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Water Bird and Lily Ponds, Melbourne Botanic Gardens, VI 1970 gouache on paper signed and dated l.l.c. 'Fred Williams, '70'

    Shapiro Auctioneers
  • FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), You Yangs Pond, 1963-64, aquatint, ed. 20/45, 23.5 x 30 cm. (9 1/4 x 11.81 in.), frame: 50 x 55 x 5 cm. (19.67 x 21.64 x 1.97 in.)
    May. 13, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), You Yangs Pond, 1963-64, aquatint, ed. 20/45, 23.5 x 30 cm. (9 1/4 x 11.81 in.), frame: 50 x 55 x 5 cm. (19.67 x 21.64 x 1.97 in.)

    Est: $1,500 - $2,500

    FRED WILLIAMS Australia, (1927 - 1982) You Yangs Pond, 1963-64 aquatint, ed. 20/45 unsigned editioned to margin Rudy Komon certification label verso, signed by Rudy Komon

    Lawsons
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Pond in Landscape 1965
    May. 07, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Pond in Landscape 1965

    Est: $600,000 - $800,000

    PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Pond in Landscape 1965 oil on canvas 96.5 x 106.5 cm; 101.0 x 111.0 cm (framed) signed lower left: Fred Williams bears inscription verso: POND IN LANDSCAPE

    Menzies
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Creek at Mt Slide, Kinglake 1970
    May. 07, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982), Creek at Mt Slide, Kinglake 1970

    Est: $25,000 - $35,000

    PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MELBOURNE FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Creek at Mt Slide, Kinglake 1970 gouache on paper 35.5 cm diameter (image); 51.5 x 55.0 cm (sheet) signed lower right: Fred Williams.

    Menzies
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 12 x 9.5cm (image); 2...
    May. 07, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 12 x 9.5cm (image); 2...

    Est: $2,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 signed lower right: Fred Williams inscribed lower left 12 x 9.5cm (image); 29 x 20cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Gift of Les Kossatz The Collection of Gavin Fry OAM, Sydney c.1980 LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, p. 123, cat. no. 201A (illus., another example) OTHER NOTES: Another example of this print is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • Fred Williams (1927-1982) Knoll in the You Yangs, 1963-64
    May. 06, 2026

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Knoll in the You Yangs, 1963-64

    Est: $3,500 - $4,500

    Fred Williams (1927-1982) Knoll in the You Yangs, 1963-64 numbered and signed below plate:'21-25 Fred Williams' etching with aquatint, engraving and drypoint 29.5 x 45.5cm (11 5/8 x 17 15/16in).

    Bonhams
  • FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), You Yangs Pond, 1963-64, aquatint, ed. 20/45, 23.5 x 30 cm. (9 1/4 x 11.81 in.), frame: 50 x 55 x 5 cm. (19.67 x 21.64 x 1.97 in.)
    May. 04, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS, Australia (1927 - 1982), You Yangs Pond, 1963-64, aquatint, ed. 20/45, 23.5 x 30 cm. (9 1/4 x 11.81 in.), frame: 50 x 55 x 5 cm. (19.67 x 21.64 x 1.97 in.)

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    FRED WILLIAMS Australia, (1927 - 1982) You Yangs Pond, 1963-64 aquatint, ed. 20/45 unsigned editioned to margin Rudy Komon certification label verso, signed by Rudy Komon

    Lawsons
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Landscape with green cloud and owl' Etching, aquatint, and drypoint 24.5 x 26.5cm (plate)
    May. 03, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Landscape with green cloud and owl' Etching, aquatint, and drypoint 24.5 x 26.5cm (plate)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Landscape with green cloud and owl' Etching, aquatint, and drypoint Numbered 11-22 and signed in pencil in the lower margin 'Fred Williams' 24.5 x 26.5cm (plate) PROVENANCE: Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, from whom acquired by Terence Lane between 1968 and 1972 LITERATURE: Mollison 232 OTHER NOTES: See note to lot 114. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 2' Etching, engraving, and drypoint, on laid paper 26.5 x 20cm (plate)
    May. 03, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 2' Etching, engraving, and drypoint, on laid paper 26.5 x 20cm (plate)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 2' Etching, engraving, and drypoint, on laid paper Numbered 6-14 and signed in pencil in the lower margin 'Fred Williams' 26.5 x 20cm (plate) PROVENANCE: Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, from whom acquired by Terence Lane between 1968 and 1972 LITERATURE: Mollison 209 OTHER NOTES: See note to lot 114. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Oval landscape' Aquatint, engraving, and drypoint 30 x 18.5cm (plate, oval)
    May. 03, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Oval landscape' Aquatint, engraving, and drypoint 30 x 18.5cm (plate, oval)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Oval landscape' Aquatint, engraving, and drypoint Numbered 24/30 and signed in pencil in the lower right margin 'Fred Williams' 30 x 18.5cm (plate, oval) PROVENANCE: Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, from whom acquired by Terence Lane between 1968 and 1972 LITERATURE: Mollison 242 OTHER NOTES: See note to lot 114. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Chopped trees' Etching, aquatint, and engraving 20 x 22cm (plate)
    May. 03, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Chopped trees' Etching, aquatint, and engraving 20 x 22cm (plate)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'Chopped trees' Etching, aquatint, and engraving Numbered 13/35 and signed in pencil in the lower margin 'Fred Williams' 20 x 22cm (plate) PROVENANCE: Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, from whom acquired by Terence Lane between 1968 and 1972 LITERATURE: Mollison 226 OTHER NOTES: See note to lot 114. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 1' Aquatint and drypoint, printed in brown 27 x 29.5cm (plate)
    May. 03, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 1' Aquatint and drypoint, printed in brown 27 x 29.5cm (plate)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927–1982) 'You Yangs landscape, number 1' Aquatint and drypoint, printed in brown Number 12-45 and signed in pencil in the lower margin 'Fred Williams' 27 x 29.5cm (plate) PROVENANCE: Crossley Gallery, Melbourne, from whom acquired by Terence Lane between 1968 and 1972 LITERATURE: Mollison 206 OTHER NOTES: See note to lot 114. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • Fred Williams, Lysterfield landscape, c.1966 – 67
    Apr. 29, 2026

    Fred Williams, Lysterfield landscape, c.1966 – 67

    Est: $40,000 - $60,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Lysterfield landscape, c.1966 – 67 gouache on paper 39.0 x 47.0 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams PROVENANCE Private collection Christie’s, Sydney, 23 September 1985, lot 601 (as 'Landscape') Private collection Savill Galleries, Sydney, May 2000 (label attached verso) Private collection Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 2 December 2014, lot 23 (as ‘Untitled (Lysterfield Landscape)’) Company collection, Melbourne Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 4 May 2016, lot 80 Private collection, Melbourne We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry ESSAY By the mid-1960s, Fred Williams was reaching maturity as a painter, confidently entering a period of outstanding creativity. His ability to ‘find form in a seemingly featureless landscape’ transformed the familiar rural landscape of the Australian impressionists into a new, gestural, and decidedly contemporary aesthetic experience.1 Lysterfield landscape, c.1966 – 67 is painted with an expressive and sensual touch, with Williams’ discrete brushstrokes laid plainly on a velvety flat ground ranging from full-bodied and laden with pigment in the foreground, to delicate dry apostrophes along the crest of the Lysterfield hillside.   Inching towards a more reductive expression of the landscape, Fred Williams’ Lysterfield landscape, painted in gouache on paper, presents an airy and balanced minimalism, a quality in his works of the period that appeared to critics at the time ‘almost Chinese in [the] mixture of immediate gesture, spontaneous notation, with contemplation and serenity.’2 Here, Williams continues to rework the motif of the hillside which had already captivated his attention for many years, explored in various proportions, degrees of precipitous incline and elaborations of brushstrokes. Against a flat and monochrome golden ochre ground, Williams has removed all tonal variation between land and sky, together with the clear horizon line that had previously characterised his Hillside compositions. Williams’ gently sloping incline, its distant edges implied through a differentiation of painted touches, unevenly bisects the sheet of paper, providing animation to his simple composition.   Today a suburb in Melbourne’s southeast, Lysterfield was then sparsely settled countryside of rolling hills and scrubby plains. Lying a short drive from the Williams’ Upwey home, the area became a regular destination for weekday plein-air painting trips. The quick-drying and fluid medium of watercolour mixed with opaque white pigment provided Williams with an effective and immediate way of recording colouristic impressions of the landscape, creating valuable visual records for larger painted works in the studio while also remaining resolved artworks in their own right. Williams often exhibited the gouaches alongside his oil paintings. In 1971, he devoted an entire exhibition to ‘watercolours’, with fifty works selected by the artist from his own collection from the years 1957 to 1971 shown in Newcastle Art Gallery. The importance of gouaches to his oeuvre continued to be recognised within subsequent exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Australia’s 2011 retrospective, Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons.   Looking to the Barbizon School of landscape painters, in particular the work of Gustave Courbet, Williams had begun to use diagonal structuring lines to compose his landscapes, placing objects of focal importance in the intersection of these invisible vectors. In Lysterfield landscape, amongst the white, yellow and lilac accents lie two black fallen trunks, close to the horizon line. Providing an elegiac quality reminiscent of Arthur Streeton’s environmentally conscious paintings of Olinda in the late 1920s – 30s (see lot XX), the ‘chopped tree’ became a recurring motif within Fred Williams’ Lysterfield landscapes, reflecting the artist’s alarm at the number of trees being felled in the district around Upwey. He wrote in his diaries of the ‘continual swing of the axe and chainsaw... its prettiness cannot last much longer, and this makes me very sad – it is the reason we came to live here.’3   1. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams, Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, p. 154 2. Lynn, E., ‘Poetic Bushland’, The Bulletin, Sydney, vol. 88, no. 4520, 22 October 1966, p. 54 3. Fred Williams, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery and Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 97   LUCIE REEVES-SMITH © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, The bay and the bluff, Walkerville, 1970
    Apr. 29, 2026

    Fred Williams, The bay and the bluff, Walkerville, 1970

    Est: $35,000 - $45,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) The bay and the bluff, Walkerville, 1970 gouache on paper 58.5 x 79.0 cm signed lower left: Fred Williams. PROVENANCE Lewis and Dorothy Cullman, New York, USA, acquired in 1977 Thence by descent Private collection, New York, USA EXHIBITED Fred Williams: Landscapes of a Continent, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11 March – 8 May 1977, cat. 22, and touring to: Norton Gallery, Florida, 1978; Joslyn Art Museum, Nebraska, 1978 and University of Texas Art Museum, Austin, 1 February - 18 March 1979 (label attached verso) We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY At the age of 43, Fred Williams’ radical reimagining of the dry, rural Australian landscape, honed over fifteen years of continuous practice, was significantly recognised as a defining and unique national view. In his first museum exhibition in October 1970, Heroic Landscape at the National Gallery of Victoria, he was paired with the father of Australian impressionism, Arthur Streeton – a recognition of both artists’ personal and emblematic engagement with the inland natural environment. Continually refining his painterly interpretation of the landscape, throughout 1969 Williams had pushed his practice to the point of strikingly minimal abstraction. Traversing a series simply titled Australian Landscape, with its painterly gestures lightly dancing across a monochrome ground, the artist found himself at a creative impasse. In need of a ‘sea change’, a return to nature itself, Williams and his young family booked a holiday house over the summer of 1970 – 71 in Walkerville, in Gippsland’s picturesque Waratah Bay, 190km south-east of Melbourne, on the lands of the Gunai nation.1 Painted during this restorative and inspiring sojourn, The bay and the bluff, Walkerville, 1970 presents a layered sequence of four horizontal, panoramic views of the steep cliff face at South Walkerville Beach. Each depicting the same view at different times of day, tidal and atmospheric conditions, Williams contrasts the dramatic focal point of the impasto limestone headland and its constellations of jagged, submerged rocks (known locally as ‘Bird Rock’) with the smooth, graduated sweeps of blue, teal and lilac denoting the waters of Waratah Bay. Experimenting with a new format of gouache painting en plein air – known as ‘strip gouaches’ – Williams’ use of cropped narrow bands to isolate the motif within a larger landscape, eliminating a muddying and superfluous foreground or sky, was a ‘revelation in conception.’2  This format, devised earlier in 1970, while Williams had been painting views of the mouth of the Yarra river from the 24th floor of the AMP tower in Bourke St, was particularly well adapted to painting riverscapes and seascapes. Within a systematic and unvarying grid, Williams’ intense observation of the subject resulted in the recording of nuanced chromatic changes between each strip. Painted with diversified, luminous colour hitherto unseen within his oeuvre, over the summer Williams’ delicate and swift notations had ‘almost got to handwriting.’3 Of the new seascapes painted in gouache in Walkerville and other short holidays around the Mornington Peninsula that summer (Western Port Bay, Queenscliff and Sorrento), those in Walkerville were the most comprehensive, painted over a sustained period of ten days. In contrast to Williams’ paintings of rural Australia, where uniformity causes a disorienting lack of scale, the artist felt free in these gouaches to paint the naturally picturesque views of this southernmost point of the Australian mainland. Within his diaries, Williams recorded his admiration of the ‘natural state’ of the scrubland along the tops of the cliffs; while ‘beautiful’, he qualified Walkerville as a ‘curious kind of landscape.’4 Furthermore, like Claude Monet’s series of Rouen Cathedral, the repeated depiction of a motif allowed for the reintroduction of the effects of light and atmospheric conditions within his works, moving from a generalised Australian landscape to specific locations and times of day. The bay and the bluff, Walkerville was included in Landscapes of a Continent, a showcase of Williams’ gouaches held in New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1977 – the first solo exhibition of any Australian artist to take place at this prestigious location. 1. Hart, D., Fred Williams. Infinite Horizons, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 109 2. ibid. 3. Fred Williams, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery and Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 145 4. Fred Williams, cited in McCaughey, P. and Timlin, J., The Diaries of Fred Williams. 1963 – 1970, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2024, pp. 487, 611 LUCIE REEVES-SMITH © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Goomoolahra Falls, Queensland, 1971
    Apr. 29, 2026

    Fred Williams, Goomoolahra Falls, Queensland, 1971

    Est: $250,000 - $350,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Goomoolahra Falls, Queensland, 1971 synthetic polymer paint on composition board 91.0 x 113.0 cm signed lower right: Fred Williams inscribed with artist's name, title, date, medium and dimensions on artist's label verso  PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso, stock no. 3048) Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Thirteenth Anniversary Exhibition, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, December 1972 – January 1973, cat. 17 Daramalan Invitation Art Prize, Daramalan College, Canberra, April – May 1973, cat. 65 RELATED WORK Goomoolahra Falls II, 1971, synthetic polymer paint on composition board, 111.5 x 91.5 cm, private collection, illus. in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1987, p. 153 Rain forest, 1971, gouache on paper, 54.0 x 55.4 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY ‘I have a fierce desire to paint colour… I decide to completely alter my palette – the primary colors & the corresponding color[s] on either side of [them] [on the colour wheel] plus the secondary Orange, Green & Violet – I am ready to do this.’1 Fred Williams’ diaries from the late 1960s and early 1970s offer revealing insights into the way that his use of colour changed during these years. Describing the transformation, Patrick McCaughey wrote that while colour had been implicit in Williams’ earlier work, at this time it became boldly explicit.2 While his palette had been based on a traditional range of muted colours – albeit, sometimes with the inclusion of strokes of vividly coloured paint, perfectly placed to finish and energise the composition – this period witnessed a marked expansion in his chromatic approach. His friend and fellow artist, Albert Tucker (1914 – 99), contributed to these developments, encouraging Williams to use acrylic paint (also known as synthetic polymer paint) instead of gouache for his work outdoors. In the weeks leading up to a family trip to visit Tucker and his wife, Barbara, in Queensland in 1971, Williams took the leap and began using the new medium. Writing in his diary on 13 August he noted: ‘My idea to put a greater emphasis on color is having reasonable success so far – the sketches in Q[ueensland] should prove interesting.’3 Located in the Gold Coast hinterland, the Tuckers’ property at Springbrook was one of three adjacent eighteen-acre blocks that had been acquired in a collective effort to protect this area of lush rainforest. The others were owned by the artist Stephen May, who introduced the Tuckers to the region, and Arthur Boyd.4 As Lesley Harding has observed, Tucker’s paintings of this landscape are unlike anything else in his oeuvre, ‘Rolling hills and idyllic waterfalls and escarpments are rendered evocatively… and both the changeability of the sky and the shape and undulation of the land become new interests.’5 Williams also responded enthusiastically to the new landscape, writing at the end of his first day there, ‘one of Bert’s many blocks of land... [is] a very beautiful valley in a horse-shoe shape with [a] water-fall in the middle.’6 Williams painted Goomoolahra Falls on his second day at Springbrook. After working from the lookout all day making acrylic sketches on paper, he wrote, ‘I find the acrylics very hard to get used to – I almost give up but by tonight I’m glad I persevered, because they are obviously superior for outdoor work – and I can get a much fuller range of color-glazing & scumbling, which is my real forte.’7 The other advantage of the fast-drying acrylic paint was that he could work over previous layers, revising compositions on the spot. Upon returning to his studio in Melbourne, Williams reviewed the sketches from the trip, as well as making more from memory. We know that Goomoolahra Falls II, 1971 (private collection) was based on a studio sketch and given the close relationship between it and Goomoolahra Falls, Queensland, 1971, it is probable that they both followed the same process.  Despite Williams’ focus on colour, Goomoolahra Falls, Queensland is painted in a mostly subdued palette – although shades of purple and green hint at the transformation which was occurring as well as the distinctive vegetation and atmosphere of the sub-tropical location. Clearly engaged with the features of the landscape, Williams observed them carefully, from the smooth band of pale sky to the energetic and painterly depiction of trees and cascading water. Although Williams maintained a preference for painting his major canvases in oil, of those works painted in acrylic he must have regarded this one highly, as it was the only such painting to be exhibited publicly during his lifetime.8 The subject of the waterfall continued to interest Williams and in the late 1970s, he embarked on a major series of paintings of Victorian waterfalls.9 1. Fred Williams Diary, 4 April 1972, cited in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 158 2. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams 1927 – 1982, Murdoch Books, North Sydney, 1996, p. 225 3. Fred Williams Diary, 13 August 1971, cited in Mollison, ibid., p. 152 4. The Tuckers later purchased May’s block which, with their own, was sold in 2007 to the Queensland Government and is now a national park. See Harding, L., Hinterlands: Albert Tucker’s Landscapes 1960 – 1975, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, 2008, p. 38 5. Harding, ibid., p. 39 6. Fred Williams Diary, 22 August 1971, cited in Mollison, op. cit., p. 152 7. Fred Williams Diary, 23 August 1971, cited in Mollison, ibid. 8. I am grateful to Lyn Williams AM for her assistance with this essay. 9. This series includes Wild Dog Creek, 1977 (TarraWarra Museum of Art) and Waterfall polyptych, 1979 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) KIRSTY GRANT © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • Fred Williams, Flooded creek, 1977
    Apr. 29, 2026

    Fred Williams, Flooded creek, 1977

    Est: $300,000 - $400,000

    Fred Williams (1927 - 1982) Flooded creek, 1977 oil on canvas 101.5 x 107.0 cm signed lower right: Fred Williams. inscribed with artist's name, title and date on artist's label verso bears inscription on artist's label verso: No-36 PROVENANCE Private collection Sotheby's, Melbourne, 19 April 1993, lot 310 Private collection, Melbourne Private collection, Queensland Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 2 December 2015, lot 53 Private collection, Indonesia EXHIBITED National Travelling Exhibition: Fred Williams – paintings, gouaches, lithographs (Adelaide Festival Exhibition), Contemporary Art Society of Australia (SA) Inc., Adelaide, 16 March – 6 April 1978, cat. 41 RELATED WORK Dry Creek Bed, Werribee Gorge I, 1977, oil on canvas, 182.3 x 152.2 cm, Tate, London The river, Werribee Gorge, 1977, oil on canvas, 182.4 x 152.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney We are grateful to Lyn Williams for her assistance with this catalogue entry. ESSAY On returning to Australia in December 1956 following art studies in London, Fred Williams stopped at Fremantle en route to Melbourne where he ‘had a moment of revelation when he saw the landscape around Perth and realised that under this huge sky, with its sweeping horizontal distances, the landscape was never going to compose classically. He thought, if it doesn’t compose then I’ll capitalise on that, and make the paint the focus of the picture.’1 In so doing, he laid down the template which saw him become Australia’s most significant postwar landscape artist, elevating relatively humble patches of scrub into sophisticated, painterly essays. By the late 1960s, his paintings had become so sparse, lean and devoid of colour that they were almost minimalist. In 1971, however, he visited Albert Tucker at his property in Queensland and at his host’s suggestion, experimented with synthetic polymer paints triggering a suite of paintings full of unexpected verve and colour.2 Although he soon discarded the polymer, the experience unleashed what can only be considered as a second flowering in William’s career, with a disparate range of images bursting with richly hued vitality. He ‘became fascinated with the new palette and the properties of colour to the point of constructing colour charts and wheels. Yet these were largely discarded in the field. He followed his instinct.’3   To accomplish his ambitions, Williams, who had never learned to drive, initiated a weekly ritual whereby a fellow artist, beginning with John Perceval, would pick him up on a Wednesday and travel to the bush before setting up their easels ‘rain, sun or cold… [painting] feverishly for six hours.’4 In a newspaper interview, Williams said: ‘I accept any spot as a challenge. I find a trigger in the landscape for what I want to do.’5 The canvases would then be reworked wet-on-wet in the studio. Although the locations were usually non-heroic or epic, Williams was by 1976 increasingly attracted to gorges and waterfalls, ‘drawn to an elemental landscape where forces, which shaped the land, could be observed and painted.’6 These developed into what is now known as the ‘Gorge series’ of 1976 – 77, and Flooded creek, 1977, is one of his last responses to the motif before beginning a commission from Comalco Ltd to paint the Weipa district in far-north Queensland. It appears to be a companion to such works as Dry creek bed, Werribee Gorge I (Tate Gallery, London) and The river, Werribee Gorge (Art Gallery of New South Wales), both painted the same year, and is a vivid response to the raging torrent of water engorged by recent rains. A number of the ‘Gorge series’ paintings feature sharply angled bends, described by Patrick McCaughey as ‘the great-angle hooks (whose) wiry, irregular black line uncurves [sic] like a whiplash across the painting.’7 In Dry creek bed, Werribee Gorge I, an ancient creek bed lies exposed, deeply etched into the surface of the land. Although the landscape appears parched, Williams conveys a sense of renewal with signs of life seen in the scatter of plants around the creek bed. Flooded creek may well be from a similar location in Werribee Gorge, likely driven there by artist Fraser Fair – only now the vegetation blooms in response to the sudden amount of water.   The paint surface of Flooded creek is animated and vital, benefiting from Williams’ unusual tactics. John Brack, for example, who shared a studio with Williams in the late 1940s, described his approach as ‘‘farouche’: Tubes of paint were not unscrewed, they were simply chopped in half. The procedure was frenetic. Frequently, when the brush seemed too slow, the paint was added impatiently… with a rag.’8 This same sense of energy, an impatience to get his ideas onto the canvas, percolates throughout Flooded creek. Williams was once quoted as saying he didn’t like the Australian bush and the constant repetition of this contradictory statement in articles on the artist caused his wife Lyn to compose a firm rebuttal, stating ‘(c)ertainly he did not like the bush the way a 19th century Banjo Paterson-man liked it, because he was a 20th century city-bred person, as 90% of us are. He was not involved with the romantic myths of our bush-bred past but about how he perceived it today... He tried to maintain his objectivity, but as one of our daughters said, you only have to look at his paintings to know whether he cared about the landscape.’9   Flooded creek was also painted in the same year that Fred Williams became the first Australian artist to have a solo exhibition at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art in New York, which his dealer Rudy Komon proudly announced had completely sold out.10   1. James Mollison, cited in Balla Starr, ‘Interview with James Mollison’, Fred Williams: Pilbara series, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 2000, p. 4 2. Mollison, J., ‘Williams, Frederick Ronald (Fred) (1927 – 1982)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2012 3. McCaughey, P., The Later Landscapes of Fred Williams, La Louver, California, 2005, p. 11 4. McGrath, S., ‘Williams just can’t relax’, The Australian, Canberra, 6 May 1978 5. Fred Williams, cited ibid. 6. McCaughey, op. cit. 7. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams 1927 – 1982, Murdoch Books, Sydney, 1984, p. 297 8. Mollison, J., Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1987, p. 4 9. Williams, L., ‘Letter to the Editor’, The National Times, Canberra, 9 – 15 May 1982, p. 33 10. Fred Williams: landscapes of a continent, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11 March – 8 May 1977 ANDREW GAYNOR © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency 2026

    Deutscher and Hackett
  • FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 You Yangs Landscape (1963) gouache on paper 36 x 54 cm
    Apr. 28, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 You Yangs Landscape (1963) gouache on paper 36 x 54 cm

    Est: $30,000 - $40,000

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 You Yangs Landscape (1963) gouache on paper signed ‘Fred Williams.' lower right 36 x 54 cm PROVENANCE Fred Williams, Melbourne South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne (label verso) Private Collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above

    Smith & Singer
  • FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Loxton Landscape (1972) gouache on paper 55 x 75.9 cm
    Apr. 28, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Loxton Landscape (1972) gouache on paper 55 x 75.9 cm

    Est: $30,000 - $40,000

    FRED WILLIAMS 1927-1982 Loxton Landscape (1972) gouache on paper signed ‘Fred Williams.' lower left 55 x 75.9 cm PROVENANCE Fred Williams, Melbourne Arthur Simpson and Faye Simpson, Melbourne Private Collection, United States of America, acquired from the above Private Collection, acquired from the above

    Smith & Singer
  • WILLIAMS, Fred (Australia, 1927-1982). Two Publications including HART, Deborah. Infinite Horizons, Exhibition Catalogue
    Apr. 22, 2026

    WILLIAMS, Fred (Australia, 1927-1982). Two Publications including HART, Deborah. Infinite Horizons, Exhibition Catalogue

    Est: $40 - $80

    WILLIAMS, Fred (Australia, 1927-1982). Two Publications including HART, Deborah. Infinite Horizons, Exhibition Catalogue

    Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Young Elephant 1955-1956 etching, ed. 8/15 15 x 15cm (image); 20 x 19cm (sheet); 32.5 x 31.5cm (frame)
    Apr. 22, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Young Elephant 1955-1956 etching, ed. 8/15 15 x 15cm (image); 20 x 19cm (sheet); 32.5 x 31.5cm (frame)

    Est: $1,200 - $1,800

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Young Elephant 1955-1956 etching, ed. 8/15 signed lower right: Fred Williams editioned lower left 15 x 15cm (image); 20 x 19cm (sheet); 32.5 x 31.5cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, pp. 47, 112, cat. no. 233, pl. 36 (illus., another example) OTHER NOTES: Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Harmonica Player with Microphone 1955-1956 etching, ed. 3/18 11 x 8.5cm (image); 39.5 x 33cm (frame)
    Apr. 22, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Harmonica Player with Microphone 1955-1956 etching, ed. 3/18 11 x 8.5cm (image); 39.5 x 33cm (frame)

    Est: $2,000 - $3,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Harmonica Player with Microphone 1955-1956 etching, ed. 3/18 signed lower right: Fred Williams. editioned lower left 11 x 8.5cm (image); 39.5 x 33cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, p. 94, cat. no. 31 (another example) OTHER NOTES: Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Sherbrooke Forest No. 8 1962 aquatint etching, ed. 12/15 11 x 14cm (image); 24 x 27cm (frame)
    Apr. 22, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Sherbrooke Forest No. 8 1962 aquatint etching, ed. 12/15 11 x 14cm (image); 24 x 27cm (frame)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Sherbrooke Forest No. 8 1962 aquatint etching, ed. 12/15 signed lower right: Fred Williams. editioned lower left 11 x 14cm (image); 24 x 27cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent EXHIBITIONS: Fred Williams: First Showing of his Etchings given by Gwen Frolich, Look, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, May 2006 (another example) LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, pp. 63, 122, cat. no. 199, pl. 52 (another example) Ryan, A., Fred Williams: First Showing of his Etchings given by Gwen Frolich, Look, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006, p.15 (illus., another example) OTHER NOTES: Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Gil Jamieson Painting at Lysterfield 1965 etching, ed. 9/18 10.5 x 22.5cm (image); 33.5 x 44cm (frame)
    Apr. 22, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Gil Jamieson Painting at Lysterfield 1965 etching, ed. 9/18 10.5 x 22.5cm (image); 33.5 x 44cm (frame)

    Est: $3,000 - $4,000

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Gil Jamieson Painting at Lysterfield 1965 etching, ed. 9/18 signed lower right: Fred Williams. editioned lower left 10.5 x 22.5cm (image); 33.5 x 44cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, p. 130, cat. no. 233 (illus., another example) OTHER NOTES: Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
  • FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 12 x 9.5cm (image); 2...
    Apr. 22, 2026

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 12 x 9.5cm (image); 2...

    Est: $2,500 - $3,500

    FRED WILLIAMS (1927-1982) Landscape Panel Number 4 1962 drypoint etching and aquatint, second state, ed. of 15 signed lower right: Fred Williams inscribed lower left 12 x 9.5cm (image); 29 x 20cm (frame) PROVENANCE: Gift of Les Kossatz The Collection of Gavin Fry OAM, Sydney c.1980 LITERATURE: Mollison, J., Fred Williams: Etchings, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1968, p. 123, cat. no. 201A (illus., another example) OTHER NOTES: Another example of this print is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2026

    Leonard Joel
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