Whiteley painting sells for $1.68 million
Published on: 05-Dec-2007
Australian artist Brett Whiteley's sole painting of his daughter, Arkie, has fetched $1.68 million at auction in Sydney.It did not quite match the pre-sale estimate of $1.8 million for his work, entitled Arkie Under the Shower.
The picture was a gift from Whiteley to his then 24-year-old actress daughter who died of cancer aged 37.
It was finished five years before the artist's death and has never been on show before.
Other paintings sold at the auction include Frederick McCubbin's 1911 work Violet and Gold, which fetched $1.32 million and two nudes by John Brack sold for a combined total of $3.06 million.
Whiteley's later years were troubled as he increasingly became dependent on alcohol and drugs.
This lead to him suffering bouts of schizophrenia until he finally succumbed to a heroin overdose and died alone in a motel room in New South Wales.
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