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AUSTRALIA 
Auction record for Aussie painting
Tuesday, 26 August, 2008
The Russell Drysdale painting Rocky McCormack. (AAP)
A painting by iconic Australian artist Russell Drysdale has sold for a record $1.89 million at auction.
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The portrait of Rocky McCormack, a Riverina farmer, was part of the Important Australian Art sale auctioned at Sotheby's.
The previous record for a Drysdale was set earlier this year at $1.68 million.
Titled Rocky McCormack, the portrait was painted between 1962 and 1963.
A Sotheby's spokeswoman said it was one of a mere handful of paintings completed by the artist in that period.
It is described in the auction catalogue as a "beautiful, harmonious arrangement in opal red and blue, and one of the largest, most successful and most popular of the artist's justly-celebrated bush portraits".
Rocky McCormack is pictured under a thatch of dark, unruly hair, wearing a hat and smiling with amusement.
Drysdale has a distinguished place in 20th century Australian art as a pioneer modernist, social documentarist and sympathetic recorder of Aboriginal traditions.
But he is most well known for his portraits of European bush battlers.
Source: AAP/SBS
Click here for more arts and entertainment stories
The portrait of Rocky McCormack, a Riverina farmer, was part of the Important Australian Art sale auctioned at Sotheby's.
The previous record for a Drysdale was set earlier this year at $1.68 million.
Titled Rocky McCormack, the portrait was painted between 1962 and 1963.
A Sotheby's spokeswoman said it was one of a mere handful of paintings completed by the artist in that period.
It is described in the auction catalogue as a "beautiful, harmonious arrangement in opal red and blue, and one of the largest, most successful and most popular of the artist's justly-celebrated bush portraits".
Rocky McCormack is pictured under a thatch of dark, unruly hair, wearing a hat and smiling with amusement.
Drysdale has a distinguished place in 20th century Australian art as a pioneer modernist, social documentarist and sympathetic recorder of Aboriginal traditions.
But he is most well known for his portraits of European bush battlers.
Source: AAP/SBS
