Clara Southern Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Clara Southern Art Value Price Guide

Mar. 18, 2025
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) (Wattle Blossoms, Yarra River) oil on canvas 24 x 29.5cm
Est: $10,000 - $12,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) (Wattle Blossoms, Yarra River) oil on canvas signed lower right: C Southern 24 x 29.5cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel
Feb. 13, 2024
CLARA SOUTHERN, SPRING
Est: $6,000 - $8,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860 - 1940) SPRING oil on canvas 23.5 x 28.5 cm 27.5 x 32.5 cm (frame) signed lower right: C Southern PROVENANCE Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 9 May 2001, lot 74 Private collection, Victoria, acquired from the above by private treaty This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 25, 2023
SOUTHERN Clara (1860-1940), The Yarra Glimpsed Through Trees, Oil on Canvas, 29x39.5cm
Est: $6,000 - $10,000
SOUTHERN, Clara (1860-1940) The Yarra Glimpsed Through Trees Signed 'C Southern' lower right. John Thallon frame (remnants of label verso); also label for Leonard Joel Pty Ltd 'The Art Salon,' Little Collins St. Melbourne. Oil on Canvas 29x39.5cm PROVENANCE: Ivon Murdoch (1892-1964) and Alma Murdoch (nee Anderson), 'Wantabadgery East,' N.S.W.; Stuart Murdoch, son of the above (d.1990) and Patricia Murdoch (nee McKay), 'Wantabadgery East,' then 'Springvale,' near Wagga Wagga, N.S.W.; Estate Late Patricia Osborne (Murdoch), Wagga Wagga, N.S.W.
Davidson Auctions
May. 03, 2023
CLARA SOUTHERN, AUTUMN ON THE YARRA,
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860 - 1940) AUTUMN ON THE YARRA oil on canvas on board 34.0 x 45.5 cm signed lower right: C Southern signed and inscribed with title verso: Autumn on the Yarra / Clara Southern signed and inscribed on label verso: Autumn on the Yarra / C Southern PROVENANCE Private collection Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 28 May 1980, lot 322 Private collection, Melbourne
Deutscher and Hackett
Mar. 29, 2023
CLARA SOUTHERN (1861-1940), Autumn Willows
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1861-1940) Autumn Willows oil on canvas 41.0 x 71.0 cm signed lower right: C Southern signed and inscribed on stretcher verso: autumn willows C Southern
Menzies
May. 04, 2022
CLARA SOUTHERN, THE CHRISTMAS CAMP,
Est: $30,000 - $50,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860 - 1940) THE CHRISTMAS CAMP oil on canvas 25.5 x 41.0 cm signed lower right: C. Southern inscribed with title on stretcher bar verso: The Christmas Camp. bears inscription verso: By Clara Southern / C Southern bears inscription on frame verso: Mr G P Cooper / … / 6 Waltham St. / Richmond PROVENANCE Mr George Page Cooper, Melbourne (bears inscription verso) Private collection Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 4 November 1987, lot 65 Earl Gallery, Victoria Private collection, Victoria, acquired from the above in November 1987 EXHIBITED Exhibition of Australian Paintings, Earl Gallery, Victoria, nd, cat. 6 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's research and writing in this catalogue entry. Clara Southern is widely regarded as one of the leading women artists of Australian Impressionism. During this Golden Age of Australian art, she and her colleagues Jane Sutherland and Jane Price were considered to be the three leading female figures. While Sutherland is usually given prime position, many would agree with arts writer and historian John McDonald who stated that '...one could make a credible case for Clara Southern... as the most significant woman artist of the era.’1 Perhaps this is an honour that will be achieved when her achievements, such as The Christmas Camp, become wider known. Southern studied under Madame Mouchette at the National Gallery School, and under Walter Withers at his home in Heidelberg. Her fellow students at the Gallery included Arthur Streeton, Sutherland and Emanuel Phillips Fox. Although she worked in the open air directly from the motif, and made weekend painting trips to Eaglemont artists' camp, her view of the landscape is as if seen through women's eyes. In her more lyrical approach to the Australian scene she reflected the beneficial influence of her teachers Frederick McCubbin and Withers, avoiding the heat and blinding light of the noonday sun for quieter moods of nature. Like her fellow women artists, she preferred a more domesticated bush to one populated by male heroics. Moreover, her settled countryside is often peopled with women as in An Old Bee Farm, c.1900, acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, through the Felton Bequest in 1942. An Old Bee Farm and other major works were included in her exhibition at the Athenaeum Hall in 1914. The exhibition confirmed that her best landscapes were painted at Warrandyte. Following her marriage to John Flinn in 1905, they moved to Blythebank at Warrandyte. She lived and painted there for the remainder of her long life. Here Southern became a central figure in a growing community of artists who at times included Louis McCubbin, Penleigh Boyd, and Harold Herbert. Clearly a leader of her time, she exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society from 1889 – 1917 and was not only the first female member of the Australian Art Association but the first to serve on its committee. Memberships included the Lyceum Club and the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Southern’s love of the Warrandyte countryside is readily apparent in The Christmas Camp through its soft, magical blues, mauves, fresh greens, and the relaxed charm of the artist’s camp nestled within the landscape. Enveloped in an atmosphere that is palpable, the work encapsulates her close identification with the scene, passionately embraced on first sight and maintained throughout her life; as elucidated by one contemporary critic at the time of the Athenaeum exhibition in 1914, ‘Miss Clara Southern (Mrs J. Flinn) is a sweet and original singer of the Australian bush in colour, which, by the most skilful use of her pigments, she realises in all its beauty and charm, its majestic silences, its harmonies, and those mysterious distances we all know and feel when in its midst. We can almost hear the wind sighing and sobbing through her trees and that furtive movement of life beneath the beautiful undergrowth that trembles in her foregrounds. Her landscapes are truly poems, full of sentiment and feeling, and that artistic reticence so seldom met with, which never allows nature to be for one moment oppressed or overstepped, or the note forced under any pretence.’2 1. McDonald, J., Art of Australia, Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited, Sydney, 2008, vol. 1, p. 606 2. ‘A Lyrical Painter’, Kyneton Guardian, Victoria, 14 March 1914
Deutscher and Hackett
Dec. 13, 2020
Clara Southern (1860-1940). 'Tranquil Landscape'. Oil on Canvas, H 30cm, W
Est: $4,500 - $6,750
Clara Southern (1860-1940). 'Tranquil Landscape'. Oil on Canvas, H 30cm, W 41cm, Signed lower right.
Christian McCann Auctions
Nov. 25, 2020
Clara Southern (1860-1940) The Studio
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Clara Southern (1860-1940) The Studio signed lower right: 'C Southern', titled verso: 'The Studio' oil on canvas 25.5 x 35.5cm (10 1/16 x 14in). For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
Oct. 09, 2019
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Farmyard with Chickens oil on canvasboard
Est: $3,500 - $4,500
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Farmyard with Chickens oil on canvasboard signed lower right: C. Southern 34 x 44cm PROVENANCE: Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 22 February 2009, lot 121 Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel
Oct. 12, 2017
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Warrandyte 1905 oil on canvas
Est: $12,000 - $18,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Warrandyte 1905 oil on canvas signed lower right: C. Southern 30.5 x 54cm PROVENANCE: K. Laughlin Collection Ruth Prowse Collection Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITIONS: Ruth Prowse: Thirty years of collecting. Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, 1 April-16 May 2004 LITERATURE: Grishin, S., A gift our city can savour: The Legacy of Ruth Prowse, Sydney Morning Herald, March 13 2012 (digital article available: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/a-gift-our-city-can-savour-20120312-1uubu.html ) OTHER NOTES: Clara Southern is one of the leading women artists from the Golden Age of Australian Impressionism. She studied at the National Gallery School alongside Arthur Streeton, Jane Sutherland, and Emanuel Phillips Fox. Also under Walter Withers at his home in Heidelberg. Southern married John Flinn in 1905, and shortly after they moved to Blythebank at Warrandyte where she remained until her death. She exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society for several decades, was the first female member of the Australian Art Association, as well as a member of the Lyceum Club and the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.
Leonard Joel
Mar. 22, 2016
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Evening, Warrandyte oil on canvas on board
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
CLARA SOUTHERN (1860-1940) Evening, Warrandyte oil on canvas on board signed indistinctly lower right: C. Southern 45.5 x 74 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITIONS: Possibly, "Paintings by Clara Southern", Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne 10 – 20 March, 1914, cat. 65, as 'Evening'
Leonard Joel
Dec. 02, 2015
CLARA SOUTHERN, 1860 – 1940, EVENING, WARRANDYTE, oil on canvas on board
Est: $15,000 - $20,000
CLARA SOUTHERN, 1860 – 1940, EVENING, WARRANDYTE, oil on canvas on board SIGNED: signed indistinctly lower right: C Southern DIMENSIONS: 45.5 x 74.0 cm EXHIBITED: Possibly, Paintings by Clara Southern, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne 10 – 20 March, 1914, cat. 65 (as ‘Evening’) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Melbourne Private collection, Adelaide
Deutscher and Hackett
Oct. 23, 2014
Clara Southern (Australian, 1861-1940) Field gate and trees, 12 x 10in.
Est: £250 - £300
Clara Southern (Australian, 1861-1940) oil on canvas, Field gate and trees, signed, 12 x 10in.
Gorringes
Apr. 30, 2014
CLARA SOUTHERN 1860 - 1940, YARRA STREET, WARRANDYTE, LOOKING WEST TOWARDS 'THE GRAND' HOTEL, c1905, oil on canvas
Est: $15,000 - $20,000
CLARA SOUTHERN 1860 - 1940, YARRA STREET, WARRANDYTE, LOOKING WEST TOWARDS 'THE GRAND' HOTEL, c1905, oil on canvas SIGNED: signed lower right: C Southern DIMENSIONS: 32.0 x 47.0 cm EXHIBITED: Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Victoria, 3 March - 26 April 1992; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 15 May - 28 June 1992; Castlemaine Art Gallery, Victoria, 13 July - 16 August 1992; Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria, 28 August - 27 September 1992; S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, 2-25 October 1992 On long term loan to the Castlemaine Art Gallery, Victoria LITERATURE: Hammond, V., and Peers, J., Completing the Picture: Women Artists and the Heidelberg Era, Artmoves Incorporated, Melbourne, 1992, p. 84, cat. 51 PROVENANCE: Mary Young, Melbourne Thence by descent Private collection, Victoria
Deutscher and Hackett
Aug. 08, 2013
CLARA SOUTHERN, (1861-1940), (Riverbend
Est: $5,000 - $7,000
CLARA SOUTHERN, (1861-1940), Autumn Willows, oil on canvas signed lower right: C Southern 41.0 x 71.0 cm
Lawson~Menzies
May. 17, 2012
CLARA SOUTHERN, (1861-1940), Country Landscape,
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
CLARA SOUTHERN, (1861-1940), Country Landscape, oil on canvas, signed lower right: C. Southern, Dimensions: 30.5 x 41.0 cm
Menzies
Apr. 20, 2011
CLARA SOUTHERNTHE ROAD TO WARRANDYTE, c1905-10
Est: $45,000 - $65,000
CLARA SOUTHERNTHE ROAD TO WARRANDYTE, c1905-10 49.5 x 96.0 cm oil on canvas on board
Deutscher and Hackett
Feb. 22, 2009
Clara Southern (1860-1940) Farmyard with Chickens
Est: $2,500 - $3,500
Clara Southern (1860-1940) Farmyard with Chickens oil on panel signed 'C Southern' lower right 34 x 45 cm
Leonard Joel