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Posted: 2018-04-23 03:54:04

Posted April 23, 2018 13:54:04

When Elioth Gruner's On the Sands goes under the hammer at auction this week, the jury will still be out on which beach it depicts.

That doesn't mean we can't workshop a few theories.

We asked for your thoughts on Gruner's art mystery and received a flood of suggestions naming NSW beaches.

They included:

  • Avoca Beach
  • Byron Bay
  • Hammer Head Point
  • Jervis Bay
  • Palm Beach
  • Freshwater
  • Bondi
  • Three correspondents suggested Collaroy, on Sydney's northern beaches
  • Newcastle beaches painted from Glenrock showing points of Mereweather Beach, Bar Beach and Nobby's Beach to the far north, was another suggestion.

Some notes from you

Linda McIlwain is in the NSW camp, convinced On the Sands depicts North Haven Beach on the state's mid-north coast, looking towards Bonny Hills.

Some suggestions named beaches beyond the NSW coast. In fact, they weren't limited to east coast beaches (or even to Australian beaches).

Vicki Wilson can see similarities with beaches near Albany in Western Australia, namely Middleton Beach.

Susan Welsh wrote from Dorset, UK, to say the view from Lyme Regis, about an hour's drive from Portland Island overlooking the English Channel matches Gruner's painting.

Surfski enthusiast Bernadette George reckons the beach can be found along Victoria's Great Ocean Road, most likely to be Apollo Bay, at low tide, going by the distant slopes and headlands.

Paul Sandringham wrote from Germany that he'd "put money on" the scene being based on Wivenhoe Beach, where he grew up, in Burnie, Tasmania from where Rocky Cape can be seen in the far distance.

The case for Avoca Beach, however, remains strong, strengthened by Geoff Potter's unearthing of local newspaper articles reporting Gruner's frequent trips to the area during the 1920s and '30s.

Dated December 15, 1932 (On the Sands was painted in 1920), an article in the Gosford Times and Wyong District Advocate reads as: "Mr Elioth Gruner, the well-known artist, is once again visiting Avoca."

What we know for sure

There is a Gruner beach scene that we **know** depicts the view from Avoca Beach (the work is called Avoca Beach, 1932).

Gruner lived in Sydney and was known to be a frequent visitor to the NSW Central Coast.

Avoca Beach (1932) is offered in the same sale as On the Sands at Menzies Fine Art this Thursday.

That picture is smaller and estimated to be worth a fraction of what On the Sands is expected to sell for.

On the Sands is being sold from the collection of pioneering showman Sir George Tallis, alongside Rupert Bunny's Mother and Child on the Beach, Penleigh Boyd's The Jetty, and Tom Roberts' Untitled (Dandenong Landscape).

Topics: art-history, arts-and-entertainment, australia, nsw

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