KEY POINTS:
The famous Gallipoli watercolour Simpson and His Donkey by New Zealand artist Horace Moore-Jones is going up for sale at Sydney auction house Lawson-Menzies on April 30. Simpson and His Donkey, dated 1924 and with an estimate of A$30,000-50,000, was painted from the period when Moore-Jones joined the British section of the NZ Expeditionary Force, and went to Gallipoli as a sapper with the engineers.
John Simpson Kirkpatrick is an Australian war hero credited with saving hundreds of lives. He landed on Gallipoli's North Beach with the 3rd Field Ambulance and "annexed" a wild donkey to carry wounded men down Shrapnel Gully. After 24 days of trudging up and down the gully, he was killed on May 19, 1915, aged 22.
The auction, called Art of War, includes two dramatic paintings of the Messines Ridge explosion by New Zealand's official World War II artist George Butler; a portrait of a "Maori Tunneller" at Messines by an unknown artist; and works by New Zealand artists John McIndoe, Frank Barnes and Peter McIntyre.
The catalogue can be viewed online at www.lawsonmenzies.com.au
