Recently, the Monto Museum of Art, through Matthew Jamieson, was in touch with the Primac Gurus Association, to advise, that they are featuring, in their 2026 Winter Exhibition, this artworks, painted by Gil Jamieson (1943 – 1992). The works depicts a scene from an early Eidsvold Station Santa Gertrudis Bull Sale conducted by Mactaggarts at the Eidsvold Saleyards.
The inaugural Eidsvold Station sale was conducted way back in 1957, however it is felt that the painting may have been commissioned sometime after the 1961 sale. The auctioneers and agents can be seen to be hard at work doing what all good auctioneers do. The scene has an uncanny resemblance to the photo (below) of the first sale in 1957.
Since the original face book post to the Primac Gurus page, Matthew Jamieson, has followed up with some rather interesting research on the artist Gil Jamieson.
Story by: Greg Jacobsen June 2026
“A photo from the first Eidsvold Station Santa Gertrudis Bull sale at Mactaggarts yards in 1957. Photo caption from left Jim Heading (auctioneer), Trevor Maguire (Ipswich manager), Barney Joyce, Arthur Bassingthwaighte, and Doug Mactaggart.“
Photo – Jerry O’Sullivan
Here is Matthew Jamieson’s research on the artist!
“I am beginning to think that the work dates from the later 1960s. I will have to seek some advice on when Gil would have first met Barney, as our the documentary record start in 1968 and my recollection from the mid-1970s, suggests that their association, which was by then well advanced. As a patron of Gil’s work, Barney was able to enhance his reputation in the arts and his public profile, something that clearly interested him.
I do not know whether Gil attended any of the early bull sales, although it is certainly possible, particularly as Gil’s uncle, Roy Jamieson, was a politically active organiser in the rural sector. I will see David Feez next week, and he may be able to provide some additional context.
Gil traveled regularly between Monto and Brisbane from 1953, began painting in oil in 1956, and soon started exhibiting in Brisbane. He moved to Melbourne in 1959 and gained recognition in artistic circles there and fell in with his Australian Modernist contemporaries. I know he was back in Monto by early 1963 before again returning to Melbourne. He came back to Monto in late 1966, which is now when I think Mactaggarts Auction and the Santa Bull was painted. He then returned to Melbourne in the first quarter of 1969, before finally returning to Monto in late 1970. Bulls were a recurring motif in Gil’s work and, during a visit to Madrid in 1975, he viewed Goya’s celebrated bullfighting prints and drawings. I also recall that the Jamieson family was early adopters having a 3X Brahman bull over the AIS cows around 1970 to convert the dairy herd to beef and then I think made the mistake of following with Hereford before adopting Santas. Gil paintings directly and indirectly documented this narrative.
The records show that Gil submitted a work titled Barney’s Bulls to the H.C. Richards Memorial Prize in November 1968. At that time, it was Queensland’s most prestigious art prize. This painting which we title, Mactaggarts Auction and Santa Bull, may be that work or another closely related composition. I also recall seeing an exhibition cataogue, Bulls and Buyers, somewhere and will try to track it down. My sense now is that this painting was produced in Gil’s Monto studio in either 1967 or 1968.
Gil had an extraordinary ability to recall and repaint landscapes and nuanced experiences and figures from memory, which may explain the uncanny resemblance to the photographs. He was quite dogmatic about not using photographs as reference material, although I do recall that he would occasionally use his own plein-air gouache works, which he painted from 1973 onwards, as references for larger studio works.
That same year as the Richards Memorial prize entry, Gil entered a Portrait of Errol B. Joyce in the 1968 Archibald Prize. Unfortunately, only the prize winners were reported as having been exhibited that year. I think partly the portraits objective would have been to increase E B. Joyce’s public profile. Stylistically, the portrait appears different to Mactaggarts Auction and the Santa Bull, and I think it was painted later. The original Archibald entry, which hung at Eidsvold Station, quickly de-laminated, and Gil subsequently repainted the portrait, which I believe still hangs at Eidsvold Station.
I also recall an Eidsvold Bull Sale around 1976 at which both Phillip Bacon and Gil exhibited a pen of paintings. I believe that at the same sale King Ranch purchased a bull for a record price, which led me to wonder why they would buy a competitor’s bull. I eventually came to the conclusion that it was not solely about genetics, but also about establishing higher market values for Santa bulls, which was mutually beneficial to both studs. I imagine Barney would have attended the King Ranch sale and returned the favour. We ended up with a very good Joyce & Joyce bulls ourselves, having passed them in at auction for our grazing lease at Coominglah“
Matthew Jamieson
