The auction price record for Australian Impressionist paintings was broken when John Peter Russell’s vividly coloured Souvenir de Belle-Île, (Marianna Russell with Goats, Goulphar, Belle-Île), 1897, sold for $4 million at a blockbuster sale in Melbourne last week that was the highest by value in a decade.

Deutscher and Hackett’s catalogue estimate for the work, which measures a generous 65 cm by 81.5 cm, was $1.5 million to $2.5 million. Souvenir de Belle-Île had been “much admired by everybody”, veteran auctioneer Roger McIlroy said when he introduced the highly anticipated lot.