... but 1930s Rix Nicholas oil may steal the moderns' show.
A 1930s painting owned by a retired dental surgeon who claims to have helped create Dracula's fangs is likely to be among the stars at an art auction in Sydney next month.
The sale, by Deutscher and Hackett at Sydney's Cell Block Theatre on   December 2, features a number of Brett Whiteley landscapes, a Fred Williams and a large John Olsen, all carrying estimates of about $200,000. 
But a work from an earlier era - Hilda Rix Nicholas's The Shepherd of Knockalong - could rival or even outdo these fashionable "moderns".
It is an important 1933 oil depicting the artist's husband, Edgar, posed heroically with their young son, Rix, amid lush pasture land, and its pre-sale estimate is $180,000 to $250,000.
Partly trained in Paris, Rix Nicholas was one of Australia's most successful international artists, exhibiting in Europe and north Africa soon after the turn of the 20th century, when she was in her 20s. Some years after she returned home, she painted this picture as part of a series highlighting Australia's rich pastoral heritage.
It comes from the collection of Dr Philip Rasmussen, a foundation member of the National Trust who, while working in London, was responsible for Dracula's impressive dental work during film-making at nearby Pinewood Studios.
Deutscher and Hackett executive director Damian Hackett says Rasmussen has been a collector since the 1960s, lending paintings to many exhibitions, but The Shepherd of Knockalong is particularly notable. Among other exhibitions it was featured at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra's popular 2013 show on Rix Nicholas, Paris to Monaro.
The Shepherd of Knockalong would not be the first war-time genre painting to impress at D&H.
In   September it sold Herbert Badham's Pitt Street, Sydney for a surprise $207,400 and in   April the same artist's Snack Bar for $456,000.
Also from the Rasmussen collection is a sister work by Rix Nicholas, Spring Afternoon, Knockalong, showing her young son with his governess.
The sale includes a number of works from the collection of the art and publishing family the Ure Smiths, among them Margaret Preston's Still Life, Apples, Lemons and Plate.
Estimated at $50,000 to $70,000, the oil dates from 1929, the same year as Preston's For a Little Girl, which at D&H in   August last year sold to the National Gallery of Australia for $156,000, almost three times the estimate.
As for the big names, Brett Whiteley's Sunshower, an aquamarine mixed-media study of a twisted tree with doves in the foreground, dates from 1983. Sunshower has a presale estimate of $160,000 to $200,000. A second Whiteley, 2pm Light Early   January 1984, depicts a stream meandering through a bush landscape. Carrying an estimate of $180,000 to $240,000, it dates from the year the artist won the prestigious Wynne landscape prize for the third time.
Fred Williams's Flooded Creek from 1977 reflects the artist's bush trips with fellow artists and a return to richly hued and densely packed works, rather than the sparse images he adopted in the 1960s.
John Olsen's Low Tide, Cable Beach, Broome, a 2.4-metre wide diptych from 2003, reflects the artist's long-standing interest in northern Australia.
The spring D&H sale includes a substantial offering of Aboriginal art and artifacts.
A highlight is Emily Kngwarreye's monumental Alhalkere (My Country), 1.5 metres by 4.9 metres.