HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
FINE CANADIAN ART
FINE CANADIAN ART MAY 17, 2011
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
V ISIT
www.heffel.com VANCOUVER
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FINE CANADIAN ART
AUCTION TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011 4 PM, CANADIAN POST~WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART 7 PM, FINE CANADIAN ART VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE WEST BURRARD ENTRANCE, ROOM 211 1055 CANADA PLACE, VANCOUVER PREVIEW AT GALERIE HEFFEL, MONTREAL 1840 RUE SHERBROOKE OUEST THURSDAY, APRIL 28 & FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 11 AM TO 7 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 11 AM TO 5 PM PREVIEW AT HEFFEL GALLERY, TORONTO 13 HAZELTON AVENUE THURSDAY, MAY 5 & FRIDAY, MAY 6, 11 AM TO 7 PM SATURDAY, MAY 7, 11 AM TO 5 PM PREVIEW AT HEFFEL GALLERY, VANCOUVER FRIDAY, MAY 13 THROUGH MONDAY, MAY 16, 11 AM TO 6 PM TUESDAY, MAY 17, 10 AM TO 12 PM HEFFEL GALLERY, VANCOUVER 2247 GRANVILLE STREET, VANCOUVER BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA V6H 3G1 TELEPHONE 604 732~6505, FAX 604 732~4245 INTERNET: WWW.HEFFEL.COM
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE VANCOUVER
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE A Division of Heffel Gallery Limited VANCOUVER 2247 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3G1 Telephone 604 732~6505, Fax 604 732~4245 E~mail: mail@heffel.com, Internet: www.heffel.com T ORONTO 13 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E1 Telephone 416 961~6505, Fax 416 961~4245 M ONTREAL 1840 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, Quebec H3H 1E4 Telephone 514 939~6505, Fax 514 939~1100 OTTAWA 451 Daly Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6H6 Telephone 613 230~6505, Fax 613 230~8884 C ALGARY Telephone 403 238~6505 C ORPORATE BANK Royal Bank of Canada, 1497 West Broadway Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1H7 Telephone 604 665~5710 Account #05680 003: 133 503 3 Swift Code: ROYccat2 Incoming wires are required to be sent in Canadian funds and must include: Heffel Gallery Limited, 2247 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6H 3G1 as beneficiary. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman In Memoriam ~ Kenneth Grant Heffel President ~ David Kenneth John Heffel Auctioneer License T83~3364318 and V11~100777 Vice~President ~ Robert Campbell Scott Heffel Auctioneer License T83~3365303 and V11~100776 Follow us on
@HeffelAuction
HEFFEL.COM DEPARTMENTS F INE CANADIAN ART canadianart@heffel.com APPRAISALS appraisals@heffel.com ABSENTEE AND TELEPHONE BIDDING bids@heffel.com SHIPPING shipping@heffel.com SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions@heffel.com
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CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS Heffel Fine Art Auction House and Heffel Gallery Limited regularly publish a variety of materials beneficial to the art collector. An Annual Subscription entitles you to receive our Auction Catalogues and Auction Result Sheets. Our Annual Subscription Form can be found on page 108 of this catalogue. AUCTION PERSONNEL Jacques Barbeau, QC ~ Corporate Consultant Paul S.O. Barbeau, Barbeau, Evans & Goldstein ~ Legal Advisor Audra Branigan, Elizabeth Hilson and Michelle Nowacki ~ Administrative Assistants Lisa Christensen ~ Calgary Representative Kate Galicz ~ Director of Appraisal Services Andrew Gibbs ~ Ottawa Representative Jennifer Heffel ~ Auction Assistant Patsy Kim Heffel ~ Director of Accounting Lindsay Jackson ~ Manager of Toronto Office Lauren Kratzer ~ Director of Art Index Bobby Ma ~ Director of Shipping and Framing John Maclean, Anders Oinonen and Jamey Petty ~ Internal Logistics Alison Meredith ~ Director of Online Auction Sales Jill Meredith ~ Manager of Coordination and Reporting Kirbi Pitt ~ Manager of Advertising and Marketing Tania Poggione ~ Director of Montreal Office Olivia Ragoussis ~ Manager of Montreal Office Judith Scolnik ~ Director of Toronto Office Rosalin Te Omra ~ Director of Fine Canadian Art Research Goran Urosevic ~ Director of Information Services C ATALOGUE PRODUCTION Lisa Christensen, Kate Galicz, Lindsay Jackson, Joan Murray and Rosalin Te Omra ~ Essay Contributors Brian Goble ~ Director of Digital Imaging David Heffel ~ Catalogue Layout & Production Robert Heffel, Iris Schindel and Rosalin Te Omra ~ Text Editing, Catalogue Production Colleen Leonard, Max Meyer and Olivia Ragoussis ~ Digital Imaging Jill Meredith and Kirbi Pitt ~ Catalogue Layout C OPYRIGHT No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, photocopy, electronic, mechanical, recorded or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Heffel Gallery Limited. P RINTING Generation Printing, Vancouver
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AUCTION LOCATION
PREVIEW
AUCTION
Heffel Gallery
Vancouver Convention Centre West, Burrard Entrance
2247 Granville Street, Vancouver
Room 211, 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver
Telephone 604 732~6505
VCC Main Switchboard 604 689~8232
Toll Free 1 800 528~9608
Saleroom Cell 604 418~6505
Call Alison in our Vancouver office for special accommodation rates, or email alison@heffel.com Please refer to page 112 for Toronto and Montreal preview locations
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 5 5 5 5 7 98 101 106 107 107 108 108 109 110 111
S ELLING AT AUCTION B UYING AT AUCTION G ENERAL BIDDING INCREMENTS FRAMING, RESTORATION AND SHIPPING W RITTEN VALUATIONS AND APPRAISALS FINE CANADIAN ART C ATALOGUE N OTICES FOR C OLLECTORS T ERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS CATALOGUE ABBREVIATIONS AND S YMBOLS CATALOGUE TERMS H EFFEL’S C ODE OF BUSINESS CONDUCT, ETHICS AND PRACTICES ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION FORM COLLECTOR PROFILE F ORM S HIPPING FORM FOR PURCHASES ABSENTEE BID FORM I NDEX OF ARTISTS
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SELLING AT AUCTION Heffel Fine Art Auction House is a division of Heffel Gallery Limited. Together, our offices offer individuals, collectors, corporations and public entities a full service firm for the successful de~acquisition of their artworks. Interested parties should contact us to arrange for a private and confidential appointment to discuss their preferred method of disposition and to analyse preliminary auction estimates, pre~sale reserves and consignment procedures. This service is offered free of charge. If you are from out of town, or are unable to visit us at our premises, we would be pleased to assess the saleability of your artworks by mail, courier or e~mail. Please provide us with photographic or digital reproductions of the artworks and information pertaining to title, artist, medium, size, date, provenance, etc. Representatives of our firm travel regularly to major Canadian cities to meet with Prospective Sellers. It is recommended that property for inclusion in our sale arrive at Heffel Fine Art Auction House at least 90 days prior to our auction. This allows time to photograph, research, catalogue, promote and complete any required work such as re~framing, cleaning or restoration. All property is stored free of charge until the auction; however, insurance is the Consignor’s expense. Consignors will receive, for completion, a Consignment Agreement and Consignment Receipt, which set forth the terms and fees for our services. The Seller’s Commission rates charged by Heffel Fine Art Auction House are as follows: 10% of the successful Hammer Price for each Lot sold for $7,500 and over; 15% for Lots sold for $2,500 to $7,499; and 25% for Lots sold for less than $2,500. Consignors are entitled to set a mutually agreed Reserve or minimum selling price on their artworks. Heffel Fine Art Auction House charges no Seller’s penalties for artworks that do not achieve their Reserve price.
BUYING AT AUCTION All items that are offered and sold by Heffel Fine Art Auction House are subject to our published Terms and Conditions of Business, our Catalogue Terms and any oral announcements made during the course of our sale. Heffel Fine Art Auction House charges a Buyer’s Premium calculated at seventeen percent (17%) of the Hammer Price of each Lot, plus applicable federal and provincial taxes. If you are unable to attend our auction in person, you can bid by completing the Absentee Bid Form found on page 110 of this catalogue. Please note that all Absentee Bid Forms should be received by Heffel Fine Art Auction House at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of the sale. Bidding by telephone, although limited, is available. Please make arrangements for this service well in advance of the sale. Telephone lines are assigned in order of the sequence in which requests are received. We also recommend that you leave an Absentee Bid amount that we will execute on your behalf in the event we are unable to reach you by telephone.
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Payment must be made by: a) Bank Wire direct to our account, b) Certified Cheque or Bank Draft, unless otherwised arranged in advance with the Auction House, or c) a cheque accompanied by a current Letter of Credit from the Purchaser’s bank which will guarantee the amount of the cheque. A cheque not guaranteed by a Letter of Credit must be cleared by the bank prior to purchases being released. We honour payment by VISA or Mastercard for purchases. Credit card payments are subject to a maximum of $5,000, if you are providing your credit card details by fax (for purchases in North America only) or to a maximum of $25,000 if the card is presented in person with valid identification. Bank Wire payments should be made to the Royal Bank of Canada as per the account transit details provided on page 2.
GENERAL BIDDING INCREMENTS Bidding typically begins below the low estimate and generally advances in the following bid increments: $100 ~ 2,000 .............................. $100 INCREMENTS $2,000 ~ 5,000 ........................... $250 $5,000 ~ 10,000 ........................ $500 $10,000 ~ 20,000 ................... $1,000 $20,000 ~ 50,000 ................... $2,500 $50,000 ~ 100,000 ................. $5,000 $100,000 ~ 300,000 ............. $10,000 $300,000 ~ 1,000,000 .......... $25,000 $1,000,000 ~ 2,000,000 ....... $50,000 $2,000,000 ~ 5,000,000 ..... $100,000
FRAMING, RESTORATION AND SHIPPING As a Consignor, it may be advantageous for you to have your artwork re~framed and/or cleaned and restored to enhance its saleability. As a Purchaser, your recently acquired artwork may demand a frame complementary to your collection. As a full service organization, we offer guidance and in~house expertise to facilitate these needs. Purchasers who acquire items that require local delivery or out of town shipping should refer to our Shipping Form for Purchases on page 109 of this publication. Please feel free to contact us to assist you in all of your requirements or to answer any of your related questions. Full completion of our Shipping Form is required prior to purchases being released by Heffel.
WRITTEN VALUATIONS AND APPRAISALS Written valuations and appraisals for probate, insurance, family division and other purposes can be carried out in our offices or at your premises. Appraisal fees vary according to circumstances. If, within five years of the appraisal, valued or appraised artwork is consigned and sold through either Heffel Fine Art Auction House or Heffel Gallery Limited, the client will be refunded the appraisal fee, less incurred “out of pocket” expenses.
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The Purchaser and the Consignor are hereby advised to read fully the Terms and Conditions of Business and Catalogue Terms, which set out and establish the rights and obligations of the Auction House, the Purchaser and the Consignor, and the terms by which the Auction House shall conduct the sale and handle other related matters. This information appears on pages 101 through 107 of this publication. All Lots can be viewed on our Internet site at: http://www.heffel.com Please consult our online catalogue for information specifying which works will be present in each of our preview locations at: http://www.heffel.com/auction If you are unable to attend our auction, we produce a live webcast of our sale commencing at 3:50 PM PDT. We do not offer real~time Internet bidding for our live auctions, but we do accept absentee and prearranged telephone bids. Information on absentee and telephone bidding appears on pages 5 and 110 of this publication. We recommend that you test your streaming video setup prior to our sale at: http://www.heffel.tv Our Estimates are in Canadian funds. Exchange values are subject to change and are provided for guidance only. Buying 1.00 Canadian dollar will cost approximately 1.03 US dollar, 0.74 Euro, 0.64 British pound, 84 Japanese yen and 8.02 Hong Kong dollars as of our publication date.
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FINE CANADIAN ART
CATALOGUE
Featuring Important Works from The Estate of Edgar and Dorothy Davidson The Estate of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton & other Important Private Collections
SALE TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011, 7:00 PM, VANCOUVER
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101
101 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA
1871 ~ 1945
Klee Wyck Frog Bowl ceramic sculpture, signed Klee Wyck, circa 1924 ~ 1926 1 3/4 x 7 3/8 x 5 1/2 in, 4.4 x 18.7 x 14 cm P ROVENANCE : Acquired directly from the Artist by Kate Mather, Banff By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Maria Tippett, Emily Carr, A Biography, 1979, page 134 In 1900, Emily Carr took a course in clay modelling at the Westminster School of Art in England, but it was not until 1924 that she began to produce pottery. This same year in Victoria, a demonstration by a local
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teacher showing the use of local blue clay inspired craftspeople, and a flurry of pottery~making ensued. Mrs. Kate Mather, grandmother of the consignor of this work and lot 102, operated a gift shop in Banff and wintered in Victoria, staying at Carr’s boarding house in 1924. Maria Tippett writes that Mather “asked Emily to make ‘Indian pottery’ for her to sell. Mather’s prompting, and the promise of a commercial outlet, gave Emily the impetus she needed to begin.” Carr was eager to supplement her income, as these were lean years for her. To keep her native iconography accurate, she studied artifacts at the National Museum of Canada and consulted books such as John Swanton’s Ethnography of the Haida and A.P. Niblack’s Coast Indians, making drawings from them. This colourful Klee Wyck Frog Bowl is an outstanding example of Carr’s inventive use of native designs.
E STIMATE: $7,000 ~ 9,000
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102 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA
1871 ~ 1945
Klee Wyck Dogfish Bowl ceramic sculpture, signed Klee Wyck, circa 1924 ~ 1926 1 3/4 x 9 1/8 x 9 1/4 in, 4.4 x 23.2 x 23.5 cm P ROVENANCE : Acquired directly from the Artist by Kate Mather, Banff By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Maria Tippett, Emily Carr, A Biography, 1979, page 136 Emily Carr signed her ceramic works Klee Wyck, meaning “Laughing One”, a name given to her by West Coast First Nations people. She was involved in all the stages of making her ceramic objects, which included
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candlesticks, lamp bases, totems and vessels. She dug blue clay from the Dallas Road cliffs, bringing it home in her wicker pram. After molding her objects by hand, she fired them in her homemade backyard kiln. Each firing of this primitive kiln required Carr’s attention for 12 to 14 hours, and she declared it caused her much “agony, suspense, sweat.” Finally, native designs were applied to the work with enamel paint. As well as selling the work in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Banff, Carr found a market in eastern Canada ~ at a craft sale in Toronto, at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and the Canadian Handicraft Guild in Montreal. Her ceramics were featured in a 1927 article in Maclean’s magazine entitled “Women Potters and Indian Themes”. This striking Klee Wyck piece features rich colour and the use of strong motifs coiled into the vessel’s curves.
E STIMATE: $8,000 ~ 12,000
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103 WALTER JOSEPH (W.J.) PHILLIPS ASA CPE CSPWC RCA
1884 ~ 1963
Garden Bay, BC watercolour on paper, signed and dated 1953 and on verso titled on the gallery label and inscribed $450.00 21 x 30 in, 53.3 x 76.2 cm P ROVENANCE : Canadian Art Galleries, Calgary Private Collection, Victoria
L ITERATURE : Walter J. Phillips, Wet Paint, unpublished manuscript, unpaginated Originally trained in England in the methods evolved by the great nineteenth century British watercolourists, Walter J. Phillips was known for his mastery of watercolour technique. Acknowledging the challenge
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of the medium, he stated, “Water~colour painting is notoriously difficult, so much depends on directness and speed, and certainty of intention.” He adapted his techniques to the Canadian environment and what he called its “dry air” and “sharp contrasts” by defining his outlines in graphite and then laying down transparent broad washes on dry paper. Phillips’s first of a number of trips to the West Coast was in 1927, and in 1960, he moved from Banff to Victoria. The subject of this extraordinary watercolour, Garden Bay, is on BC’s Sunshine Coast. This carefully composed and complex landscape addresses both the wide vista and the small defining details that add warmth to the scene, such as the red boat. Reflections in the water, mistiness over the mountains and the overall impression of clear light create a transcendant West Coast atmosphere. It is rare to find a Phillips watercolour of this size, and the scale makes his mastery of this medium all the more impressive.
E STIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
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11 This depiction of a brown~eyed ski patroller is a fine example of Edwin Holgate’s ability to express character through a few choice details. The young woman is confident, bold and strong. Her lips match the colour of her coat and her eyes the colour of the mountains, thus she is linked to the setting in this concise, focused work that speaks of the outdoors, of the cold and of physical activity. The sitter was the first female ski patroller to work at Morin Heights ski hill in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec. She was 21 years old at the time and is wearing her bright orange ski patroller’s uniform. Holgate was also a good skier, and the Holgates and the family of the sitter were friends, as they all lived in Morin Heights. The sitter had copied a pattern for a bomber jacket that Holgate liked and sewed it for him, and this portrait was painted in return. She had sat for her portrait before, being the subject of lot 180 in this sale. Holgate’s portraits are iconic ~ The Lumberjack, in the collection of the Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery, Ludivine, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, The Naturalist, in the collection of the Musée du Québec and The Skier, in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, are definitive Canadian images and, in The Ski Patroller, we now have another.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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104 EDWIN HEADLEY HOLGATE AAM CGP CSGA G7 RCA
1892 ~ 1977
The Ski Patroller oil on board, signed and dated 1949 16 x 12 3/8 in, 40.6 x 31.4 cm P ROVENANCE : A gift from the Artist to the present Private Collector, Montreal
L ITERATURE : Rosalind Pepall et al, Edwin Holgate, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2005, The Lumberjack reproduced page 113, Ludivine reproduced page 128 and The Skier reproduced page 136
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Helen Galloway McNicoll The Avenue oil on canvas, circa 1912 38 1/4 x 31 1/4 in, 97.1 x 79.4 cm Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25, 2004, lot 16 In a Private Collection; not for sale with this lot
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105 HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL ARCA RBA
1879 ~ 1915
The Avenue oil on panel, on verso inscribed on a label I received this painting from my father Gordon McNicoll, who was Helen McNicoll’s nephew ~ Stacey McNicoll, circa 1912 14 x 11 in, 35.6 x 27.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Estate of the Artist Gordon McNicoll, nephew of the Artist, USA By descent to the present Private Collection, USA
L ITERATURE : Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, catalogue #35, the related circa 1912 large format canvas of the same subject entitled The Avenue reproduced page 36
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Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25, 2004, the related circa 1912 large format canvas of the same subject entitled The Avenue reproduced page 16, lot 16 In 1905, Helen McNicoll attended Julius Olsson’s School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, a seaside town in Cornwall, England. Here she met Algernon Talmage, the principal of the school, who emphasized the importance of painting en plein air. During the summer, Talmage taught figure classes in a private orchard; these classes were integral to the development of McNicoll’s mature painting style. With its carefully constructed pattern of light and shadow down the tree-lined avenue, this work adheres to Talmage’s adage, as quoted by Natalie Luckyj, that “there is sunshine in the shadows.” Almost certainly, this superb painting with its luminous play of light and fluid brush-strokes was painted en plein air. This atmospheric work is the study for McNicoll’s canvas The Avenue, which sold at Heffel on November 25, 2004.
E STIMATE: $20,000 - 30,000
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106 WILLIAM PERCIVAL (W.P.) WESTON ARCA BCSFA CGP RBA
1879 ~ 1967
Old Fir, Victoria, BC oil on canvas, signed and on verso signed and titled, 1958 22 x 25 1/4 in, 55.9 x 64.1 cm L ITERATURE : British Columbia Society of Artists, 47th Annual Exhibition, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1958, listed Letia Richardson, Silence and Solitude, The Art of W.P. Weston, Richmond Art Gallery, 1993, page 11, a similar 1936 canvas entitled Battle Scarred, in the collection of the University of Victoria, reproduced page 14
E XHIBITED : Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia Society of Artists, 47th Annual Exhibition, March 5 ~ 24, 1958, catalogue #107
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W.P. Weston is one of the unique and independent artists, including Emily Carr and E.J. Hughes, who have shaped our perception of British Columbia’s wilderness. Weston emigrated from England and settled in Vancouver in 1909, painting and teaching art. Exploring his surroundings, Weston soon realized he would have to put aside his early training at the Putney School of Art to create his own visual language of form appropriate to the epic grandeur of mountains, forest and coast that he saw. Trees were an important subject for Weston; whether venerable with age or radiant in full maturity, Weston portrayed them as powerful and individual. As he stated, “I like the trees that have had a struggle …They’re like people who have had to fight to live; they’ve developed character.” In this vigorous painting, the fir, its trunk gnarled by time, stands stalwartly in the inner forest; at its roots lie branches dropped during storms, and ringed around it are the slender trunks of younger trees. It is a triumphant survivor, part of the perpetual evolution of life in the forest.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 25,000
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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF EDGAR AND DOROTHY DAVIDSON Edgar and Dorothy Davidson were proud collectors of Canadian Art. In a time when many Canadians looked to other countries to define themselves, the Davidson’s championship of Canadian creativity and expression was a focal point in their lives. Edgar was a German immigrant who had narrowly escaped imprisonment for his liberal views in the years prior to World War II. This experience shaped him, and he was concerned at the lack of patriotism he saw in Canada. He became an active and outspoken citizen, fervent in his aims to boost national pride. Dorothy came from the philanthropic Harold Crabtree family, who supported health, education and social services through grants and charitable work. Edgar and Dorothy as a couple represented a meeting of minds and interests. They would leave a significant impact on Canada through the choices they made and the causes they championed. Their collection of art was shaped by a shared love of Canada and a bold acknowledgement of its diverse politics, styles of expression and history. Beginning in the 1940s in Quebec, they collected work that was often fresh from the artists’ studios and considered cutting~edge contemporary. They were not afraid of political edginess, or intimidated by challenging work. When other collectors were passing on works by Jean Paul Lemieux, Paul~Émile Borduas and Rita Letendre, the Davidsons bought, and they purchased wisely. They were far ahead of the curve in art collecting, and thus their estate contains some of the most important Post~War works to come to the Canadian art market. Edgar and Dorothy had a keen awareness of quality in Canadian art and craft. They were also avid collectors of rare books, antique glass, coins, stamps and early French Canadian furniture. Their legacy established the first Undergraduate Chair in Canadian Studies in Canada in 1969 at Mount Allison University and led other institutions to follow suit. Their donation to Mount Allison University’s Library contains almost 600 unique examples of first edition books and imprints, and in 1990, they donated 24 works of art to the university’s Owens Art Gallery. At Carleton University they established The Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Fund in Religious Studies. Edgar Davidson was born in Berlin in 1905 to a family with wide~ranging, cosmopolitan interests. It is rumoured that they once owned a Vermeer. Though his father died while Edgar was just a child, he was able to study at Heidelberg University and travel in Russia as a young man. He also studied in Paris where, with his left~wing observant intellect, he would have been aware of the Impressionists and their art. He was working as a journalist in Berlin in 1929 when his professional associations began to jeopardize his freedom. Nazism was gaining momentum and he was not sympathetic to its ideals. He left Germany suddenly, arriving in Montreal three weeks before the stock market crash. It was a difficult period in Canada: drought and the Depression had made work scarce, so Davidson took on jobs including that of railway porter, busboy, dining car waiter and steamship deckhand. By 1933, all of the
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Edgar Davidson (1905 ~ 1995), circa 1980 ~ 1983 Photograph: Michael Bedford Photography, Ottawa
Davidson family who had remained in Germany had left for North America. They went to New York, but Edgar stayed in Canada. One of Davidson’s odd jobs was as a parking lot attendant at McGill University, where a chance encounter with a professor who needed a German tutor turned his fortunes. Edgar proved an excellent teacher, and was encouraged to put these skills to more formal use. He entered the Teachers Training Program at MacDonald College in Sainte~Anne~ de~Bellevue, and graduated a year later at the top of his class. He graduated from Queen’s University, also at the top of his class, in 1936, and was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Excellence. From 1936 to 1943 he taught at Montreal’s West Hill High School (now Royal West Academy). He was an inspirational teacher, known simply as ‘Davy’, and was recalled as a man who taught his students how to think, how to question, and how to see the other side of arguments. He met Dorothy Louise Crabtree, an honours graduate of McGill University, while teaching there. She had taken a specialty in history at McGill, and shared Edgar’s love of Canada. She was also an accomplished musician, vocalist
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MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley and Lawren Harris, and then Jean~Paul Riopelle, Paul~Émile Borduas, Marcelle Ferron and Jean Paul Lemieux. Jackson’s Smart River was a favourite of Dorothy’s and hung in her home until her death. They were bold collectors, choosing works that they felt were the best expressions of Canadian ideals, issues, politics and life, works in which they saw enduring value and, above all, the finest of quality. They both had a ‘great pair of eyes’, and with the guidance of a few trusted dealers including Agnès Lefort, Mira Godard and Walter Moos, they chose extremely well. From an initial outlay of about $30,000, their art collection is now valued in the millions. The Davidsons would host gatherings in their home after dinners out, bringing others to see their art and to discuss its role within the greater dialogue of Canada. One of Edgar’s proudest moments was his purchase of Lemieux’s Les Moniales, a challenging and emblematic work. As hosts, the Davidsons also included artists in their gatherings. Dorothy was a fine cook, and family members recall Jackson, having painted in the sugar bush on the Davidson property, falling asleep in his chair after a hearty meal in their home. They were also close friends of Lawren P. Harris, Lawren S. Harris’s son.
Dorothy Davidson (1911 ~ 2010), circa 1980 ~ 1983 Photograph: Michael Bedford Photography, Ottawa
and intellect. They complemented one another as a couple, his wide~ranging interests being supported by her keen intelligence. They were married in 1943. During World War II, Davidson served in the Royal Canadian Navy and British Intelligence (MI5) as an Acting Lieutenant~Commander, where his skills as a translator were invaluable. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1946 and decorated for his service. Together with Dorothy and spurred by their shared sense of national pride and their vast combined knowledge of history, they began to collect. The first painting that they purchased together was Emily Carr’s Trees in the Wind Circle, which they bought when they were newlyweds. This dramatic painting was the foundation of their collection of Canadian art. The Davidson collection contains fine examples of the artists that they felt to be important expressers of central issues and themes of Canadian life: from the pre~twentieth century with Cornelius Krieghoff and Marc~Aurèle Suzor~Coté, onward to the Group of Seven with J.E.H.
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Dorothy and Edgar’s contribution to their community was vast. Dorothy worked with many charitable organizations including the Montreal YWCA and Save the Children Canada. Edgar worked on issues of curriculum and content with the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, and was made an honourary lifetime member of the Montreal Association of Protestant Teachers, winning the Scholastic Order of Merit for Great Distinction from the Province of Quebec. He was admitted to the Order of Canada in 1991 for his life’s work. Edgar was also a student in the Department of Religion at Carleton University. In 1981, he earned his MA with a thesis entitled “Tillich’s Approach to Art” (Paul Tillich was an influential twentieth century Protestant theologian and existential philosopher). At this time, the Davidsons personally and with the Harold Crabtree Foundation established the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Fund in Religious Studies. The fund supports activities of the department including The Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Annual Lecture by a visiting academic, professors’ travel, and the Davidson Dinner ~ this year is the 28th. Edgar believed that people needed to get together to encourage collegiality and to enjoy themselves. Edgar lived a healthy and active life until falling ill in 1985. He was working towards his PhD but was unable to complete it, and died in 1995 at the age of 90. Dorothy passed away in June 2010, one month short of her 99th birthday. The Davidsons’ extraordinary collection represents a wonderful opportunity for today’s passionate collectors to purchase fine works of art, many collected at the time they were created and thus have never been on the market before. Heffel Fine Art Auction House is pleased and honoured to be a part of this process.
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107 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA
1871 ~ 1945
Trees in the Wind Circle oil on paper on board, signed and on verso stamped Dominion Gallery, Montreal, circa 1938 34 1/2 x 23 1/4 in, 87.6 x 59 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Doris Shadbolt, The Art of Emily Carr, 1979, page 138 Doris Shadbolt, editor, The Complete Writings of Emily Carr, 1993, Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr, page 844 Awards to the Royal Canadian Navy, WW2 ‘D’, http://www.rcnvr.com (accessed February 12, 2011) Edgar and Dorothy Davidson’s collection of Canadian art is a reflection of their great love of Canada. This lyrical, windswept Emily Carr painting was the beginning of their collection ~ the first painting they bought together ~ and the story of how they came to own it is quite remarkable. After the Davidsons were married in 1943, they lived for a short time in London, Ontario and then moved to Ottawa. Dorothy worked at the Privy Council Offices, while ‘Davy’, as Edgar was known, put his language skills to use in the war effort. Having fled Germany in 1929 to escape Nazism, he was well aware of the value of freedom. He was fluent in French as well as German, and was a skilled teacher. This combination drew the attention of the Royal Canadian Navy and he worked for them, together with British Military Intelligence Section 5 (MI5), to translate documents and to develop methods of prisoner interrogation. His Naval records state: “During the war, Lieutenant~Commander Davidson has aided materially in the Royal Canadian Naval War effort. He was instrumental in evolving the method of interrogating Prisoners of war, and on behalf of the Navy, he was able to obtain valuable information clarifying the sinking of the SS Athenia and HMCS Esquimalt, which evidence was
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16 subsequently used in the Nuremberg War Criminal Trials. At all times he has discharged his duties with great zeal and energy, in keeping with the high traditions of the Royal Canadian Navy.” He was awarded the honour of Member, Order of the British Empire in June of 1946. Davidson was reimbursed for his expenses, and he and Dorothy used this money to purchase Carr’s Trees in the Wind Circle, which was showing in Ottawa at the time. The Davidsons moved back to Quebec after the war ended and, while much of their collection represents the artists of Quebec and depicts regions of Canada closer to their home province, the purchase of the Carr is a clear aesthetic choice. The guiding precept in all their collecting was quality. They chose works of an enduring nature, works of Canadian cultural importance, works that captured what was happening in art in Canada throughout their lives. Carr’s mature works used the oil on paper method. These works are characterized by their fluid, rapid execution and the deep sense of feeling within them. Carr enjoyed their spontaneity, the freedom of creativity that they allowed her, and they gave her great satisfaction, as she felt she was able to capture and release into her art the essence of her forest and coastal subjects. At this time in her career, she was deeply aware of her relationship with the natural world and felt that the forest, trees and windswept shores possessed an essential something, an elusive message or spirit, that she was hovering on the verge of capturing. “There’s words enough, paint and brushes enough, and thoughts enough. The whole difficulty seems to be getting the thoughts clear enough, making them stand still long enough to be fitted with words and paint.” As Carr was an artist whose greatest critic was in fact herself, this method was freeing ~ a quick response, a way to fit paint to the moment before it disappeared from her grasp. Doris Shadbolt notes that “sketch” is a convenient term we use to describe these works by their method, but one that does not fully acknowledge their importance. She calls them instead “paper paintings”. Carr’s paper paintings were often the foundation for a canvas. Trees in the Wind Circle moved through Carr’s emotive way of processing ideas and was the basis of related canvases such as In a Circle, now part of the Thomson Collection of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
E STIMATE: $125,000 ~ 175,000
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107
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108 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
1882 ~ 1974
Smart River, Alaska Highway oil on canvas, signed and on verso signed, titled and dated 1944 21 x 26 3/16 in, 53.3 x 66.5 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country, The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, pages 172 ~ 173 Edgar and Dorothy Davidson’s collection of Canadian art was rich in depth and broad in style and type. On their walls were bold abstractions by Jean~Paul Riopelle, vivid Lake Superior works by Lawren Harris and serene figures by Jean Paul Lemieux. This fluid canvas painted by A.Y. Jackson was a favourite of Dorothy’s; it hung in her home until her passing, serving, no doubt, as a reminder of the friendship she and ‘Davy’ had developed with Jackson and the meals she had served him in their Montreal home. Jackson painted in the forest on the Davidsons’ Montreal property. He was an eager guest when invited to stay, happy to sketch and to join in a good meal, and his recollections of these friendships in his autobiography A Painter’s Country are warm and insightful. He gives accolades to collectors like the Davidsons whose support for the development of art in Canada through their purchases of new work was critical. In 1943, Jackson and Henry Glyde traveled the newly built Alaska Highway from Whitehorse to Peace River to paint. The road had been built as part of defensive efforts of the United States, and Harry McCurry of the National Gallery of Canada arranged for Glyde and Jackson to paint a record of this newly accessible territory. They arrived in late autumn while colour was still about and new snow beginning to arrive ~ perfect conditions for Jackson’s approach. His eye for character in the land noted trees that had been partially uprooted so that they sat at odd angles along
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19 the highway, a typical Jackson observation. They were able to see much of the surrounding land, having drivers assigned to assist them and letters of permission from the United States government at hand. Working for the National Gallery of Canada, they were treated as honoured guests. Jackson recalls: “We motored west from Whitehorse to Kluane Lake not far from the Alaska border. For a hundred and fifty miles the road runs through a high open country with mountain ranges on either side. The timber line gets lower in the north so that the mountains rise from the wooded plains with hardly a tree on them. Mile after mile of sharp pointed peaks covered with snow form a background, while the road follows the long swinging undulations of open, wooded country ~ stretches of spruce and poplar, grassland or burnt~over country, lands of little sticks. There was no snow in the valleys, but the ground was rich with hoar frost where the sun could not find it.” The rolling tundra and muskeg of this region appealed strongly to Jackson, and the distant mountains provided a bold backdrop to scenes such as this view of the Smart River. The glassy water has a polished smoothness to it as it reflects the forest and distant mountain. This effect is heightened by the dark outlines and wavy, framing trees. “We had heard stories about this part of the country,” Jackson continues, “that it was just a great stretch of monotonous bush. Perhaps it was the crisp October weather with the low sun, the sombre richness of the colour, the frost and patches of snow, the ice along the edge of the rivers, but whatever the reason, we found it fascinating.” In Smart River, Alaska Highway, Jackson’s brushwork is smooth and his colours are very fine, conveying a sense of both the season and the temperature. It is as if a new land is being laid out before us, with a road that we too might explore. Jackson was well aware of his privilege in being there during wartime and that his works could take others to places they had not been. Thus it is no surprise that this work was chosen for reproduction in silkscreen format for the Federation of Canadian Artists Series of prints produced by Sampson Matthews Limited in the mid~ 1940s. A preparatory tempera painting was also produced in the process.
E STIMATE: $125,000 ~ 175,000
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20 provided by his fellows there was essential in the unfolding of his career. He did not exhibit as a painter until 1908, when he showed Winter Moonlight at the Ontario Society of Artists’ exhibition. They elected him a member the following year, and this encouragement, together with the rich ferment at Grip Ltd. and through his fellow members at the Arts and Letters Club, caused him to turn his attention more and more to painting. Lee’s Cottage, Bloor Street, Moonlight comes from this critical time. In it, we see the fine lines of Art Nouveau in the swirling tree shadows. Elms branch off the upper edge of the work as we gaze up at the comfortable cabin, set above us on a hill. MacDonald’s design work from this time uses the theme of a tranquil cabin, set on a hill in the woods, with some frequency. It is a quintessentially Canadian motif.
E STIMATE: $30,000 ~ 50,000
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110 MARC~AURÈLE DE FOY SUZOR~COTÉ CAC RCA
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109 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA 1873 ~ 1932
Lee’s Cottage, Bloor Street, Moonlight oil on board, signed and dated 1909 and on verso titled on a label 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in, 14 x 8.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Robert Stacey and Hunter Bishop, J.E.H. MacDonald: Designer, 1996, page 1 J.E.H. MacDonald’s early career at Grip Ltd. was a formative time when he found himself in “the nursery of much of Canada’s art.” The stimulus
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1869 ~ 1937
Winter Forest oil on panel, signed and on verso signed and inscribed to Doctor Wilson, April 9, 1919, Montreal 3 1/2 x 5 in, 8.9 x 12.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Dr. Wilson, Montreal Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Laurier Lacroix, Suzor~Coté, Light and Matter, National Gallery of Canada, 2002, page 170 Marc~Aurèle de Foy Suzor~Coté was a master of capturing light in his work. As Laurier Lacroix describes, “Suzor~Coté enjoyed studying the variations of light at different times of day and in the various seasons, and his rapid sketches from nature gave him unlimited scope for this.” In this stunning sketch, the artist has captured the glowing sunset cascading through the snowy, wooded forest.
E STIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
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111
111 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD
oil on canvas, initialed and dated 1909 and on verso titled on a label 4 1/2 x 6 3/8 in, 11.4 x 16.2 cm
painted together on weekends in rural locations. We know from other works that he had sketched there as early as 1901. In this tranquil oil, MacDonald shows a small group of buildings across the waters of the harbour. Billowing clouds dominate the sky, depicted in the same whites and blues as the waters of Lake Ontario. Clouds are another element of the natural world that interested MacDonald at this time in his artistic career. He later showed his skill with them in small oils and charming engravings, on Christmas cards and in design work.
P ROVENANCE :
E STIMATE: $30,000 ~ 50,000
ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA
1873 ~ 1932
On the Lake Shore Near Bronte
Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972 Bronte was a charming fishing village in 1909 when J.E.H. MacDonald painted there. Now part of greater Oakville, it was roughly halfway between Toronto, where MacDonald was living in 1909, and Hamilton, where he had spent some of his childhood. MacDonald would have traveled south~west from his home in Toronto to paint at Bronte, perhaps on one of the excursions with other staff from Grip Ltd. who
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112 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
Winter, Quebec Village ~ Horse and Sleigh oil on board, signed, circa 1930 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972 A.Y. Jackson’s affection for the quaint villages of Quebec was a constant throughout his life. From Saint~Hilarion to Saint~Urbain, he loved the rough~hewn architecture, bright colours and central churches that were so characteristic of these villages along the St. Lawrence. He took annual March sketching trips to this region for most of his creative life. He was especially fond of them as depicted here, under a blanket of snow. This might be a view of Saint~Fidèle, as the structure of the church is quite
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similar but, as most of Jackson’s Quebec villages had central churches, it is difficult to determine the location of this scene exactly. His even treatment of this work, with its overall purple and blue tones, brings to mind the stormy weather of March, when skies filled with moisture can bring either snow or rain. The entire scene is rendered in a few closely aligned colours; the colour of the horse matches that of the muddy road and the outlines of several of the buildings. Details such as the red rooflines and blue tinged windows, and scant accents of yellow here and there, bring this extraordinary Group of Seven period painting to life.
E STIMATE: $30,000 ~ 40,000
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113
113 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
Saint~Hyacinthe, Quebec oil on board, signed and on verso signed and titled St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, circa late 1930s 8 3/8 x 10 1/2 in, 21.3 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 90, a related late 1930s drawing entitled St~Hyacinthe on the Yamaska River reproduced page 91 In the late 1930s, A.Y. Jackson traveled past the rural village of Saint~Hyacinthe on the Yamaska River by train. He decided to visit the
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village to sketch, so “on his next trip he simply got off the train at Saint~Hyacinthe, parked his suitcase at the hotel nearest the railway station and walked back along the tracks (‘about four or five miles’) until he came to his barns. He remembers making several pencil studies, an oil sketch, and later a canvas of the subject. The town appealed to him as well, so he spent three or four days working around it.” Saint~Hyacinthe is depicted in this oil study from across the river, showing us the back side of town. The twin spires of the cathedral jut into the sky on the distant left, while the water tower and smokestack of an old brick factory are on the right. Jackson’s focus is the sloping bank of the river and its eddies, depicted as melting colour. The smoke from the factory echoes the swirls of the river, giving the work a feeling of fluid movement.
E STIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
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114
114 CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF 1815 ~ 1872
Reaching Shore oil on canvas, signed and dated 1860 13 1/4 x 18 1/8 in, 33.7 x 46 cm P ROVENANCE : Mr. W.F. Kay, Montreal W. Scott & Sons, offered at auction March 30, 1889, lot 51 Mrs. W.F. Kay, Sweetsburg, Quebec Acquired from the above on February 15, 1962 for $4,000 by Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
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L ITERATURE : Catalogue of the Exceptional & Highly Important Sale of Mr. W.F. Kay’s Collection of Paintings and Statuary, Montreal, 30th March, 1889 This is an auction catalogue for perhaps the first ever fine art auction conducted in Canada, under the management of W. Scott & Sons, W.H. Arton, Auctioneer, lot 51, page 19 City & Country Home, June 1986, a similar Krieghoff scene reproduced page 43 Cornelius Krieghoff’s studies of First Nations people and habitants are skilled, humanistic depictions of a bygone time. Full of minute detail, they are richly coloured works of superb detail unmatched by any of his Canadian painting contemporaries. His characteristic manner of revealing the bedrock of the land, capturing autumn leaves in high colour
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keys, and depicting the precise ethnographic details of each item he painted gave his work remarkable naturalistic detail. Works by Krieghoff are prized equally by museums and collectors for their revelation of historical information and for their fine depictions of early Canada. This work is dated 1860, thus would have been painted when Krieghoff was living in Quebec City, the most productive period of his career. This work also has an interesting provenance, having been owned by Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Kay of Montreal. Mr. Kay was a prominent art collector who also owned works by Adolph Vogt. In 1889, paintings and statuary from the Kay collection were auctioned under the management of William Scott, a Montreal art dealer and framer who knew Krieghoff and sold his work until 1939.
E STIMATE: $90,000 ~ 120,000
115 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
115
Umbrella Islands, Georgian Bay oil on board, signed and on verso titled and inscribed 32~4 / H.S. / 6 10 3/8 x 13 1/2 in, 26.3 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972 Georgian Bay was one of the first sketching grounds for the Group of Seven; they found the rugged terrain of the Bay provided them with infinite inspiration for their work. A.Y. Jackson was associated with Georgian Bay (almost as closely as to Quebec, to which he was inextricably linked), making countless trips and capturing the many moods of the area throughout his career.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
116 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
116
1882 ~ 1974
Lake in La Cloche Hills, Ontario oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled and dated October 1940 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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117 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
L ITERATURE : 1885 ~ 1970
North Shore, Lake Superior, Pic Island II oil on board, on verso signed, titled and inscribed Bess Harris Collection, property Bess Harris / BHC 106 / Walter Ko[e]rner / Keep / 71 / 15, with the Doris Mills Inventory #4/25 and with the artist’s symbol, circa 1922 10 1/2 x 13 3/4 in, 26.7 x 34.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
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Lawren Harris, “Theosophy and Art”, The Canadian Theosophist, July 1933, page 130 Jeremy Adamson, Lawren S. Harris, Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes 1906 ~ 1930, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1978, listed page 228, a similar circa 1922 canvas entitled Above Lake Superior, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, reproduced page 122, a similar 1921 oil entitled Above Lake Superior reproduced page 123 and a similar circa 1922 oil entitled Lake Superior Sketch IV reproduced page 154 Peter Larisey, Light for a Cold Land, Lawren Harris’s Work and Life ~ An Interpretation, 1993, reproduced page 95, figure 8.5
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E XHIBITED : Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Lawren S. Harris, Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes 1906 ~ 1930, January 14 ~ February 26, 1978, catalogue #121 Pic Island lies just off the north shore of Lake Superior near Coldwell, Ontario, and is the subject of some of Lawren Harris’s most important works. When Harris visited this region with A.Y. Jackson at the end of their 1921 Algoma trip, he was struck by the austerity and barrenness of the landscape. He painted a number of small sketches at that time and continued working with them as a theme in his studio over the course of the ensuing winter. The iconic canvas Above Lake Superior, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, is a well~known work from this time, and clearly related to this work. Harris returned to the North Shore region repeatedly until 1928, painting a number of views that explore the patterns of clouds and the shapes of trees, changing the amount of water in the scene and adjusting the shoreline. While we are not sure of the exact dates of each, they are all interrelated explorations of a powerful vista that arrested his attention and was the preoccupying motif in his work for a number of years. These Lake Superior works are widely considered to be the most pivotal in Harris’s oeuvre. Harris’s northward journey, from the genteel, tree~lined streets of Toronto to the rougher edges of the city, out into the wilderness and further north along the shore of Lake Superior, can be seen as a religious pilgrimage. It was at the North Shore of Lake Superior that Harris’s moment of truth, so to speak, came. Until this time, it was as if Harris were preparing for communion, working out the final details of his spiritual perspective. The landscape he encountered near Coldwell would refine his vision into a sublime sense of order and align his art with his philosophy. Looking from work to work, noting the variations from one to another, we can see why the Lake Superior period is so critically important. It was at this time that Harris’s interest in Theosophy was formalized into membership in the Theosophical Society of Canada. The Lake Superior works seem to manifest this final conversion, and each of them, with their variations and changes in focus, represent the growing solidification of his faith. North Shore, Lake Superior, Pic Island II is an extraordinary painting that can be linked to a number of related Lake Superior masterworks such as the canvas Above Lake Superior, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the sketch The Old Stump, Lake Superior and its larger canvas North Shore, Lake Superior, both in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Some ten years later, after these works were completed, Harris published an article titled “Theosophy and Art” in The Canadian Theosophist. His words therein might be a recollection of the process he went through at Lake Superior, as if his moment of philosophical and artistic truth were being recalled from a place of final clarity and understanding. His words were also astonishingly prophetic. He states: “The power of beauty at
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Lawren Stewart Harris Above Lake Superior oil on canvas, circa 1922, 48 x 60 in, 121.9 x 152 cm In the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto A gift from the Reuben and Kate Leonard Canadian Fund, 1929
work in man, as the artist has always known, is severe and exacting, and once invoked, will never leave him alone, until he brings his work and life into some semblance of harmony with its spirit. It is the creative urge in the artist, causing him to adventure into new fields, new ways of perception, into finer orders of being. And these adventures produce strife within himself, and cause strife in his fellow men and sometimes result in strife between his fellow men and his ideas. This he cannot avoid. Because he must maintain the integrity of his vision despite whatever inner or outer opposition. Only so can he be of value, of use to his fellow men.” Harris’s life was filled with strife just a year later when his art, the power of beauty that was at work within him, took a severe blow. He divorced his wife, left Canada and temporarily stopped painting. Harris’s Lake Superior works are fascinating in their simplicity and serenity, and are filled with powerful, symbolic forms. North Shore, Lake Superior, Pic Island II, with its smooth and fluid brushwork, austere form, powerful light and awe~inspiring sense of the sublime, fills the frame as Harris captures in paint the semblance of harmony that he felt at Lake Superior.
E STIMATE : $250,000 ~ 350,000
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118 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA
1873 ~ 1932
Valley and Stream, Oesa Trail, Lake O’Hara oil on board, initialed and dated Sept. 4, 1930 8 1/2 x 10 3/8 in, 21.6 x 26.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : J.E.H. MacDonald Diaries, National Archives of Canada, 30 D11, Volume 1, unpaginated
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J.E.H. MacDonald kept detailed, poetic journals while he hiked and sketched at Lake O’Hara. They record one of the most satisfying periods in his life, when he was free to paint the vistas of a place he loved and muse on what he saw there. The Thursday, September 4, 1930 entry reads: “To Oesa trail and up goat path. Made sketch there of valley and stream in shadow…Water most pleasantly cool. Day warm, many mosquitos, black flies, deer flies, and butterflies. A rough little thistle in places. Gone to seed and most offensive looking little plant, even a mountain goat would say grace before eating.” He also made a second sketch from roughly the same location, this one in sunlight. As this work is so clearly dated September 4, 1930, and as the sun seems to sparkle, we can assume that it is the sketch of the valley and stream made that afternoon. The sketch made that morning is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.
E STIMATE: $50,000 ~ 70,000
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119 EDWIN HEADLEY HOLGATE AAM CGP CSGA G7 RCA
1892 ~ 1977
Creek Near Morin Heights oil on panel, initialed and on verso signed twice and dated October 1961 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE :
During World War II, Edwin Holgate was an official war artist for the Canadian Government. Rather than returning to the hustle and bustle of the city following the war, Holgate relocated to Morin Heights, an area northwest of Montreal. The landscape of the enchanting Laurentians provided a wide breadth of subject matter for Holgate, as is illustrated in this charming sketch.
E STIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Acquired on October 19, 1965 for $850 by Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
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120
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120 DAVID BROWN MILNE CGP CSGA CSPWC
1882 ~ 1953
Clearing at Sunset (Six Mile Lake, Muskoka, Ontario) oil on canvas, signed and dated 1937 and on verso titled and inscribed 3 12 1/8 x 14 3/8 in, 30.8 x 36.5 cm P ROVENANCE : Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Letter from David Milne to James Clarke, August 1933, National Archives of Canada Exhibition of Recent Pictures by David B. Milne, Mellors Galleries, 1938, unpaginated Graham Campbell McInnes, “The World of Art”, Saturday Night, November 7, 1936, page 23 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, reproduced page 643, catalogue #305.32
E XHIBITED : Mellors Galleries, Toronto, Exhibition of Recent Pictures by David B. Milne, January 15 ~ 29, 1938, catalogue #3 Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal, 1971 In 1933, David Milne left Palgrave in search of a new painting place, one that spoke to him and inspired him with the kind of tangled wood and relative isolation that he craved. His marriage was in disarray, his finances a mess; all this was an irritating distraction from his painting. He discovered Six Mile Lake, at the southern end of Georgian Bay, and liked its driftwood~strewn shores and logged hills. He wrote that “painting material at Six Mile Lake is mostly rocks, worn and whitened by the water, bleached driftwood and in the channels, chutes and rapids and pool. Very fine…” He rented a small lot where he built and outfitted a serviceable
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31 cabin. Thus isolated, he began to paint, following his pattern of working on subjects in a serial approach. He employed eye exercises to capture flashes of a scene, blinking rapidly and then painting the after~image. He wanted to paint the essence of a moment, and worked at this by painting from the same scene over and over and then assessing his work until “you come to one that brings back with unusual vividness, the picture you saw as you sat on the packing box above the still lake. The one that you paint, once maybe, more likely twice or three times, you work at it until your canvas gives the same ‘kick’ the sunset gave you…” He was utterly alone, completely focused, distracted only by chores and the weather, and as a result produced some of his finest work. But he was broke and in debt, so he wrote to Vincent and Alice Massey ~ whom he knew to be art patrons and who had purchased a work of his before ~ brazenly proposing they buy all his unsold work, close to 1,000 paintings. The Masseys’ influence put the wheels in motion for several exhibitions that were mounted in the following years. Milne started to sell his works and was quickly recognized by critics, one of whom called him the “greatest artist at work in Canada today.” With some ease in his finances, Milne’s work advanced rapidly at Six Mile Lake. He experimented with colour, using pigments “not as they are, but as they would be in your own assortment of black and white values and hues.” He worked both indoors and out~of~doors, and renewed his interest in watercolour in 1937; after 1938, he rarely painted in oil. Canvases such as this were the jumping~off points to his watercolours and all the more rare when one remembers that just a year later, in 1939, much of Milne’s work would be burned in a studio clearing ordered by his agent Douglas Duncan. Clearing at Sunset (Six Mile Lake, Muskoka, Ontario) is characteristically spare, showing us Milne’s masterful use of white, which here has been applied last. With five simple colours, extended by their use as values, he has captured the ‘kick’ of the clearing weather, the moment when the sky begins to open. This energetic work was exhibited at Mellors Galleries in 1938, where Milne noted it as being one of his favourites in the show.
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121 FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEY ARCA G7 OSA 1881 ~ 1969
Clouds and a Tree oil on board, signed and on verso signed twice, titled, inscribed End of Autumn by Peter Varley and also inscribed Varley v.3 / $70.00 and stamped with the Varley Inventory #720, circa 1940 11 7/8 x 15 in, 30.2 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
E XHIBITED : Art Association of Montreal, Contemporary Art Society, Art of Our Day in Canada, November 22 ~ December 15, 1940
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When Frederick Varley moved to Vancouver in 1926, the richness of the atmosphere there ~ the lush, humid climate, the rich greenery and the ocean at his door ~ inspired his sense of colour. It was there that his palette took on new hues, beautiful blends of blue and green, purple and gold. This sensual use of colour would remain a key part of his work from that time on, and Clouds and a Tree is a perfect example of this, being concerned purely with colour. Varley had returned to Ottawa by 1936 and later would travel to the Arctic, where he employed this lush sense of colour to depict dramatic icebergs. Clouds and a Tree shows us Varley’s practice of blending colour directly on the surface of his work; the gradated hues of red and purple in the rock to which the tree clings and the distant hills are bold experiments. Varley’s love of drawing also shows through in this work, wherein the form of the tree is as much drawn as painted.
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122 FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEY ARCA G7 OSA 1881 ~ 1969
Autumn Haze oil on board, signed and with the artist’s thumbprint and on verso signed, inscribed Landscape between Trenton & Belleville and stamped with the Varley Inventory #719, circa 1940 11 1/2 x 14 7/8 in, 29.2 x 37.8 cm P ROVENANCE : Edgar and Dorothy Davidson, Montreal and then moving to Ottawa in 1972
L ITERATURE : Christopher Varley, F.H. Varley, A Centennial Exhibition, The Edmonton Art Gallery, 1981, reproduced page 146 Katerina Atanassova, F.H. Varley, Portraits Into the Light, 2007, pages 92 and 106
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E XHIBITED : The Edmonton Art Gallery, F.H. Varley, A Centennial Exhibition, October 16 ~ December 5, 1981, catalogue #162 Frederick Varley was a master of blending colour. In this charming landscape, set somewhere between the small Ontario villages of Trenton and Belleville, Varley blends a variety of cool purple, blue, red and green shades into a languid sky and a hazy line of trees. He also uses the warm wood tones of the supporting board as a contrasting part of his palette. The strong linear brushwork in the foreground stubble plays against the brush~strokes used to depict the sun, which form a circular pattern. It is a landscape reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, complete with stooked hay in the foreground, attesting to the link between the Group of Seven and French Impressionism. In the summer of 1940, Varley stayed with his friends Wing Commander C.J. and Rae Duncan at their cottage on the Bay of Quinte near Trenton Air Force base, and his explorations of that countryside formed the basis for this beautiful atmospheric work.
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123 HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL ARCA RBA
1879 ~ 1915
Market in Brittany oil on canvas, signed and on verso titled partially on the remnants of the Art Association of Montreal’s memorial exhibition label, circa 1913 32 x 26 in, 81.3 x 66 cm P ROVENANCE : Acquired directly from the Artist by Mrs. T.A. Trenholme, Montreal By descent to the present Private Collection, Quebec
L ITERATURE : Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 3 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll, a Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, what is likely this work shown in a 1913 Montreal Daily Star photograph of Helen McNicoll’s studio reproduced page 53
E XHIBITED : The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 ~ December 6, 1925, catalogue #1 Helen Galloway McNicoll is one of Canada’s finest Impressionist painters. The daughter of David McNicoll, a vice~president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, she was very likely exposed to Impressionist art at a young age. Her father and his friend William Cornelius Van Horne were both amateur artists who sketched together, and since Van Horne collected French Impressionist art, Helen would have seen these works in his home. McNicoll contracted scarlet fever at the age of two and, as a result, she was deaf. Her family arranged private tutors for her, and her considerable artistic talents were noticed early. She studied under William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal from 1899 to 1902, who saw these talents and encouraged her to go to Europe for further training. McNicoll went to London to study at the Slade School of Art with Frederic Brown and Philip Steer (1902 ~ 1904), visited Paris, and then returned to England for further training with the renowned teacher Algernon Talmage in Cornwall from 1904 to 1905. In the genteel pre~war world of England, she painted her preferred subjects of tranquil scenes largely focused on women, especially mothers and children. McNicoll met painter Dorothea Sharp, a British Impressionist, and they became close friends, sitting for each other as models and sharing a studio.
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McNicoll’s art was a product of Impressionism. Her chosen palette of pure pigments, her ‘belle epoch’ subject matter and her prevailing interest in light and atmosphere are all in keeping with history’s most beloved period of art. She mastered Impressionism’s methods early and practiced them throughout her career. Her greatest attention was given to the effects of light, and in this she was especially skilled. Speckles of sun on leaves, streaks of sun on stalks of hay, or beams of light filtered through the canopy of trees are a constant source of visual pleasure in her work. She depicted light moved by wind, filtered through fabric and reflecting off water. Her paintings are idyllic, glorious, beautiful. In Market in Brittany, the wagons seem to be made of gold, the trees carved from jade. These traits give the work the quality of an idyll, wherein all things in the scene, no matter how mundane, seem suffused with beauty. Aprons are perfectly white, coloured by sun and moved by breezes, bonnets are crisp with starch, the people at ease. No one is hurried, work is leisurely and pleasurable. Even the dirt road in this hay~scattered Brittany market seems to be dappled in gold. But there is no sentimentality in McNicoll’s work ~ her selection of inconsequential moments prohibits this; she was pragmatic and rather practical. In Market in Brittany, none of the figures even turn towards us; they are simply going about their work, quite oblivious to the brilliance of light and mood they are caught in. In Canada, McNicoll’s work was underappreciated in her lifetime and for many years afterward. Her achievements in England, however, were noticed. She was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1913, as acknowledged in the Montreal Daily Star, recognizing that McNicoll was one of only eight painters elected that year. Notably, Market in Brittany and another work, perhaps a preliminary sketch for Market in Brittany, are seen in the picture of McNicoll’s London studio that accompanied the Star’s announcement. While she exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1906 to 1914, she was not given status as a member until 1914, and then only as an Associate. While the National Gallery of Canada purchased a work early on, it was not until ten years after her death that the Art Association of Montreal, with whom she had also exhibited, held a memorial exhibition of her work. This important show included Market in Brittany as catalogue #1. The painting was borrowed, along with four other works, from the Trenholme family who owned it at the time. The Trenholmes were close friends of the McNicolls in Montreal in the early 1900s, and hearty supporters of Helen’s work. McNicoll’s career was short ~ she died at the age of 35 ~ and while much of her life as an artist was spent overseas, she remains one of Canada’s finest Impressionist painters.
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124 HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL ARCA RBA
1879 ~ 1915
Making Posies oil on canvas, on verso stamped with the Studio Helen McNicoll estate stamp, #18, circa 1912 16 x 18 in, 40.6 x 45.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Estate of the Artist The Morris Gallery, Toronto, 1974 Private Collection, Toronto By descent to the present Private Estate, Toronto
L ITERATURE : Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 4 Joan Murray, Helen McNicoll, Oil Paintings from the Estate, The Morris Gallery, 1974, listed and reproduced, unpaginated A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women Artists, 2008, pages 37 and 76
E XHIBITED : The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 ~ December 6, 1925, catalogue #18 The Morris Gallery, Toronto, Helen McNicoll, Oil Paintings from the Estate, November 16 ~ 30, 1974, catalogue #12
37 “‘Trailblazers’ are artists who changed Canadian art forever. That is, the originality and force of expression embodied in their work have survived the test of time,” stated A.K. Prakash. Helen McNicoll is inevitably included in this category. This was an age in which women were not allowed the level of artistic freedom that men experienced in Europe, Canada or elsewhere. We are fortunate to have a handful of female artists that we now consider keystone figures in Canadian art history. This painting is an intimate portrait in which the artist’s viewpoint looks outward, perhaps from a windowsill, and depicts two children exploring a sunlit field collecting flowers for a posy. Several art scholars have chosen canvases by McNicoll, above all other artists, to feature as covers for their publications. One example is Paul Duval’s renowned publication entitled Canadian Impressionism. Duval recognized early on that it was McNicoll, along with a handful of her female contemporaries, who most clearly exemplified the theories of Impressionism as taught by the legendary French and English Impressionists. Like Claude Monet and McNicoll’s teacher Wyndham Lewis, she was true to certain principles of light, mood and atmosphere derived from the brilliance of sunlight as it reflects in the air and on water. Few Canadian artists could paint gardens, beach scenes, children or sun effects quite like McNicoll. As Prakash observed, “The Impressionists set the standard for this kind of painting; Monet excelled at it, and in Canadian art, McNicoll alone painted to this level.” McNicoll’s treatment of her subjects was blissful and heartfelt and her atmospheres transcendent; a canvas such as this is a rare and beautiful gift for art patrons.
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125 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Lake Superior Near Coldwell oil on board, signed and on verso titled, circa 1921 ~ 1926 12 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal, inventory #E1814, acquired April 6, 1955 for $350 The Estate of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Montreal
L ITERATURE : Lawren Harris, The Story of the Group of Seven, 1964, page 24 Joan Murray and Robert Fulford, Lawren S. Harris, The Beginning of Vision, The Drawings of Lawren S. Harris, Mira Godard Gallery, 1982, a related circa 1925 drawing entitled Port Coldwell, Lake Superior reproduced page 87 Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Personal Art Collection Catalogue, reproduced, unpaginated, catalogue #R34 At the conclusion of the 1921 Algoma trip, Arthur Lismer returned to Toronto while Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson decided to take a few days to venture still further north, then west along the shore of Lake Superior. The Canadian Pacific Railway had laid track along the north shore of the lake in the 1880s, much of it very close to the rolling, rocky shoreline. Harris and Jackson visited Rossport, near the northernmost point of the lake. The austere landscape, scraped bare by glaciers and further scoured clean by fires, seemed endless. The bare bones of the land were exposed in all directions. While they were only able to stay for a few days, this small taste of the North Shore made a vivid impression on Harris and Jackson. They returned each fall in October for the next four years, camping at Rossport, Coldwell and Heron Bay, braving freezing weather. Franklin Carmichael joined them twice, Lismer and A.J. Casson once each. Harris’s fascination with the region was deep. The barren landscape had something to say to him, he would later recall ~ its very sparseness would direct his work. “On all of our camping and sketching trips we learned to
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explore each region for those particular areas where form and character and spirit reached its summation. We became increasingly conscious of the fact that the spirit of the land must be discovered through its own character if there is to be any real life in its art.” Harris’s fascination with the form, character and spirit of the North Shore of Lake Superior coincided with his deepening interest in Theosophy. He joined the Toronto chapter of the Theosophical Society of Canada in 1923, having been aware of the movement since 1904 and interested in it for some time. Its philosophy of anti~materialism, wherein all religions had once been united together as one eternal truth, appealed greatly to him. The belief that this truth could be expressed as light and purity rang true to Harris on a personal level, and was a perfect fit with the austere landscape of the North Shore. Theosophy was a popular movement in the 1920s, as were other philosophies of a mystical nature. By the time he joined officially, Harris was devout. He saw himself as being on a mission as an artist and felt that he was obliged because of his creative abilities to use his art to bring the message of Theosophy to others. For him, his art could express the laws of the eternal truth of Theosophy, and was a primary channel by which to communicate this truth to others; it was his calling. His philosophical explorations of mysticism and his physical explorations of Canada coalesced in the cold, clean landscape of Lake Superior. It was coming together in time and place, in thought and spirit, and it was profound. Lake Superior Near Coldwell is a vista explored in Harris’s work several times, from slightly different vantage points and with slight variations from work to work. In most of them we look out onto a vast body of water from a place high above the water’s edge. Rolling hills border the water. These various works would culminate in the esoteric painting Ice House, Coldwell, Lake Superior, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Here, Harris has left out buildings and houses that appear in some other versions, and has given all of his attention to the sky, water and land, which are rendered in smooth, consistent brush~strokes. As Lake Superior was scraped clean by glaciers, so too was Harris’s brushwork scraped into flowing lines, simple forms and uncluttered compositions. It is an expression of purity and light, a striving towards eternal truth.
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126 FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEY ARCA G7 OSA 1881 ~ 1969
Winter Day, Doon oil on panel, signed and with the artist’s thumbprint and on verso titled on the Roberts Gallery label 11 3/4 x 15 in, 29.8 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto When Frederick Horsman Varley left eastern Canada for British Columbia in 1926, his palette took on a new slate of colours. His associations up until this time had been a rich source of inspiration ~ Tom Thomson, his fellow members in the Group of Seven ~ yet it was in the lush West Coast atmosphere of British Columbia where his work took on a new and bold sense of colour and developed an opulent richness, with frequent use of jewel tones and gold. Varley was an accomplished portrait artist early in his career, but was quite versatile and moved easily back and forth between landscape and portrait work. His portraits are known for their unpretentious nature and for their psychological directness. These qualities come straight from the character of Varley himself, and they can be seen to shape his landscapes as well. Winter Day, Doon is a portrait of trees and their shadows. It was likely painted between summer sessions at the Doon School of Fine Arts near Kitchener, Ontario, where Varley taught in 1948 and 1949, after he had left Vancouver and returned east. Varley lived and worked in many regions of Canada and had served as a war artist in England and France from 1918 to 1919. His works from the front lines are of national importance. He taught at the Ontario College of Art and at the fledgling Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Emily Carr
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University of Art and Design), and lived and worked additionally in Ottawa, Montreal and Nova Scotia. He also traveled to the Arctic, and his varied experiences in Canada and in other countries add to the richness and variety we find in his works. In Winter Day, Doon, limbless trees fill the entire picture place, occupying all of our field of vision except for a small hummock of land in the very near ground. This band of snow is free of trees and open enough for an artist to put up an easel and set to work, yet still licked by the shadows of the main trees. From this place, and through the dense trees ahead, we can see a rising hill and dramatic sky, with more hills in the distance. Light plays through the trees as a sunrise (we assume) shows itself in a Varley~esque richness of gold and yellow with touches of pink and green here and there. Varley concentrated his painterly attention almost wholly on the tree trunks and their shadow patterns in the snow. In purple, blue and green, limbs and shadows move in a converging pattern into the distance, with repeating shades of blue and purple changing the colour of the snow in between them. These varying shades of purple and blue zigzag across the work, turning the untrodden white of the snow~covered hill into a riot of stripey pattern. So strong was Varley’s interest in the shadowy lines and patterns formed by the trees, so intermixed are these two themes, that it is difficult to tell the standing trunks apart from the shadows they cast. It is a charged and energetic work, despite the stillness of the scene depicted and its limited palette of colours. Varley has signed the work in the bottom left corner, the letters of his name forming a roundel over his thumbprint, a style which he often used to monogram his works. This small resonance of the artist reminds us again of his skill with the portrait ~ it is as if he has placed himself there, among the trees.
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127 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
1885 ~ 1969
Figures in Landscape / The River (verso) double~sided oil on panel, signed and on verso inscribed 4, circa 1916 ~ 1920 12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Continental Galleries, Montreal Private Collection, Quebec Arthur Lismer’s work encompasses a variety of styles. There are his early impressionistic canvases, expressive and gestural works from 1916 to 1920, works created during the Group of Seven period, and bold works from the 1930s and onward. This loosely handled painting is likely from Lismer’s 1916 ~ 1920 period, when he sketched in the Ontario woods. His wife Esther and their daughter Marjorie often came along on these trips, as did future members of the Group of Seven. The work could also be set near Thornhill, where the Lismers lived for a time in 1915 with J.E.H. MacDonald and his family. It is interesting to speculate on the
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identity of the figures; perhaps we see Esther Lismer in blue and white watching over Marjorie, or the figure in red could be Thoreau MacDonald, who would have been a teenager at the time.
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128 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
1882 ~ 1974
Georgian Bay Landscape / Farm in the Countryside (verso) double~sided oil on panel, signed 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Toronto The timing of A.Y. Jackson’s and art patron Dr. James MacCallum’s meeting in the fall of 1913 was auspicious. At the time, with the lack of funding and the hostile atmosphere in Canadian art circles, Jackson was beginning to reconsider his career. He had been painting in the Georgian Bay region when MacCallum, who owned a nearby cottage on Go Home Bay, came to meet the struggling artist. Upon their initial encounter, MacCallum made Jackson an offer he could not refuse ~ if Jackson would return to Toronto and move into the newly built Studio Building, MacCallum would support Jackson’s artistic career for a year ~ and Jackson gladly accepted. Not only was this the start of a longstanding patronage, but also a friendship between the men.
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Despite a break during World War I, over the years Jackson would frequently visit MacCallum’s cottage and paint the many faces of the Bay. Jackson found that his beloved Georgian Bay provided him with so much material that he would often run out of blank panels and would paint on the reverse of them, as he did with this stunning sketch.
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129 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Mountains, Jasper oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled, inscribed 12 and stamped Dominion Gallery, 1924 10 5/8 x 13 7/8 in, 27 x 35.2 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal, inventory #E1288, acquired May 29, 1951 for $250 Estate of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Montreal
L ITERATURE : Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Personal Art Collection Catalogue, reproduced, unpaginated, catalogue #R29 It is very likely that this rugged sketch, showing steep, repeating peaks with their pointed summits set close together, depicts the ranges
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bordering Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris explored this region in 1924, packing in by horse to Maligne Lake and continuing on by canoe. They camped along the shoreline, going on foot further into the hanging valleys that cradle the lake. At the southeastern end of the lake, Harris found the views much to his liking. It is a heavily glaciated, treeless valley, primeval and remote. Here, Harris’s increasingly simplified and clean works are as much a result of the physical appearance of the land as of his coalescing Theosophical theories. Jasper was his first mountain experience, and the rhythmic themes he saw in the peaks there would inform his best mountain works. It is a region of pewter~coloured rocks set starkly against glacial white, brown bands of scree and fans of moraine gravel carved into ribbons by run~off and semi~permanent snow, under skies that, when clear, break into bright shades of blue cut by the grey and white of clouds.
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130 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Newfoundland Sketch oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled and inscribed 15, 1921 10 1/2 x 13 3/4 in, 26.7 x 34.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal, inventory #B2874, acquired October 1, 1960 for $500 Estate of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Montreal
L ITERATURE : Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, Personal Art Collection Catalogue, reproduced, unpaginated, catalogue #R49
the vastness of the ocean, the simple buildings of the towns and villages, and the rugged coastline cut with cliffs and set against the lush green produced by this humid climate. In this verdant sketch, a bluff blocks our view of the sea, which is represented by a small patch of blue. A line, perhaps an empty road, cuts lazily across the foreground hill. The depth of colour on the hillside plays nicely against the grey sky and both seem to be wet, as is characteristic of coastal weather. The work is very lush and rich in feeling and the hot colour of the supporting board, which shows through the paint along the edges of each area of brushwork, gives the work a heightened feeling of energy and life. In plein air works such as this, wherein Harris allowed the colour of the support board to show through his applied colours, the glimmer of the complementary orange hue warms and charges the scene with energy.
E STIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,000
In the spring of 1921, Lawren Harris’s interest in the varied scenery of Canada took him to the coast of Newfoundland where he sketched
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131 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
1885 ~ 1969
Old Log, Georgian Bay oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled, dated indistinctly 1945 and inscribed 1822 16 1/8 x 24 3/8 in, 41 x 61.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Georgian Bay made an indelible mark on Arthur Lismer’s psyche from his first sight of it at Group of Seven patron Dr. James MacCallum’s cottage in 1913. Its radiant atmosphere, distinctive rocky islets and shores crowned by windblown pines drew him to return many times to these ‘happy isles’.
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Along with locations such as Algoma and Algonquin Park, Georgian Bay embodied the raw beauty of the Canadian wilderness for the Group of Seven. The inspiration of the Bay transformed Lismer’s style over time ~ it became bolder, more visceral. Lismer lit up his canvases with brilliant colour, and using expressionist brush~strokes built textural surfaces; he also used the tip of his brush handle to incise tactile calligraphic marks into the thick paint. The forest floor interested Lismer as much as vistas, as seen in this vigorous work with the log displayed like a sculpture on the rocky outcropping. Scattered drifts of fallen wood and rich reds and golds in the bushes enliven this forest still life, and the window~like view to the Bay adds perspective and expansiveness. It is a splendid example of Lismer’s work at this important painting place.
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132 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
1885 ~ 1969
Pines in the Rocks oil on board, signed and dated 1958 16 x 20 in, 40.6 x 50.8 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Paintings 1913 ~ 1949, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 1950, page 10 For Arthur Lismer, the 1950s were very active with exhibitions and accolades, beginning with his retrospective at The Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) and the National Gallery of Canada in 1950. His exhibition reached the West Coast in that decade, showing at
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the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; a film was produced on his work; and his biography, September Gale, was published, to name a few events. Each member of the Group of Seven found spirituality in the landscape in his own way, and Lismer wrote, “I think the Chinese have the right idea, that nature is man and not his background merely ~ things in nature are alive with man’s intention, adoration and praise ~ they become the measure of his stature and worship.” In all of Lismer’s most important painting places, including Algoma and Georgian Bay, his empathy with the raw vitality of the land shone. It is revealed in his sense of rhythm in landforms, his visceral textured brush~strokes and his attunement to its moods, whether dramatic or serene. In this resonant work, the pines are depicted as almost heroic in their survival in the windswept North ~ a classic Group of Seven image.
E STIMATE: $35,000 ~ 50,000
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133 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~ 1992
Old Cabin, Grenville, Quebec oil on board, signed and on verso signed twice, titled and dated 1968 12 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Ontario
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In 1966, A.J. Casson turned his creative attention to Quebec in six consecutive summer painting trips to Grenville, exploring the surrounding countryside and towns of Harrington, Avoca and Montebello thoroughly. This atmospheric painting with its dramatic sky includes a weathered cabin which, typical of his work, exudes a nostalgic, lived~in feeling, although no one is visible. Casson has crystallized the mood of a singular moment and place in this evocative time capsule of rural Grenville.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 25,000
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134 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA
1898 ~ 1992
Grenville, Quebec oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled and dated 1968 12 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Toronto
L ITERATURE : Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, Roberts Gallery, 1975, page 151 After joining the Group of Seven in 1926, A.J. Casson soon defined his unique identity in the Group with his depictions of the villages and rural countryside of Ontario. Casson considered Quebec to be A.Y. Jackson’s
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territory, although Jackson had tried to persuade him to paint there in the 1920s. However, in 1966 Jackson finally convinced Casson to accompany him on a sketching trip to the town of Grenville in Quebec, guiding him to choice painting places in the surrounding countryside. Casson must have had a great feeling for the area, as he returned to Grenville every year until 1972, producing at least 150 oil sketches there. Paul Duval indicates that this was the greatest number of sketches Casson did of a single location other than the Madawaska River region. In Grenville, Quebec, Casson exhibits the same keen interest in the rural countryside that he was so well known for in Ontario. In this serene painting, the farm exudes the warmth of human presence in a green and glowing landscape, an idyllic scene that radiates peace.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 25,000
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135
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135 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
Snow in September, Bar X Ranch near Pincher Creek oil on panel, signed and on verso titled, dated September 20, 1937 and inscribed Mr. Donald Buchanan paid, also inscribed variously reserved / canvas 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 in, 26 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Donald Buchanan, Ottawa, author of The Growth of Canadian Painting, 1950, and the first editor of Canadian Art magazine By descent to a Private Collection, British Columbia Private Collection, Toronto
L ITERATURE : Dennis Reid, Alberta Rhythm: The Later Work of A.Y. Jackson, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982, pages 14 and 15, the related circa 1937 canvas entitled Early Snow, Alberta reproduced page 45 David Silcox, The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, 2003, the related circa 1937 canvas entitled Early Snow, Alberta reproduced page 357
E XHIBITED : Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, A.Y. Jackson Retrospective, 1990, catalogue #25 A.Y. Jackson had been to Alberta previously to visit his brother Ernest, but it was not until 1937 that he went there to paint. Dennis Reid wrote that Jackson felt that this area “tugged strongly with its promise of vast space and unfettered movement, of an escape to freedom, of renewal.” Jackson arrived at his brother’s home in Lethbridge in September of 1937 and was driven around southwestern Alberta by Frederick Cross, an engineer and watercolour painter. By September 20, he was at the Bar X
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Alexander Young (A.Y.) Jackson Early Snow, Alberta oil on canvas, circa 1937, 32 1/2 x 46 in, 82.5 x 116.8 cm Photograph: Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Art Inc. In a Private Collection; not for sale with this lot
Ranch painting this early snowfall. Reid felt that it was the underlying rhythm of the land in the Prairies that moved Jackson, and that his “Alberta sketches are fresh, emphatic images, full of the palpable presence of southern Alberta.” This sketch is for the major canvas entitled Early Snow, Alberta, reproduced here and in the above literature references. The Art Gallery of Ontario exhibition cataloguing refers to the existence of the sketch in this sale.
E STIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,000
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136 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
House at Baie~Saint~Paul / Baie~Saint~Paul (verso) double~sided oil on board, signed and on verso titled, dated 1924 on the gallery label and 1923 in graphite on the board and inscribed 711~8 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in, 21 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto Sold sale of Canadian Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours and Prints, Sotheby Parke Bernet (Canada) Inc., Toronto, October 29, 1968, lot 288 By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario
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L ITERATURE : A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country, The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, page 59 This superb double~sided Group period oil sketch is of one of A.Y. Jackson’s most sought~after subjects: village scenes from the North and South Shores of the St. Lawrence in Quebec. Baie~Saint~Paul on the North Shore was particularly attractive, and a magnet for artists. In the winter of 1924, Jackson wrote that artists Edwin Holgate, Mabel May and Clarence Gagnon would be there during his trip, making it “for a time the liveliest art centre in Canada.” Transport in the 1920s was still by horse~drawn sleigh, and Jackson also trekked on snowshoes and skis to sketch. He penetrated the heart of the town ~ staying at the Hotel Victoria, which he humorously declared “a very uncommercial hotel”, and got to know the townspeople, including the Cimon family, who kept an open
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house for artists. He treasured the rustic warmth of life there, shown in the colourful details of this intimate view with the laundry on the line and the woodpile in the foreground. In the background is the striking panoramic backdrop of the Laurentians. With paintings such as this exceptional work, Jackson made Quebec’s rural villages part of our Canadian identity.
E STIMATE: $30,000 ~ 40,000
137 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
Grain Elevator / Mountain Landscape (verso) double~sided oil on board, signed and dated 1944 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE :
verso 136
Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 128 A.Y. Jackson first painted Alberta in 1937. He was attracted to the great open spaces of the Prairies and their promise of freedom and renewal. So another painting campaign began, and southern Alberta would become part of Jackson’s regular pattern of sketching for many years. In the summer of 1944, while teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts, he visited nearby Canmore, then in September and October sketched at Lethbridge, Waterton Park and Rosebud. Wherever he traveled, Jackson deftly captured the essence of place, and in Alberta he depicted the wide open skies, the rhythm of the rolling hills and the orange and gold tones of grasses and earth. In this compelling work, he depicted one of the great icons of the Prairies ~ the grain elevator ~ standing like a sentinel above the town. Jackson stated, “Like France’s cathedrals, the Prairies have their grain elevators…I think they’re lovely things. I’d like to spend two or three months just kicking around Alberta towns painting them.” On the verso of this work is another fine landscape of hills plunging down to the water.
137
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
verso 137
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138 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS
P ROVENANCE :
an easy balance between foreground and distance. The directional movement of the work, with vertical trees, angled rocks, lateral cloud~sky patterns and the curving line of coloured underbrush flowing from the right across the bottom and up the other side, all contribute to the balance and containment of the work on the panel. Harris seems to have done this effortlessly; there is no reworking of any area ~ all his brush~strokes are confident and assured. The overall patterning of the work is a marvel, with colours of such similarity that the differences would be undetectable from the hand of a less competent sketcher. Yet even with minor variations of shade, we can read the difference between shadow and tree trunk, rock and crevice, easily.
Private Collection, British Columbia
E STIMATE: $100,000 ~ 150,000
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Country North of Lake Superior, Algoma Sketches LIII oil on panel, on verso signed twice, titled, dated October 1921 and inscribed with the artist’s symbol and in graphite with the Doris Mills Inventory #2/53 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 in, 27.3 x 34.3 cm
This fine Group of Seven period fall sketch, with its jaunty autumn colours and bare, silvery~barked tree trunks, is a vignette that shows us how easily Lawren Harris captured the essence of a scene. In it, we see all the facets of his skill in sketching at play, with the composition striking
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139 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
The Break Up oil on canvas, signed and on verso titled on the gallery label 25 x 32 in, 63.5 x 81.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal, inventory #A2830 Private Collection, USA By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Ross King, Defiant Spirits, The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, 2010, page 125 A.Y. Jackson was an inveterate traveler, migrating throughout Quebec, from the shores of the St. Lawrence to the north, west to Alberta and
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British Columbia, and north into the Yukon and the Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories. His endurance and enthusiasm in the face of winter conditions while painting was well known, and he considered it of prime importance to be out in these remote landscapes to capture the essence of the phases of winter. He asserted, “The Canadian who does not love keen bracing air, sunlight making shadows that vie with the sky, the wooden hills and frozen lakes. Well, he must be a poor patriot.� This striking canvas would have been painted in reference to an oil sketch done on the spot. The Break Up captures the end of winter, with the ice opening up and snow only lingering on the shadowed banks. The bare foreground shore and road reveal delicate tints of pink and pale green. Jackson captures shimmering atmospheres with reflections in the open water, shadows cast by the pale sun and the evanescent feeling of transition in the melting snow and ice.
E STIMATE: $60,000 ~ 80,000
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140 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
1882 ~ 1974
Quebec Village oil on board, signed and on verso titled and inscribed L J 11 23 01 on the Laing Galleries label, circa 1930 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Laing Galleries, Toronto Acquired from the above by Bert McLeod By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario This brilliant oil sketch is one of A.Y. Jackson’s quintessential Quebec winter village scenes, a subject he was renowned for. The first of his trips to rural Quebec was in March of 1921 and, with only one exception, he
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went every year until 1947. Jackson became a well~known figure in the villages, trekking about on snowshoes on his sketching excursions, for which he earned the nickname Père Raquette (Father Snowshoe). He had an intimate understanding of rural culture in Quebec, and was welcome in the homes of Roman Catholic families whose customs he was well acquainted with. In Quebec Village, Jackson has taken us into the heart of the village, showing its everyday life ~ the woodpiles, men at work and, above it all, the church spire rising in the background, symbol of its religious heart. Paint is lushly laid down with thickly loaded brush~strokes, and Jackson contrasts pastel tones of sunlit snow and buildings with the glowing blue sky and snow shadows. A bright spark of red in the man’s jacket further enlivens this captivating oil sketch.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 25,000
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142
141
141 FRANK HANS (FRANZ) JOHNSTON ARCA CSPWC G7 OSA
1888 ~ 1949
The Enchanted Cabin
142 MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN AAM RCA
1866 ~ 1934
Sun Glow: Cache River
oil on board, signed and on verso signed and titled 15 x 17 3/4 in, 38.1 x 45.1 cm
pastel on paper, on verso titled, dated 1928 and inscribed Authenticated by Robert Pilot, Montreal, PQ, 1960 7 1/2 x 9 in, 19 x 22.9 cm
P ROVENANCE :
P ROVENANCE :
Kaspar Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Vancouver
Private Estate, Vancouver
Frank Johnston was accomplished at capturing the elusive beauty of a snowy, sunlit day. He painted the winter wilderness in northern Ontario and Quebec, particularly the area around Lake Nipigon, often staying in a log cabin at a fishing camp there, painting even in sub~zero temperatures. With the cabin blanketed by snow, bedecked with icicles and surrounded by forest, this beguiling painting exudes winter’s enchantment.
Skilled in the medium of pastel, Impressionist Maurice Cullen perfected his own unique working method. He made his own pastels from finely crushed clays and pigments and then, setting them out on a long table, would apply the desired hues directly onto the paper. Cullen’s technique resulted in a purity of colour and transparency that enabled him to capture shimmering light and atmosphere, as in this fine pastel of his favourite river, the Cache.
E STIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
E STIMATE: $6,000 ~ 8,000
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143 HORATIO WALKER AWCS NAD RCA RI RSC SAA 1858 ~ 1938
The Ice Cutters, Île d’Orléans oil on paper on board, signed and on verso titled Cutting Ice; Island of Orleans on the Continental Galleries label, Ice Cutters ~ Ile d’Orleans on the Galerie Jean~Pierre Valentin label and Ice Cutting, Ile d’Orleans on the McMichael Canadian Art Collection exhibition label and stamped Dominion Gallery, circa 1904 6 1/4 x 9 3/8 in, 15.9 x 23.8 cm P ROVENANCE : Continental Galleries, Montreal Dominion Gallery, Montreal Galerie Jean~Pierre Valentin, Montreal Private Collection, New York
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L ITERATURE : Charles H. Caffin, The Story of American Painting, 1907, 1970 edition, the 1904 canvas entitled The Ice Cutters reproduced page 220 Charles H. Caffin, “The Art of Horatio Walker”, Harper’s Monthly, Vol. CXVII, 1908, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters, in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, reproduced page 955 F. Newlin Price, Horatio Walker, 1928, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced catalogue #16, unpaginated Pierre~Georges Roy, L’île d’Orléans, 1928, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced pages 448 ~ 449 “Gift to Local Gallery”, 1941, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced, unpaginated “Permanent Collection of Gallery Enriched”, 1941, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced page 21
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Dorothy Farr, Horatio Walker, 1858 ~ 1938, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 1977, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced catalogue #18 Au fil des collections, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1984, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced, unpaginated A.K. Prakash, Canadian Art: Selected Masters from Private Collections, 2003, reproduced page 28 Katrina Atanassova, Forging the Path: The Forerunners (1870~1920), McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2011, reproduced, unpaginated
E XHIBITED : McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Forging the Path: The Forerunners (1870 ~ 1920), October 2, 2010 ~ January 23, 2011, exhibited as Ice Cutting, Ile d’Orleans There is no doubting the sheer visual magic of Horatio Walker’s sketch for The Ice Cutters, in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The powerful and interrelated action of the horse and driver, the distant figures, one of which chops away at a block of ice, the time of day, the weather, the trees in the background greyed by atmosphere, all contribute to an amazing sight, a kind of three~dimensional look into the historic world of old Montreal. It is a mesmerizing and, in its own way, confounding spectacle composed of many contrasts from that of the action~packed horse and man versus the serene sky to the rugged ice~forms versus the impressively subtle colouring. As Charles Caffin wrote in 1907, “The character of the action, as diversely excited by the horse and the man, is rendered with remarkable knowledge and skill. An admirable touch of romantic feeling is introduced by placing the bulk of the hard~breathing, tugging horse in contrast with the ideal loveliness of the sky. Similarly, the ruggedness of the ice~forms is contrasted with the delicacy of their colouring.” For a period of about ten years at the turn of the last century, Walker was at the top of his form, producing the most major paintings of his career and at the height of his professional success. Works of this period are imbued with buoyancy and hope as though they reflect the mood of the artist himself. Numbered among them are works such as Ploughing, The First Gleam (1900), The Woodcutters (1905), Ave Maria (1906), The Royal Mail (1909) and Horses at the Trough (1910). The Ice Cutters is perhaps the archetypal painting by Walker. Certainly it is one of the best known. Its subject of habitant and animal was produced for an international clientele. To those who study it, the imagery offers metaphorical depth: it is the story of man and animal against the elements. The simple approach enabled Walker to experiment with sculptural compositions and to make paintings with forthright brushwork and only a slight quality of what could be seen as “traditional touch”.
Horatio Walker The lce Cutters oil on canvas, 1904, 24 x 36 in, 60.9 x 91.5 cm The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Gift of Mrs. F.S. Smithers in memory of Charles Francis Smithers Photograph © The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Brian Merrett
extensively in the area around his home on the Île d’Orléans and made many sketches on location. This painting must have been one of the last works Walker created before the canvas itself. The result is boldly powerful. This sketch suggests that Walker here sought to evoke the full range of his sensibility, from brusque to delicate. It provides a textbook example of an artist veering away from the art of the past towards a powerful new vocabulary and composition, one which foretokens the art of the future. In many ways, the subject predates and leads the way to compositions of early Canada by all the pioneering Modernists, including Maurice Cullen, Marc~Aurèle de Foy Suzor Côté and Clarence Gagnon. It is the quintessential Walker subject as evidenced by the extensive exhibition history of the canvas throughout the twentieth century. And it truly is a wonder to behold. We thank Joan Murray for contributing the above essay and literature references.
E STIMATE: $35,000 ~ 45,000
This satisfyingly seasonal sketch is complex and daringly close to the final canvas. While his vision was honed in the studio, Walker traveled
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144
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144 DAVID BROWN MILNE CGP CSGA CSPWC
1882 ~ 1953
Woman and Bright Trees, West Saugerties, NY oil on canvas, on verso titled on the gallery labels and in graphite dated 1914 and inscribed Catskills 22 3/8 x 20 3/8 in, 56.8 x 51.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Marlborough~Godard, Toronto Jules Loeb, Toronto, 1972 Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto, 1989 Private Collection, Toronto, 1989 Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 28, 2003, lot 116, reproduced front cover Private Collection, Victoria
L ITERATURE : David Milne, The New York Period: 1911 ~ 1915, Marlborough~Godard, 1972 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume 1: 1882 ~ 1928, 1998, page 95, reproduced page 120, catalogue #105.83
E XHIBITED : Marlborough~Godard, Toronto, David Milne, The New York Period: 1911 ~ 1915, November 16 ~ December 9, 1972, catalogue #23 When David Milne left the small village of Paisley, Ontario in 1903, he was going to New York to continue his studies in commercial art and had every intention of making his living as a commercial artist. Upon his arrival in New York, he found that the school he was to attend had gone bankrupt, and he therefore enrolled at the Art Students League. There he discovered that the art world offered possibilities far beyond commercial art, and in New York he was exposed to the work of Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and contemporary American modernists such as Maurice Prendergast, John Marin and others. New York was an exciting city for a young artist to work in and, despite economic difficulties, Milne
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61 responded to the cultural stimulus. He soon began exhibiting and was included in the important Armory Exhibition of 1913. Milne’s art of the period is characterized by a strong and individual use of colour, and this, combined with his sense of design, made him one of the most important younger artists working in New York. He had a dealer there ~ the Montross Gallery ~ and his work was featured in the New York Times. As scholar David Milne Jr. has suggested, it was a period of great excitement and accomplishment for Milne. During the period of 1913 to 1914, when he worked in New York and took painting holidays in West Saugerties, he produced well over 100 paintings and these include “some of the finest examples of his art.” The work that Milne produced during this period is amongst the most innovative of his career, and this is particularly true in his use of colour. Milne uses colour with reference to the natural world, but is not confined to the colours found in nature. The intensity of his use of colour is evident in Woman and Bright Trees,West Saugereties, NY, particularly in the vivid blues, greens and red~browns. Black is used relatively sparingly, and white suggests the brilliance of the sun. Indeed, the whole composition is suffused with a brilliance which is dazzling. The goal is visual excitement rather than a realistic portrayal of the subject. In this case, it takes one a moment or two to discover the figure ~ Milne’s wife Patsy ~ standing before the dense pattern of foliage. Although one can read space in the image through the overlapping layers of the trees and bushes and the sky that appears behind the trees, Milne is not really interested in giving us a convincing sense of three~dimensional space. His concern is the pattern of the brush~strokes, the visual vibration of the colours as they are juxtaposed, and he only gives us just enough information to keep the work in the realm of realism rather than abstraction. In short, this is a work about pure painting; it is about the ability of colour, design and light to excite an aesthetic response in the viewer. We are meant to share Milne’s visual exhilaration at the use of colour and pattern. This painting is almost 100 years old, yet it remains as bracingly modern as the day it was painted, a mark of just how well Milne achieved his goal.
E STIMATE: $250,000 ~ 300,000
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145
145 MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN AAM RCA
1866 ~ 1934
Sunny Afternoon, Early Spring, Ste~Marguerite oil on canvas, signed and dated indistinctly and on verso titled and dated 1926 on the Galerie Walter Klinkhoff label and certified by Cullen Inventory #1030 18 x 24 in, 45.7 x 61 cm P ROVENANCE : Watson Art Galleries, Montreal, label on verso Major Rex C. Carthew, New York, 1943 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Quebec Private Collection, Vancouver
L ITERATURE : Hughes de Jouvancourt, Maurice Cullen, 1978, a similar large oil entitled A March Evening, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 59
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During Maurice Cullen’s studies in Paris, the work of the French Impressionists had an effect upon him that would ripple out into the Canadian art world upon his return. To paint out~of~doors, capturing the moment in the landscape with its ephemeral effects of light and a fresh awareness of colour, were the new approaches that Cullen applied to his paintings of the Quebec countryside. He transmitted his knowledge to other artists, including Frederick Coburn and Robert Pilot, contributing to a breaking away from the dark landscapes influenced by European artists such as the Barbizon School that were popular with collectors in Canada at the time. Cullen painted out~of~doors throughout the winter, enduring the cold to capture the authenticity of Quebec’s winter. This direct engagement with his subject forged the way for the Group of Seven, and in his autobiography, A.Y. Jackson lauded Cullen’s trailblazing role in the Montreal scene. This fine canvas was produced in the studio from the plein air oil sketch A Sunny Day, Ste~Marguerite, lot 146 in this sale. It is an outstanding example of one of his most important and beloved subjects, a river meandering through the snowy Quebec wilderness.
E STIMATE: $18,000 ~ 22,000
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146
146 MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN AAM RCA
1866 ~ 1934
A Sunny Day, Ste~Marguerite oil on board, initialed and on verso titled on the Watson Galleries label and titled Bent Trees, A Sunny Day, Ste~Marguerite on the Galerie Walter Klinkhoff label and certified by Cullen Inventory #1414 11 3/4 x 16 3/8 in, 29.8 x 41.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Watson Art Galleries, Montreal Mr. A.F. Byers, Montreal Private Collection, Toronto Private Collection, Laval, Quebec Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver The Laurentians were Maurice Cullen’s predominant theme after 1923. These works were in demand by collectors at his annual exhibitions at Watson Galleries and received critical acclaim. In addition to keeping
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a Montreal studio at Beaver Hall Square, Cullen built a cabin at Lac Tremblant on the Cache River in the early 1920s as a base for his Laurentian sketching trips. Cullen loved winter, and felt that the forests became truly majestic when cloaked in snow. He often painted rivers such as the Cache and the North, themes which showcased his painterly prowess in depicting delicate hues in the water’s icy edges and snowbanks. His surfaces in sketches such as this were built up with impasto, textural and vigorous, and his pigments were vibrant and full of light, such as here in the snow ~ brilliant white juxtaposed with blue shadows. This is the oil sketch for lot 145, the 1926 canvas Sunny Afternoon, Early Spring, Ste~Marguerite. In the canvas, Cullen altered certain aspects of this image, such as removing the vertical tree trunk on the far right. Sparkling with light and atmosphere, this sketch is imbued with Cullen’s enduring delight in the Laurentian wilderness.
E STIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
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147
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147 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA
1871 ~ 1945
Gnarled Tree oil on board, on verso inscribed 876a / 71 ~ JS / 46 / 6 and stamped twice Dominion Gallery, Montreal, circa 1913 ~ 1918 12 3/4 x 15 3/4 in, 32.4 x 40 cm P ROVENANCE : Dominion Gallery, Montreal, inventory #876a Acquired from the above on February 8, 1946 by the Right Honourable Malcolm John MacDonald, PC OM, British High Commissioner to Canada, 1941 ~ 1946, London, England By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : The Vancouver Daily Province, March 25, 1912 The Vancouver Daily Province, March 27, 1912 Doris Shadbolt, editor, The Complete Writings of Emily Carr, 1993, Growing Pains: An Autobiography, page 436 When Emily Carr went to France to study from 1910 to 1911, she arrived at a time of profound advancement in art. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani were at work just blocks from where Carr was staying, pushing the boundaries of modern art with Post~Impressionism’s vivid colour, freedom from representation and disregard for established rules of art. Carr’s innate sense of colour, her joyous approach to painting, her exposure to the wilderness landscape of British Columbia and the impact of the sculpture and imagery of Canada’s First Nations people placed her in a position of readiness to push the boundaries herself, and this she did. She returned to Canada with a new vigour in her work: bright colours, bold ideas about composition, and an open, assured style of brushwork that she applied to the imagery of her home country. Carr stated: “I came home from France stronger in body, in thinking, and in work than I had returned from England. My seeing had broadened, I was better equipped both for teaching and for study…” She mounted an exhibition of her French work in Vancouver and, while she was lauded in the press, with her work described as “indicating the trend of recent French work in the direction of brilliant colour,” she did not sell any paintings. Carr struggled to pay her bills, and so returned to Victoria where she put her creative skills to work making more saleable crafts ~ her Klee Wyck pottery and hooked rugs. She also raised purebred dogs for sale and took in boarders at her Simcoe Street property, the latter a necessity that she hated. She painted very little, and thus works from this time are quite rare. Gnarled Tree is such a painting from this French~influenced period of scant work. On her cherished breaks from the drudgery and chores of a reluctant landlady, she was a short walk away from Beacon Hill Park; the vacant properties on three sides of her own, which were treed and grassy, also beckoned to her. Beacon Hill Park is filled with stately trees of many
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Emily Carr Oak Wood oil on canvas, circa 1913 ~ 1927 15 x 19 in, 38.1 x 48.3 cm Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 23, 2007, lot 63 In a Private Collection; not for sale with this lot
varieties, thus it is likely that this work depicts one of those trees, set at the base of a hill, looking up at younger trees and a band of shrubs. It is a theme we can find more than once in her works from this time; it seems that trees called out to Carr early in her career. Gnarled Tree is a swirling riot of colour, fresh and lively, the clear blue sky as expressive as the yellow sunlight and blue shadows on the hill, while the greens and blues of the foliage swirl with energy. Carr’s addition of dashes of red to outline the twisted tree trunk, accent the shrubs in the distance and indicate the edges of shadows on the crest of the hill is masterful and simple. While her sense of colour was already strong, it is in her French~influenced works, where paints are used unmixed, straight from the tube, that Carr allowed herself to use colour to express the new way of seeing that she had learned in France. “Do you see blue shadows like that in nature?” a newspaper reviewer had asked Carr at the time of her Vancouver show of French work. “I do,” was her blunt reply. Related in style and feeling to Carr’s Oak Wood, sold by Heffel in 2007, Gnarled Tree is a rare and very fine example of Carr’s work from this period of her life. Despite her lack of sales and the challenges she faced in supporting herself, she carried on, painting works that are among the most advanced modern art created in Canada at the time.
E STIMATE: $200,000 ~ 300,000
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148 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG
1893 ~ 1986
The Winter Road oil on panel, signed 10 3/8 x 14 in, 26.3 x 35.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Barbara Meadowcroft, Painting Friends, 1999, page 87 While training at the Art Association of Montreal, Kathleen Morris participated in student sketching trips organized by Impressionist Maurice Cullen, who imparted his love of painting outdoors to his students. Morris’s discovery of painting en plein air was at the core of her work during her involvement with the Beaver Hall Group in
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Montreal in the early 1920s and after they disbanded. Although Morris suffered from a nervous disorder, her self~confidence was attributed to her family’s support, with her mother often accompanying her on her outdoor sketching trips. Morris possessed stamina and determination and, as Barbara Meadowcroft relates, “On the coldest days, Kathleen went alone. She was dropped off by sleigh, and painted standing in the sleigh tracks, wearing an apron over an old fur coat. She did two sketches, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and ‘never fiddled with them’ afterwards.” That freshness and spontaneity is clearly visible in this exquisite winter vista with its delicate colour tones and jaunty traffic of horses and sleighs on snowy roads. Morris loved animals, and horses were often featured in her paintings, both urban and rural, as in this classic Quebec winter scene.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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149
149 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG 1893 ~ 1986
Morin Heights, Que. oil on panel, signed and on verso titled on a label 12 x 14 in, 30.5 x 35.6 cm P ROVENANCE : A gift from the Artist in the 1930s to the present Private Collector, Ontario Kathleen Morris joined Montreal’s Beaver Hall Group in 1920 and continued to exhibit with the members after the group formally dissolved. Morris also exhibited internationally in group shows at such venues as the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, England, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the Tate Gallery in London, and the New York World’s Fair, to name a few. Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery
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of Canada at the time, was an early supporter who ensured that her work was acquired by that museum. Morris’s winter scenes were particularly sought after, and she was known for her cabstands, churches and town scenes enveloped in snow. This evocative scene of a Laurentian Mountains town on an overcast winter day is a fine example of this part of her oeuvre. The sky is not altogether steely, being comprised of strokes of mauve and pink tempered with grey, and the snow mounded around the buildings is also shot through with delicate pastel notes. With a keen eye for such details as the rushing stream crossing in front, the muddied road and the houses huddled together in the snowbanks, Morris captured the unique charm of this town. This painting and lot 153 were gifts from Morris to one of her art students.
E STIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
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150
150 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
In the Ward oil on panel, signed and on verso signed, titled and inscribed Not for Sale in graphite, circa 1920 10 3/4 x 11 3/4 in, 27.3 x 29.8 cm
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P ROVENANCE : 1885 ~ 1970
Private Collection, Ontario Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 2, 2002, lot 31, reproduced front cover Private Collection, London, England
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L ITERATURE : Charles C. Hill, The Group of Seven, Art for a Nation, 1995, the 1920 canvas entitled In the Ward, in the collection of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, reproduced page 98, catalogue #15 Andrew Hunter, Lawren Stewart Harris, A Painter’s Progress, The Americas Society, 2000, the 1920 canvas entitled In the Ward, in the collection of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, reproduced page 19, catalogue #7 Gregory Betts, Lawren Harris In the Ward: His Urban Poetry and Paintings, 2007, page 72, the 1920 canvas entitled In the Ward, in the collection of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, reproduced page 4 (detail) Ross King, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, 2010, pages 202, 206 and 279 Lawren Harris turned his attention to the urban landscape while he was training in Berlin between 1904 and 1907. Upon his return to Canada, he began to document and explore the Toronto cityscape, concentrating on the poor area known as the Ward. It was a community of immigrants of the working class, and just a street away from The Arts and Letters Club where Harris was a frequent visitor. When the war broke out and escalated quickly and with horrifying casualties, it encompassed every aspect of life. The impact on the Harris family was devastating. Both sons ~ Howard and Lawren ~ enlisted. Howard was sent to France and was killed in action, leaving Lawren as the only living offspring. A.Y. Jackson had been wounded, and Tom Thomson had mysteriously drowned. It was too much for Harris, who suffered a nervous breakdown and was given a medical discharge from the army. Back in Toronto, Harris turned again to the cityscape as his painting subject. Much of the Ward, where Harris had painted before the war, had been demolished when the Toronto General Hospital was built in 1913, but the areas adjacent to The Arts and Letters Club still remained, and it was to these regions that Harris returned. He explored alleyways, side streets and storefronts, capturing the people and their lives with an objective gaze translated through his bold, expressive paintings. Prior to the war, Harris already had a sharp sense of social consciousness. Now it was acute, sensitive to the frequencies of this community of rough~edged citizens and tired souls. These paintings are fascinating. Characterized by vigorous brushwork, they are compelling partly for their technique, which combines frenetic brush~strokes with brilliant, jewel~like colours. Harris achieves the quality of inlaid enamel work in these dazzling canvases, yet this wonderful surface contrasts starkly with the content of the works, which draws us to contemplate them in a deeper manner. In this oil sketch, simply entitled In the Ward, a man faces us, stoic and expressionless, and a woman walks past, unaware, on the grey sidewalk. Class, wealth and opportunity, of which Harris had ample portions, are unimportant, and the divide between the two is crossed by the gaze between the painter and the painted. The broken shutters, peeling walls and closed doors speak of poverty and neglect, while the colours are joyous and opulent. Harris heard the message that the Ward was sending him. He understood the ability of the soul to triumph. In these works, the light that shines onto the citizens of the Ward hints at
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Lawren Stewart Harris In the Ward oil on canvas, 1920, 34 1/8 x 36 1/2 in, 86.7 x 92.7 cm In the collection of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Photograph courtesy of the University of Manitoba
this. Harris had begun to question the unfairness of birthright in his poetry written before the war, and his book of poems entitled Contrasts, published in 1922, when read with a visual such as this work in one’s mind’s eye, is searing and poignant. The composition of In the Ward is remarkable for several reasons: Harris’s choice of subject matter, his unorthodox use of colour, and the strong sense of abstract pattern that is developed through these patches of colour as they describe each area within the work. Harris’s attention to this part of the city of Toronto is unique within the work of the Group of Seven and speaks of his social and political conscience, as well as his great skill and daring as a painter. Harris’s life experiences were quite dramatic, and each of them, as he progressed along the path of his career, added a layer to the whole. He is one of Canada’s most complex and fascinating artists. This work is a sketch for a canvas of the same title, painted in 1920 and now belonging to the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. In the canvas, the foreground figure has been turned around so that his back is towards us, which changes the relationship between subject and viewer. As well, the pole has been smoothed and its lamp removed. Both works are quite remarkable, and attest to Harris’s great skill as a pre~eminent chronicler of the urban landscape.
E STIMATE: $250,000 ~ 350,000
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151
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151 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA
1871 ~ 1945
Forest Clearing oil on paper, signed, circa 1936 21 3/4 x 34 3/4 in, 55.2 x 88.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Vancouver
L ITERATURE : Doris Shadbolt, The Art of Emily Carr, 1979, pages 145 and 146 Maria Tippett, Emily Carr: A Biography, 1979, page 229 Emily Carr, Hundreds and Thousands, The Journals of Emily Carr, 2006, pages 264 and 265 Forest Clearing is an outstanding example of Carr’s oil on paper forest works from the 1930s. As with Forest Landscape I (circa 1939), in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, and Stumps and Sky (circa 1934), in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Carr was working with a more open approach, letting in light and space to her works through the use of broad brush~strokes, made possible by her medium of oil paint thinned with turpentine or gasoline. During the 1930s, Carr’s sketching forays were to forested areas near Victoria such as Metchosin, Esquimalt Lagoon, Sooke and Goldstream. Nature was her great solace, where she found a spiritual oneness, a direct experience of God. Here, Carr painted cathedral~like forests, seashores and logged~over areas
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71 with secondary growth and open skies, as in Forest Clearing. She would often set up camp in these locations for periods of time in her caravan The Elephant, accompanied by her menagerie of pets. Carr would sketch in the woods and, firmly planted on her camp stool, would pause to take it all in, sometimes singing a hymn to attune herself. Then, as she wrote, “Slowly things begin to move, to slip into their places. Groups and masses and lines tie themselves together…Life is sweeping through the spaces. Everything is alive…Here is a picture, a complete thought, and there another…You must be still in order to hear and see.” She would then apply sweeping strokes of fluid oil onto the paper to capture the rhythms of growth that she perceived. The power of her unconscious flowed through her prescient eye; as Maria Tippett relates, “Dream visions of the universality of growth and movement in nature, occasionally remained with her long enough to enable her to capture them on paper the following day.” In Forest Clearing, transparency and lightness dominate and energy pulses through every part of the landscape, from forest floor to sky. Carr wanted her emotion to “move over the surface as the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters,” and through her work to “realize growth and immortality.” Stumps and scattered logs, as well as young trees juxtaposed to mature trees, refer to the life cycle of the forest, passing from decay to renewal. Tall spindly trunks reach up into the glorious, softly brushed blue sky to complete Carr’s vision of the beauty, vitality and regenerative power of nature.
E STIMATE: $175,000 ~ 225,000
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152
152 FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEY ARCA G7 OSA
1881 ~ 1969
Fire Ranger’s Look~out oil on board, signed and on verso titled, inscribed in graphite Varley / Studio / Richmond Art / Hornby St and in ink V.I. 155 [Varley Inventory #155] and stamped James Wood & Co., Plywoods, Vancouver, circa 1932 12 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Acquired directly from the Artist, 1938 By descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal In 1926, Frederick Varley arrived in Vancouver to take a teaching position at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. By 1927 he was settled in a house at Jericho Beach with a fine view of the North Shore
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mountains and soon was making day and weekend trips to them to sketch. Known for his vigour in climbing, Varley was described as springing up the slopes like a mountain goat, transmitting his enthusiasm for this country to his artist companions and students. He made excursions further north to rugged Garibaldi Park in 1927, 1929, 1932 and 1934, moved by the mystery and power of this wilderness. In 1934, he moved to Lynn Valley below Seymour Mountain on the North Shore, remaining there until 1937. The mountains were a sanctuary for Varley ~ their tranquility and vast scale gave him an escape from worldly pressures and he immersed himself in their atmosphere. An important body of work was created from these mountain trips, paintings such as this strong, bright sketch, full of sparkling light and fresh colour from its top~of~the~world vantage point.
E STIMATE: $125,000 ~ 175,000
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153
153 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG 1893 ~ 1986
Towheys House, Marshall’s Bay oil on board, signed and on verso titled on the artist’s label 12 x 14 in, 30.5 x 35.6 cm P ROVENANCE : A gift from the Artist in the 1930s to the present Private Collector, Ontario This lot and lot 149 in the sale were a gift from Kathleen Morris to one of her art students, whose family had a cottage down the road from the Morris family cottage in Marshall’s Bay near Arnprior in Ontario. Throughout her life, Morris spent summers at this simple cottage (there was no running water or electricity until 1950) which belonged to her
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grandparents and had been in the family for over 100 years. As a child, she fished and swam there, and later, when an accomplished artist and a member of the Beaver Hall Group, the cottage was a studio base where Morris developed her winter oil sketches into larger canvases. She also made painting forays into the surrounding farms and countryside, where she produced this serene oil sketch. Lush, assured brush~strokes vigorously define this pastoral scene, while the warm light flooding the house, together with the closeness of the blue sky with its flotilla of white cumulous clouds, creates a nostalgic longing for the dream~like peace of the countryside.
E STIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
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154
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154 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Montreal Lake, Algoma oil on panel, signed and on verso signed, titled, dated 1923 and inscribed 25 Severn St., Toronto / Collection of Lloyd Singer, 1957 10 1/4 x 14 in, 26 x 35.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Lloyd Singer, 1957 The Art Emporium, Vancouver Kastel Gallery Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Montreal
L ITERATURE : Jeremy Adamson, Lawren S. Harris, Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes, 1906 ~ 1930, 1978, page 79 Over the course of his career, Lawren Harris often chose to paint out~of~doors at dawn and dusk, and at times he even sketched outside during the night. He sought a deeper relationship with the places he selected to paint than just a fine~weather one, and was undeterred by challenging conditions, painting in summer snow in the Rockies and under a tent flap in pouring rain. His twilight scenes are particularly interesting. Under his brush, the moments in time when nature moved from daylight to evening took on a special reverence. This glowing sketch of the edge of Montreal Lake in Algoma is such a scene. It is utterly quiet, with the luminous colours of the ripening fall forest reflected in the glassy water of the lake. Poetic in stillness, the dark green conifers and the yellow of the deciduous trees provide a strong foil for each another, which is enhanced when caught in half~light. The distant sky is radiant and glowing, and sets the forest of the near ground into bold silhouette. It is a dramatic and fleeting moment. The Montreal Lake region is accessible from the Algoma Central Railway, which Harris and Dr. James MacCallum took to reach Manitoulin Island in 1918. Harris had just been discharged from service in the First World War, and his only sibling Howard had been killed in battle. MacCallum
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75 was concerned for Harris’s mental well~being, and so he took him into the wilderness, where he hoped that the healing power of the natural world would ease Harris’s pain. In Algoma, Harris liked what he saw. This was the wild mystical north; the vast, unpeopled wilderness. He sketched with enthusiasm and was buoyed by Algoma, so much so that he decided to return that fall, inviting Frank Johnston and J.E.H. MacDonald to join himself and Dr. MacCallum for a further three~week expedition. Harris contacted the railway and arranged for a specially outfitted boxcar to be used as a base where the four of them could sleep and cook, and to carry themselves and their supplies up and down the line. They would be picked up and dropped off at three different locations. In mid~September of 1918, the four travelers were taken from Sault Ste. Marie north to Agawa Canyon where the artists sketched the dramatic rolling scenery for a number of days. From there, they were collected and moved to the siding at Hubert. “We felt we could understand something of the feeling of the early Canadian explorers,” MacDonald would later write, “the whole scene seemed so primeval and unexplored.” Here, Montreal Lake, River and Falls were all within reach, and only their own stamina could limit them. They worked steadily, with the fall colours at their peak. From the Hubert siding they moved to Batchewana, thus concluding the first of the famous sketching expeditions known as the boxcar trips. Harris found the Algoma region to be a very rich subject. Subsequent trips there up until 1921 provided him with a keen understanding of the topography of this part of Ontario. He visited Montreal Lake again with Arthur Lismer and A.Y. Jackson during the 1921 Algoma trip and returned to Agawa Canyon as well. He would take these sketches further in his studio, working them into panels and larger canvases, refining and perfecting what he saw, playing with form and colour. The theme of a backlit group of trees against a body of water at dusk, rendered in a velvety, glowing, dark~on~light palette was one he explored a number of times, as in the 1920 canvas Beaver Swamp, Algoma, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The common thread in works such as this is one of tranquil, shimmering beauty, a magnificent display of light and colour, pattern and rhythm.
E STIMATE: $70,000 ~ 90,000
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155 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG
1893 ~ 1986
Corpus Christi Procession oil on panel, signed and on verso titled and inscribed Berthier en haut, Que. / $50 on a label 14 x 10 1/8 in, 35.6 x 25.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE: Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian Modernist Painters, 2005, a 1927 canvas with a view of the same cathedral entitled After High Mass, Berthier~en~Haut, in the collection of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, reproduced page 77 One of the prominent subjects for this important early female artist was the religious and social rituals of Quebec. The inscription indicates that the setting is Berthier~en~haut (now known as Berthierville) which was a favourite painting location for Kathleen Morris. Here she depicts the pomp and ceremony of a traditional Roman Catholic procession for the Eucharist, a symbolic re~enactment of Christ’s Last Supper. The piety of attendees can be seen in the small group to the right, who kneel in respect. In this beautiful sketch, Morris fascinates the eye with the procession carrying banners and its sacred objects under a canopy along the curving path towards the massive church. She uses a rich colour palette; sumptuous reds, golds and bright yellow in the robes and objects displayed are contrasted with luscious greens of trees and grass. Morris captures the power of ritual at a time in which the church was a dominant part of life in Quebec. 155
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has a large 1927 canvas in their collection entitled After High Mass, Berthier~en~haut, a scene in front of this same church.
E STIMATE : $30,000 ~ 40,000
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156 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG
1893 ~ 1986
Château Frontenac from Rue Ste~Anne oil on panel, signed 14 x 10 in, 35.6 x 25.4 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Ontario Around the time of World War I, societal changes were underway for women, including securing their right to vote in Canada. Greater prosperity brought expansion in art institutions, and women’s roles were finding new paradigms. Arising from this creative ferment was an important pioneering network of women artists, including Kathleen Morris, that first met while part of the Beaver Hall Group in Montreal in 1920. Morris’s family was part of Montreal’s Protestant elite, and her mother, a staunch defender of women’s rights, supported her daughter in her career as an artist. Morris’s urban streetscapes of Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal, painted en plein air, with their simplified form and lush brushwork, radiate warmth and charm. This splendid sketch depicting Quebec City’s landmark Château Frontenac strikes a balance between architectural detail and the warmth of human presence. Ochre and pink tones in the sky, reflected back in the snow, envelop the scene with a unique winter light. Morris’s importance was acknowledged when the National Gallery of Canada acquired her work in the 1920s, and recognition of her fine oeuvre continues to expand in contemporary times.
E STIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
156
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157
157 FREDERICK ARTHUR VERNER ARCA OSA 1836 ~ 1928
Buffalo on the Prairies oil on canvas, signed 16 x 24 in, 40.6 x 61 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Joan Murray, The Last Buffalo: The Story of Frederick Arthur Verner, Painter of the Canadian West, 1984, page 66 Nature’s abundance in the West, such as the great flocks of passenger pigeons and the vast herds of buffalo that roamed the Prairie, were a source of fascination for artists and their collectors, both in Canada and Britain. Frederick Verner began making trips to the West in 1862, first
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by labourious modes of transport such as carts, until 1870, when he was invited to travel west on the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway. Studio canvases such as this fine oil would have been produced from Verner’s many sketches done on the spot. Verner’s depiction of the buffalo was from an idealized, romantic point of view. These monarchs of the plains, with their powerful and unusual appearance, were a symbol of the raw vitality of the new world; the London Daily News described them as possessing a “singular and terrible beauty”. Verner painted them as noble beasts, free and in harmony with their surroundings, as here in Buffalo on the Prairies, which also exhibits Verner’s impressive ability with refined nuances of atmosphere and light. By 1879, the buffalo had been hunted almost to extinction, making Verner’s depictions of their existence poignant historical records.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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158
158 NICHOLAS DE GRANDMAISON ARCA OC
1892 ~ 1978
159
159 JOHN WILLIAM BEATTY OSA RCA
1869 ~ 1941
Mother and Papoose
Portrait of A. Janes
pastel on paper, signed and on verso stamped indistinctly 19 1/2 x 16 in, 49.5 x 40.6 cm
oil on canvas, signed and dated 1931 19 x 15 in, 48.3 x 38.1 cm
P ROVENANCE :
Wm. Tyrrell & Co., Toronto Private Collection, BC
Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Hugh A. Dempsey, History in Their Blood, 1982, Introduction by Russell Harper, page 10 Nicolas de Grandmaison is best known as a visual historian of Canada’s indigenous cultures, particularly the Blood, Peigan, Stoney and Blackfoot nations of southern Alberta. Russell Harper asserts that de Grandmaison, “found in them traits of superior beings who belonged among the world’s aristocratic peoples and held their heads in haughty pride.” He traveled onto the reservations, hearing their stories and recording all their nuances of character in his pastels.
E STIMATE: $12,000 ~ 15,000
P ROVENANCE :
John Beatty was an important early pioneer in plein air painting in Northern Ontario. He sketched with Tom Thomson in Algonquin Park in 1914 and was one of the first painters to occupy the Group of Seven’s famous Studio Building in Toronto. His early painting reflected traditional Dutch and French schools, but through his association with the Group, his colour palette brightened. This fine portrait showcases Beatty’s consummate painterly abilities. He has carefully defined the young woman’s chiselled features and coiffure, and has given exquisite attention to delicate skin tones. By leaving the background a softly glowing colour field and the lower part of her dress less detailed, the focus is on her face and emotional expression. This sensitive and refined portrait is a classic portrayal of feminine beauty.
E STIMATE: $6,000 ~ 8,000
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160
160 DAVID BROWN MILNE CGP CSGA CSPWC
1882 ~ 1953
Wild Apples oil on canvas, signed and on verso inscribed by Douglas Duncan on the stretcher David Milne: Wild Apples, Sept. 1944, October 6 ~ 7, 1947 12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal Estate of W.J. Bennett, Montreal Private Collection, Victoria
L ITERATURE : David Milne (1882 ~ 1953): A Survey Exhibition, Galerie Godard Lefort, 1971 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2, 1998, reproduced page 927, catalogue #501.7
E XHIBITED : Picture Loan Society, Toronto, Small Oils by David Milne, 1922 ~ 1945, March 8 ~ 21, 1952, catalogue #13 Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal, David Milne (1882 ~ 1953): A Survey Exhibition, April 22 ~ May 15, 1971, catalogue #30 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, David Milne (1882 ~ 1953), Retrospective Exhibition, September 2001, catalogue #60 While based at Uxbridge in the fall of 1947, David Milne explored Baptiste Lake south of Algonquin Park. Subjects from his Baptiste Lake sketchbooks from that trip were completed at Uxbridge (the catalogue raisonné noting that this is likely a Baptiste Lake subject). This enchanting still life, including both natural and man~made objects, incorporates crabapples that Milne found on a walk. The catalogue raisonné, in light of Milne mentioning painting a small oil still life around October 7 of 1947, states: “We believe the small oil was Wild Apples. If so, it is the only Baptiste Lake oil and probably the last canvas Milne painted.” After this, watercolours were Milne’s focus, making this a rare canvas from this period.
E STIMATE: $60,000 ~ 80,000
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161
161 DAVID BROWN MILNE CGP CSGA CSPWC
1882 ~ 1953
Green and Mauve, Boston Corners, NY
Selected Works from the Milne Estate, Mira Godard Gallery, 2003, reproduced page 19
E XHIBITED :
watercolour on paper, dated May 31, 1916 and on verso titled on the gallery label and inscribed by the Duncan Estate 423 15 1/4 x 20 1/2 in, 38.7 x 52.1 cm
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, David Milne, Boston Corners: 1916 ~ 1918, March 17 ~ April 7, 1988, catalogue #5 Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, David Milne, Selected Works from the David Milne Estate, September 27 ~ October 11, 2003, catalogue #7
P ROVENANCE :
In 1916, David Milne moved to Boston Corners, a tiny hamlet at the junction of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Behind his residence at Under Mountain House, on the western flank of the Berkshire range, Milne built a little painting shelter, from which he looked west over the town toward Fox Hill and the distant Catskills. In this beautiful watercolour, Milne effortlessly defines the vista with simple lines, creating mass and atmosphere through the use of transparent washes, dense black areas and the dazzling white of bare paper. Jewel~like tones of amethyst and peridot green are strongly contrasted by black and white. Milne’s idyllic stay was broken by the war, and in February of 1918 he left to join the army.
Estate of David B. Milne Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, 2003 Private Collection, Victoria
L ITERATURE : David Milne, Boston Corners: 1916 ~ 1918, Mira Godard Gallery, 1988 David P. Silcox, Painting Place: The Life and Work of David B. Milne, 1996, reproduced page 78 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ Volume 1, 1998, reproduced page 163, catalogue #107.14
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E STIMATE: $50,000 ~ 70,000
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162
162 LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 ~ 1970
Study of Women in the Ward oil on board, on verso signed, titled on a label, dated 1913 and inscribed with the Doris Mills Inventory #5/13 and Bess Harris Collection 1950 8 5/8 x 14 in, 21.9 x 35.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Collection of the Artist Bess Harris Collection, 1950 The Family of the Artist
L ITERATURE : Doris Mills, L.S. Harris Inventory, 1936, listed as Group 5 (5 /13) Miscellaneous Sketches, location noted as the Studio Building
Artists’ sketches are a window into their work. Lawren Harris’s Study of Women in the Ward is a lovely vignette of female figures in various postures, brightly dressed and preoccupied with the tasks of daily life in the historic working class district of Toronto known as the Ward. Harris’s masterful brushwork is a marvel of paint application; he gives great detail in a few simple strokes. In studies such as this, which were used in larger works, Harris was interested in what each figure represented: class, an occupation, a particular industry or ethnicity. Such figures in Harris’s urban works are incredibly important to the final paintings. As with the male figure in In the Ward, lot 150 in this sale, posture, gaze and placement became social comment for Harris. These women of the Ward provide a rare peek into Harris’s methods. The female figure in In the Ward is very similar to the women sketched in profile here, but instead of the mauve, pink, red and green of their clothing in this study, Harris has chosen for her dress in the canvas deep blue and turquoise from the colours of the house that she passes.
E STIMATE: $4,000 ~ 6,000
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163 UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA ARTIST 20TH CENTURY
Haida Gwaii Beaver Bracelet sterling silver bracelet, circa 1900 ~ 1920 1 1/2 x 7 x 1/16 in, 3.8 x 17.8 x 0.2 cm P ROVENANCE : Acquired by the present owner’s parents circa 1960, Haida Gwaii By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver
L ITERATURE : Daina Augaitis et al, Raven Travelling, Two Centuries of Haida Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2006, page 63 Regarding Haida culture, elder Diane Brown observed, “There was no word for ‘art’ because it was in every part of our lives…We had the time to
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make things beautiful because the sea and land provided for us all year.” From totems to argillite and wood carvings to silver jewellery, the Haida were known for fineness of execution and a sophisticated awareness of aesthetics. One of the pantheon of Haida mythical animal figures, Beaver, the central motif of this bracelet, was one of Raven’s uncles who, in the early days of the world, lived on the sea floor hoarding all the fresh water and fish. Early bracelets such as this were made from silver dollars, sometimes sourced from the United States or Mexico, melted and hammered flat into thin surfaces which were then molded and incised using a round piece of wood. In the early 1900s, jewellery was made both for personal ornamentation and for trade. This bracelet, with its hatching and deep incising, is a fine example of early Haida jewellery.
E STIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
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164
164 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~ 1992
Still Morning oil on board, signed and on verso signed and titled on the artist’s label 24 x 30 in, 61 x 76.2 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto; J.D. Young, Toronto Private Collection, Ontario
L ITERATURE : Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, Roberts Gallery, 1975, reproduced page 162 Christopher E. Jackson, A.J. Casson: An Artist’s Life, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1998, page 46
E XHIBITED : McMaster University, Hamilton, A.J. Casson Retrospective, November 10 ~ December 11, 1971, label on verso
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A.J. Casson took a very strong, structural approach to this landscape. Still Morning exemplifies the radically different direction that his work underwent in 1945, when he took on a cubist style, breaking forms into sharp geometric shapes. In the 1950s and 1960s, this style change was accompanied by an interest in the dramatic lighting effects of storms and rain showers. Christopher Jackson wrote, “Casson never commented on why these changes occurred in his works, but they created a mystical feeling that is unlike any other in his career.” Still Morning is a superb example of this; fractured planes of light bathe the scene, and stylized triangles and rectangles form the rocks that border the lake. There is, however, a softer, more organic feel to the forms in this work than the work of the mid~1940s with its hard edges. The intense light over the center of the painting draws the eye down into the reflections in the water, generating an abstract and dreamy atmosphere. It is these transparent curtains of light that give a subtle feeling of the spiritual suffusing the landscape.
E STIMATE: $125,000 ~ 150,000
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165
165 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA
1898 ~ 1992
Grey and Gold oil on board, signed and on verso titled on a label, circa 1953 ~ 1955 20 x 24 in, 50.8 x 61 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto Canadian Heritage Art Company, Kleinburg Private Collection, Toronto
L ITERATURE : Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, Roberts Gallery, 1975, page 128, a similar 1958 oil entitled Mist, Rain and Sun, in the collection of Museum London (formerly the London Regional Art Gallery), Ontario, reproduced page 149
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In 1926, A.J. Casson was invited to join the Group of Seven after the departure of Frank Johnston. Casson forged his identity in the Group with his images of southern Ontario villages and rural countryside, as well as the Ontario northland. This work was painted at Redmond Bay, a cove in Lake Baptiste. During the 1950s, Casson’s favourite painting place was Lake Baptiste, about 20 miles from the Ontario town of Bancroft, and he painted there almost exclusively from 1953 to 1955. In late September or early October, he would spend a few weeks there at a rented cabin on the lake, sometimes making a second trip in the summer. Paul Duval comments, “Some of Casson’s finest canvases were based on sketches done at Lake Baptiste.” Grey and Gold exhibits Casson’s 1950s style of geometric design, prominent here in the clouds and the shafts of light illuminating the lake. It is a work of tranquil beauty, taking the viewer’s eye in a natural flow over the darkened foreground to the still lake mirroring the shore and up to the lofty clouds in an aesthetic gestalt.
E STIMATE: $60,000 ~ 80,000
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166
166 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA
1873 ~ 1932
Jack Knife Island, Georgian Bay oil on board, on verso signed, titled and dated 1912 7 x 9 in, 17.8 x 22.9 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Ontario J.E.H. MacDonald’s early works, those prior to his association with the Group of Seven, were governed by ideas of Art Nouveau and design. They also reflected the influence of Impressionism and thus gave
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attention to light, atmosphere and mood. MacDonald was a skilled designer, able to compose a scene with remarkable simplicity. This beautiful small oil shows us all of these things. The ornamental~looking trees, growing persistently on the edge of a rocky bluff, their forms just off of centre in the work, are reflected in the moving water of evening, their shadows cast over ripples of even brushwork. The blue of the sky, the blue of the water and the blue cast to everything on the land creates a mood of cool evening tranquility. The work also has a subtle energy which comes largely from the active brushwork and the patterns that the brush~strokes form on the surface of the work, moving so as to return our eye over and over again into the heart of the scene, where we are mesmerized by its coolness.
E STIMATE: $80,000 ~ 100,000
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167
167 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA
1873 ~ 1932
Cloudy Sky, Thornhill Church oil on board, signed and dated August 12, 1931 and on verso signed, titled, dated, certified by Thoreau MacDonald and inscribed a top quality sketch 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1965 Private Collection, Victoria In this fine sketch of J.E.H. MacDonald’s beloved Thornhill area, we see a tranquil view of a church set in a meadow amongst billowing trees
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under a cloud~filled sky. It is a lovely scene, noted on the verso as being “a top quality sketch” by MacDonald’s son, Thoreau. J.E.H. MacDonald had purchased a property in Thornhill in 1912. He was very fond of it and named it Four Elms as homage to the stately trees that grew there. He sketched and painted his property as well as the areas nearby regularly, as well as opening his home to fellow artists and hosting parties there. At one point, when his finances were low, he was pressed into renting the property for income; the only stipulation was that it would be let to these same fellow painters. As a result, Thornhill is a place name attached to many sketches and tranquil vistas painted by members of the Group of Seven. By 1931, the year this work was executed, MacDonald had been living back at Thornhill steadily since 1925.
E STIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
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168
168 MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN AAM RCA
1866 ~ 1934
The Cache River, November oil on board, signed and on verso titled, dated 1925 on the gallery labels, inscribed Mary Hough on the frame and certified by Cullen Inventory #1522 11 3/4 x 16 3/8 in, 29.8 x 41.6 cm P ROVENANCE : Watson Art Galleries, Montreal Dominion Gallery, Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver
L ITERATURE : Hughes de Jouvancourt, Maurice Cullen, 1978, page xvii The Cache River in the Laurentians was one of Maurice Cullen’s great enduring themes, painted in daylight, sunset and moonlight. Most were winter scenes, with banks shrouded in snow and the river’s edges shaped
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by ice. Hughes de Jouvancourt writes, “What makes the works of his Laurentian period so moving is the feeling of hidden mystery conveyed by the woods, mountains, lakes and streams. A great goodness seems to inhabit nature as if God, satisfied with the beauty of his work, had suddenly halted his creation.” In his depictions of winter, Cullen displayed his extraordinary abilities as an Impressionist in his refined handling of light effects and delicate colour tones, captured while painting out~of~doors. He did not use the French Impressionists’ fractured brush~stroke and fragmentation of colour, instead preferring to use a more solid application of paint. After drawing his outline with a neutral colour, Cullen gradually worked up all the masses of the painting, a process that kept the whole painting in movement until finished. The final effect in The Cache River, November is sparkling and fresh, the quintessence of a winter’s day on the river.
E STIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
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169
169 FREDERICK SIMPSON COBURN AAM RCA
1871 ~ 1960
Cutting Logs oil on canvas, signed and dated 1942 22 x 28 in, 55.9 x 71.1 cm P ROVENANCE : Continental Galleries, Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver After traditional training in Germany and Belgium, Frederick Coburn was exposed to the innovative approach of the Impressionists in Paris. Back in Canada, Maurice Cullen, a well~known Impressionist pioneer in the Canadian scene, encouraged him to expand his colour palette to reflect the vibrant atmosphere and light of Quebec’s landscape. Coburn discovered the central theme in his work while painting during winter in his Melbourne studio. Through his window he saw a team of horses hauling logs on a sledge, and the sight was a moment of gestalt. It was a
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scene that came to represent what was unique about habitant life in rural Quebec: self~sufficient, hard~working, yet full of joie de vivre. Early in Coburn’s career, the prejudice of Canadian collectors for dark, European work had to be overcome. The work of artists such as Coburn, Cullen and James Wilson Morrice was ground~breaking and, like the Group of Seven, they created art that was formative to our Canadian identity. Cutting Logs is a superb example of Coburn’s work ~ a classic subject of lumbermen at work on a bright winter’s day, with interesting effects of light through the trees, splashes of pastel highlights and luscious, painterly brush~strokes.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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170
170 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
1882 ~ 1974
Early Spring, Saint~Fabien oil on panel, on verso signed, titled, dated April 1935 and inscribed in graphite Reserved ~ A.G.T. 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Estate, Vancouver The early 1930s were a time of change for A.Y. Jackson; the Group of Seven disbanded, he severed his ties with the Royal Canadian Academy, and he became one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Canadian Group of Painters, which included a wider circle of artists from coast to coast. But the pattern of his migration to his favourite painting places continued, and spring found him in his usual haunts up and down the St. Lawrence River. March and April of 1935 saw Jackson painting
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on the South Shore at Rimouski, Cacouna, Les Éboulements and Saint~Fabien. No one could paint these rustic Quebec villages with more understanding and tenderness for their unique nature and connection with the cycles of nature. Here, under a bright blue sky, the cluster of buildings at the foot of the hill is surrounded by melting snow, revealing interesting patterns of the emerging earth. Fluid brush~strokes loaded with pale pastels of pink, yellow and green brightened with dashes of blue define snow melting to water, as winter releases the land in this classic 1930s spring village sketch.
E STIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
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171
171 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 222
Barren Lands in the Northwest Territories, stating, “Every chance I get I go by plane up into the tundra, into the Barren Lands…I’m perfectly happy to be put down with my pack up among these rivers and lakes, perhaps two or three hundred miles from the nearest human being.” Jackson was in the Coppermine River area of the Barren Lands in August and September of both 1950 and 1951. It was a bold country of bare hills with sparse dwarf birch and willow, its colouration a tonal one of ochre and grey~green. Jackson responded to the openness of this desolate and beautiful land, painting its rich tapestry of rocks covered by moss and lichen. Coppermine Country contrasts the rolling rhythm of the hills with the chop of the pointed rocks. Dashes of red and orange enliven the green~gold palette, indicative of the low~growing vegetation colouring for fall. This vigorous plein air oil sketch was the basis for the 1955 studio canvas of the same title.
A.Y. Jackson was a dauntless explorer of the Canadian landscape, and upon discovering the North, developed a passion for painting in the
E STIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA
1882 ~ 1974
Coppermine Country oil on panel, signed and on verso titled, inscribed To Scott with love, Christmas 1971 from Grandmother Poole and stamped E.E. Poole Collection #265, circa 1950 ~ 1951 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm P ROVENANCE : Ernest E. Poole, Edmonton; By descent to a Private Collection, Vancouver; Private Collection, Vancouver
L ITERATURE :
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172
172 WILLIAM HENRY CLAPP RCA 1879 ~ 1954
Puente y Eglesia oil on canvas, signed, dated 1907 and inscribed Spain and on verso titled and inscribed S:A. no 2, with conservator’s comments April 1936 on the stretcher and with the inventory number on the Bekins Van and Storage Co., Oakland, California label 28 3/4 x 36 in, 73 x 91.4 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Memphis, Tennessee
L ITERATURE : Paul Duval, Canadian Impressionism, 1990, page 72 Paul Duval wrote, “William Clapp’s dedication to Impressionism was total.” His interest was first sparked while studying in Montreal under
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Impressionist William Brymner, and painting out~of~doors in Quebec. Upon arriving in Paris to study, he immediately embraced Impressionism. Painting in the rural countryside in France in such locations as Chezy~sur~Marne, he imbued his works with the freshness of atmosphere, ephemeral lighting effects and lush, illuminated colour that were the hallmarks of the Impressionists. In 1907 he painted in Spain, and Segovia, situated north of Madrid, is the likely source of this lovely work with its misty atmosphere of soft pastel colours. On his return to Montreal, Clapp struggled in the face of lack of acceptance for his work, and after spending 1915 and 1916 in Cuba, moved to California in 1917. Here he found an art community, collectors and critics who were receptive to his work, and he flourished. In 1921, he was appointed director of the Oakland Art Gallery and he became one of the founders of the pioneer California art group The Six, while still painting in the Impressionist style to which he was devoted.
E STIMATE: $18,000 ~ 24,000
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173
173 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
1885 ~ 1969
Cedar Swamp oil on canvas board, signed and on verso signed, titled and dated 1962 14 x 18 in, 35.6 x 45.7 cm In 1951, Arthur Lismer discovered a new painting place when he traveled to Vancouver Island, exploring Long Beach as well as Galiano, Pender and Saltspring Islands. The West Coast made such an impact that he returned over 16 summers, painting both shore and inner forest. Robert Ayre related Lismer’s experience at Wickaninnish on Vancouver Island:
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“Lismer swims and catches crabs, paints and helps Joe cut trails through the jungle, choked with salal, ground sumac and skunk cabbage. You could get lost in the dense tropical growth of the cedar swamps, he says, if it wasn’t for the roar of the sea to guide you.” Vigorous and textural, Cedar Swamp captures the exotic atmosphere of the rainforest. Dense vegetation is dominated by the powerful cedar and intersected by a mysterious dark stream. Lismer lights this density with fluorescent green skunk cabbage and bright orange behind the cedar’s foliage, and emphasizes the plastic quality of his surface with lines incised with the tip of his brush handle into the thick paint. Cedar Swamp is visceral evidence that Lismer felt the heart of the West Coast rainforest.
E STIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
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174
174 FRANK HANS (FRANZ) JOHNSTON ARCA CSPWC G7 OSA
1888 ~ 1949
Threshhold of Spring oil on board, signed and on verso signed and titled 20 x 24 in, 50.8 x 61 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Collection, Toronto As a member of the Group of Seven, Frank Johnston shared their early painting trips and their spirit of experimentation. Known for his charming and genial personality, he was also a fierce individualist and, after his departure from the Group in 1924, his style evolved in a more
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realistic direction. Johnston’s paintings are marked by a clarity of light; he was a master of the sunny winter day and the depiction of light on snow contrasted with luminous shade. Johnston’s winter imagery ranged from central Ontario countryside to northern Ontario and Quebec and, in the late 1930s, as far north as the Northwest Territories. In the tradition of the Group, Johnston painted outdoors as well as in the studio, sometimes working in conditions cold enough to congeal his oil paint. Threshold of Spring is an outstanding example of Johnston’s eye for beauty ~ from the blue~shadowed snowbanks to the gorgeous turquoise, teal and blue tones of melting ice clinging to the shore and floating in the water in soft, mottled shapes. Reflections of the trees at the shore add to the exquisite tapestry of patterning in this virtuoso winter scene.
E STIMATE: $14,000 ~ 18,000
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175
175 JOHN YOUNG JOHNSTONE
177
177 MARC~AURÈLE DE FOY SUZOR~COTÉ
ARCA 1887 ~ 1930
CAC RCA 1869 ~ 1937
Beaupré, PQ
August Afternoon, Arthabaska
oil on board, signed and on verso signed, titled and inscribed 3533 University St., Montreal 11 5/8 x 20 3/8 in, 29.5 x 51.7 cm
oil on panel, signed and on verso titled and inscribed $20 / 59 3 3/8 x 6 in, 8.6 x 15.2 cm
E STIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
E STIMATE: $4,000 ~ 6,000
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176 FRANK HANS (FRANZ) JOHNSTON ARCA CSPWC G7 OSA
1888 ~ 1949
Spring Morning oil on board, signed and on verso titled on the artist’s label 12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm
178
178 ROBERT WAKEHAM PILOT CGP OSA PRCA
1898 ~ 1967
Cache River oil on board, signed and on verso titled 11 x 13 1/2 in, 27.9 x 34.3 cm E STIMATE: $5,000 ~ 7,000
E STIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
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179
179 CLARENCE ALPHONSE GAGNON CAC RCA
1881 ~ 1942
Stormy Day oil on board, signed and dated 1908 and on verso inscribed A=4336 5 1/2 x 7 1/4 in, 14 x 18.4 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Estate, Vancouver One of Canada’s important Impressionist artists, Clarence Gagnon spent considerable time in France. During his time abroad, he continued to send works for exhibition in Canada, while building a profile in Europe through exhibitions in the Paris Salons. In 1904, he traveled to France and in early 1908 was painting in the French countryside at locations
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such as Dinan and La Hisse on the River Rance in Brittany. Returning to Quebec from Paris in July of 1908, Gagnon painted in Montreal and at a house in Baie~Saint~Paul on the banks of the River Gouffre. One of the tenets of Impressionism was the capturing of ephemeral effects of light outdoors and, in Stormy Day, Gagnon captures a shimmering, watery atmosphere. Dramatic towers of dark storm clouds give way to a silvery~white cloudbank underneath, and rain pours down on the town in sheets. It is a testament to Gagnon’s abilities that this small and mercurial oil sketch gives the impression of a larger scale, and so strongly communicates the play of space and the elements in the sky.
E STIMATE: $18,000 ~ 22,000
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E STIMATE: $5,000 ~ 7,000
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180 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
181 MARC~AURÈLE DE FOY SUZOR~COTÉ 1885 ~ 1969
Portrait of a Young Woman oil on board, on verso inscribed Painted by Dr. Lismer when I was 15 or 16, approx. 1945, when I was studying at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 13 x 9 in, 33 x 22.9 cm P ROVENANCE : A gift from the Artist to the present Private Collector, Montreal This fine portrait by Arthur Lismer depicts the same young woman who sat for The Ski Patroller by Edwin Holgate, lot 104 in this sale. This work was painted several years before the Holgate portrait, when the young woman was just 15 or 16 years old and a student in a class at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Lismer’s national reputation as a teacher and his particular interest in teaching art to young people had resulted in his appointment as Educational Supervisor there. Lismer was a fun~loving teacher, with a sense of humour and the ability to put his students
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181
CAC RCA
1869 ~ 1937
Dans l’étable oil on panel, signed 6 3/8 x 7 1/2 in, 16.2 x 19 cm P ROVENANCE : Private Estate, Vancouver
E STIMATE: $6,000 ~ 8,000
Thank you for attending our sale of Fine Canadian Art. After tonight’s sale, please view our Third Session ~ May Online Auction of Fine Canadian Art at www.heffel.com, closing on Thursday, May 26, 2011. Lots can be independently viewed at one of our galleries in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, as specified in our online catalogue.
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LAWREN STEWART HARRIS, The Old Stump, Lake Superior, oil on board, 1926, 12 x 15 in Estimate: $2,000,000 ~ 2,500,000 • Sold for a Record $3,510,000
We are now accepting consignments for our fall Live Auction Heffel offers customized services to individuals, corporations and estates. We provide written appraisals for Insurance, Estate Planning and Family Division purposes as well as estimates for auction. Heffel has the most experienced team of fine art specialists in the business, providing clients with the best opportunity for maximizing the value of their Canadian and International works.
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INVITATION TO CONSIGN Upcoming Specialty Sales
MAY 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Fine Canadian Art JUNE 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Rita Letendre: Works on Paper Important Works by W.J. Phillips Fine Canadian Art JULY 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Northwest Coast Native and Inuit Art Important Estate and Corporate Collections AUGUST 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Maritime and Canadian Folk Art Important Estate and Corporate Collections SEPTEMBER 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Canadian Post~War & Contemporary Art Post~War & Contemporary Photography OCTOBER 2011 ONLINE AUCTION Fine International Art Fine Photography Important Estate and Corporate Collections
ALEXANDER COLVILLE, Raven (detail) serigraph, 12/70, 1990, 30 x 18 3/4 in To be offered in our May 2011 Online Auction
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS These Terms and Conditions of Business represent the terms upon which the Auction House contracts with the Consignor and, acting in its capacity as agent on behalf of the Consignor, contracts with the Purchaser. These Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to the sale of the Lot by the Auction House to the Purchaser on behalf of the
A DEFINED TERMS: 1 P ROPERTY Any Property delivered by the Consignor to the Auction House to be placed in the auction sale held by the Auction House on its premises, online or elsewhere and, specifically, that Property described by Lot number in the Auction House catalogue for the auction sale. The Auction House will have the authority to partition the Property into Lots (the “Lots”);
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9 SALES TAX Sales Tax means the Federal and Provincial sales and excise taxes applicable in the jurisdiction of sale of the Lot; OF
SALE
The net amount due to the Consignor from the Auction House, which shall be the Hammer Price less commission at the Published Rates and Expenses and any other amounts due to the Auction House or associated companies;
11 L IVE
AND
ONLINE AUCTIONS
These Terms and Conditions of Business apply to all live and online auction sales conducted by the Auction House. For the purposes of online auctions, all references to the Auctioneer shall mean the Auction House and Knocked Down is a literal reference defining the close of the auction sale.
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B THE PURCHASER: 1 T HE AUCTION HOUSE The Auction House acts solely as agent for the Consignor, except as otherwise provided herein. 2 T HE PURCHASER (a) The highest bidder acknowledged by the Auctioneer as the
highest bidder at the time the Lot is Knocked Down; (b) The Auctioneer has the right, at his sole discretion, to reopen a Lot if he has inadvertently missed a Bid, or if a Bidder immediately at the close of a Lot notifies the Auctioneer of his intent to Bid; (c) The Auctioneer shall have the right to regulate and control
the bidding and to advance the bids in whatever intervals he considers appropriate for the Lot in question; (d) The Auction House shall have absolute discretion in settling
any dispute in determining the successful bidder; (e) Every bidder shall be deemed to act as principal unless the
5 HAMMER P RICE
10 P ROCEEDS
Consignor, and shall supersede and take precedence over any previously agreed Terms and Conditions of Business. These Terms and Conditions of Business are hereby incorporated into and form part of the Consignment Agreement entered into by the Auction House and the Consignor.
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Auction House has acknowledged in writing prior to the date of the auction, that the bidder is acting as agent on behalf of a disclosed principal and where such agency relationship is acceptable to the Auction House; (f) The Purchaser acknowledges that invoices generated during the sale or shortly after may not be error~free, and therefore are subject to review; and, (g) Every bidder shall submit a fully completed Registration
Form and provide the required information to the Auction House. Every bidder will be assigned a unique paddle number. For online auctions, a password will be created for use in the current and future online sales only. This online registration procedure may require up to twenty~four (24) hours to complete. 3 P URCHASER’ S PRICE The Purchaser shall pay the Purchase Price to the Auction House. 4 SALES TAX EXEMPTION All or part of the Sales Tax may be exempt in certain circumstances if the Lot is delivered or otherwise removed from the jurisdiction of sale of the Lot. It is the Purchaser’s obligation to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Auction House, that such delivery or removal results in an exemption from the relevant Sales Tax legislation. Shipments out of the jurisdiction of sale of the Lot(s) shall only be eligible for exemption from Sales Tax if shipped directly from the
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE Auction House and appropriate delivery documentation is provided, in advance, to the Auction House. All claims for Sales Tax exemption must be made prior to or at the time of payment of the Purchase Price. Sales Tax will not be refunded once the Auction House has released the Lot. 5 P AYMENT OF THE PURCHASE PRICE (a) The Purchaser shall: (i) Unless he has already done so, provide the Auction House with his name, address and banking or other suitable references as may be required by the Auction House; and, (ii) Payment must be made within seven (7) days from the date of the auction by: a) Bank Wire direct to our account, b) Certified Cheque or Bank Draft, unless otherwise arranged in advance with the Auction House, or c) a cheque accompanied by a current Letter of Credit from the Purchaser’s bank which will guarantee the amount of the cheque (release of Lot subject to clearance of cheque). Credit card payments subject to a maximum of $5,000, if you are providing your credit card details by fax (for purchases in North America only) or to a maximum of $25,000 if the card is presented in person with valid identification. In all other circumstances, we accept payment by wire transfer. (b) Title shall pass, and release and/or delivery of the Lot shall
occur, only upon payment of the Purchase Price by the Purchaser to the Auction House. 6 DESCRIPTIONS
OF
LOT
(a) All representations or statements made by the Auction House,
or in the Consignment Agreement, or in the catalogue or other publication or report, as to the authorship, origin, date, age, size, medium, attribution, genuineness, provenance, condition or estimated selling price of the Lot, are statements of opinion only; (b) All photographic representations and other illustrations
presented in the catalogue are solely for guidance and are not to be relied upon in terms of tone or colour or necessarily to reveal any imperfections in the Lot; (c) Many Lots are of an age or nature which precludes their being
in pristine condition. Some descriptions in the catalogue or given by way of condition report make reference to damage and/or restoration. Such information is given for guidance only and the absence of such a reference does not imply that a Lot is free from defects, nor does any reference to particular defects imply the absence of others; and, (d) The prospective Purchaser must satisfy himself as to all
matters referred to in (a), (b) and (c) of this paragraph by inspection, other investigation or otherwise prior to the sale of the Lot. If the prospective Purchaser is unable to personally view any Lot, the Auction House may, upon request, e~mail or fax a condition report describing the Lot to the prospective Purchaser.
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7 P URCHASED LOT (a) The Purchaser shall collect the Lot from the Auction House
within seven (7) days from the date of the auction sale, after which date the Purchaser shall be responsible for all Expenses until the date the Lot is removed from the offices of the Auction House; (b) All packing, handling and shipping of any Lot by the Auction
House is undertaken solely as a courtesy service to the Purchaser, and will only be undertaken at the discretion of the Auction House and at the Purchaser’s risk. Prior to all packing and shipping, the Auction House must receive a fully completed and signed Shipping Form and payment in full for all purchases; and, (c) The Auction House shall not be liable for any damage to glass
or frames of the Lot and shall not be liable for any errors or omissions or damage caused by packers and shippers, whether or not such agent was recommended by the Auction House. 8 R ISK (a) The purchased Lot shall be at the Consignor’s risk in all
respects for seven (7) days after the auction sale, after which the Lot will be at the Purchaser’s risk. The Purchaser may arrange insurance coverage through the Auction House at the then prevailing rates and subject to the then existing policy; and, (b) Neither the Auction House nor its employees nor its agents
shall be liable for any loss or damage of any kind to the Lot, whether caused by negligence or otherwise, while any Lot is in or under the custody or control of the Auction House. 9 N ON~PAYMENT AND FAILURE TO COLLECT LOT( S) If the Purchaser fails either to pay for or to take away any Lot within seven (7) days from the date of the auction sale, the Auction House may in its absolute discretion be entitled to one or more of the following remedies without providing further notice to the Purchaser and without prejudice to any other rights or remedies the Auction House may have: (a) To issue judicial proceedings against the Purchaser for
damages for breach of contract together with the costs of such proceedings on a full indemnity basis; (b) To rescind the sale of that or any other Lots sold to the
Purchaser; (c) To resell the Lot or cause it to be resold by public or private
sale, or by way of live or online auction, with any deficiency to be claimed from the Purchaser and any surplus, after Expenses, to be delivered to the Purchaser; (d) To store the Lot on the premises of the Auction House or
elsewhere, and to release the Lot to the Purchaser only after payment of the full Purchase Price and associated cost to the Auction House; (e) To charge interest on the Purchase Price at the rate of five
percent (5%) above the Royal Bank of Canada base rate at the time of the auction sale and adjusted month to month thereafter;
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE (f) To retain that or any other Lot sold to the Purchaser at the
same or any other auction and release the same only after payment of the aggregate outstanding Purchase Price; (g) To apply any Proceeds of Sale of any Lot then due or at any
time thereafter becoming due to the Purchaser towards settlement of the Purchase Price, and the Auction House shall be entitled to a lien on any other property of the Purchaser which is in the Auction House possession for any purpose; and, (h) To apply any payments by the Purchaser to the Auction
House towards any sums owing from the Purchaser to the Auction House or to any associated company of the Auction House without regard to any directions of the Purchaser or his agent, whether express or implied. 10 GUARANTEE The Auction House, its employees and agents, shall not be responsible for the correctness of any statement as to the authorship, origin, date, age, size, medium, attribution, genuineness or provenance of any Lot or for any other errors of description or for any faults or defects in any Lot and no warranty whatsoever is given by the Auction House, its employees or agents in respect of any Lot and any express or implied conditions or warranties are hereby excluded. 11 ATTENDANCE BY PURCHASER (a) Prospective Purchasers are advised to inspect the Lot(s) before the sale, and to satisfy themselves as to the description, attribution and condition of each Lot. The Auction House will arrange suitable viewing conditions during the preview preceding the sale, or by private appointment; (b) Prospective Purchasers are advised to personally attend the
sale. However, if they are unable to attend, the Auction House will execute bids on their behalf subject to completion of the proper Absentee Bid Form, duly signed and delivered to the Auction House forty~eight (48) hours before the start of the auction sale. The Auction House shall not be responsible nor liable in the making of any such bid by its employees or agents; (c) In the event that the Auction House has received more than
one Absentee Bid Form on a Lot for an identical amount and at auction those absentee bids are the highest bids for that Lot, the Lot shall be Knocked Down to the person whose Absentee Bid Form was received first; and, (d) At the discretion of the Auction House, the Auction House
may execute bids, if appropriately instructed by telephone, on behalf of the prospective purchaser, and the prospective purchaser hereby agrees that neither the Auction House nor its employees nor agents shall be liable to either the Purchaser or the Consignor for any neglect or default in making such a bid. 12 EXPORT PERMITS Without limitation, the Purchaser acknowledges that certain
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property of Canadian cultural importance sold by the Auction House may be subject to the provisions of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act (Canada), and that compliance with the provisions of the said act is the sole responsibility of the Purchaser.
C THE CONSIGNOR: 1 T HE AUCTION HOUSE (a) The Auction House shall have absolute discretion as to
whether the Lot is suitable for sale, the particular auction sale for the Lot, the date of the auction sale, the manner in which the auction sale is conducted, the catalogue descriptions of the Lot, and any other matters related to the sale of the Lot at the auction sale; (b) The Auction House reserves the right to withdraw any Lot at
any time prior to the auction sale if, in the sole discretion of the Auction House: (i) there is doubt as to its authenticity; (ii) there is doubt as to the accuracy of any of the Consignor’s
representations or warranties; (iii) the Consignor has breached or is about to breach any
provisions of the Consignment Agreement; or (iv) any other just cause exists. (c) In the event of a withdrawal pursuant to Condition C.1.b.(ii)
or C.1.b.(iii), the Consignor shall pay a charge to the Auction House, as provided in Condition C.8. 2 W ARRANTIES
AND I NDEMNITIES
(a) The Consignor warrants to the Auction House and to the
Purchaser that the Consignor has and shall be able to deliver unencumbered title to the Lot, free and clear of all claims; (b) The Consignor shall indemnify the Auction House, its
employees and agents and the Purchaser against all claims made or proceedings brought by persons entitled or purporting to be entitled to the Lot; (c) The Consignor shall indemnify the Auction House, its
employees and agents and the Purchaser against all claims made or proceedings brought due to any default of the Consignor in complying with any applicable legislation, regulations and these terms and Conditions of Business; and, (d) The Consignor shall reimburse the Auction House in full and
on demand for all Expenses or any other loss or damage whatsoever made, incurred or suffered as a result of any breach by the Consignor of C.2.a and/or C.2.c above. 3 R ESERVES The Auction House is authorized by the Consignor to Knock Down a Lot at less than the Reserve, provided that, for the purposes of calculating the Proceeds of Sale due to the Consignor, the Hammer Price shall be deemed to be the full amount of the agreed Reserve established by the Auction House and the Consignor.
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 4 C OMMISSION
AND
EXPENSES
(a) The Consignor authorizes the Auction House to deduct the
Consignor’s Commission and Expenses from the Hammer Price and, notwithstanding that the Auction House is the Consignor’s agent, acknowledges that the Auction House shall retain the Buyer’s Premium; (b) The Consignor shall pay and authorizes the Auction House to
deduct all Expenses incurred on behalf of the Consignor, together with any Sales Tax thereon; and, (c) The charge for illustrating a Lot in the live auction sale catalogue shall be a flat fee paid by the Consignor of $500 for a large size reproduction and $275 for a small reproduction, per item in each Lot, together with any Sales Tax chargeable thereon. The Auction House retains all rights to photographic and printing material and the right of reproduction of such photographs. The charge for online digital photography, cataloguing and internet posting is a flat fee of $100 per Lot. 5 INSURANCE (a) Lots are only covered by insurance under the Fine Arts
Insurance Policy of the Auction House if the consignor so authorizes; (b) The rate of insurance premium payable by the Consignor is
$15 per $1,000 (01.5%) of the greater value of the high estimate value of the Lot or the realized Hammer Price or for the alternative amount as specified in the Consignment Receipt; (c) If the Consignor instructs the Auction House not to insure a
Lot, it shall at all times remain at the risk of the Consignor who hereby undertakes to: (i) indemnify the Auction House against all claims made or
proceedings brought against the Auction House in respect of loss or damage to the Lot of whatever nature, howsoever and wheresoever occurred, and in any circumstances even where negligence is alleged or proven; (ii) reimburse the Auction House for all Expenses incurred by
the Auction House. Any payment which the Auction House shall make in respect of such loss or damage or Expenses shall be binding upon the Consignor and shall be accepted by the Consignor as conclusive evidence that the Auction House was liable to make such payment; and, (iii) notify any insurer of the existence of the indemnity
contained in these Terms and Conditions of Business; (d) The Auction House does not accept responsibility for Lots
damaged by changes in atmospheric conditions and the Auction House shall not be liable for such damage nor for any other damage to picture frames or to glass in picture frames; and, (e) The value for which a Lot is insured under the Fine Arts
Policy of the Auction House in accordance with sub~clause C.4.b above shall be the total amount due to the Consignor in the event of a successful claim being made against the Auction House.
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6 P AYMENT
OF
PROCEEDS
OF
SALE
(a) The Auction House shall pay the Proceeds of Sale to the
Consignor thirty~five (35) days after the date of sale, if the Auction House has been paid the Purchase Price in full by the Purchaser; (b) If the Auction House has not received the Purchase Price from
the Purchaser within the time period specified, then the Auction House will pay the Proceeds of Sale within seven (7) working days following receipt of the Purchase Price from the Purchaser; and, (c) If before the Purchase Price is paid in full by the Purchaser,
the Auction House pays the Consignor an amount equal to the Proceeds of Sale, title to the property in the Lot shall pass to the Auction House. 7 C OLLECTION OF THE P URCHASE PRICE If the Purchaser fails to pay to the Auction House the Purchase Price within thirty (30) days after the date of sale, the Auction House will endeavour to take the Consignor’s instructions as to the appropriate course of action to be taken and, so far as in the Auction House’s opinion such instructions are practicable, will assist the Consignor in recovering the Purchase Price from the Purchaser, save that the Auction House shall not be obligated to issue judicial proceedings against the Purchaser in its own name. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Auction House reserves the right and is hereby authorized at the Consignor’s expense, and in each case at the absolute discretion of the Auction House, to agree to special terms for payment of the Purchase Price, to remove, store and insure the Lot sold, to settle claims made by or against the Purchaser on such terms as the Auction House shall think fit, to take such steps as are necessary to collect monies from the Purchaser to the Consignor and, if appropriate, to set aside the sale and refund money to the Purchaser. 8 C HARGES FOR WITHDRAWN LOTS The Consignor may not withdraw a Lot prior to the auction sale without the consent of the Auction House. In the event that such consent is given, or in the event of a withdrawal pursuant to Condition C.1.b.(ii) or (iii), a charge of, whichever is greater, twenty~five percent (25%) of the high pre~sale estimate or the insured value, together with any applicable Sales Tax and Expenses, is immediately payable to the Auction House, prior to any release of property. 9 UNSOLD LOTS (a) Unsold Lots must be collected at the Consignor’s expense
within the period of ninety (90) days after receipt by the Consignor of notice from the Auction House. Upon the expiration of such a period, the Auction House shall have the right to sell such Lots by public or private sale and on such terms as it thinks fit and to deduct from the Proceeds of Sale any sum owing to the Auction House or to any associated company of the Auction House including Expenses, before
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE remitting the balance to the Consignor. If the Consignor cannot be traced, the Auction House shall place the funds in a bank account in the name of the Auction House for the Consignor. In this condition the expression “Proceeds of Sale” shall have the same meaning in relation to a private sale as it has in relation to a sale by auction;
105
illustrations, photographs or other reproductions of any work provided to the Auction House by the Consignor. The Consignor agrees to fully indemnify the Auction House and hold it harmless from any damages caused to the Auction House by reason of any breach by the Consignor of this warranty and representation.
(b) Lots returned at the Consignor’s request shall be returned at
the Consignor’s risk and expense and will not be insured in transit unless the Auction House is otherwise instructed by the Consignor; and, (c) If any Lot is unsold by auction, the Auction House is
authorized as the exclusive agent for the Consignor for a period of 90 days following the auction to sell such Lot privately for a price that will result in a payment to the Consignor of not less than the net amount (i.e., after deduction of the Auction House Commission and Expenses) to which the Consignor would have been entitled had the Lot been sold at a price equal to the agreed Reserve, or for such lesser amount as the Auction House and the Consignor shall agree. In such event the Consignor’s obligations to the Auction House hereunder with respect to such a Lot are the same as if it had been sold at auction. 10 C ONSIGNOR’ S SALES TAX STATUS The Consignor shall give to the Auction House all relevant information as to his Sales Tax status with regard to the Lot to be sold, which he warrants is and will be correct and upon which the Auction House shall be entitled to rely. 11 P HOTOGRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS In consideration of the Auction House’s services to the Consignor, the Consignor hereby warrants and represents to the Auction House that it has the right to grant to the Auction House, and the Consignor does hereby grant to the Auction House, a non~exclusive, perpetual, fully paid~up, royalty free and non~revocable right and permission to: (a) reproduce (by illustration, photograph, electronic reproduction, or any other form or medium whether presently known or hereinafter devised) any work within any Lot given to the Auction House for sale by the Consignor; and (b) use and publish such illustration, photograph or other reproduction in connection with the public exhibition, promotion and sale of the Lot in question and otherwise in connection with the operation of the Auction House’s business, including without limitation by including the illustration, photograph or other reproduction in promotional catalogues, compilations, the Auction House’s Art Index, and other publications and materials distributed to the public, and by communicating the illustration, photograph or other reproduction to the public by telecommunication via an Internet website operated by or affiliated with the Auction House (“Permission”). Moreover, the Consignor makes the same warranty and representation and grants the same Permission to the Auction House in respect of any
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D GENERAL CONDITIONS: 1 The Auction House as agent for the Consignor is not responsible for any default by the Consignor or the Purchaser. 2 The Auction House shall have the right at its absolute discretion to refuse admission to its premises or attendance at its auctions by any person. 3 The Auction House has the right at its absolute discretion to refuse any bid, to advance the bidding as it may decide, to withdraw or divide any Lot, to combine any two or more Lots and, in the case of dispute, to put up any Lot for auction again. At no time shall a bidder retract or withdraw his or her bid. 4 Any indemnity hereunder shall extend to all actions, proceedings, costs, claims and demands whatsoever incurred or suffered by the person for whose benefit the indemnity is given; and the Auction House shall hold any indemnity on trust for its employees and agents where it is expressed to be for their benefit. 5 Any notice given hereunder shall be in writing and if given by post shall be deemed to have been duly received by the addressee within three (3) business days. 6 The copyright for all illustrations and written matter relating to the Lots shall be and will remain at all times the absolute property of the Auction House and shall not, without the prior written consent of the Auction House, be used by any other person. 7 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with British Columbia law and the laws of Canada applicable therein and all parties concerned hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the British Columbia Courts. 8 Unless otherwise provided for herein, all monetary amounts referred to herein shall refer to the lawful money of Canada. 9 All words importing the singular number shall include the plural and vice versa, and words importing the use of any gender shall include the masculine, feminine and neuter genders and the word “person” shall include an individual, a trust, a partnership, a body corporate, an association or other incorporated or unincorporated organization or entity. The Purchaser and the Consignor are hereby advised to read fully the Agreement which sets out and establishes the rights and obligations of the Auction House, the Purchaser and the Consignor and the terms by which the Auction House shall conduct the sale and handle other related matters. Version 2010.10, © Heffel Gallery Limited
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CATALOGUE ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS: AAM AANFM AAP ACM AGA AGQ AHSA ALC AOCA ARCA ASA ASPWC ASQ AUTO AWCS BCSFA BCSA BHG CAC CAS CC CGP CH CPE CSAA CSGA CSMA CSPWC EGP FBA FCA FRSA G7 IAF IWCA LP MSA NAD NEAC NSSA OC OIP OM OSA
Art Association of Montreal founded in 1860 Association des artistes non~figuratifs de Montréal Association des arts plastiques Arts Club of Montreal Art Guild America Association des graveurs du Québec Art, Historical and Scientific Association of Vancouver Arts and Letters Club Associate Ontario College of Art Associate Member Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Alberta Society of Artists American Society of Painters in Water Colors Association des sculpteurs du Québec Les Automatistes American Watercolor Society British Columbia Society of Fine Arts founded in 1909 British Columbia Society of Artists Beaver Hall Group, Montreal 1920 ~1922 Canadian Art Club Contemporary Arts Society Companion of the Order of Canada Canadian Group of Painters 1933 ~ 1969 Companion of Honour Commonwealth Canadian Painters ~ Etchers’ Society Canadian Society of Applied Art Canadian Society of Graphic Artists founded in 1905 Canadian Society of Marine Artists Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour founded in 1925 Eastern Group of Painters Federation of British Artists Federation of Canadian Artists Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Group of Seven 1920 ~ 1933 Institut des arts figuratifs Institute of Western Canadian Artists Les Plasticiens Montreal Society of Arts National Academy of Design New English Art Club Nova Scotia Society of Artists Order of Canada Ontario Institute of Painters Order of Merit British Ontario Society of Artists founded 1872
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106
P11 PDCC
Painters Eleven 1953 ~ 1960 Print and Drawing Council of Canada
PNIAI
Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation
POSA
President Ontario Society of Artists
PPCM
Pen and Pencil Club, Montreal
PRCA
President Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
PSA
Pastel Society of America
PSC
Pastel Society of Canada
PY QMG
Prisme d’yeux Quebec Modern Group
R5
Regina Five 1961 ~ 1964
RA
Royal Academy
RAAV
Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec
RAIC
Royal Architects Institute of Canada
RBA
Royal Society of British Artists
RCA
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts founded 1880
RI
Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour
RMS
Royal Miniature Society
ROI
Royal Institute of Oil Painters
RPS
Royal Photographic Society
RSA
Royal Scottish Academy
RSC RSMA
Royal Society of Canada Royal Society of Marine Artists
RSPP
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
RWS
Royal Watercolour Society
SAA SAAVQ SAP SAPQ SC SCA SCPEE SSC SWAA
Society of American Artists Société des artistes en arts visuels du Québec Société des arts plastiques Société des artistes professionnels du Québec The Studio Club Society of Canadian Artists 1867 ~ 1872 Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers Sculptors’ Society of Canada Saskatchewan Women Artists’ Association
TCC
Toronto Camera Club
TPG
Transcendental Painting Group 1938 ~ 1942
WAAC
Women’s Art Association of Canada
WIAC
Women’s International Art Club
WS
Woodlands School
YR
Young Romantics
ϕ
Indicates the Heffel Gallery owns an equity interest in the Lot Denotes that additional information on this lot can be found on our website at www.heffel.com
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CATALOGUE TERMS:
HEFFEL’S CODE OF BUSINESS CONDUCT, ETHICS AND PRACTICES:
These catalogue terms are provided for your guidance:
Heffel takes great pride in being the leader in the Canadian fine art auction industry, and has an unparalleled track record. We are proud to have been the dominant auction house in the Canadian art market from 2004 to the present. Our firm’s growth and success has been built on hard work and innovation, our commitment to our Clients and our deep respect for the fine art we offer. At Heffel we treat our consignments with great care and respect, and consider it an honour to have them pass through our hands. We are fully cognizant of the historical value of the works we handle, and their place in art history.
C ORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a work by the artist. ATTRIBUTED TO CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a work executed in whole or in part by the named artist. STUDIO OF CORNELIUS DAVID K RIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a work by an unknown hand in the studio of the artist, possibly executed under the supervision of the named artist. C IRCLE OF CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a work of the period of the artist, closely related to the style of the named artist. MANNER OF CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a work in the style of the named artist and of a later date. AFTER CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF In our best judgment, a copy of a known work of the named artist. DIMENSIONS Measurements are given height before width in both inches and centimetres. SIGNED / TITLED / DATED In our best judgment, the work has been signed/titled/dated by the artist. If we state “dated 1856” then the artist has inscribed the date when the work was produced. If the artist has not inscribed the date and we state “1856”, then it is known the work was produced in 1856, based on independent research. If the artist has not inscribed the date and there is no independent date reference, then the use of “circa” approximates the date based on style and period. BEARS SIGNATURE / BEARS DATE In our best judgment, the signature/date is by a hand other than that of the artist.
Heffel, to further define its distinction in the Canadian art auction industry, has taken the following initiative. David and Robert Heffel, second~generation art dealers of the Company’s founding Heffel family, have personally crafted the foundation documents (as published on our website www.heffel.com): Heffel’s Corporate Constitutional Values and Heffel’s Code of Business Conduct, Ethics and Practices. We believe the values and ethics set out in these documents will lay in stone our moral compass. Heffel has flourished through more than three decades of change, proof that our hard work, commitment, philosophy, honour and ethics in all that we do, serves our Clients well. Heffel’s Employees and Shareholders are committed to Heffel’s Code of Business Conduct, Ethics and Practices, together with Heffel’s Corporate Constitutional Values, our Terms and Conditions of Business and related corporate policies, all as amended from time to time, with respect to our Clients, and look forward to continued shared success in this auction season and ongoing.
David K.J. Heffel President, Director and Shareholder (through Heffel Investments Ltd.)
P ROVENANCE Is intended to indicate previous collections or owners. C ERTIFICATES / LITERATURE / EXHIBITED Any reference to certificates, literature or exhibition history represents the best judgment of the authority or authors named. ESTIMATE Our Estimates are intended as a statement of our best judgment only, and represent a conservative appraisal of the expected Hammer Price.
Robert C.S. Heffel Vice~President, Director and Shareholder (through R.C.S.H. Investments Ltd.)
Version 2008.07, © Heffel Gallery Limited
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Version 2010.10, © Heffel Gallery Limited
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
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ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION FORM
COLLECTOR PROFILE FORM
Please complete this Annual Subscription Form to receive our twice~yearly Auction Catalogues and Auction Result Sheet.
Please complete our Collector Profile Form to assist us in our ability to offer you our finest service.
To order, return a copy of this form with a cheque payable to: Heffel Gallery, 2247 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6H 3G1 Tel 604 732~6505, Fax 604 732~4245, Toll free 800 528~9608 E~mail: mail@heffel.com, Internet: www.heffel.com C ATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS ~ DELIVERED
IN
OF
PARTICULAR INTEREST
IN
PURCHASING
OF
PARTICULAR INTEREST
IN
SELLING
1) 2)
TAX INCLUDED
CANADA
One Year (four catalogues) ~ Fine Canadian Art / Post~War & Contemporary Art Two Year (eight catalogues) ~ Fine Canadian Art / Post~War & Contemporary Art
DELIVERED
ARTISTS
TO THE
UNITED STATES
AND
AT
4) $130.00 5)
OVERSEAS
One Year (four catalogues) ~ Fine Canadian Art / Post~War & Contemporary Art Two Year (eight catalogues) ~ Fine Canadian Art / Post~War & Contemporary Art
C ANADIAN ART
3) $80.00
AUCTION INDEX ONLINE ~
$90.00
6)
$150.00
7) 8)
TAX INCLUDED
Please contact Heffel Gallery to set up One Block of 25 Search Results One Year Subscription (35 searches per month) Two Year Subscription (35 searches per month)
$50.00 $250.00 $350.00
9)
ARTISTS
Name
1) Address
2) 3) 4)
Postal Code
E~mail Address 5)
Residence Telephone
Business Telephone
Fax
Cellular
6) 7) 8)
VISA # or MasterCard #
Expiry Date
Signature
Date
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SHIPPING FORM FOR PURCHASES Heffel Fine Art Auction House will arrange to have Property purchased at the auction sale packed, insured and forwarded to the Purchaser at the Purchaser’s expense and risk pursuant to the Terms and Conditions of Business set out in the Auction Sale Catalogue. The Purchaser is aware and accepts that Heffel Fine Art Auction House does not operate a professional packing service and shall provide such assistance for the convenience only of the Purchaser. Your signature on this form releases Heffel Fine Art Auction House from any liability that may result from damage sustained by artwork during packing and shipping. All such works are packed at the Purchaser’s risk and then transported by a carrier chosen at the discretion of Heffel Fine Art Auction House. Works purchased may be subject to the Cultural Property Import and Export Act of Canada, and compliance with the provisions of the said Act is the sole responsibility of the Purchaser.
Sale Date
Purchaser’s Name as invoiced
Shipping Address
City
Province, Country
Postal Code
E~mail Address
Residence Telephone
Business Telephone
Fax
Cellular Telephone
Credit Card Number
Expiry Date
Please indicate your preferred method of shipping below All Charges are Collect for Settlement by the Purchaser
Social Security Number for U.S. Customs (U.S. Residents Only)
SHIPPING OPTIONS
L OT NUMBER
L OT DESCRIPTION
in numerical order
artist
Please have my purchases forwarded by: Air
Surface or
Consolidated Ground Shipment to (when available): Heffel Toronto C ARRIER
OF
Heffel Montreal
2) 3)
C HOICE
Please have my purchases couriered by: FedEx
4)
Other
Carrier Account Number
AUTHORIZATION
FOR
COLLECTION
My purchase will be collected on my behalf
O PTIONAL INSURANCE YES, please insure my purchases at full sale value while in transit. Heffel does not insure frames or glass. (Please note: works under glass and some ground shipments cannot be insured while in transit) NO, I do not require insurance for the purchases listed on this form. (I accept full responsibility for any loss or damage to my purchases while in transit)
Individual or company to collect on my behalf
Date of collection/pick~up
Signed with agreement to the above
SHIPPING QUOTATION YES, please send me a quotation for the shipping options selected above. NO shipping quotation necessary, please forward my purchases as indicated above. (Please note: packing charges may apply in addition to shipping charges)
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Date
Heffel Fine Art Auction House 2247 Granville Street, Vancouver British Columbia, Canada V6H 3G1 Telephone 604 732~6505, Fax 604 732~4245 E~mail:mail@heffel.com, Internet:http://www.heffel.com Version 2011.03, © Heffel Gallery Limited
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
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ABSENTEE BID FORM Please view our General Bidding Increments as published by Heffel.
Sale Date
L OT NUMBER
L OT DESCRIPTION
in numerical order
artist
M AXIMUM BID Hammer Price $ CAD (excluding Buyer’s Premium)
1) Billing Name
2) 3)
Address 4)
City
Province, Country
5) 6)
Postal Code
E~mail Address
Daytime Telephone
Evening Telephone
7) 8)
Fax
Cellular
I request Heffel Fine Art Auction House to enter bids on my behalf for the following Lots, up to the maximum Hammer Price I have indicated for each Lot. I understand that if my bid is successful, the purchase price shall be the Hammer Price plus a Buyer’s Premium of seventeen percent (17%) of the Hammer Price of each Lot, and applicable GST/HST and PST. I understand that Heffel Fine Art Auction House executes absentee bids as a convenience for its clients and is not responsible for inadvertently failing to execute bids or for errors relating to their execution of my bids. On my behalf, Heffel Fine Art Auction House will try to purchase these Lots for the lowest possible price, taking into account the reserve and other bids. If identical absentee bids are received, Heffel Fine Art Auction House will give precedence to the Absentee Bid Form received first. I understand and acknowledge all successful bids are subject to the Terms and Conditions of Business printed in the Heffel Fine Art Auction House catalogue.
Signature
Date
To be sure that bids will be accepted and delivery of lots not delayed, bidders not yet known to Heffel Fine Art Auction House should supply a bank reference. All Absentee Bidders must supply a valid Mastercard or VISA # and expiry date.
MasterCard or VISA #
Expiry Date
Name of Bank
Branch
Address of Bank
Name of Account Officer
Telephone
To allow time for processing, absentee bids should be received at least 24 hours before the sale begins. Heffel Fine Art Auction House will confirm by telephone or e~mail all bids received. If you have not received our confirmation within one business day, please re~submit your bids or contact us at: 2247 Granville Street, Vancouver British Columbia, Canada V6H 3G1 Telephone 604 732~6505, Fax 604 732~4245 E~mail: mail@heffel.com; Internet: http://www.heffel.com
Date Received ~ for office use only
Confirmed ~ for office use only
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INDEX OF ARTISTS BY LOT A/B BEATTY , JOHN WILLIAM 159 C/D/E CARR , EMILY 101, 102, 107, 147, 151 CASSON, A LFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) 133, 134, 164, 165 CLAPP, WILLIAM HENRY 172 COBURN, FREDERICK SIMPSON 169 CULLEN, M AURICE GALBRAITH 142, 145, 146, 168 DE G RANDMAISON, N ICHOLAS 158 F/G/H GAGNON, CLARENCE ALPHONSE 179 HAIDA ARTIST, UNIDENTIFIED 163 HARRIS, L AWREN STEWART 117, 125, 129, 130, 138, 150, 154, 162 HOLGATE , EDWIN HEADLEY 104, 119 I/J/K JACKSON, ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) 108, 112, 113, 115, 116, 128, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 170, 171 JOHNSTON , FRANK HANS (FRANZ ) 141, 174, 176 JOHNSTONE, JOHN Y OUNG 175 KRIEGHOFF, C ORNELIUS DAVID 114
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L/M/N L ISMER, ARTHUR 127, 131, 132, 173, 180 MACDONALD , J.E.H. 109, 111, 118, 166, 167 MCN ICOLL, HELEN GALLOWAY 105, 123, 124 MILNE, DAVID BROWN 120, 144, 160, 161 MORRIS, KATHLEEN MOIR 148, 149, 153, 155, 156 O/P/Q P HILLIPS, W ALTER J OSEPH (W.J.) 103 P ILOT, ROBERT WAKEHAM 178 R/S/T SUZOR ~COTÉ, MARC~AURÈLE 110, 177, 181
DE
FOY
U/V/W/X/Y/Z V ARLEY, F REDERICK HORSMAN 121, 122, 126, 152 V ERNER, FREDERICK A RTHUR 157 WALKER , HORATIO 143 WESTON , WILLIAM PERCIVAL (W.P.) 106
4/2/2011, 5:51 PM
Spring Live Auction Highlight Previews MONTREAL AND TORONTO
Montreal Preview Thursday, April 28 & Friday, April 29, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm Saturday, April 30, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Toronto Preview Thursday, May 5 & Friday, May 6, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm Saturday, May 7, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Please visit our live auction online catalogue at www.heffel.com for specific details designating which Lots will be available for our Montreal and Toronto previews.
1840 rue Sherbrooke Ouest Montreal, Quebec H3H 1E4 Telephone: 514 939~6505 Toll Free: 866 939~6505 Facsimile: 514 939~1100
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13 Hazelton Avenue Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E1 Telephone: 416 961~6505 Toll Free: 866 961~6505 Facsimile: 416 961~4245
4/2/2011, 5:51 PM
A11s_Fine_Cdn_Cover_final.pmd
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4/2/2011, 7:15 PM
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
FINE CANADIAN ART
FINE CANADIAN ART MAY 17, 2011
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
V ISIT
www.heffel.com VANCOUVER
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•
TORONTO
•
MONTREAL
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
ISBN 978~1~927031~00~1
SALE TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2011, 7PM, VANCOUVER
OTTAWA
•
4/2/2011, 7:13 PM