Masters Gallery: FINE CANADIAN ART Spring 2022 by Masters Gallery Ltd.

FINE CANADIAN ART M AY 2 6 - J U N E 0 9 2 0 2 2

W W W. M A S T E R S G A L L E R Y L T D . C O M

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N EE C CA AN NA AD D II A AN N A AR RT T FF II N

M A S T E RS G A L L E RY LT D.

CONTENTS 4

19th Century & Impressionism

European Masters

The Group of Seven & Contemporaries

Post-war & Contemporary

Art of the Rocky Mountains

C O V E R I M A G E : J E A N M C E W E N , I C O N , 1 9 6 0 ( F U L L D E TA I L S P 5 9 )

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19th Century & Impressionism

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John Herbert Caddy (1801-1977) Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, c. 1850s watercolour 15.5x9.125 in. (39.4x23.2 cm.) Provenance The Framing Gallery, Toronto Private collection, Calgary $1,600 CAD. John Caddy was trained as a military engineer, canonneer, and later as a military artist for the Royal Military. The beginnings of his artistic career are founded the topographical sketches he made during his time as a soldier, and in 1851, Caddy moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where he turned his focus to his artwork. Caddy is noted to have traveled to Sault Ste. Marie at least twice: once in 1853, on a trip that also included the Lake Huron and North Shore regions (1), with a possible second visit in the 1870s (2).

1. Frances K. Smith, John Herbert Caddy: 1801-1887, p. 37 2. Art Gallery of Algoma, “John Herbert Caddy”, accessed May 11, 2022, https://www.artgalleryofalgoma.com/john-herbert-caddy.html

Robert Harris (1849-1919) OSA PPCM PRCA Portrait of a Young Girl, c. 1880 pastel and charcoal on paper 8.5x7 in. (21.6x17.8 cm.) Provenance The Canadian Fine Arts Gallery Ltd., Toronto; Private collection $1,200 CAD. While we don’t know for certain who the sitter of this lovely sketch is, we do know that from 1879 onwards, Robert Harris was well on his way to becoming one of Canada’s leading portraitists. The artist had spent many years traveling and pursuing education in Europe and America, and by the end of the 1870s had finally established himself. Harris was solicited to paint the likenesses of everyone from school children to the highest ranks of Torontonian society, and in his off time, made sketches everywhere he went.

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Laura Muntz Lyall (1860-1930) French River Scene, 1898 oil on canvas signed and dated 1898 lower right 23x28 in. (58.4x71.1 cm.) Provenance Sale of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, Saturday, November 26, 2016, lot 813 Private collection, Calgary $7,500 CAD. Laura Muntz lived in Paris from 1893 to October 1898, and during this period her career and practice flourished. At a time when living as a single woman in most society was uncommon, Muntz supported herself with her art, teaching and administrative work, and became one of the first Canadian women artists recognized internationally. Her work from this period shows the increasing influence of the Impressionist style on her painting technique, and in French River Scene. Muntz makes work of soft brushwork across the canvas to render the calm, reflective river.

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Lucius Richard O’Brien (1832-1899) OSA PRCA Lake Kenogami, 1885 watercolour and graphite on paper signed, titled and dated September 12th, 1885 lower left 9x13 in. (22.9x33 cm.) Provenance Private collection; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Calgary $2,800 CAD. There is little accessible documentation on Lucius O’Brien’s life in between 1884 and 1886, but it’s likely that he spent the summer of 1885 taking part in regular sketching trips around his “familiar haunts throughout the Great Lakes” (1). From 1880 to it’s final publication in 1884, O’Brien had freshly completed a huge project as the illustration supervisor for Picturesque Canada: The Country as It Was and Is, a series that was one of the first to outline the landscape of the country. His income from the project had allowed him to devote his time to his artistic practice, and it was during this period, as the 1880s progressed, the O’Brien shifted his focus heavily to watercolours. Evidently, the artist spent time in the fall of 1885 on Kénogami Lake. The lake, located in the SaguenayLac-St.-Jean region of Quebec, drains into the St. Lawrence river via the Saguenay River, an area that O’Brien frequented, and where he painted his famous Sunrise on the Saguenay. This work is a fabulous insight into the artists sketching process, and showcases his handling of the watercolour medium. 1. Dennis Reid, “O’BRIEN, LUCIUS RICHARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed May 10, 2022, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/o_brien_lucius_richard_12E.html.

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Lucius Richard O’Brien (1832-1899) OSA PRCA Off Hastings, Waiting For a Wind, 1889 watercolour on paper signed and dated 1889 lower left, titled to verso 13x21 in. (33x53.3 cm.) Provenance The Canadian Fine Arts Gallery Ltd., Toronto Private collection, Calgary $8,800 CAD. Hastings, rendered in this O’Brien watercolour, is a seaside town in East Sussex, England. It is a major fishing port, and in the Victorian era, it became a popular seaside destination for tourists. In 1889, Lucius O’Brien attended his first one-man exhibition of works in England, comprised of Rocky Mountain scenes that he had completed during his travels on the Canada Pacific Railway (1). The works were received favorably, and for the length of the exhibition, June to November 1889, O’Brien stayed in England. Here, he found time to sketch around Sussex, Cornwall and North Devon (2), and the artist exhibited almost exclusively English subjects over the next year upon his return to Canada. 1. The Montreal Gazette, 15 August 1899, Mr. O’Brien’s Pictures Favorably Received in London, p. 2 2. Reid, Dennis, Our Own Country Canada, p. 423

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Frederick Arthur Verner (1836-1928) ARCA OSA Buffalo Herd Grazing, 1877 watercolour on paper signed and dated 1877 lower right 11.75x28.75 in. (29.8x73 cm.) Provenance Loch Gallery, Calgary; Private collection, Calgary $9,500 CAD. There are records of Verner travelling as far West as Manitoba in 1873, where he was likely first exposed to real life scenes of Indigenous life and the landscape of the prairies. Verner was a follower of artist Paul Kane from boyhood, and sought inspiration from the elder artists romantic depictions of the Western Canadian landscape (1). The Canadian Bison, commonly referred to historically as Buffalo, was nearly extinct by the 1850s. The animal became a revered and romantic subject for artists, especially Verner (2). Buffalo Herd Grazing is among Verner’s wistful depictions of the bison, and the massive animals are depicted as calm and gentle against the fading sunset. Collectors and society of the day reacted to these paintings with huge fanfare, and ultimately brought Verner great success.

1. J. Russell Harper, Painting in Canada: A History, p. 123-124 2. Jeremy Adamson, From Ocean to Ocean: Nineteenth Century Watercolour Painting in Canada, p. 16

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Frederick Arthur Verner (1836-1928) ARCA OSA The Buffalo Stampede, 1882 watercolour on paper mounted on board signed and dated 1882 lower right 23.5 x 36.5 in (59.7 x 92.7 cm) $14,800 CAD. Provenance Laing Galleries, Toronto; Private collection, Toronto; Sale of Waddington’s, Canadian Fine Art Auction, 29 May 2017, lot 47; Private collection, Calgary

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Frederick Arthur Verner (1836-1928) ARCA OSA Caribou Resting, 1889 watercolour on paper signed and dated 1889 lower right 12x25 in. (30.5x63.5 cm.) Provenance Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Kelowna $9,500 CAD.

Frederick Arthur Verner (1836-1928) ARCA OSA Ojibwe, Lake of the Woods, 1898 watercolour on paper signed and dated 1889 lower right 12x24 in. (30.5x60.9 cm.) Provenance Loch Gallery, Calgary Private collection, Calgary $8,800 CAD.

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European Masters

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Arthur Joseph Meadows (1843-1907) Fishing Boats on the Coast, 1871 oil on canvas signed and dated lower right 23x32 in. (58.4x81.3 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Calgary $4,800 CAD. English painter Arthur Meadows was born into a family of artists, and was trained by his father in the depiction of coastal scenes and seascapes. He traveled widely throughout Europe over the course of his lifetime, and exhibited multiple times at the Royal Academy of Arts and the British Institute. His family is recorded to have been living in Dover in 1871, when this painting was completed, though in the early 1870s, he traveled along the English Coast, as well as to France and Holland.

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Claude Monet (1840-1926) Chat Endormi Sur un Lit pastel on paper 4.5x8 in. (11.5x20.3 cm.) Certified by French Art Dealer Daniel Wildenstein, 2000: Le pastel reproduit ci-contre est inclus dans le catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre de Claud Monet, Volume V, page 165, no P60. Paris, le 10 mars 2000 Daniel Wildenstein Provenance J.P. Hoschedé; M. Legros, Paris; Sale of Christies, London, December 12, 1969; Private collection; A.K. Prakash, Toronto; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Calgary Literature Daniel Wildenstein, Monet, Catalogue Raisonné Volume V, reproduced p. 165 Please inquire for pricing

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Femme nue, c. 1895 oil on canvas 11.5x8 in. (28x20.2 cm.) Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by the Wildenstein Institute, Paris (translated from French): We inform you that after study and in the current state of our knowledge, we intend to date, to include the work reproduced below in the critical catalog of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir established from the Francois Daulte, DurandRuel, Venturi, Vollard and Wildenstein archives This fragment is part of the canvas of studies appearing in A. Vollard. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1989, p. 139, no. 553 Paris, June 9, 2005 Provenance Ward Eggleston, New York; French & Co, New York, 1951; Thelma Chrylser Foy, New York, 1951; Parke - Bernet Galleries, New York, May 13 1959, Lot 9; Arthur Murray, 1959; Private Collection Winnipeg (by descent); Private collection Literature Ambroise, Vollard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paintings Pastels and Drawings, illustrated Please inquire for pricing

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The Group of Seven & Contemporaries 29

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John William Beatty (1869-1941) OSA RCA Birches, Bowmanville, Ontario, 1928 oil on board 10x13.75 in. (25.4x34.9 cm.) Provenance Winchester Galleries, Victoria; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Edmonton $13,000 CAD. In the early 1920s, Beatty became the Acting Principal of the Ontario College of Art. Like many of his contemporaries, his career as an educator kept his sketching trips close to home and over the weekends. It was during this period where the sunlit woods of Ontario became prominent in his work, and as we can see in Birches, Bowmanville, he became an expert in rendering the dappled effects of light in the trees. Always an intensely productive artist, Beatty’s production slowed down considerably in 1926 when he was diagnosed with cancer. Though seriously ill, the panels he did produce held the same attention to detail and refined quality that his earlier works, as we can see in Birches, Bowmanville, Ontario.

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John William Beatty (1869-1941) OSA RCA Old Mill, Port Hope oil on board 8.5x10.5 in (21.3x26.3 cm.) Provenance G. Blair Laing, Toronto, c. 1972; Sale of Sotheby Parke Bernet Canada Inc., Important Canadian Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours Books and Prints of the 19th an 20th Centuries, May 14-15th, 1979, lot 270, illustrated p. 93; Sale of Sotheby’s Toronto, Canadian Art, November 11-12, 1980, lot 12; $14,900 CAD. In 1924, Beatty purchased the historic, and by then out of us, Molson Mill building in Port Hope, Ontario. The Molson Mill at Port Hope was first established in 1851 by Thomas Molson of the prominent Molson family, and operated as a flour mill until the late 19th Century. By the time Beatty purchased the property, it was long abandoned, and from then until his death in 1941, the Ontario College of Art used the building as a summer school. This panel bears an authentication inscription by prominent Canadian Art Dealer, G. Blair Laing dated 1972.

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Alfred Joseph Casson (1898-1992) CGP CSPWC G7 OC POSA PRCA Road Near Yantha Lake, c. 1960 oil on board signed lower right and to verso, dated on Robert’s Gallery label to verso 12x15 in. (30.5x38.1 cm.) Provenance Roberts Gallery, Toronto; Loch Gallery, Toronto; Private collection Exhibited Ontario Society of Artists, Small Pictures and Sculptures Exhibition, Dec. 7-21, 1960, Roberts Gallery, Toronto $34,000 CAD. Casson spent time traveling and painting throughout the Madawaska Valley in Southern Ontario starting in the early 1950s. Yantha Lake is located in this valley, about five minutes away by car from the community of Barry’s Bay. Casson completed many impressive panels in this area – in 1951, a Casson panel of Yantha Lake was even selected by the City of Toronto to gift to Princess Elizabeth (1). Especially present in Road Near Yantha Lake is his interest in capturing tumultuous countryside skies. He noted in a 1984 interview that “the best things [he’d] done were around the Madawaska Valley, Combermere, Bancroft and La Cloche” (2). Road Near Yantha Lake was exhibited in the OSA. Small Picture’s Exhibition of 1960, which was annually held at Roberts Gallery in Toronto.

1. The Windsor Star, Toronto Gift, October 20, 1951, p. 15 2. The Elliot Lake Standard, Dream of A.J. Casson - Revisiting La Cloche, by Jon Charles Butler, September 1, 1985

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Efa Prudence Heward (1896-1947) Near Cowansville, Quebec, 1944 oil on panel signed with initials lower right;. signed, titled and dated 1944 to verso 12x14 in. (30.5x35.6 cm.) Provenance Continental Galleries, Montreal; Private collection, Montreal; Sale of Sothebys, Important Canadian Art, Toronto, May 19, 1993, lot 282; Private collection, Calgary; Masters Gallery, Calgary; Private collection, Edmonton $29,500 CAD. Prudence Heward took multiple trips throughout rural Quebec over the course of her career, where she produced plein air panel sketches of the landscape. The early 40s were a challenging time for Heward, who suffered life-long health afflictions made worse by a 1939 accident, and then lost her sister in 1943 - this all throughout the societal turmoil of the Second World War. The artist struggled through her personal challenges, and despite them she continued to produce work (the countryside was also likely a welcome escape). Cowansville, Quebec remains an important cultural hub for the Beaver Hall artists and their contemporaries. Lillias Torrence Newton lived there near the end of her life, as did much of Heward’s extended family. To this day, the Musée Bruck in Cowansville holds an impressive collection of Beaver Hall and A.Y. Jackson works.

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Alexander Young Jackson (1882-1974) ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA Baie St. Paul, 1923 oil on panel signed lower left, signed and titled to verso inscribed Property of A.D. Savage to verso 8.5x10.5 in. (21.x26.7 cm.) Provenance Anne Douglas Savage, Montreal; Sale of Joyner Fine Art, Canadian Art, May 15, 1990, lot 90; Private collection, Vancouver; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Peter Ohler Fine Arts Ltd., Vancouver; Private collection, Vancouver; Sale of Heffel Fine Art, Canadian, Impressionist & Modern Art, May 29, 2019, lot 116; Private collection, Toronto Literature A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, pp. 60-62; Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, p. 42; $38,000 CAD. Baie St. Paul would become a recurring and important sketching place for the A.Y Jackson, who in 1923, visited the area with Edwin Holgate. On this trip, he wrote a letter to friend of the Group of Seven Fred B. Housser about the village: “there is a good deal of primitive here yet, thatched barns and many timber houses and a few old stone ones. It is a very beautiful place, almost too much for painting. The ready-made composition has to be avoided.” (1) The panel Baie St. Paul originally comes from the collection of Anne Savage, and bears her inscription to verso. Savage and Jackson had an important friendship that began when they met in 1919, shortly before Jackson’s first trips to Baie St. Paul. They started corresponding regularly in the mid 1920s, and shared feedback on each other’s paintings, discussed art in general, and shared updated on their lives. At two points during their long friendship, one or the other proposed that they might share a life together (2), though it evidently never worked out. Ultimately, the two remained important friends in a mutually supportive relationship that endured many decades.

1. A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, pp. 60-62; 3. Barbara Meadowcroft, Painting Friends, p. 90

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Francis (Franz) Hans Johnston (1888 - 1949) ARCA CSPWC G7 OSA Crystal Weather oil on panel signed Franz Johnston lower left, titled and signed to verso 20x24 in. (50.8x60.9 cm.) Provenance Loch Gallery, Calgary Private collection $32,000 CAD. After Frank Johnston distanced himself the Group of Seven, the style of his work changed quite dramatically. As his career moved forward in the mid 1920s, his paintings moved towards a more decorative style. Around 1926, Frank Johnston changed his name to Franz at the recommendation of a peer – Franz was “more exotic”. The artist had always found praise in his ability to render light in his paintings, and his work from 1926 onward became picturesque. We see this clearly represented in the blue water, bright sky and sunlit snowy ground in Crystal Weather. These snow laden scenes would become a recurring theme for Johnston, and brought him considerable commercial success as an artist for the remainder of his career.

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Anne Douglas Savage (1896-1971) BHG CGP Autumn in the Laurentians, c. 1930s oil on panel, double sided 8.5x10.5 in. (21.6x26.7 cm.) Letter of Authentication by Anne McDougall (niece of Anne Savage) attached to verso Provenance Winchester Galleries, Victoria; Private collection, Edmonton $19,800 CAD Anne Savage’s family owned land at Lake Wonish in the Laurentians in Quebec, and nearly every year on her Summer and Easter breaks from teaching, she would spend time in a small studio she built on their property. The flowing composition is characteristic of Savage, who captures the windy fall day with rhythm. The lake was a place of great inspiration for the artist, and she painted in nature here for nearly fifty years, capturing the changes of the season with sensitivity.

Autumn in the Laurentians, image to verso

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Post-war & Contemporary 45

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Maxwell Bennett Bates (1906 - 1980) ASA CGP CSGA OC RCA Young Woman oil on canvas signed and dated indistinctly lower right 30x22 in. (76.2x55.9 cm.) Provenance Sale of Maynards Fine Art, Contemporary, Canadian, Northwest Coast and Inuit Art Auction, May 6, 2015, lot 39; Equinox Gallery, Vancouver $22,000 CAD. Maxwell Bates views our existence as a hermetically sealed world of alienation and self-containement. It is a personalized and individual life we all lead; communications and human relationships can become totally exterior and distant from the inner core of our lives - the frightening realization of one’s self outside society. For Bates, art is a means of understanding the human condition, the human way of life. - Art Parry on the work of Maxwell Bates, Vanguard, 1979 Bates was a master of observation, and his portraits are empathetic, and often somewhat humorous studies of human nature. The date of Young Woman is indistinct, but the work likely comes from Bates’ years in Victoria, where his work took focus on the cultural and social aspects of his surroundings. The solitary woman returns a confident and somewhat intimidating gaze back in the direction of the viewer in this work. Despite her simple pose, Bates conveys his subject with incredible character.

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Paul Vanier Beaulieau (1910-1996) RCA Still Life, 1953 oil on canvas signed and dated lower left 25.5x39.5 in. (64.7x100.3 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Toronto Galerie D’Art Vincent, Ottawa Private collection, Edmonton $12,500 CAD. As a young artist, Paul Beaulieau was exposed to and befriended by the likes of Pablo Picasso Alberto Giacometti, artists whose Cubist and Surrealist influences he would carry with him throughout his entire career. The still life was a favourite subject for Beaulieau, and his work from the 1940s and onwards took inspiration from theatrics and the circus. Upon examining this still life further, we can note Beaulieau’s European influences, somewhat cubist in its shifted visual planes, and in his use of strong, complimentary colours. A Beaulieau still life titled Nature morte a la bouteille jaune was the first contemporary Canadian artwork to be acquired by the newly opened Musée national d’art moderne de Paris in 1951, and the subject remained one of his greatest strengths.

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Leon Bellefleur (1910 - 2007) AANFM CAS PY QMG Sans Titre No. 1, Paris, 1955 oil on canvas signed lower right, dated Paris 1955 lower left 7.25x10 in. (18.4x25.4 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Toronto; Canadian Fine Arts, Toronto; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection $7,500 CAD. Bellefleur spent most of his early painting career teaching elementary school, and so when he retired in 1954, he was able to devote himself to his practice and left for Paris to study engraving that same year (1). Bellefleur was a signatory of the Prisme d’Yeux in 1948, a response to the Refus Global Manifesto that challenged the Automatises’ “overly narrow definition of avant garde in painting” (2). In this period of his career, he was heavily influenced by Pellan, Kandinsky, Miro and other Surrealist artists, and drew from the subconscious to create work. Much of Bellefleur’s compositions from this period saw centralized abstracted figures, glowing against dark, misty backgrounds. Organic figures swirl and glow in Sans Titre No. 1, contrasting beautifully against the misty background from which they emerge. 1. Art Gallery of Ontario, The Canadian Collection, p. 20 2. Francois Marc-Gagnon, Prisme d’Yeux, The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed May 20, 2022, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/prisme-dyeux

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Leon Bellefleur (1910 - 2007) AANFM CAS PY QMG Untitled, 1962 oil on canvas signed lower right 10x13 in. (25.4x33 cm.) Provenance Waddington & Gorce Inc., Toronto; Private collection, Edmonton $8,500 CAD. Bellefleur’s works are often centered in the trappings of childhood: play, games, spontaneity, and naïve creativity. He was experimental, interested in the act of art making, the response of creative individual to paper, paint and canvas, and sensitive especially to surface, texture and composition. His works often have a centrally focused theme, wherein paint builds and moves out from the centre of the work, sometimes with a sense of purpose, in other works, as pure paint on canvas. He said, “When I step in from of my canvas, I have nothing prepared. I am naked: I am completely free. I don’t have a subject in mind, nor a title, not even a colour scheme. Nothing.” We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay

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Leon Bellefleur (1910 - 2007) AANFM CAS PY QMG Fleurs a Mortefontaine, 1964 oil on canvas signed lower right 15x18 in. (38.1x45.7 cm.) Provenance Galerie Perrault, Quebec City Private collection, Edmonton $9,800 CAD.

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Molly Lamb Bobak (1922-2014) BCFSA CGP CPE CSGA CSPWC RCA Beach oil on canvas signed lower right 36x48 in. (91.4x121.9 cm.) Provenance Winchester Galleries, Victoria Private collection $98,000 CAD. Molly Lamb Bobak is renowned for her crowd scenes, which became a mainstay of her career after she and her family moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1960. Mid-career, Bobak began to receive commissions for public events, and the subject matter drew her in (1). “I simply love gatherings”, the artist noted in 1977, “It’s like little ants crawling, the sort of insignificance and yet the beauty of people all getting together.” In Beach, Bobak achieves vibrant energy, movement and an incredible amount of visual information within the canvas’ minimal details.

1. Michelle Gewurtz, “Molly Lamb Bobak: Life & Work”, Art Canada Institute, Toronto, 2018, pages 63-65

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Joane Cardinal-Schubert (1942-2009) RCA I Dream of Free - Birch Bark Scroll - Horses mixed media on paper 31x48 in. (78.7x121.9 cm.) $8,900 CAD.

Joane Cardinal-Schubert was one of Alberta’s finest contemporary artists. She worked in many media, especially printmaking and painting. Her work explores themes of Cardinal-Schubert’s Kainaiwa ancestry, wherein she weaves her own personal history into that of her people, as well as larger societal dialogues. Part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Cardinal-Schubert’s work pushed her to the forefront of the western Canadian art scene in the late 1960s, and she became a curator, writer, and activist in addition to maintaining a serious art practice. She pioneered the use exhibition spaces in such a way that long-held stereotypes around Indigenous work were broken, re-shaping and re-directing the dialogues around First Nations art through her frank and insightful contemporary approach. We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay

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Horace Champagne (b. 1937) My First Pastel of Monet’s Pond, Giverny, France, 2014 pastel on paper signed lower right 8x10 in. (20.3x25.4 cm.) Provenance Masters Gallery Ltd.; Private collection Calgary $2,400 CAD. In 2013, Horace Champagne embarked on a magical series that captured Monet’s famous gardens, including the Japanese bridges, water lilies and ponds that Monet himself painted during his lifetime. This work is the very first of the series, and Champagne renders the lush plant life and reflective pond of Giverny with masterful delicacy.

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Jean-Phillipe Dallaire (1916-1965) QMG Still Life with Grapefruit, 1953 oil on canvas signed and dated 1953 to verso 12x13.5 in. (30.5x34.3 cm.) Provenance Dominion Gallery, Montreal; Sale of Joyner Fine Art, Tuesday, November 28, 1989, lot 004; Private collection, Edmonton Exhibited Rétrospective Jean Dallaire, Galerie Valentin, Montréal, October 18 - November 8, 2008. $29,000 CAD. You know that for the first few days after a Canadian arrives in Paris, he feels completely disoriented, because you can see so many exhibits in Paris that you become more and more influenced. And you can draw on all these influences to make endless progress. Since I arrived, I have tried Cubism, abstraction, realism, and then Cubism again. You shouldn’t be afraid of being influenced. The mistake that Canadians make is to want a Canadian form of painting. - Dallaire in a letter to friend Henri Heyendal, May 1, 1940 (1) Jean Dallaire took influence from many different facets of culture, from theatre and mythology to the European Cubists and Surrealists that he was exposed to in Paris in the late 1930s. In 1940, he was taken as a prisoner of war during German occupation of Paris, which many historians suggest must have added to the sardonic, and somewhat ominous qualities we often see in his work (2). Still Life With Grapefruit reveals the artist’s fine skills as a designer, and his clear Cubist influence. Dallaire’s command of colour and shape produce a composition that is theatrical and spontaneous despite its basis in still objects.

1. Michel Vincent Chef, Jean Phillips Dallaire, The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jean-philippe-dallaire, accessed May 10, 2022 2. Kenneth Lefolli and Elizabeth Kilbourn, Great Canadian Painting: A Century of Art, p. 89

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Dorothy Knowles (b. 1927) OC Nicotine, 1992 oil on canvas signed, titled and dated August 1992 to verso 48x48 (121.9x121.9 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Edmonton $17,000 CAD. Knowles is noted as one of Canada’s finest landscape artists, and has been an active painter for nearly 70 years. The artist began to attend the now-famous Emma Lake Workshops in the 1950s, and it was here that her interest in landscape painting was founded. Over the years, she developed her own painting techniques, sometimes using diluted oil paint and charcoal to map out her compositions, and always with an air of abstraction. “I find myself composing with colour”, Knowles noted in a 1972 interview with curator Terrence Heath, “I just let it go and it takes on its own rhythm”. The artist’s garden in Saskatoon has been a source of inspiration over many years, and in 1992, Knowles produced multiple canvases of her vibrant plants. The title of this work, Nicotine, likely comes from the pink flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata) that bloom across the center of the canvas.

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Jean Paul Lemieux (1904-1990) CC QMG RCA Jeune Fille en Rouge, 1958 oil pastel on paper signed and dated lower right 11x7.5 in. (27.9x19 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Toronto; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Edmonton $78,500 CAD. In the mid-1950s, Lemieux entered a phase of his career that is referred to by scholars as his “Classic Period” (1). His work from about 1956 - 1970 saw the artist focusing on the figure, and lonely portraits set against flat fields with simple horizons dominated his practice. The result of this shift was a series of haunting works, and Lemieux is perhaps best well known for them. Deceptively minimal, works like Jeune Fille en Rouge read like found photographs, and his figures are loaded with ideas of isolation and solitude. As his career progressed into the 60s and 70s, Lemieux’ works would become imbued with more and more emotional and personally charged content.

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Maud Lewis (1903-1970) Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fishermen, Bay View, N.S. mixed media on beaverboard signed lower right: LEWIS 11x13 in. (27.9x33 cm.) Authenticated by J.C. Miller Antiques and Maud Lewis expert Alan Deacon in 2017. Provenance Private collection, Ontario; Sale of the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario, May 2017; Private collection, Calgary Exhibited Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, April 11-16, 2017; Homer Watson House and Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario, April 21 – May 19, 2017; Please inquire for pricing In March 2017, volunteers at the New Hamburg Thrift Center in Southern Ontario unexpectedly discovered this work, Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fishermen, Bay View, N.S. while sorting through their donation buns. A volunteer recognized the work of Nova Scotia painter Maud Lewis, and after having the painting authenticated by J.C. Miller Antiques and Lewis expert Alan Deacon, the Mennonite Central Committee put the work up for auction. The work received an enormous amount of fanfare, and the auction coincided with the release of Maudie, the biographical film released about the artist in 2017. The serendipitous find of the painting brought about a renewed national interest in Maud Lewis, whose work had spent many years in relative obscurity outside of Nova Scotia. During the auction, the work toured to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, to Homer Watson House and Gallery, and bids soared immediately. Affected by arthritis and other health problems from an early age, Lewis spent her whole life in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, and lived most of her adult years in a rural one room house. She spent her time painting cheerful scenes of horse-drawn sleighs, oxen, deer and other charming depictions of Nova Scotian life, selling work for $1 or $2 a piece. Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fishermen, Bay View, N.S. is an extremely rare work for Lewis. As of 2021, only one other work of this particular subject matter has been recorded at auction.

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Maud Lewis (1903-1970) Traffic Jam, c. 1965 oil on board signed LEWIS to right 11.5x11.5 in. (29.2x29.2 cm.) Provenance Acquired from the artist, date unknown; Private collection, California; Sale of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, March 2014, lot 109; Private collection, Calgary Related Literature This image was inspired by the cover illustration Oscar Cahén produced for the April 14, 1956 issue of MacLean’s Magazine. A copy of the magazine is included with the painting. Please inquire for pricing Traffic Jam is a wonderfully unique piece in the portfolio of Maud Lewis, and one the few works in which we can source the artist’s direct inspiration. Jeffrey Spalding, former Director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and CEO of Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, was first to note the source for this series of works: a 1965 cover of MacLean’s Magazine, illustrated by Painter’s Eleven member Oscar Cahén (1).

The two figures in this painting read as ultra modern, with respect to the subject as Cahén’s original illustration had intended, but even more so in their playful rendition in Lewis’ signature painting style. Most of Lewis’ paintings depict a world of the past: oxen drawn carriages, fishing boats, small cottages set into green hillsides. Perhaps this is why Lewis was drawn to the image in the first place, the original illustration captures imagery that was already an expert in painting. Lewis scholar Alan Deacon noted in 2021 that this painting is one of the “very best” that he’s seen of the image (2). The artist’s attention to the details of her reference material are evident, from the careful line work of the convertible to the near exact design of the landscape. There are no further examples at this time of Lewis taking such direct inspiration from media and popular culture for a series. When we consider the stories and myths around the artist’s isolated life, it serves to connect her with the broader cultural influences of her time period.

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Maud Lewis (1903-1970) Three Black Cats mixed media on board signed Maud Lewis to right 12x14 in. (30.5x35.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Phoenix, Arizona; Sale of Consignor Fine Art, May 29th, 2018; Private collection Literature Lance Wollaver, The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis, Halifax, pg. 6 Please inquire for pricing

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Jean Albert McEwen (1923-1999) AANFM RCA Icon, c. 1960-61 oil on canvas 12x11 in. (30.5x27.9 cm.) Provenance Sale of Heffel Fine Art, 25 May 2015, lot 230; Christopher Varley, Toronto; Private collection, Calgary $38,000 CAD. In the late 1950’s Jean McEwen had started using his fingers and hands to paint, while the 1960’s marked a shift to compositions that were more organic and sensual while still retaining structure. McEwen’s focus on the powerful possibilities of colour allowed his work to depart from his earlier influences of Automatism, and his paintings became experiments with the relationships between light, colour and form. Icon shows a complex working of paint to establish depth and texture, juxtaposed with a strong, geometric compositional layout.

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Marion Nicoll (1909-1985) ASA RCA Untitled, 1959 watercolour on paper signed and dated ‘59 lower right 14.5x16.5 in. (36.8x41.9 cm.) Provenance Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary, 1987; Private collection, Calgary Peter Ohler Fine Arts, Toronto; Related canvas Religious Procession, Taormina, Sicily, 1959, private collection $8,500 CAD. “I am an abstract painter naturally and through conviction. A painter who grows must move into new expressions. Ten years of unsatisfactory painting ... and I was ready for the step forward when I attended the seminar at Emma Lake, Sask., with Will Barnett in 1957. A years painting in New York confirmed my beliefs.” - Marion Nicoll quoted in the Edmonton Journal, January 26, 1963 After she was exposed to Abstraction at an Emma Lake course in 1957, Marion Nicoll’s practice was fundamentally changed. In 1958, she received a Canada Council grant that allowed her to travel to New York City until 1959, after which she and her husband took the summer in Europe This watercolour sketch is a study, likely made on this trip, for what would become a large canvas titled Religious Procession.. In Sicily, she began to paint her first “mature abstract paintings” (1), which would become the foundations for her practice in the years to come. 1. Ann Davis and Elizabeth Herbert, Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy, p.53

Religious Procession, Taormina, Sicily, 1959

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Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007) PNIAI RCA WS Native Communication acrylic on board 40x32 in. (101.6x81.3 cm.) Provenance Frame/Craft Fine Art Gallery, Edmonton; Private collection, Calgary; Sale of Hodgins Art Auctions, 2010, lot 351; Private collection, Calgary $26,000 CAD. Morrisseau is hailed as the “Picasso of the North”, and in his own right contributed immensely to abstract art in Canada. He was a leading figure in Contemporary Indigenous art during his lifetime, and laid the foundations for the Woodland school of art. Morriseau was born and raised in Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, an Ojibwa First Nation near Thunder Bay, Ontario, and his work sought influence from his cultural heritage, spiritual themes, and as his career progressed, his personal history. In many of his works, he depicts the relationships and connection between adults and children, and the passage of knowledge and history through family. In Native Communication, we see the figures, perhaps a father and child or perhaps an older and younger version of one person, connected, as the child seems to reflect the beginnings of the same geometric patterns we see fully established in the elder figure.

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Daniel Plante (b. 1959) Fruits du Soleil, 1990 acrylic on canvas 12x16 in. (30.5x40.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Calgary; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Edmonton $2,500 CAD. Daniel Plante is celebrated for his hyper-realistic paintings that present luminous visions of everyday life. Painstakingly rendered with utmost detail, his works achieve a serene quality, and the artist is careful to produce an air of timelessness. “My subjects don’t wear shoes and their clothes are ample and often neutral to avoid being dated,” Plante notes, “The carpets, tables and curtains in my paintings don’t follow fashion or style past or present.” (1) 1. Liseanne LeTellier, The Calming Effect of Daniel Plante, Magazin’Art, 2006, p. 158

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Mary Frances Pratt (1935-2018) OC RCA Peaches in a Plastic Pot, 1994 watercolour signed and dated lower right 13.5x20.5 in. (34.3x52.1 cm.) Provenance Equinox Gallery, Vancouver; Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton; Private collection, Edmonton $18,000 CAD. The early 1990s were a period of reflection and re-assessment for Mary Pratt. After nearly forty years of marriage, the tensions and influences of which had infiltrated her art for decades, she and her husband Christopher Pratt separated. On her own for the first time, her career was flourishing, and she approached her subject matter with the new context of independence (1). As a young mother at the beginning of her career, Pratt’s subjects often referenced her busy family life: the dishes leftover from Sunday dinner, or the eggshells leftover from a big breakfast. Peaches in a Plastic Pot is a wonderful contrast, and fine example of Pratt’s mature career. Here we have an image approached with order and calm, a simple tupperware container of fruit turned into something magnificent, glowing in the light of a gently fading sun. 1. Tom Smart, Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light, p. 131

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Jean Paul Riopelle (1923-2002) AUTO CAS OC QMG RCA SCA La Lourde, 1960 oil on canvas signed lower middle 18x22 in. (46x55 cm.) Riopelle Catalogue No. 1960.081H.1960 Provenance Galerie Jacques Dubourg, Paris Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection Literature Yseult Riopelle, Catalogue Raisonné de Jean Paul Riopelle, vol. III, 1960-1965, p. 108; $250,000 CAD. La Lourde, The Heavy, is evocative and bold. “I get there via a free gesture, an autonomous brushstroke” the artist wrote, “not to start from deconstructing nature but to go in the direction of constructing the world.”1 Riopelle was above all, an independent creative mind. While he remained true to the tenets of Automatism for the entirety of his career, he was always innovating, always pushing the possibilities of paint on canvas. His selected colours, which here are richly dark and augmented by a brilliant turquoise green, are further shaped by his method of application – which is often very thick. Thus, volume is expressed in the materials of his work by the sheer amount of paint that a canvas could hold, rather than the subject. He then played with light by using varying ranges of gloss in his paints on each work. “...his oil painting technique was always based on these three elements – on colour, volume, and range of gloss.” It is in this final element – the range of gloss – from flat matte to shiny high-gloss, that Riopelle’s works excel. The variations of gloss from one knife stroke to the next, and blends of gloss as the paints were mixed in the creation of the work, are critical to what we now see. Never to be varnished, these subtle variations of gloss cause light reflection to vary in its intensity over the surface of his works, creating a sense of movement and undulating sparkle as we view them. Spending extended time with works by this very distinct Canadian master is a remarkable experience. As ambient natural light around them changes over the course of a day, and is further changed by the seasonal light variations of a year, so too, the reflected light from the works varies, depending on the circumstances in which they are viewed. We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay.

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Jean Paul Riopelle (1923-2002) AUTO CAS OC QMG RCA SCA Vespérales, 1962 oil on canvas signed lower right 18.25x21.75 in. (46x54.5 in.) Riopelle Catalogue N. 1962.015H.1962 Provenance Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York; Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary; Private collection, Calgary Exhibited 1963, Riopelle, Galerie Camille Hébert, Montreal, cat. no. 9; 2009, Riopelle: An Exhibition of Works from Private Calgary Collections, Masters Gallery Ltd, Calgary; 2010: Riopelle: The Glory of Abstraction, Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Literature Yseult Riopelle, Catalogue Raisonné de Jean Paul Riopelle, vol. III, 1960-1965, p. 147; Please inquire for price Ascribing literal meaning to abstract paintings is a step we should hesitate to take, but with Jean Paul Riopelle’s evocative titles, the temptation is often quite strong. Vespérales, or Evening, when understood as a title, brings a variety of considerations to this work. We can see it as an interpretation of the edge of night; light fading, sky reddened, shadows deepening, an interpretation reinforced by the horizon-like bottom edge of the work – which we can also see as a foreground. Or we can remember the break with the Catholic Church that spurred The Automatists into their painterly revolt. In the canonical hours that mark prayers, evening prayers – vespers – are sung in late afternoon or early evening. An additional layer of interest can be found while considering the work in that context. By 1962, when this work was painted. Riopelle was immersed in Fluid Abstraction, in a period that bridges the Mosaïques of the 1950s and the Icebergs of the 1960s. Elements of both are seen here, impasto has been toned down in favour of movement, which is furious and intense, and large passages become self-contained – not yet divided as we will begin to see in his work in a few years’ time – but hinting that reconfiguration of space was on its way.

We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay.

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Joe Rosenthal (1921-2018) RCA Sitting Profile, c. 1975 oil on masonite signed lower right 30x24 in. (76.2x60.9 cm.) Provenance Beckett Fine Art Ltd., Oakville; Private collection, Calgary $9,500 CAD. Born in Romania, Joe Rosenthal emigrated to Canada in 1927 and studied at the Ontario College of Art. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the Canadian Army. He produced sculptures as well as paintings and many of his works may be seen in public settings in eluding St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto and Odette Sculpture Park- Windsor. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Arts.

Carl Fellman Schaefer (1903-1995) Pears and Wire Basket on a Printed Cloth, 1965 watercolour on paper signed and dated upper right, signed and titled to verso 11.5x18 in. (29.2x45.7 cm.) Provenance Harold Sumberg, directly from the artist, 1965, inscription to verso; By descent to private collection, Vancouver; Sale of Maynards Fine Art & Antiques, May 8, 2013, lot 39; Private collection, Edmonton $4,800 CAD. Schaefer was an exquisite watercolorist, and fruit was a favourite subject for the artist from the beginnings of his career. His still life work sometimes carried symbolic imagery, but often they were exercises in the artists design skill. “I use still life as a kind of extreme formalism,” The artist noted, “A formal attitude toward painting that carries no message, no propaganda, nothing except itself.” (1) Pears and Wire Basket exemplifies Schaefer’s natural handling of his medium. 1. Margaret Gray, Margaret Rand and Lois Steen, Carl Shasefer: Canadian Artists 3, p. 54

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Art of the Rocky Mountains

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Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923) OSA RCA SCA Mist in the Rockies, c. 1887 watercolour signed lower left 10x13 in. (25.4x33 cm.) Provenance The Canadian Fine Arts Gallery Ltd., Toronto; Private collection, Calgary $4,900 CAD. Bell-Smith first traveled to the West after asking the Canadian Pacific Railway for passage to paint in the summer of 1887. It would be the first of over twenty trips for the artist, dubbed “the Premier Painter of the Rockies” by MacLean’s Magazine in 1912. Bell-Smith’s painting process in the mountains was noted by John E. Staley as almost entirely intuitive: Rarely Bell-Smith paints direct from Nature: his “Rockies” are too tremendous, but, at the same time, absolutely inspiring ... A glimpse is sufficient for the execution of his scheme: he paints best with closed eyes—so to speak —in the dark room of his studio, for he paints there what he feels.” (1) 1. John E. Staley, The Premier Painter of the Rockies, MacLean’s Magazine, December 1, 1912

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Horace Champagne (b. 1937) Last Rays of Sun, Moraine Lake pastel on paper signed lower right 30x40 in. (76.2x101.6 cm.) Provenance Sale of Hodgins Art Auctions, September 2021 Fine Art Auction, August 25 - September 13, 2021, lot 60 $9,800 CAD. Working in meticulous detail, Champagne depicts scenes of Canada from coast to coast, pushing the capacity of this media to its absolute limit. A Premier Member of Pastel Society of Canada and a Master Pastelist, Champagne’s work most often depicts winter. Brilliant colour against blue-white snow, or snow falling on a wilderness scene, his mastery of this unique medium is apparent. With their buttery consistency, pastel sticks, both chalk and oil pastels, can be difficult to control, as they spread easily and move at the smallest touch. Champagne has thoroughly mastered them, using all the tricks of the pastel trade to create his works. We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay.

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Henry George Glyde (1906-1998) ASA CSGA FCA PDCC RCA Bow River, Banff oil on board 13x16 in. (33x40.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Ontario, directly from the aritst; By descent to Private collection, Ontario $8,500 CAD. Glyde is celebrated for his representations of the western Canadian landscape. The contributions he made to the culture of Alberta are reflected in the enthusiastic range and depth of his artistic output in this region. The quiet rhythms and softly rounded hills, which characterize much of his painting in England, are here transformed into monumental and solid representations of mountains, rocks and trees. As the frequent painting companion to his friend A. Y. Jackson, Glyde was an important link between the wilderness painting of Ontario’s Group of Seven and the artists of western Canada. His landscapes convey a deep admiration for the richness and varied terrain of the Canadian landscape while keeping a style and expression that is distinctly of the West. Excerpt from H.G. Glyde: Works from the Estate, Masters Gallery Ltd., 2010

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Henry George Glyde (1906-1998) ASA CSGA FCA PDCC RCA Rocky Mountains oil on board 13x16 in. (33x40.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Ontario, directly from the aritst; By descent to Private collection, Ontario $8,500 CAD.

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Illingworth Kerr (1905-1989) ARCA ASA BCSFA Fireweed & Burnt Timber, Storm Mountain No. 3 oil on canvas board signed lower left, titled and signed to verso 12x16 in. (30.5x40.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Alberta $4,800 CAD. Storm Mountain is located in the Misty Mountain Range of Banff, Alberta, and has been a popular cabin site since the early 20th century. The area is also extremely prone to forest fires, which is where Kerr finds his subject for this panel, and would capture in multiple sketches and canvases in the 1970s and 80s. The aftermath of the burn, with a colourful juxtaposition of torched trees and the beginnings of new growth interplay to draw the viewer into the landscape.

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Illingworth Kerr (1905-1989) ARCA ASA BCSFA Mountain Facade, Lake O’Hara, 1984 oil on canvas board signed lower left, signed and titled to verso 12x16 in. (30.5x40.6 cm.) Inscribed Mt. Schaffer to verso Provenance Robert Vanderleelie Gallery, Lemarchand Mansion, Edmonton; Peter Ohler Fine Arts, Toronto $6,800 CAD. Mountain Facade, Lake O’Hara was completed in Kerr’s late career, when at 78 years old, he was still painting ferevenlty. Even in these later years, he practiced painting outdoors, seeking the direct experience of “nature flowing through him”. (1) Kerr often stuck to a minimal palette during this period, using at most two to three colours, and most often rendered neutral tones and shadows in shades of purple. 1. Margaret Callahan, Harvest of the Spirit: Illingworth Kerr Retrospective, p. 44

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Alexander Young Jackson (1882-1974) ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA Rocky Mountains, c. 1943-49 oil on panel signed lower right 10.5x13.5 in. (31.75x40.6 cm.) Provenance Private collection, Vancouver; Sale of Heffel Fine Art, November 24, 2005, lot 103; Private collection $28,000 CAD. In 1943, Jackson took over George Pepper’s position as an instructor at the Banff School of Fine Arts. “I have never considered myself a teacher,” he wrote in his autobiography, “but I did my best”. He evidently did well, as he continued to teach at Banff until 1949. In his off time, he would paint and sketch around the area. In 2021, Art historian and rocky mountain expert Lisa Christensen identified the mountain in this painting as Grotto Mountain, with the shoulder of Mount Lady MacDonald to the left of the panel. The exact view can be found on the pathways near the Nordic center in Banff. Here, Jackson has highlighted the bright yellows and greens of early fall in the Rockies.

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R.F.M. McInnis (b. 1942) FRGCS Mount Robson, 1978 oil on board signed and dated Oct. 78 to verso 9x12 in. (22.9x30.5 cm.) $1,900 CAD. R.F.M. McInnis has been an established artist for over 40 years. The artist was born and raised in New Brunswick, and for a number of years worked as a newspaper reporter and Royal Canadian Airforce Photographer. McInnis found success in his painting career in the 1970s, and in 1978, he moved to Calgary. Mount Robson would have been painted in McInnis’ first year living the West, and shows his characteristic painting style, influenced by the work of the Group of Seven. The artist was elected to the College of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society in 2017, with the society noting the “a form of recognition given [the artist’s] remarkable travels in Canada and stunning landscapes.” (1)

1. Galleries West, Winnipeg Artist Elected Fellow of Royal Canadian Geographical Society, November 28, 2017, https://www.gallerieswest.ca/news/winnipeg-artist-elected-fellow-ofroyal-canadian-geographica/, accesssed May 14, 2022

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Rita Mount (1888-1967) ARCA Lake Louise oil on board signed lower left, signed and titled to verso 9x11 in. (22.9x27.9 cm.) Provenance Private collection Alan Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal $6,600 CAD Rita Mount was trained in art from the young age of ten, and received instruction from many of the top institutions and instructors of her time, among those being leading Canadian landcape painter William Brymner. As an adult in the 1930s, Mount took multiple cross country trips, and in 1934, she travelled to Banff and the surrounding area. Mount was interested by cove and water scenes, and they brought her great review over the course of her career - it makes sense, as such, that she would focus on the serene Lake Louise on her journey into the Rockies, which she paints in all of its glistening blue glory.

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Robert Wakeham Pilot (1898-1967) Moraine of Athabaska Glacier, 1950 oil on canvas 28x36 in. (71x91.4 cm.) Provenance Collection of Mrs. Lily May McConnell, widow of J.W. McConnell, Quebec; By descent to private collection, Montreal; Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Montreal Exhibited Robert W. Pilot Retrospective Exhibition, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1968-69, illustrated in catalogue, cat. no. 6; University Club of Montreal; $48,000 CAD. Robert Pilot spent time sketching in the Rocky Mountains around the years of 1949 - 1950. The exact details of his trips are not well documented, but during these two years, the work he produced places him at Jasper, Sunwapta Falls, and in this canvas, the Columbia Icefields. Pilot’s rendering of the Rocky Mountains brought him great regard, and “contributed to the prevailing view of Canada as a country of blue and white peaks with pink and purple shadows” (1)- we can certainly see these qualities in the cool tones of Moraine of Athabaska Glacier. This painting was included in the major Retrospective of Pilot’s work in 1968, and comes from the collection of J.W. McConnell, a prominent Montreal businessman, publisher of the Montreal Star, and philanthropist. Despite his massive successes, McConnell is most well remembered for his incredible philanthropic generosity, and is noted to have played a key role in the establishment of many institutions in Montreal, and the McConnell Foundation still operates to this day.

1. Anne McDougall, Robert Wakeham Pilot, The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-wakeham-pilot, accessed May 10, 2022

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Walter Joseph Phillips (1884-1963) ASA CPE CSPWC RCA Lake O’Hara from Mount Odaray, c. 1936 watercolour 10x14.5 in. (25.4x36.8 cm.) Provenance Mayberry Fine Art, Toronto and Winnipeg Literature Niven, Frederick and W.J. Phillips, Colour in the Canadian Rockies, related work illustrated p. 113 Related work Lake O’Hara from Mount Odaray, Winnipeg Art Gallery $22,000 CAD. “Lake O’Hara lies among the mountains somewhat in the manner of Lake Louise, but with no enormous Chateau solidly confronting it, with only a community house perched on a knoll and log cabins among the shore-side trees. The water is coloured otherwise also. It has an intense transparency. When you go out on it in a boat you feel as though floating on air, and you may find yourself dropping your hand over the side to assure yourself where the water begins.” - Frederick Niven, Colour in the Canadian Rockies In this serene watercolour by Walter J. Phillips, Yukness Mountain at right and Mount Huber to left are viewed from Mount Odaray, all surrounding Lake O’Hara. Walter Phillips was invited in 1936 by Frederick Niven to produce illustrations for a book titled Colour in the Canadian Rockies. Published in 1937, the book details travels through the most famous spots through Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks. The book includes 32 original watercolour illustrations by Phillips, who had received an all expenses paid trip through the mountains to illustrate his surroundings. The Winnipeg Art Gallery holds the version of this watercolour that was ultimately published in the book in their collection.

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Walter Joseph Phillips (1884-1963) ASA CPE CSPWC RCA Untitled (Reflections), 1935 watercolour signed lower right 8.75x9.75 in. (22.2x24.8 cm.) Provenance Pegasus Gallery, Salt Spring Island, B.C.; Masters Gallery Ltd. Vancouver, Vancouver, B.C.; Mayberry Fine Art, Toronto $18,000 CAD.

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Walter Joseph Phillips (1884-1963) ASA CPE CSPWC RCA Indian Days, Banff coloured woodcut, ed. 67 of 100 titled and editioned lower left, signed lower right 10x15.5 in. (25.4x39.4 cm.) Provenance Private collection $14,500 CAD.

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William Percival Weston (1879 - 1967) ARCA BCSFA CGP RBA Limestone Peak, Rocky Mts., B.C., 1960 oil on panel signed lower left titled, signed and dated 1960 to verso 15.75x20 in. (40x50.8 cm.) Provenance Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg and Toronto $9,000 CAD. Upon moving to Canada from England in the early 20th century, William Weston developed a passion the landscape of British Columbia. Originally trained in the British tradition, in the 1920s the artist began to paint the Western landscape with a simplified, but sculptural style that was influenced both by the Group of Seven and contemporary Art Nouveau and Japanese design trends. Weston was fond of the sculptural forms and patterns to be found in the mountain ranges (1), a subject he would paint into his late career, exemplified here in Limestone Peak, Rocky Mts. 1. Rosemary Brown, Notable B.C. Artists in the Collection - W.P. Weston, The Maltwood Museum, https://maltwood.uvic.ca/k_maltwood/history/wpweston.html, accessed May 22, 2022;

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Masters Gallery: FINE CANADIAN ART Spring 2022

Articles inside

19th Century & Impressionism

Post-war & Contemporary

The Group of Seven & Contemporaries