The Group of Seven & Contemporaries

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

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.

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.

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

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.