19th Century & Impressionism

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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