untitledHEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
VANCOUVER • TORONTO • OTTAWA • MONTREAL HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION
HOUSE SALE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013, TORONTO
VVVVVISITISITISITISITISIT
www.heffel.com
FINE CANADIAN ART AUCTION
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013
7 PM, FINE CANADIAN ART
PARK HYATT HOTEL, QUEEN’S PARK BALLROOM
4 AVENUE ROAD, TORONTO
2247 GRANVILLE STREET
PREVIEW AT GALERIE HEFFEL, MONTREAL
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 THROUGH
PREVIEW AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ART CENTRE
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 THROUGH
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TORONTO
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961~6505, Fax 416 961~4245 E~mail:
[email protected], Internet:
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman In Memoriam ~ Kenneth Grant Heffel President ~ David
Kenneth John Heffel Auctioneer License T83~3364318 and V13~155938
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T83~3365303 and V13~155937
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found on page 124 of this catalogue.
AUCTION PERSONNEL
Audra Branigan and François Hudon ~ Client Services Lisa
Christensen ~ Calgary Representative Kate Galicz ~ Director of
Appraisal Services Andrew Gibbs ~ Ottawa Representative Brian Goble
~ Director of Digital Imaging Patsy Kim Heffel ~ Director of
Accounting Lindsay Jackson ~ Manager of Toronto Office Lauren
Kratzer ~ Director of Client Services Bobby Ma, John Maclean and
Anders Oinonen ~ Internal Logistics Alison Meredith ~ Director of
Consignments Jill Meredith ~ Director of Online Auctions Max Meyer
~ Digital Imaging, Photography Specialist Jamey Petty ~ Director of
Shipping and Framing Kirbi Pitt ~ Director of 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 Clara Wong ~
Administrative Assistant
CATALOGUE PRODUCTION
Victoria Baker, Lisa Christensen, Dr. François~Marc Gagnon, Andrew
Gibbs, Dr. Ross King, Lauren Kratzer, Joan Murray and Rosalin Te
Omra ~ Essay Contributors Brian Goble ~ Director of Digital Imaging
Kate Galicz, David Heffel, Robert Heffel, Naomi Pauls, Iris
Schindel and Rosalin Te Omra ~ Text Editing, Catalogue Production
Jasmin D’Aigle and Max Meyer ~ Digital Imaging Jill Meredith and
Kirbi Pitt ~ Catalogue Layout and Production
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PREVIEW
Telephone 416 961~6505
Fax 416 961~4245
AUCTION
Saleroom Cell 1 888 418~6505
MAP OF PREVIEW AND AUCTION LOCATIONS
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15 King’s College Circle, Toronto
Telephone 416 961~6505
Fax 416 961~4245
AUCTION
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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
112 HEFFEL SPECIALISTS
122 CATALOGUE ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
123 CATALOGUE TERMS
123 HEFFEL’S CODE OF BUSINESS CONDUCT, ETHICS AND PRACTICES
124 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION FORM
124 COLLECTOR PROFILE FORM
126 ABSENTEE BID FORM
SELLING AT AUCTION
Heffel Fine Art Auction House is a division of Heffel Gallery Inc.
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 126 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.
Payment must be made 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 Buyer’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 our acceptance and approval and
to a maximum of $5,000 if you are providing your credit card
details by fax 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
FRAMING, CONSERVATION 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 Buyer, 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.
Buyers who acquire items that require local delivery or out~of~town
shipping should refer to our Shipping Form for Purchases on page
125 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 Inc., the client will be refunded the appraisal fee,
less incurred “out of pocket” expenses.
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE
VANCOUVER • TORONTO • OTTAWA • MONTREAL
The Buyer 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
Buyer 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 116 through 123 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 EST. 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 126 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 0.95 US dollar, 0.70 Euro, 0.59
British pound, 93 Japanese yen or 7.33 Hong Kong dollars as of our
publication date.
SALE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013, 7:00 PM, TORONTO
FINE CANADIAN ART CATALOGUE
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 8
101
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 9
101 SYBIL ANDREWS CPE 1898 ~ 1992
Bringing in the Boat linocut in 4 colours, signed, titled and
editioned 54/60, 1933 13 1/8 x 10 1/4 in, 33.3 x 26 cm
PROVENANCE: Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, 1983 By descent to the
present Private Collection, United Kingdom
LITERATURE: Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982,
reproduced pages 34 and 55 Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine
Age, 1995, reproduced page 112, catalogue #SA 24 Gordon Samuel and
Nicola Penny, The Cutting Edge of Modernity: Linocuts of the
Grosvenor School, 2002, reproduced page 36 Clifford S. Ackley,
editor, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914 ~ 1939, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, 2008, essay by Thomas E. Rassieur, page 115,
reproduced page 119
EXHIBITED: Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Sybil Andrews, 1982, same
image, catalogue #24 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Rhythms of Modern
Life: British Prints, 1914 ~ 1939, January 3 ~ June 1, 2008,
traveling to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, same image,
catalogue #61
Sybil Andrews shared a studio with Cyril Power in London from 1930
to 1938. In 1930, Power produced a linocut entitled The Eight, of a
rowing team that was part of a group of racing sculls competing in
trials for the annual Head of the River Race on the River Thames.
Power observed these trials from Hammersmith Bridge near their
studio. By 1930, this regatta
had grown so popular that 77 crews participated. This fine print
from 1933 is Andrews’s depiction of a team returning their boat to
its housing. Sport was an important subject for the Grosvenor
School of printmakers, to which both artists belonged. The use of
this subject reflected the social awareness of the time, as
participation in and observation of sport grew in popularity. As
Thomas Rassieur writes, “Utopian idealists saw the human body as a
perfectible machine, and fashions favoured sleek physiques.”
Bringing in the Boat incorporates this concept of the body as
machine, as Andrews removes distinguishing features from the
rowers, rendering their bodies as uniform, muscular and strong.
Their hands are stylized, clamping on to the boat like tools.
Rassieur comments, “The spirit of unified teamwork expressed in the
print echoes the mass demonstrations of synchronized athletic
prowess that we now associate with propaganda films of the interwar
period.” In this strong image, Andrews depicts four of the eight
rowers as if in black shadow ~ a choice that echoes the dark,
angular profile of this specialized racing boat with its
distinctive armatures. Repetition of form adds to the perception of
movement, as though the men are moving the boat in lockstep.
Vigorous and forceful as an image, Bringing in the Boat embodies
the social ideal of collaboration and equality in sport, and
promotes the attainment of fitness and health.
This fine impression is on thicker oriental laid paper.
ESTIMATE: $35,000 ~ 45,000
102
102 SYBIL ANDREWS CPE 1898 ~ 1992
Rush Hour linocut in 3 colours, signed, titled and editioned 10/50,
1930 8 x 9 3/4 in, 20.3 x 24.8 cm
PROVENANCE: DeVooght Galleries Ltd., Vancouver, 1978 Private
Collection, Toronto
LITERATURE: Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982,
reproduced page 52, catalogue #9 Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the
Machine Age, 1995, page 108, reproduced page 109, catalogue #SA 9
Clifford S. Ackley, editor, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints
1914 ~ 1939, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2008, reproduced inside
front and inside back cover and reproduced page 88
EXHIBITED: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Rhythms of Modern Life:
British Prints 1914 ~ 1939, January 3 ~ June 1, 2008, traveling to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, same image, catalogue
#38
Stephen Coppel writes: “Inspired by the Futurists’ challenge to
depict the modern machine age, Andrews, like [Cyril] Power,
presents the London Underground as the obvious symbol of modernity.
The marching feet of commuters on the escalators are treated as a
series of abstracted arcs and curves, suggestive of hurried
movement.” The Futurists saw the world as something in constant
flux, in ceaseless motion, a state created by the new machine age
with its automobiles, trains and airplanes. To the Grosvenor School
of printmakers, of which Sybil Andrews was a part, speed and
movement as a part of modern urban life was a fascinating subject.
Andrews’s compelling linocuts all encapsulate this motion to some
degree, and in Rush Hour, it manifests through the commuters and
their forward~moving sense of purpose. Strong, stylized shapes and
the anonymity of the people put all the emphasis on the message of
dynamic motion, resulting in an impactful image charged with
energy.
This is a fine impression on thin cream oriental laid paper.
ESTIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
103
103 SYBIL ANDREWS CPE 1898 ~ 1992
Steeplechasing colour linocut, signed and editioned 9/50 and on
verso signed on the Redfern Gallery label, 1930 7 1/2 x 10 1/2 in,
19 x 26.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery, London John E. Culley Esq., 1930
Private Collection, Arizona
LITERATURE: Michael Parkin and Denise Hooker, Sybil Andrews:
Paintings and Graphic Work, Michael Parkin Fine Art Ltd., 1980,
reproduced, unpaginated Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum,
1982, reproduced page 52 Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine
Age, 1995, reproduced page 109, catalogue #SA 10 Clifford S.
Ackley, editor, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914 ~ 1939,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2008, essay by Thomas E. Rassieur,
page 115
EXHIBITED: Michael Parkin Fine Art Ltd., London, England, Sybil
Andrews: Paintings and Graphic Work, October 22 ~ November 15,
1980, same image, catalogue #25 Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Sybil
Andrews, 1982, same image, catalogue #10
Around 1930, Sybil Andrews, then a member of the modernist
Grosvenor School of printmakers in England, produced several images
of hunts on horseback and jumping competitions, such as Water Jump,
In Full Cry and Steeplechasing. As Thomas Rassieur notes, “Movement
~ coordinated, directed, and energetic ~ made sport an ideal arena
for exercising the modernist impulse of the Grosvenor School
linocutters.” After the First World War and the influenza epidemic,
public interest in physical fitness was on the rise, and there was
admiration for the attainment of the ideal body through
athleticism. In images such as Steeplechasing, uniformity of dress
and the elimination of details of features placed all the emphasis
on the pattern of movement. Sleek, streamlined and stylized,
Steeplechasing fully evinces the dynamism of horses and riders
hurtling through space.
This fine, richly coloured impression, on buff oriental laid
tissue, is from the original edition of 50. A second edition of 60
for the USA was begun in 1932, and one of 60 for Australia was
planned, but then canceled.
ESTIMATE: $7,000 ~ 9,000
104
104 SYBIL ANDREWS CPE 1898 ~ 1992
Michaelmas colour linocut, signed, titled, editioned 35/60 and
inscribed VI in the margin, 1935 12 1/4 x 9 in, 31.1 x 22.9
cm
PROVENANCE: DeVooght Galleries Ltd., Vancouver, 1979 Private
Collection, Vancouver
LITERATURE: Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982,
reproduced pages 41 and 58, catalogue #33 Stephen Coppel, Linocuts
of the Machine Age, 1995, reproduced page 115, catalogue #SA
33
The 1930s were a time of overwhelming social and economic change
between the wars in both America and England ~ the Depression,
mechanization, strikes and issues of unemployment were part of this
shock wave. For the Grosvenor School printmakers such as Sybil
Andrews, social awareness was on the rise, and workers were
portrayed as vigorous and productive. In the mid~1930s, after
previously emphasizing the integration of workers with machinery in
her images, Andrews was producing images of farm labourers in the
countryside, using their hands and simple tools. In her figures,
Andrews deployed a streamlined stylization that eliminated facial
features, symbolizing an egalitarian universality. The title
Michaelmas refers to the ending and beginning of the husbandman’s
year in medieval England, which fell on September 29, associated
with the end of harvest, appropriate to this image of bringing in
the hay. Bright colour, the strong forms of the horses and carts,
and the emphasis on texture in the furrows of the field make this
an exceptionally vibrant linocut.
This is a fine impression on buff oriental laid tissue.
ESTIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
105
105 SYBIL ANDREWS CPE 1898 ~ 1992
Hauling linocut in 4 colours, signed, titled and editioned 28/60
and on verso inscribed 34, 1952 10 1/2 x 12 1/2 in, 26.7 x 31.7
cm
PROVENANCE: Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary Private Collection,
Calgary
LITERATURE: Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982,
reproduced page 61 Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age,
1995, reproduced page 120, catalogue #SA 50
EXHIBITED: Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Sybil Andrews, 1982, same
image, catalogue #47
During her formative years in England, Sybil Andrews was a part of
the modernist Grosvenor School of printmakers. These artists were
influenced by the radical movements of Cubism and Futurism, as well
as by the social realities of life between the two world wars.
Change was sweeping through society, and there arose a greater
awareness of and respect for working people and industry. Hauling
is an outstanding example of how this awareness manifested in
Andrews’s work. In 1947 Andrews moved to Canada, settling in
Campbell River on Vancouver Island, where she observed massive
trucks such as this involved in the logging industry. By depicting
the truck on an incline, Andrews increased the sense of the weight
of the mighty logs and the power of the machine needed to transport
them. The minimal background places all the focus on the truck.
Andrews’s mastery of the linocut medium is apparent in her expert
treatment of volume, the impression of movement and her fine
attention to detail, particularly in the patterning of tire treads,
the truck’s grill and the tree rings.
This is a fine impression with strong colours on thick oriental
paper.
ESTIMATE: $9,000 ~ 12,000
106
106 JAMES EDWARD HERVEY (J.E.H.) MACDONALD ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA 1873
~ 1932
Lake O’Hara oil on board, on verso titled, inscribed N.F.S., Lake
O’Hara, J. Macd. and monogrammed with the artist’s initials, circa
1924 ~ 1930 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm
PROVENANCE: By descent to the present Private Collection,
Montreal
LITERATURE: Lisa Christensen, The Lake O’Hara Art of J.E.H.
MacDonald and Hiker’s Guide, 2003, page 55
During his stays at Lake O’Hara, J.E.H. MacDonald painted in all
kinds of weather. In 1925 alone, he recorded rain, hail, frost and
finally heavy
snows in the period from August 28 to September 9, but referred to
this time as glorious. “Another grand John Muir Day,” he wrote,
referring to the Scottish~American founder of the Sierra Club, “one
when John would have ranged the heights with his soul in rapture.”
He observes the colour of water under a sunless sky, noting the
effect when the wind stopped and left the surface still. In this
intimate view of Lake O’Hara, we find MacDonald has painted from
beneath a massive pine tree, looking roughly southeast towards the
spit of rocks that lies between the present~day Sargent’s Point
area and the rest of the lake. The mountains themselves, so often
the focus in his sketches, are hidden in an inky~blue veil. The
touches of light blue and green that line the edges of the spit and
dot the shoreline in the distance are probably snow. This Group
period sketch is utterly peaceful and still, a moment full of vivid
mountain colour and the ethereal beauty of weather.
ESTIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,000
107
107 ARTHUR LISMER AAM CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA 1885 ~ 1969
Canadian Rockies oil on board, signed and on verso titled on the
Roberts and Laing gallery labels, circa 1928 12 7/8 x 16 in, 32.7 x
40.6 cm
PROVENANCE: Laing Galleries, Toronto Roberts Gallery, Toronto The
Art Emporium, Vancouver, 1976 Private Collection, Vancouver
EXHIBITED: Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, 1929
When Arthur Lismer first went to the Canadian Rockies to paint, he
struggled with the grandeur of the soaring peaks. Condensing their
vast
forms onto his small sketch panel was not possible, he felt, so he
moved to a different format and a larger size. In this bold
depiction of Mount Odaray, Lismer has mastered this challenge. He
set his scene from a perch on the cliff face of the Opabin Plateau
~ the more easily reached Opabin Prospect is higher than the
vantage point in this scene. Lismer settled himself like a hawk on
one of the large cliff~face rocks to look out over the waters of
Lake O’Hara, which he painted in their characteristic chalky
blue~green. The flank of Deception Peak is a golden contrast to the
cool greens of the forest as well as the brilliant whites of the
Odaray Glacier and the clouds in the sky.
Lismer’s Rocky Mountain paintings are rare, as most major canvases
from this part of his oeuvre are housed in public collections, and
sketches of this calibre come to auction only occasionally.
ESTIMATE: $30,000 ~ 40,000
108
108 SIR FREDERICK GRANT BANTING 1891 ~ 1941
French River oil on canvas, on verso titled on the exhibition
label, inscribed with KGH inventory #201 ~ 1 D300 and stamped Fred
L. Curry Art Store, 760 Yonge St., circa 1930 21 1/4 x 26 in, 54 x
66 cm
PROVENANCE: Lady Henrietta Banting, Toronto Paul Ivanier, Montreal
Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Art Inc., Vancouver, 1981 Private
Collection, Vancouver, 1984
LITERATURE: A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of
A.Y. Jackson, 1958, page 75 D.B.G. Fair, Banting & Jackson: An
Artistic Brotherhood, 1997, page 23
EXHIBITED: Hart House, University of Toronto, Exhibition of
Paintings by the Late Sir Frederick Banting, February 13 ~ March 1,
1943, label on verso
A.Y. Jackson wrote in his autobiography, in reference to a 1927
sketching trip with Frederick Banting to Quebec, “This was
Banting’s first experience of painting out of doors in winter time.
It was March, but there was no sign of spring, and we were working
in very exposed country. The winds swept in from the Gulf and there
was no shelter from them. Banting persisted, though it was an
ordeal for him. I found him one day crouched behind a rail fence,
the snow drifting into his sketch box and his hands so cold he
could hardly work. He turned to me and said, ‘And I thought this
was a sissy game.’ ”
Banting is known internationally as the scientist who
co~discoverered insulin, used to treat diabetes. It was, perhaps,
the international attention that this achievement brought him
(along with a shared Nobel Prize with his research partner Dr.
Charles Best and later, a knighthood) that caused him to seek the
solitude of landscape painting in his free time. He is known to
have been a private, modest person, and would have enjoyed the
company of the similarly inclined Jackson, who became a close
friend,
and with whom he would travel far afield in Canada to sketch. The
exact circumstances of their meeting are unclear, but Banting is
thought to have met Jackson in the mid~1920s, possibly as the
result of Banting having shown a number of his own works at an
exhibition with the Hart House Sketch Club in January of 1925 in
Toronto. At about the same time and through Jackson, Banting met
Dr. James MacCallum and painter Lawren Harris, and was elected a
member of the Arts and Letters Club.
Banting discovered that he and Jackson shared not only numerous
personality traits, but also an interest in depicting the beauty of
the Canadian land. Both were avid storytellers, tough and
self~sufficient, and each respected deeply the achievements of the
other; that both of them had served overseas during the First World
War was a further bond. Banting also shared Jackson’s love of rural
Quebec and the North, and they decided to undertake a sketching
trip together in March of 1927. After some initiation via Jackson,
Banting came to enjoy “roughing it”, braving painting in the
winter, and he would subsequently accompany Jackson on numerous
sketching trips, including the famous Arctic trip aboard the supply
ship SS Beothic in the summer of 1927. They are known to have
painted at the location of this fine scene, the French River area
of Ontario (from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay) in 1930 and
1934.
Although Banting had been painting before he met Jackson, the
influence of Jackson’s brush~stroke and colour sense can be seen in
Banting’s work. On their sketching trips, Jackson would provide
Banting with a nightly critique, some of which is recorded in
Banting’s diaries. He wrote, “To sketch one must be able to draw,
get tone, get colour, get relations, get design, and get
simplification. That is all there is to it.” He adopted Jackson’s
colour notation methods, and his work developed rapidly as a result
of the companionship and tutoring provided by his friend and
mentor, who at the time was already one of the most famous artists
in Canada.
French River is a fine canvas, balanced in colour and filled with
harmonious movement. The silvery, rolling rocks are marked with
highlights of accenting colour, and the snow settled into the
hollows leads our eye upward though the trees and into the churning
pattern of blues and greens topped by white peaks in the distant
clouds.
ESTIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,000
109
109 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~
1974
October, Georgian Bay oil on board, on verso signed, titled and
dated October 1929 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in, 21 x 26.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Vancouver
Georgian Bay was a recurring destination and painting place for the
peripatetic A.Y. Jackson. In 1910, his cousins’ island at Portage
Point was his first exposure to this unique landscape, and during a
1913 sketching trip he met art patron Dr. James MacCallum, who gave
him the use of his cottage at Go Home Bay. At a critical juncture
in Jackson’s career, MacCallum offered him a year’s financial
support if he would move into
the now famous Studio Building in Toronto. On his trips to Georgian
Bay, Jackson hiked, canoed and camped through its striking
landscape of wind~blasted pines, rocky islets and channels, always
seeking new vistas. This is a fine Group of Seven period sketch,
with fresh, bright light and a palette that contrasts warm beige
and pink tones of the Canadian Shield rocks with brilliant blues of
sky and water. Long, fluid brush~strokes emphasized by glimpses of
bare panel show us Jackson’s assured and natural capturing of his
subject. A small windblown pine, symbolic of the wildness of the
Canadian hinterland, is silhouetted against the sky, an iconic
motif.
ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 25,000
110
110 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~
1974
North of Lake Superior oil on board, signed and on verso signed,
titled on the gallery label and inscribed 25 Severn St. Toronto /
L. Superior / Box Car, circa 1921 ~ 1922 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x
26.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Loranger Gallery, Toronto By descent to the present
Private Collection, Ontario
A.Y. Jackson’s first experience of Lake Superior was in fall of
1921 with Lawren Harris, after a trip to Algoma with fellow Group
of Seven members. Harris responded to the open expanses across the
lake, but for
Jackson, the rugged hills above the shore, exposed by forest fires,
were of greater interest. Jackson returned with Harris to Lake
Superior in 1922, 1923 and 1924, each time in autumn. Always
attracted to the inherent rhythm in the landscape, Jackson found it
here in the powerful and ancient rock formations of the Canadian
Shield, which originated in the Precambrian era. Shades of blue,
mauve and purple accent the earth tones in the rocks, and a blaze
of autumn colour runs through the ground cover at their base and in
their crevices. Expressing both the strength of the monumental rock
formations and the beauty of autumn, North of Lake Superior is a
classic Group period Jackson painting.
The address in the inscription on verso is that of the famous
Studio Building, the base of Group members in Toronto.
ESTIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
111
111 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~
1992
The Village of Madawaska oil on board, signed and on verso
inscribed 791~70 24 x 28 in, 61 x 71.1 cm
PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the Artist By descent to the
present Private Collection, Ontario
LITERATURE: Joan Murray, A.J. Casson, Art Gallery of Windsor, 1978,
unpaginated
A.J. Casson stated, “If I have to define my own contribution to the
Canadian art scene, what was particularly mine were really the
rural villages and houses. In a way it is a record of a
disappearing society and a
disappearing world…For me it was always an Ontario quest.” Casson
was steeped in the atmosphere of Ontario villages and towns
starting from his childhood in Guelph, and from his first sketching
trips to Lake Rosseau and Lake Nipissing, until he fully claimed
this subject while with the Group of Seven. Casson used various
styles, not wishing to define or label his work ~ his style was in
service of “crystallizing the mood” of his subjects. The Village of
Madawaska is stunning because of its contrasts, starting with the
geometric, flattened style of the village buildings sharply
differentiated against the softly rendered rounded hills with their
forested slopes. Dark storm clouds are pitched against blue sky
breaking through behind the hills, and impending weather hovers
over the serene village. Full of drama and atmosphere, this is a
quintessential Casson image.
ESTIMATE: $50,000 ~ 70,000
112
112 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~
1992
Woodland Pattern oil on board, signed and on verso signed and
titled, circa 1945 12 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm
PROVENANCE: By descent to the present Private Collection, USA
LITERATURE: Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, Roberts Gallery, 1975, page
109
Paul Duval notes that “In 1945, as the war drew to a close,
Casson’s style took a new and radically different direction.
Suddenly, all of the elements in his paintings became highly
simplified into formal patterns. Shapes are
condensed into knife~edged rectangles and triangles…Design has
become paramount.” A.J. Casson did not directly explain this sudden
change, but suggested that the end of the war “brought an emotional
release and longing for simplicity.” This style would come and go
in his work in future decades. In Woodland Pattern, trees are
stylized to the point of appearing as abstract sculptures, like
emblems of living wood. Light and shadow are accentuated to create
a strong sense of depth of space in the forest, and in the
foreground, planes are fractured in a cubist manner. Casson
selected a harmonious colour palette of greens and golds, washed by
sun and contrasted by dark shadowing in the depths of the woods.
Woodland Pattern is an outstanding example of Casson’s stylized
landscapes, dramatic yet with a stillness of atmosphere that is
perfectly crystallized.
ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
113 CLARENCE ALPHONSE GAGNON CAC RCA 1881 ~ 1942
Village de Baie~Saint~Paul oil on panel, signed and on verso signed
4 7/8 x 7 in, 12.4 x 17.8 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
In its very short art history, Canada has laid claim to a mere
handful of Impressionist~style painters. This select group was able
to see Impressionism first~hand in Europe and then successfully
translate the light~infused technique into paintings depicting a
very different land. Among them was Clarence Gagnon, whose delicate
work brought rural
Quebec to the attention of an ensuing generation of artists who
would follow him to the shores of the St. Lawrence and other such
places to paint out~of~doors. Taught by William Brymner and
influenced by Horatio Walker, Gagnon would travel to Paris and
paint with James Wilson Morrice, another Impressionist expatriate,
in 1905. Despite Gagnon’s travels, his deep attachment to Quebec
would remain, and he would use it as subject matter for paintings
even when he was far away from the environs he was so fond of ~
Charlevoix, Baie~Saint~Paul, Saint~Urbain and Saint~Hilarion. His
scenes are luminous and delicate, with harmonious colours that seem
to cradle his villages in pastoral beauty. His sensitive brushwork
adds further serenity and enchantment to his scenes.
ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
114 CLARENCE ALPHONSE GAGNON CAC RCA 1881 ~ 1942
Paysage oil on panel, signed and on verso signed 6 1/8 x 9 1/8 in,
15.6 x 23.2 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
Clarence Gagnon’s pastorals are scenes of idyllic beauty, suffused
with a sense of gentle tranquility and peace. In Paysage, Gagnon
places a screen of inky trees in the immediate near ground, with
their black boughs directly in our field of vision. Yet the work is
masterfully handled to convey a sense of distance rather than one
of closeness. The trees present
an invitation rather than a barrier, and while we feel that we are
in a cool, shadowed region looking out onto a hillside lit by a
magical half~light, we are taken immediately into the distance.
Gagnon was a superb technician and a master of etching and
printing. In the tradition of Impressionism, he studied the effects
of light upon his subjects with intense scrutiny in order to
capture the feeling of a delicate shadow, the rich blackness of a
forest or the soft green of a verdant plain. Here, the
pink~porcelain sky and pale blue hills meet seamlessly with the
distant land, while an area of trees tipped with ochre~coloured
light draws us into the very centre of the work.
ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
115
115 HENRIETTA MABEL MAY ARCA BCSA BHG CGP 1877 ~ 1971
Happy Valley, on the Road Near Ottawa oil on canvas, signed and on
verso titled and dated 1935 on the Dominion Gallery label,
inscribed with the Dominion Gallery inventory #G1044 and Happy
Valley and stamped twice Dominion Gallery, Montreal 22 x 27 in,
55.9 x 68.6 cm
PROVENANCE: Dominion Gallery, Montreal Private Collection,
Vancouver
LITERATURE: Maria Tippett, By a Lady: Celebrating Three Centuries
of Art by Canadian Women, 1992, page 54
Mabel May was a founding member of the Beaver Hall Group in 1920,
and like others in the group, she was born into a privileged family
~ her father was a successful real estate developer who became the
mayor of Verdun. Her family subsequently moved to Montreal,
enabling her to study at the Art Association of Montreal, the
source of much creative ferment in the city. Along with fellow
Beaver Hall artist Emily Coonan, she traveled to France, England
and Holland in 1912, viewing galleries as well as painting.
After her return to Montreal, in 1914 she set up a studio on St.
Catherine Street West and spent summers painting at the family
cottage in Hudson. Like Emily Carr, who returned from France around
the same time, May’s horizons expanded in response to the
innovations of the Post~Impressionists, and the impact of what she
had seen resonated in her work. Maria Tippett wrote, “Working out
of her St. Catherine Street studio in Montreal, Henrietta Mabel May
demonstrated how far ahead she was of many of her Canadian
contemporaries,” noting her use of Fauve colour and strong
modelling in a 1917 painting entitled Indian Woman, Oka.
During World War I, May donated paintings to the Royal Canadian
Academy of Arts’ Patriotic Fund Exhibition, and she was
commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund to paint women in
munitions factories. She was one of only four women engaged by the
fund to create an artistic record of Canada at war.
Even after the Beaver Hall Group formally dissolved in 1922, many
of the women artists stayed in touch, painting and exhibiting
together.
In an art world dominated by men, they flourished through their
spirit, talent and dedication, and recognition of their importance
has grown in contemporary times. Lively and energetic, May
continued to paint with her friends, principally in the Eastern
Townships and Baie~Saint~Paul in the Lower St. Lawrence. After
1920, the influence of the Group of Seven can be seen in her
landscapes, with May’s strength as a painter showing in her use of
thick, smooth brush~strokes that define a solidity of form.
The 1930s brought change through the financial deprivations of the
Depression. The May family’s fortunes were affected, so May began
teaching art classes ~ something she had previously done in the
Beaver Hall studio with fellow artist Lilias Newton. She organized
sketching classes in the Eastern Townships, then in 1936 took a
permanent position teaching art history at Elmwood, a private
girls’ school in Ottawa. She also taught art classes at the
National Gallery of Canada ~ the contribution of the Beaver Hall
women artists to art education was considerable. May continued to
actively exhibit. In 1933 she became a founding member of the
Canadian Group of Painters, and while in Ottawa she showed with the
group Le Caveau.
Happy Valley, on the Road Near Ottawa is an outstanding canvas, its
subject encompassing all the finest attributes of her oeuvre.
Painted from a lofty vantage point from the top of the road, it is
both an expansive panorama and an intimate portrait of the village
nestled in the valley. In the cluster of houses no people are
visible, but the warmth of their presence radiates. May’s use of
light and colour is assured ~ the houses are depicted with a
luminous palette of pastels such as pale peach and mint green, and
the surrounding fields glow green~gold in the sun. Both the
foreground and the mountains in the background are shadowed, the
contrast increasing the impression of warmth in the valley. The
sense of people living in harmony with their stunning natural
surroundings is palpable.
The National Gallery of Canada has four of May’s paintings, amongst
them two canvases ~ a large 1921 oil entitled In the Laurentians
and a 1925 oil entitled The Village ~ both similar compositions to
this, of a town set in a valley amid rolling hills.
There will be an exhibition of Beaver Hall artists, including the
work of May, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the fall of
2015 entitled Le Groupe de Beaver Hall: Une modernité des années
vingt / Beaver Hall Group: 1920s Modernity.
ESTIMATE: $25,000 ~ 35,000
116
116 KATHLEEN MOIR MORRIS AAM ARCA BHG 1893 ~ 1986
Marché Saint~Roch, Quebec oil on canvas, signed and on verso titled
on a label and dated circa 1925 on an exhibition label 18 1/8 x 24
1/8 in, 46 x 61.3 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
LITERATURE: Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall: Canadian
Modernist Painters, 2005, page 79
EXHIBITED: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Kathleen Morris
Loan Exhibition, June 1976, catalogue #23 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff
Inc., Montreal, Kathleen Morris, Retrospective Exhibition,
September 2003, catalogue #26
In 1962, when the work of Kathleen Morris was shown at the Montreal
Arts Club, reviewer Dorothy Pfeiffer commented, “Her solidly
composed souvenirs of Old Montreal and its environs should be
collectors’ treasures. Particularly remarkable is the woman
painter’s sense of joie de vivre; her clever use of dabs and dashes
of brilliant orange~red livens every canvas…Such painting brings
peace to the soul. It is humane, it is technically authoritative,
it is the personal expression of joy of life and of tangible
emotion by a gifted, forthright, fearless artist.” Morris studied
with William Brymner and took summer painting classes with Maurice
Cullen, who shared her interest in the work of James Wilson
Morrice. Morrice was also interested in Morris, and purchased a
work of hers from Watson Galleries in Montreal. Morris lived in
Ottawa for a time, not far from the Byward Market, where she
frequently went to sketch, painting vivid scenes of the activities
there such as the striking oil Byward Market, Ottawa, sold by
Heffel in spring of 2013.
She also painted in such locations as Berthierville, the
Laurentians and Arnprior, Ontario, where her family owned a
cottage. In the winter she
took trips to Quebec City, where the old buildings, horses and
carts, and streets filled with people engaged in the commerce of
daily life appealed to her painter’s eye. She found the contrasts
of various colours against the whites of snow visually dazzling,
and thus she explored winter scenes such as Marché Saint~Roch,
Quebec frequently. She painted out~of~doors, taking a sleigh or a
carriage to an area where she could work for extended periods from
the privacy and shelter it provided. Morris was born into a wealthy
family and had certain advantages as a result, but she was also
born with cerebral palsy and thus had challenges to overcome. Her
observations of people are keen, as in this market scene in Quebec
City, where she depicts the vendors in winter, their collars turned
up and their hands in their pockets. They are using their sleighs
as display tables to show off their wares; blankets can be seen in
one, jars of foodstuffs, perhaps, in another. The boldly coloured
sleighs are set at different angles, adding interest and a sense of
rhythmic movement to the work. The horses have been removed from
harness and stand in the background, where they wait for the market
day to end, blanketed against the cold. There is a lively sense of
patterning in this work, such as in the sleigh poles lying in the
snow and ice of the foreground, forming lines that are repeated in
the architecture of the city. The windows on the buildings echo the
patterning and shapes of the sides of the sleighs, and the people,
although varying in height, girth and posture, are painted as being
similar to one another, without distinct features. There is a
feeling of a stage set to Morris’s works, as if a charming moment
in history is being artfully arranged for us so as to be captured
at its very best advantage. Morris’s works display the positive
elements of both sentimentality and romantic nostalgia, with an
additional layer of working~class sincerity that offers enduring
human appeal.
There will be an exhibition of Beaver Hall artists, including the
work of Morris, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the fall of
2015 entitled Le Groupe de Beaver Hall: Une modernité des années
vingt / Beaver Hall Group: 1920s Modernity.
ESTIMATE: $150,000 ~ 250,000
117
117 CLARENCE ALPHONSE GAGNON CAC RCA 1881 ~ 1942
Ferme en hiver oil on panel, signed and on verso signed 6 1/8 x 9
1/4 in, 15.6 x 23.5 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
Clarence Gagnon was very fond of the light and colour of Canadian
winters, and winter subjects are a constant in his work. His
mastery of white was key to these winter scenes, and he had a
fastidious technical approach, both in the preparation of his
wooden panels (which were
usually French poplar wood) and in the preparation of his palette
of colours. His panels were painted with a layer of opaque lead
white, which he ground himself using linseed oil and turpentine.
This was scraped until smooth and allowed to dry for a year,
resulting in a very hard surface. Unlike the Group of Seven, who
used raw, sometimes rough wood panels, Gagnon’s surfaces were
pristine, white and satiny smooth. In fact, he ground all of his
colours, adding flake white to the selection, which was limited to
nine or ten hues used in sparing simplicity, as we can see in this
subtle work. In this depiction of the soft grey luminescence of
snow at the approach of evening, Gagnon shows his fine command of
winter light.
ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
118
118 CLARENCE ALPHONSE GAGNON CAC RCA 1881 ~ 1942
Paysage d’hiver oil on panel, signed and on verso signed 4 7/8 x 7
in, 12.4 x 17.8 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
Clarence Gagnon was an avid skier, and he used this method of
transportation to reach the remote villages of rural Quebec that he
was so fond of painting when they were coated with a blanket of
snow. Skiing
also allowed him access in winter to rivers to fish and the forest
to hunt, as he was unable to support himself solely through the
sale of his art at various times in his life. Gagnon was a master
at creating a sense of harmony between the natural elements in his
paintings ~ the trees, snow and sky ~ and those that were man~made,
such as barns, fences, roads and churches. His impressionist
techniques are in part responsible for this fluid harmony, in which
light dapples over all evenly ~ but it is also Gagnon’s sensitivity
to subject that is at play here. His affinity and affection for the
simplest of places, such as this group of plain buildings at the
edge of a forest, is at the heart of their sensitive, respectful
depiction.
ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000
119
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 31
119 EDWIN HEADLEY HOLGATE AAM BHG CGP CSGA G7 RCA 1892 ~ 1977
Circus Tent, Concarneau oil on canvas, signed and on verso titled
on the gallery and exhibition labels, 1921 21 3/8 x 25 3/4 in, 54.3
x 65.4 cm
PROVENANCE: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private
Collection, Montreal
LITERATURE: Dennis Reid, Edwin Holgate, National Gallery of Canada
for the Corporation of the National Museums of Canada, 1976,
reproduced page 34 Rosalind Pepall and Brian Foss, Edwin Holgate,
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2005, reproduced page 106 and
listed page 171
EXHIBITED: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Edwin Holgate, May 26
~ October 2, 2005, traveling to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, the National Gallery
of Canada, Ottawa, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton,
2005 ~ 2007, catalogue #21
Edwin Holgate spent the summer of 1921 at Concarneau in Brittany,
sharing a studio with Robert Pilot. In fact, he was following the
example of James Wilson Morrice, who spent many summers in
Concarneau (1905, 1906, 1909 and 1918). Another of Holgate’s
paintings from the same period, Fête des filets bleus, Concarneau,
1921, now at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, was exhibited under the
title Nuit de la Fête at the Salon d’automne at the Grand Palais in
Paris (November 1 to December 20, 1921).
Concarneau, like Pont~Aven in a preceding generation, was a tourist
attraction for both painters and regular travelers. Situated in the
Finistère district of Brittany in northwestern France, the town has
two distinct areas: the modern town on the mainland and the
medieval Ville Close, a walled town on a long island in the centre
of the harbour. Historically, the old town was mainly devoted to
shipbuilding. But at the time of Holgate’s sojourn in Concarneau,
Ville Close was, as now, mainly a tourist area. A visiting circus
added one more attraction to the site.
This painting, Circus Tent, Concarneau, shows the circus tent in
the background and women displaying food or other items to attract
the
public going in and out of the circus area. We see many women in
their traditional costumes ~ note especially the headdresses of the
women, which are distinctive to the area. Holgate had a good
opportunity to make his own observations, since he was in
Concarneau in August when the town held the annual Fête des filets
bleus (Festival of the Blue Nets). The festival, named after the
traditional blue nets of Concarneau’s fishing fleet, is a
celebration of Breton and pan~Celtic culture. Such festivals can
occur throughout Brittany, but the filets bleus is one of the
oldest and largest, attracting in excess of a thousand participants
in traditional dress, with many times that number of
observers.
The contrast in this painting between the beige of the circus tent
and the colourful activities of the Breton women, as well as the
red roof of the small structure on the right, is perfectly mastered
by Holgate. The strong composition, in which the black of the
women’s dresses and the deep blue of their shadows dominate the
foreground, attracts attention to the circus tent and the blue sky.
A tree closes the composition on the left, while the middle ground
is occupied by a grey cart on the left and the red structure on the
right.
The following summer, Holgate was back in Montreal and rented one
of the studios in Alfred Laliberté’s complex, 67 Sainte~Famille
Street. Marc~Aurèle de Foy Suzor~Coté, Maurice Cullen and Robert
Pilot also had studios in this building. From then on, Holgate
produced his well~known paintings inspired by the Charlevoix
region. But it is important to understand that it was in France
that Holgate developed his own style both in landscape painting, as
in our painting, and in figure painting (for instance Suzy, 1921,
at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa). Contrary to the work
of Paul~Émile Borduas, Alfred Pellan or Marian Scott, Holgate was
not a painter of many styles. The moment he had found his own
language, he kept it for the rest of his life. That is why Circus
Tent, Concarneau is not only one of his early masterpieces, but a
major example of his mature style.
We thank François~Marc Gagnon of the Gail and Stephen A.
Jarislowsky Institute of Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia
University, recent recipient of the medal of the Académie des
lettres du Québec for his lifetime achievement, for contributing
the above essay.
There will be an exhibition of Beaver Hall artists, including the
work of Holgate, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the fall of
2015 entitled Le Groupe de Beaver Hall: Une modernité des années
vingt / Beaver Hall Group: 1920s Modernity.
ESTIMATE: $250,000 ~ 350,000
120
120 PAUL PEEL OSA RCA 1860 ~ 1892
Woman with a Parasol, Isaure Verdier oil on canvas, signed and
dated 1886 10 x 13 in, 25.4 x 33 cm
PROVENANCE: Aline Verdier, Denmark, sister of Isaure Verdier, Paul
Peel’s wife By descent through the family to the present Private
Collection, Denmark
Canadian by birth and affiliation, Paul Peel spent most of his
twelve~year professional career as part of the expatriate art
community in France, where he maintained a Paris studio from 1881
until his premature death on October 3, 1892, at age 32. His
decision to go abroad was inspired by American realist painter
Thomas Eakins, with whom he studied in the late 1870s at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Art in Philadelphia. Within six months of
his academy graduation, he departed for Europe, settling in Paris
in early 1881 after a winter in London, England.
Paris in the 1880s offered Peel unparalleled opportunities to
broaden his artistic knowledge, to interact with leading
contemporary artists and to earn his credentials at the Paris
Salon. Peel slipped quickly into the artist’s life, residing in
Paris during the fall and winter months and honing his craft under
the tutelage of the French academic master of hyper~realism,
Jean~Léon Gérôme, beginning in 1882. Summers were spent sketching
in the countryside, where he found the subjects for canvases he
later worked up in the studio. Guided by his Philadelphia friends,
he discovered the art colony at Pont~Aven in Brittany, popular with
American artists since the 1860s. He returned in 1882, 1884 and
1885, drawn by the picturesque Breton scenery, the Breton people,
and the opportunities village life afforded for casual
socialization with his fellow artists.
Peel’s veneration for European art history and academic traditions
made him resistant to the experimental avant~garde art of his day.
He aligned himself with the conservative type of modern art
favoured at the Paris Salon: an “art of the actual” in which
contemporary life is rendered in a polished, realistic style. Peel
initially built his reputation on Salon~style paintings of Breton
interior maternal subjects ~ La première notion, depicting a mother
and child, was admitted to the 1883 Paris Salon.
While he may not have attached himself to the French avant~garde,
Peel’s style did develop in a more painterly, colourful direction,
influenced by his experiences painting outdoors directly from
nature (en plein air). The aesthetic impact of sketching Pont~Aven
village scenes under bright, sunny summer conditions is felt in
such early works as the sun~drenched
view of Covent Garden Market in his hometown of London, Ontario,
executed during a six~month trip home in 1883.
Peel returned to Paris in December 1883, accompanied by his sister
Mildred, another aspiring artist. It was during the siblings’
summer sojourn in Pont~Aven in 1884 that he met his future wife,
the Danish artist Isaure Verdier, and her family. The Peels and the
Verdiers returned to Pont~Aven the next summer, where they formed
sketching parties. In early fall, they moved on to the less
populated art colony of Étaples, Normandy. During these months,
Paul and Isaure became engaged. On January 16, 1886, they married
in Willesden (a suburb of London, England), where Peel’s parents
had married in 1849. The newlyweds then paid a visit to Isaure’s
family in Copenhagen. Judging by the leafless trees and pale light,
Peel painted this oil study of Isaure Peel on a bench in Kallet
Park, Copenhagen, in February. Capturing a fleeting moment, it
successfully integrates the figure in the landscape, visually
reflecting the relationship of his wife with her Danish home. The
freshness and intimacy of this portrayal is made more evident by
contrast with a more formal portrait of Isaure, painted in 1885, in
which she is posed before her easel, smiling directly back at the
viewer (collection of the Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery). In the
command of his brush and efficient rendering of light and form,
this study offers insight into Peel’s evolving style, looking ahead
to a series of oil on panel plein air studies executed between 1889
and 1890 of Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, which compare favourably in
tone and painterly handling to contemporary studies by the American
artist John Singer Sargent.
Family was of central importance to Peel, and he developed a warm,
close relationship with the Verdier family, who were cultured
people with a fine appreciation of art. His father~in~law, André
Verdier, was a glove manufacturer by trade who, with his wife
Neilsigne (Signe), ran a luxury goods store along the Strøget in
the heart of Copenhagen. In May 1886, aided by his new in~laws,
Peel entered a work in the Royal Danish Academy of Arts exhibition.
The Verdiers also proudly displayed Peel’s work in their shop
window. Peel, in turn, painted family portraits such as Signe
Verdier (1886, in a private collection). He also gave art lessons
to his sisters~in~law, including Emma Karen, Vilhelmine and Aline
Verdier. It was Aline who kept this evocative 1886 Kallet Park
study, which passed down through her descendants to the present
owner.
We thank Victoria Baker, author of the 1986 London Regional Art
Gallery catalogue Paul Peel: A Retrospective, 1860 ~ 1892, for
contributing the above essay.
ESTIMATE: $30,000 ~ 50,000
121
121 MARC~AURÈLE FORTIN ARCA 1888 ~ 1970
Paysage à Sainte~Rose oil and casein on board, signed, circa 1958
23 5/8 x 23 1/8 in, 60 x 58.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
Marc~Aurèle Fortin’s beloved home village of Sainte~Rose was the
subject of many of his landscapes. In addition to the village, with
its stately elms and quaint buildings, he also painted the harbour
at Montreal and various places in and around that city, bringing
attention through these paintings to the urban landscape. His work
thus stands in contrast
to that of the Group of Seven, whose primary concerns were with
unpopulated ~ or less populated ~ places. Fortin’s approach to
colour in all of its varied, shimmering brilliance and his
technique of using pure colours painted directly onto a surface
covered with black or grey characterize his works. Here, we are
looking out onto a hillside dotted with fields that are bleached
into pastel hues and form a patchwork, rising to meet a sky of
curdled clouds. The cool, shade~giving elm casts a deep, velvety
shadow onto the house, wagon and road in the near ground, resulting
in a scene of brilliantly orchestrated contrast.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on
the artist’s work, #H~0883.
ESTIMATE: $40,000 ~ 60,000
122
122 MARC~AURÈLE FORTIN ARCA 1888 ~ 1970
Hochelaga pastel on paper on card, signed, circa 1928 19 x 26 in,
48.3 x 66 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
In pursuit of colour effects, Marc~Aurèle Fortin experimented with
pigments ~ with grey and black as underpainting and with casein, a
milk~based paint ~ mixing his own blends using powdered milk and
watercolour. He was also drawn to the vivid colours of pastels,
which allowed for layered and accented colour in a way that no
other media permitted. Through a light touch, or under heavy
pressure, the intensity
of colour a pastel stick can produce covers a broad range. Using a
coloured paper as a support, this rare and early pastel drawing of
the Hochelaga district of Montreal is a stunning example of
Fortin’s work in this medium. Its relation to his later grey and
black periods is clear, but it is the vivid contrasts, combined
with the delightful composition and his assured command of pastel,
which make this work so very appealing. Fortin’s depictions of
Quebec convey immediately his deep affection for its towns and
villages. Hochelaga is an idyll, nestled into the hillside and
blanketed with a rich velvet light.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on
the artist’s work, #P~0040.
ESTIMATE: $9,000 ~ 12,000
123 ADRIEN HÉBERT BHG RCA 1890 ~ 1967
Quai du Canadian Pacific oil on canvas, signed and on verso titled
23 1/8 x 22 1/8 in, 58.7 x 56.2 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
Adrien Hébert was the son of the well~known sculptor Louis~Philippe
Hébert. He studied under William Brymner at the Art Association of
Montreal and in Paris, where his interest in ships first developed.
He spent considerable time on the banks of the Seine River watching
boat
123
traffic while a truant from his classes with painter Fernand
Cormon! Hébert returned to Montreal in 1914 and in 1924 began to
paint the Port of Montreal. He loved the vitality and drama of the
harbour ~ its liners, tugs, elevators, cranes and trains. This bold
painting is an outstanding example of this subject, with its
imposing sense of volume in the structures and dramatic
perspectives of the dock buildings seen from below, with the ship
looming in the background. Just as important is the human scale of
the dock workers and their labours, exemplifying the social realism
that became prominent in the 1930s. Hébert’s work was well
recognized by museums ~ a painting exhibited at London’s Tate
Gallery in 1938 was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada in
1939.
ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000
124
124 ROBERT WAKEHAM PILOT CGP OSA PRCA 1898 ~ 1967
From Dufferin Terrace oil on board, on verso titled and titled Vu
de la Terrace Dufferin on the gallery label 8 x 10 1/4 in, 20.3 x
26 cm
PROVENANCE: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private
Collection, Toronto
Dufferin Terrace is a boardwalk along the St. Lawrence River in Old
Quebec, below the historic Château Frontenac and above the Petit~
Champlain. With its panoramic views across the water to Lévis and
of ferries plying the river, and with its beautiful gazebo and
decorative light fixtures, it was a fine site for public
festivities in Robert Pilot’s time, and still is today. From
Dufferin Terrace is serene. Pilot has captured both
the serenity of nature in the gentle evening grey and a feeling of
urban harmony in the strolling people. There is no hustle or sense
of urgency; instead, this work is a picture of quiet ease. Pilot
was particularly interested in twilight, which he painted with a
sense of sincerity that comes from critical observation. He
understood the various qualities of light, and his dots of
reflected light on the distant river play against the glow from the
street lamp, which differs again in its quality from the lights in
the windows of the ferry. Together with his careful selection of
colours, Pilot gives us a poetic depiction of evening as it
descends upon Dufferin Terrace.
ESTIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000
125
125 MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN AAM RCA 1866 ~ 1934
Dark Waters, Winter in the Laurentians oil on canvas, signed and on
verso inscribed with the Cullen Inventory #1108 24 1/4 x 32 in,
61.6 x 81.3 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection Sold sale of Canadian Art, Joyner
Auctioneers & Appraisers, May 23, 2000, lot 30 Galerie Walter
Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Toronto
LITERATURE: Robert J. Lamb, The Canadian Art Club, 1907 ~ 1915,
Edmonton Art Gallery, 1988, page 36
EXHIBITED: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Maurice Cullen
Retrospective Exhibition, September 2000, catalogue #18
Maurice Cullen’s initial interest in art was in the medium of
sculpture. He apprenticed under Louis~Philippe Hébert at Monument
National in Montreal, but after visiting Paris in 1888 he was so
enthralled by the work of the Impressionists that he turned instead
to painting. The techniques he learned as a sculptor, however,
would be used throughout his career, as he was very particular
about his materials, making his own paints and carving and gilding
his own frames. He was, from the first, interested in painting
snow, and while in the beginning the Canadian art~buying public had
little interest in paintings of their long winters, he persisted,
developing a dexterous prowess with the colours useful in winter
scenes, such as white, blue, black and grey. Cullen exhibited as a
guest in the first showing of the Canadian Art Club, a secessionist
group that had formed out of the Ontario Society of Artists in
1907. Its aim was to support and
exhibit art that depicted Canada, “something that shall be Canadian
in spirit, something that shall be strong and vital and big, like
our Northwest land.” His work hung on the walls of the York County
Court House in Toronto, a place that had served previously as a
studio for Frederick Challener and would later become home to the
Arts and Letters Club. Over time, Montrealers came to appreciate
his depictions of everyday life and the realities of winter, and by
1912 his work was the subject of positive reviews such as an
article by Newton MacTavish in Canadian Magazine. He realized some
sales, but without the patronage of Sir William Van Horne of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, he would have struggled to get by. His
scenes of winter subjects such as harvesting ice, horse~drawn
sleighs and villages in winter at night were often painted
on~the~spot, and they attest to his ability to work outside in
challenging conditions. His plein air method was eagerly embraced
by the next generation of artists that included A.Y. Jackson (who
would call Cullen a hero) and would be exemplified by the work of
the Group of Seven. Cullen’s desire for first~hand verity in his
work was a credo of its methods and philosophically at the very
core of the movement.
Dark Waters, Winter in the Laurentians is a fine example of
Cullen’s mastery of the colours of winter. Here, the black waters
of a river wind their way through an expanse of snow, which is a
contrast of brilliant blue and sparkling white. Cullen restricted
his palette to a few colours, and he used them masterfully in this
work to give us shadowed snow, sunlit snow and a grey winter sky.
His hours spent out~of~doors, his love of the Impressionist
approach to laying down paint to convey the varying qualities of
light and, above all, his appreciation of the beauty of the
Canadian winter result in extraordinary works such as this. As one
of Canada’s true Impressionist painters, Cullen fully realized the
aspirations of that first Canadian Art Club exhibition in his
paintings ~ to be wholly “Canadian in spirit…strong and vital and
big, like our Northwest land.”
ESTIMATE: $150,000 ~ 250,000
126
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 41
126 CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF 1815 ~ 1872
Indians on a Hunting Expedition oil on canvas, signed, circa 1845 ~
1847 15 1/4 x 22 3/4 in, 38.7 x 57.8 cm
PROVENANCE: James Wilson & Co., England Acquired from the above
by C. Jackson Booth Esq. (1863 ~ 1947), Ottawa C. Rowley Booth
(1915 ~ 1960), Ottawa By descent to the present Private Collection,
Ontario
LITERATURE: Marius Barbeau, Cornelius Krieghoff, Pioneer Painter of
North America, 1934, listed on page 141, dated circa 1845 ~
1847
EXHIBITED: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Exhibition of
Paintings by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1815 ~ 1872, February 15 ~ March
1934, traveling in 1934 to the Art Association of Montreal
Indians on a Hunting Expedition is a Cornelius Krieghoff painting
of a particular pedigree. It was owned by James Wilson & Co.,
England, and then by the Booth family of Canadian lumber and
railway fame. John Rudolphus Booth owned vast areas of timber
rights in Ontario in the 1800s. He built the railways in regions
where he had harvesting rights, including Georgian Bay and
Algonquin Park, and was awarded the contract to supply lumber for
the new Canadian Parliament Buildings in 1858. In addition to being
owned by several generations of the Booth family, this work was
listed in the catalogue raisonné of Krieghoff’s work compiled by
Marius Barbeau in 1934. It was exhibited at the National Gallery of
Canada and at the Art Association of Montreal in 1934. It is a
beautiful winter scene, accented with colour and full of engaging
detail.
In the vicinity of Krieghoff’s Montreal studio, he found endless
subjects to fill his canvases. He focused a great deal of his
attention on the First Nations people of Canada, in particular the
Iroquois of Caughnawaga, who settled along the banks of the St.
Lawrence River on the outskirts of
Montreal. In both summer and winter, the people of this village
traveled into the city to sell baskets, hides, moccasins and
gloves, trading their wares for rifles, cookware and European
clothing, which they readily mixed in with their own traditional
attire. In Indians on a Hunting Expedition, Krieghoff depicts two
Caughnawaga Iroquois heading towards a beautifully rendered forest
on a winter expedition, loaded down with their gear. Farther away
on the frozen river, other hunters head in the same direction,
while beyond the river Mount Royal is visible. Krieghoff was a
master of winter scenes, and his subtle treatment of the various
shades of white in the snow and the cloud~filled sky attest to
this. As well, the figures are rendered in fine detail. We can see
the stitching on their moccasins and the seams on their pants. One
man pulls a fine bentwood toboggan, leaning forward and using a
chest strap to help him move the heavy load. Blanket rolls and
other supplies are strapped to the toboggan, including a large
cast~iron pot. The second figure also leans forward under the
weight of his load, this time carried in a head strap pack, a
traditional method of hauling used in early Canada (which would
later be patented as the Duluth Pack in the United States by a
French Canadian). He toils under his heavy load, which includes a
rifle, and everything about him, from his patched Hudson’s Bay
blanket coat to his obvious strength, speaks of a life of hard
work. In a charming Krieghoff moment of humour, he glances at us.
In this moment of arresting engagement between him and us as
passive observers, it is as if there is a quiet communication. It
seems as if he wishes we would either give him some help, or mind
our own business and let him be as he toils through the snow.
Moments like this ~ when the figures engage with the viewer as if
we are participating in the scene, are part of the delight of
Krieghoff’s paintings, and one of the reasons for his enduring
appeal. He peppered his paintings with little moments of humanity:
jealousy, mirth, annoyance and humour. These moments, such as the
meeting of eyes ~ and minds ~ with the hunter here, give
Krieghoff’s figures their warm character. In this regard, and as a
portraitist of early Canada, Krieghoff was absolutely without
equal.
ESTIMATE: $90,000 ~ 120,000
127
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 43
127 CORNELIUS DAVID KRIEGHOFF 1815 ~ 1872
Huron Hunters at Big Rock oil on canvas on board, signed, circa
1860 11 7/8 x 20 in, 30.2 x 50.8 cm
PROVENANCE: Acquired by Theodore Doucet in Montreal, circa late
1800s By descent to the present Private Collection, USA
LITERATURE: Hughes de Jouvancourt, Cornelius Krieghoff, 1971, a
similar oil entitled Indian Hunters Around a Fire, in the
collection of The Public Archives of Canada, reproduced page 36 J.
Russell Harper, Krieghoff, 1999, page 137
Cornelius Krieghoff’s great skill at creating complex genre scenes
is clearly seen in this superb canvas. The native hunters are
depicted taking their ease around the fire, under a striking large
boulder known as Big Rock. Art historian Russell Harper notes, “One
of Krieghoff’s greatest series of paintings, large in format,
brilliantly coloured, and highly romantic, pictures Indians beside
a huge boulder popularly known as the ‘Big Rock.’ ” Such scenes
included the realistic and meticulous depiction of native dress and
activities, and here he paints the distinctive moccasins, clothing,
pipes and rifles of the hunters. Although their poses are natural,
and their activity part of their lifestyle, these complex tableau
scenes were carefully and artfully composed in the studio.
Krieghoff created a natural stage for the group on the bank of the
river backed by Big Rock ~ an enclosed and protected space. He also
placed them in the greater landscape context by including a
backdrop of an expansive view out to faraway misty mountains. In
this scene is encoded a viewpoint of First Nations people as noble
and free, unaffected by the artificialities of civilization, and
living at one with the natural world. The bounty of nature is all
around them, providing for their needs of food, shelter and
clothing, easily taken by using their expert hunting skills.
However, the challenges and discomfort of contending with the
harsher side of nature were excluded from these romanticized
scenes.
Krieghoff was quite familiar with First Nations people, and from
1853 to 1863, when he was residing in Quebec City, met the Hurons
at Lorette.
Unlike the Mohawks of Caughnawaga, the men of Lorette continued
their traditional hunting and trapping, and worked as guides for
hunting and fishing parties. Krieghoff snowshoed with Huron guides
to Lake St. Charles and was known to be a good hunter and marksman
who could always pick up trails in the woods. One of his best
friends was a Huron chief who spoke the traditional language of his
people.
Not only are paintings such as this fascinating for their depiction
of First Nations people in early Canada, they are also virtuoso
landscape paintings. Huron Hunters at Big Rock is painted with
precise draughtmanship ~ from the minutiae of leaves and blades of
grass to the moss~capped boulder, we perceive Krieghoff’s keen
observational eye. His colour palette is rich, with glowing autumn
hues in the trees, a turquoise sky and blue highlights in the rock.
The natural splendour of this wild Quebec landscape is
alluring.
One can easily see how such images would have appealed to
Krieghoff’s primary clients, the anglophone merchants and military
men of Montreal and Quebec. While in Quebec City, Krieghoff mixed
with well~off English residents; he fished, hunted and caroused
with them. He was gregarious in nature and shrewdly practical. The
cultivation of his clients allowed him to continue his life as an
artist at a time when few others could. Military officers, some
from well~known British families, acquired his work as reminders of
their life in Canada.
This work is an outstanding example of Krieghoff’s tableau
paintings of First Nations peoples. Among the impressive collection
of Krieghoff works in the Royal Ontario Museum is a similar oil
entitled Indian Scouts at Big Rock.
Huron Hunters at Big Rock possesses an excellent provenance that
can be traced back generations to its original acquisition in
Montreal by Theodore Doucet, a contemporary of Krieghoff. This
rediscovered painting has been returned to Canada, and as it has
remained in the same family, this is the first time it has been
offered for sale since its original acquisition by Doucet.
ESTIMATE: $100,000 ~ 150,000
128
128 FREDERICK ALEXCEE 1853 ~ 1944
Pole Raising at Fort Simpson, BC oil on canvas, titled and
inscribed nor Neash~na~waht indistinctly and Fort Simpson, BC,
circa 1900 13 1/2 x 22 1/2 in, 34.3 x 57.1 cm
PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the Artist by Reverend Thomas
Crosby, Fort Simpson, British Columbia By descent to the present
Private Collection, Vancouver
LITERATURE: Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek, The Transforming Image:
Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations, 2007, reproduced
figure 8.5, page 253
The carver and painter Frederick Alexcee, who was also known as
Wiksamnen, was the son of a Tsimshian mother and Iroquois father.
He lived most of his life in the village of Lax Kw’alaams (Fort
Simpson or Port Simpson) and seems to have begun his artistic
career by carving masks and other objects, examples of which are in
the collection of the UBC Museum of Anthropology and the Royal BC
Museum in Victoria. There is contradictory evidence about his
training, with Marius Barbeau reporting that he received extensive
training (in “Frederick Alexie, A Primitive”, Canadian Review of
Music and Art, 1945) and Viola Garfield (field notebooks from Port
Simpson, manuscript, Suzzallo Library, University of Washington)
suggesting that he was self~taught. Certainly his paintings, of
which this is one of the most important examples, suggest that his
approach was the somewhat naive one of the autodidact.
The village of Lax Kw’alaams had an important cultural life during
Alexcee’s youth, but like many First Nations villages, by the end
of the nineteenth century it was considerably changed through the
influence of Christianity and government policy, both of which
prohibited traditional ceremonies. His paintings document the
physical and cultural landscape of his childhood.
The raising of a pole was a momentous occasion in the life of a
First Nations village. It required the mobilization of large
numbers of people both to raise the pole and to celebrate the event
or person the pole honoured through ceremony and witness. The
enormous narrative detail of this work might make us believe that
Alexcee’s work documents a specific event, but more likely this
image is an amalgamation of a series of events associated with a
pole raising. It should be read, as Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek
have suggested, as a “visual metaphor” revealing “elements of
Tsimshian iconography and oral tradition” rather than documenting a
single occasion.
There are examples of Alexcee’s painting in a variety of
collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the
Wellcome Library, London, as well as in private collections. Pole
Raising at Fort Simpson, BC is particularly interesting because of
the wealth of information it conveys. We see the complex and
difficult process of raising a monumental totem ~ people with
pulling ropes on both the ground and the roof of the longhouse, the
crossed props that support the weight of the pole as it is
raised, and the daring individuals who balance on the pole itself
to secure lines. On the steps of the longhouse is a chief wearing a
great Chilkat robe and two figures holding coppers. On the left
side of the composition are figures with hides that were used to
send the names of deceased individuals “into the universe”. On the
right are figures carrying in gifts for those witnessing this
event. The importance of the event is emphasized by the nine chiefs
and elders we can see from behind at the lower edge of the
composition, each of whom is scattered with sacred eagle down, as
is the chief on the steps and one of the figures with the hides.
There are over 60 figures depicted in this complex and rich image,
suggesting the significance of the event, which engaged so much of
the village’s energy.
Pole Raising at Fort Simpson, BC hints at the cultural richness of
this Tsimshian community, something that was disappearing even at
the time Alexcee painted this work. It is striking and telling that
the vast majority of the First Nations work that Barbeau included
in his landmark 1927 Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art, Native
and Modern at the National Gallery of Canada was historical and
that the modern work was by non~First Nations artists such as Emily
Carr, Langdon Kihn and A.Y. Jackson. The work of Alexcee and others
was perceived as being part of the past. It would be decades before
poles began to be raised in villages on the West Coast again, and
rare images such as this one provided vital information on how
these events should be conducted when there were few alive who
remembered.
This rare and important work will be reproduced in the second
edition of the college textbook Native North American Art by Janet
Berlo and Ruth Phillips, to be published by Oxford University Press
in 2014.
ESTIMATE: $30,000 ~ 50,000
Frederick Alexcee stands brush in hand with Pole Raising at Fort
Simpson, BC
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 46
129
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 47
129 WALTER JOSEPH (W.J.) PHILLIPS ASA CPE CSPWC RCA 1884 ~
1963
Karlukwees, BC colour woodcut, signed, titled and editioned 31/100,
1929 10 1/2 x 12 1/2 in, 26.7 x 31.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Montreal
LITERATURE: Duncan Campbell Scott, Walter J. Phillips, 1947,
reproduced page 27 Carlyle Allison, The Art of W.J. Phillips, 1970,
the 1927 watercolour and graphite sketch entitled Karlukwees,
Village Island and the woodcut reproduced, unpaginated Michael J.
Gribbon, Walter J. Phillips, A Selection of His Works and Thoughts,
National Gallery of Canada, 1978, reproduced front cover, the 1927
watercolour and graphite sketch entitled Karlukwees, BC reproduced
page 64, the larger finished watercolour reproduced page 65 and a
photograph of Walter J. Phillips holding an impression of the
woodcut page 62 Roger Boulet, The Tranquility and the Turbulence,
1981, page 101, the related 1926 watercolour Myth of the
Thunderbird (Karlukwees) reproduced page 101, the 1927 watercolour
and graphite sketch entitled Karlukwees, Village Island and the
woodcut reproduced pages 125 and 126 Roger Boulet, Walter J.
Phillips: The Complete Graphic Works, 1981, reproduced page
319
EXHIBITED: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Walter J. Phillips,
1978, same image Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, To the Totem
Forests: Emily Carr and Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages,
August 5 ~ October 31, 1999, same image, catalogue #55.26.59
In 1927 Walter J. Phillips took a sketching trip to the West Coast,
visiting his sister at Alert Bay and then traveling by boat to
Tsatsisnukomi, Mamalilicoola and Karlukwees, a small settlement on
Village Island at the entrance to Knight Inlet. He wrote, “We found
another village ~ Karlukwees ~ more interesting than the others.
The clean white beach had borrowed its shape from the new
moon…Karlukwees provided
W.J. Phillips, in about 1942, holding up his famous colour woodcut
Karlukwees, BC
many subjects for painting. In fact, never have I seen a more
delectable sketching ground. I regretted leaving the coast, and I
long to return.” This exquisite woodcut is considered to be the
finest in Phillips’s woodcut oeuvre. Technically superb, with a
composition perfectly in balance, the delicate impression of
falling snow cloaking the village in stillness creates an
unforgettable atmosphere of peace. The woodcut is also a poignant
record of the village, as little remains of it today. In 1929
Karlukwees, BC was awarded a gold medal for best colour woodcut by
the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston. The National Gallery of
Canada has two impressions of Karlukwees, BC in its
collection.
ESTIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000
130
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 49
130 EMILY CARR BCSFA RCA 1871 ~ 1945
The Crazy Stair (The Crooked Staircase) oil on canvas, signed and
on verso titled The Crazy Stair and inscribed V 40 / no. 5 Crate I,
54 circled and W. H. Clark, circa 1928 ~ 1930 43 3/8 x 26 in, 110.2
x 66 cm
PROVENANCE: W.H. and Irene Clark, Toronto (Emily Carr’s publisher)
H.R. MacMillan, Vancouver A gift from H.R. MacMillan to The
Vancouver Club
LITERATURE: Doris Shadbolt, Emily Carr, 1990, page 135, titled as
The Crooked Staircase (Mimquimlees), reproduced page 134, and
related works: the circa 1908 ~ 1909 watercolour entitled Communal
House (Mimquimlees), in the collection of the BC Archives, PDP 920,
reproduced page 132; the circa 1912 watercolour, Untitled (Welcome
Figure, Mimquimlees), reproduced page 133; and the 1912 watercolour
entitled Cedar House Staircase and Sunburst (Mimquimlees), in the
collection of the BC Archives, PDP 2810, reproduced page 96 Doris
Shadbolt, Seven Journeys: The Sketchbooks of Emily Carr, 2002, the
related graphite drawings Figure at Mimquimlees, circa 1928, in the
collection of the BC Archives, PDP 08894, reproduced page 47 and
Stylized Drawing of a Totem Pole, 1929 ~ 1930, in the collection of
the BC Archives, PDP 08766, reproduced page 37 Charles C. Hill,
Joanne Lamoureux, Ian M. Thom et al., Emily Carr: New Perspectives
on a Canadian Icon, National Gallery of Canada, 2006, titled as The
Crooked Staircase, reproduced page 179, image #132, and the related
1912 oil on paperboard entitled Indian Community House, in the
collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (66.834) reproduced page
79, image #48, catalogue #145 and the circa 1912 oil on canvas
Memalilaqua, Knight’s Inlet, in the collection of the National
Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 149, image #111, catalogue #39
Gerta Moray, Unsettling Encounters: First Nations Imagery in the
Art of Emily Carr, 2006, page 291, related works: the circa 1908 ~
1909 watercolour entitled Communal House (Mimquimlees), in the
collection of the BC Archives, PDP 920, reproduced page 216,
catalogue #54; the circa 1912 watercolour, Untitled (Welcome
Figure, Mimquimlees), reproduced page 129, catalogue #9.11; and the
circa 1912 oil on canvas Memalilaqua, Knight’s Inlet, in the
collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 229,
catalogue #62
Emily Carr, Figure at Mimquimlees, circa 1928 graphite on paper, 9
1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
BC Archives PDP08894
HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 50
EXHIBITED: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Emily Carr, June 29
~ September 3, 1990, catalogue #95 National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa, Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, June 2 ~
September 4, 2006, traveling in 2006 ~ 2008 to the Vancouver Art
Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the Montreal Museum
of Fine Arts and the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, catalogue #97
Emily Carr’s engagement with First Nations people began in her
childhood, but the first appearance of First Nations subjects in
her work occurs in the late nineteenth century, when she visited
the Nuu~chah~nulth community of Ucluelet. The watercolours and
drawings produced during this visit are the beginning of a lifelong
artistic engagement with First Nations culture. This interest was
renewed and expanded when, in 1907, Carr and her sister Alice
traveled to Alaska and visited a number of First Nations villages
in both British Columbia and Alaska. She marveled at the house
fronts and totems she saw in Alert Bay
and elsewhere, and determined to return in the following summers
(1908 and likely 1909), producing a number of watercolours in Alert
Bay in particular.
Carr went to France in the summer of 1910 and spent much of 1911
studying there, returning to British Columbia in November of that
year. This period of study transformed her approach to her chosen
subject ma