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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 125

watercolours and canvases but this work is one of the most accomplishedof his Boston Corners works. We clearly see the white church with itsbelfry on the left side of the composition, and Milne has carefully placedcolour accents through the buildings to lead us through the central part ofthe space. The work also exploits his love of the outlined trees with solidcolours of foliage between the branches, and on the distant hillside heuses a series of textured and flat areas of paint to define the topography ofthe form. These elements are at once immediately recognizable and on theedge of abstract pattern. His use of colour is also important, and inaddition to the white of snow patches, the predominant brown is animportant element, as are the colours blue and green. It is clearly not arealistic depiction of the scene and yet it is one of enormous confidenceand visual power.

Milne uses his love of line and pattern judiciously and to great effect.Look, for example, at the row of five trees which define the foreground ofthe painting. Each is treated entirely differently and yet each is, in its ownway, completely believable. The space as a whole is carefully developedthrough the use of four distinct bands within the composition ~ theforeground screen of trees, the middle ground with the brightly colouredbuildings which form a strongly diagonal movement linking us to thedistant hills, the hillside in the background, and above it all a thin strip ofwhite coloured sky. The eye explores the composition in a variety of waysand, as in all of Milne’s best work, there are areas of rest and areas ofgreater visual interest ~ what he called “compression.” The “interestingthings between the hills” have allowed him to produce a compositionwhich is immediately arresting but which deeply rewards our continuedlooking. As he wrote, “Painting is the lightning art, the impact from apicture may be received at one glance. But…it is not instantaneous. Timedoes enter in and there is always a progress through a picture.”

ESTIMATE: $400,000 ~ 600,000

the Paintings Volume 1: 1882 ~ 1928, 1998, reproduced page 191,catalogue #107.120

EXHIBITED:Possibly Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 113th Annual Exhibition,Philadelphia, February 3 ~ March 24, 1918, catalogue #266

By the time that David Milne decided to leave New York in 1915, he hadspent over a decade in the city. While he had received some criticalacclaim, he was unable to make a living as an artist and was unhappytrying to balance a career as a commercial artist with that of a fine artist.He decided to leave New York and find a location which, while withineasy commuting distance of New York (even then an important centre forexhibiting and selling his work), would be relatively inexpensive to live inand might allow him to devote himself to his work as an artist rather thantrying to make a living in the commercial field. He and his friend JamesClarke, who was an important early supporter of Milne and his work,scouted out a variety of areas before deciding on Boston Corners in upperNew York State (close to the boundary with Connecticut andMassachusetts). The move proved to be an important one for Milne, for itallowed him a period of exceptional productivity and provided him with arich assortment of painting subjects.

Milne and his first wife, Patsy, settled in Boston Corners in May of 1916.We are fortunate that he recorded some of his thoughts about BostonCorners in his 1947 “Autobiography” which remains in the Milne FamilyPapers. Of the small village he wrote, “It was more like finding a star or anelement. Certain facts about it were known beforehand, or at leastrequired. It had to be within reasonable distance of New York, yet beyondcommuting range and it had to be suitable for painting, preferably withhills to sit on while painting other hills. If there were interesting thingsbetween the hills, such as a village or lakes or ponds, so much the better.”He went on to describe Boston Corners as “a string of coloured beads,with one end dangling into the cut that held the two railways, one roadand one stream and was just wide enough to hold them. First, nearest themountains, was the church, small, white, with a belfry. Across the road, along gray house…Then the red school.” The architectural “beads” were tobecome important elements in many of Milne’s Boston Cornerslandscapes.

The Milnes were able to rent a relatively inexpensive house, the so~calledUnder Mountain House, and David began to explore the area for paintingsubjects. He wrote, “Painting subjects were scattered all over the place butrarely were more than two miles away. All were painted on the spot, andthen, good or bad, left alone; no attempt was made to develop or changeor repaint after the original painting was done. I had to carry a woodenpaint box, easel, stretched watercolour paper or canvas and, when I wentto the limit of my painting territory, my lunch, cold tea or coffee in a jar,sandwiches, cake if it was to be had, even pie, when there was pie.” Theworks produced in Boston Corners are, therefore, the records of directstudy of his subjects and their remarkable accomplishment clearlydemonstrate Milne’s rapidly growing strengths as an artist.

By the time Milne produced Snow Patches in 1917, he was very familiarwith the subject matter. The “beads” had already appeared in a number of


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137 DAVID BROWN MILNECGP CSGA CSPWC 1882 ~ 1953

The Pot of Flowers is Openedwatercolour on paper, signed and dated 1939 and on versotitled and inscribed by Duncan W ~ 168 / autumn14 x 15 3/4 in, 35.6 x 40 cm

PROVENANCE:Douglas Duncan Picture Loan Society, Toronto; Dr. H. Freeman, TorontoPrivate Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE:David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné ofthe Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, page 705, reproduced page705, catalogue #401.32

The David B. Milne catalogue raisonné states, “Duncan’s autumn date forboth paintings [also refering to a similar work of the same subject titledHyacinths in the Window] is probably incorrect because hyacinths arespring flowers.”

ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000


At East Aurora, New Yorkwatercolour on paper, on verso titled East Auroraand dated 1938 [sic] on gallery labels, October 193914 1/2 x 19 1/2 in, 36.8 x 49.5 cm

PROVENANCE:Douglas Duncan Picture Loan Society, Toronto; Vancouver Art Gallerypicture rental and sales, Vancouver; Mira Godard Gallery, TorontoGalerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal; Private Collection, MontrealBy descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal

LITERATURE:David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonnéof the Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, reproduced page 691,catalogue #306.121

EXHIBITED:Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, David Milne (1882 ~ 1953):Retrospective Exhibition, September 2001, catalogue #52

ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000


Far Shore, 1938watercolour on paper, signed and dated 1938and on verso inscribed by Duncan Far Shore W 31, 193810 x 13 in, 25.4 x 33 cm


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140 SYBIL ANDREWSCPE 1898 ~ 1992

Michaelmaslinocut in 4 colours, signed, titled and editioned 27/60, 193512 x 8 3/4 in, 30.5 x 22.2 cm

PROVENANCE:Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE:Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982, reproduced page41, catalogue #33Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, 1995, reproduced page 115

ESTIMATE: $7,000 ~ 9,000

141 SYBIL ANDREWSCPE 1898 ~ 1992

Anno Dominilinocut in 3 colours, signed, titled and editioned 15/60, 197016 x 11 3/4 in, 40.6 x 29.8 cm

PROVENANCE:DeVooght Gallery, Vancouver; Private Collection, Montreal

LITERATURE:Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982, reproduced page64, catalogue #61Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, 1995, reproduced page 124

ESTIMATE: $4,000 ~ 6,000

PROVENANCE:Douglas Duncan Picture Loan Society, TorontoHelen Barberian, TorontoThe Canadian Fine Arts Gallery Ltd., TorontoPrivate Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE:Douglas Duncan catalogue W~31David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonnéof the Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, reproduced page 655,catalogue #306.3

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 15,000


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142 EMILY CARRBCSFA RCA 1871 ~ 1945

Masset, QCIoil on canvas, signed M. Emily Carrtitled and dated 1912 and on versoinscribed $35 / OMS, Purchased 28 September 193714 1/2 x 19 in, 36.8 x 48.3 cm

PROVENANCE:Acquired directly from the Artist in 1937By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver Island

The importance of Carr’s examination of First Nations’ totemic art in herpaintings of 1912 and later in the 1920s is now so securely established inour minds that it is difficult to comprehend now just how revolutionarythis work was at the time. Not only was Carr introducing the brighter,non~naturalistic colours, broken brush~stroke and immediacy of visionthat she had gained in her short period of study with Harry Phelan Gibband Frances Hodgkins in France in 1911, but perhaps more significantly,she was focussing attention on the artistic and cultural achievements ofthe First Nations peoples of her beloved British Columbia. This came at atime when most of her contemporaries had little time for the culture ofany place other than Great Britain, and where any interest in the lives andculture of the First Nations was, at best, anthropological or evangelical.The notion that these totemic works were to be treasured anddocumented was, to put it mildly, a decidedly minority point of view. Herachievement, when considered against this larger cultural and socialbackground, remains quite remarkable. The fact that these paintingsremain vividly alive to us today is even more so.

Masset, QCI is one of an important series of paintings that Carr producedin the latter months of 1912 in preparation for her major showing ofpaintings in Vancouver at Drummond Hall in April of 1913. Thisexhibition, one of her most important early showings, was, sadly, not thegreat success that Carr wanted. The Government of British Columbia didnot, as she had hoped, purchase the works as a record of the vanishingFirst Nations cultures. The body of work that Carr exhibited consisted ofa variety of studies of totems, house fronts, canoes, villages and, morerarely, panoramic views of some of the villages that she visited. Among themost notable of these are views of the villages of Gitsegukla, Kispiox, AlertBay, Yan and Masset. Although there is clearly a raven~topped pole at theleft of the composition, this work is closer to some of her sweeping Frenchlandscapes of the previous year (such as Autumn in France, NationalGallery of Canada) than the close studies of individual poles. The primarysense we get is of the grandeur of the setting, the solemn enormity of thepoles (look at the small scale of the figures) and the sheer spectacle ofnature. Carr has given us a quick point of entry into the space of thepainting through the pathway in the left foreground but has quicklylimited our progress through the emphatic horizontal of the band ofbrightly~lit cloud at the centre of the composition. The dark grey clouds

which sweep out over our heads and the cropping of the tops of the polessuggest that we, the viewers, are looking with Carr at this dramaticlandscape. For it is indeed striking, with Carr’s treatment of the lights anddarks within the composition, and the whole being chromatically closewith only a few vivid flashes of colour. This is not simply a documentaryview of Masset; rather, it is a superb early modernist painting.

An indication of how rare these canvases are to the market, Heffel’s has nothad an oil on canvas from Carr’s important 1912 series of paintings sinceWar Canoes, Alert Bay that sold in May 2000.

ESTIMATE: $200,000 ~ 300,000

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143 THEODORE J. RICHARDSON1855 ~ 1914 AMERICAN

Wrangell, Totem Poleswatercolour on paper, signed9 3/4 x 14 1/2 in, 24.8 x 36.8 cm

PROVENANCE:Private Collection, New York

LITERATURE:Charles C. Hill, Johanne Lamoureux, Ian M. Thom et all, Emily Carr,New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon, National Gallery of Canada, 2006,similar work entitled Old Kasaan reproduced page 19 and a similar workin the exhibition entitled Wrangell, in the collection of the Alaska StateMuseum, Juneau, listed page 307Gerta Moray, Unsettling Encounters, First Nations Imagery in the Art of EmilyCarr, 2006, similar work entitled Old Kasaan, in the collection of theAlaska State Museum, Juneau, reproduced page 81

ESTIMATE: $7,000 ~ 9,000



Bush and Pastureoil on canvas, signed and dated 1932and on verso inscribed #3220 1/4 x 24 1/4 in, 51.4 x 61.6 cm

PROVENANCE:Milne sale to Massey, 1934; P.M. Fowlie, Toronto, 1938Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, 1972By descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal

LITERATURE:Ian M. Thom, editor, David Milne, essay by François~Marc Gagnon,the Vancouver Art Gallery and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection,1991, page 136

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné ofthe Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, reproduced page 556,catalogue #302.184

EXHIBITED:Mellors Galeries, Toronto, Exhibition of Paintings by David B. Milne,November 27 ~ December 8, 1934James Wilson and Co., Ottawa, Exhibition of Paintings by David B. Milne,January ~ February 1935W. Scott and Sons, Montreal, Exhibition of Paintings by David B. Milne,March 18 ~ 31, 1935

In 1932 Milne was living in Palgrave, a small village in the Caledon hillsnorthwest of Toronto. Despite the difficulties of the Depression years,Milne created a large and richly varied body of work in his three yearsthere. Bush and Pasture demonstrates Milne’s strong interest in theobservation of skies. In a letter to his patrons, the Masseys, Milne statedthat his feeling of serenity in contemplating the landscape “came from just

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one thing, the great restful space above the horizon. He [Milne] canreproduce his emotion aesthetically by placing on the lower part of hiscanvas an area of detailed shapes and above this a larger, dominating area,perfectly blank, no detail, no gradation, unteased, unnoticed, withoutinterest in itself, merely an area of rest, a refuge.” Milne communicates hisaesthetic emotion by painting with an exquisitely simple line and softlymodulated spaces that make Bush and Pasture a serene visual poem.

ESTIMATE: $50,000 ~ 70,000

145 JAMES WILSON MORRICECAC RCA 1865 ~ 1924

Gondoliers, Veniceoil on panel, signed6 1/4 x 3 7/8 in, 15.9 x 9.8 cm

PROVENANCE:Private Collection, Quebec

ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000

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146 JAMES WILSON MORRICECAC RCA 1865 ~ 1924

Figure and Landscape, Franceoil on board, on verso titled on a label and inscribed#B105 / 4146 and stamped with the F.R. Heaton Estate stamp11 1/2 x 7 in, 29.2 x 17.8 cm

PROVENANCE:F.R. Heaton Estate, MontrealGalerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., MontrealBy descent to the present Private Collection, Montreal

Morrice first traveled to Paris from Montreal in 1890, and it became hisartistic and spiritual home. He became one of Canada’s first internationalartists ~ he exhibited internationally, was collected by museums both inEurope and America, and received almost unanimous praise from artcritics of the time.

F.R. Heaton was Morrice’s dealer in Montreal at W. Scott and Sons, andwas the son~in~law of William Scott, the founder of the gallery.

ESTIMATE: $15,000 ~ 20,000

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147 EMILY CARRBCSFA RCA 1871 ~ 1945

Arbutus Tree / Untitled Portrait versodouble~sided oil on canvas, signed, circa 1913 ~ 192022 1/8 x 18 1/8 in, 56.2 x 46 cm

PROVENANCE:Laing Galleries, TorontoPrivate Collection, QuebecBy descent to a Private Collection, OttawaSold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House,November 25, 2004, lot 126Private Collection, Victoria

LITERATURE:Alexandra Gill, “Emily Carr”, The Globe and Mail, October 21, 2004,reproduced in colour, front page

Emily Carr had few opportunities to paint during the period 1913 ~1928, but despite her duties as landlady, dog breeder, sometimecartoonist for the local newspaper and ceramicist she occasionally turnedher attention to the landscape. This handsome painting is one of two oilsfrom this interim period in which she depicted the arbutus trees socommon on the West Coast (the other canvas, dated 1922, is in thecollection of the National Gallery of Canada). Carr had treated thearbutus on a number of occasions, including a fine early watercolour (inthe collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery) before she went to France.She was, of course, struck by the vivid colouration of the trunks of the treeand this canvas uses the vivid orange of the trunk to great effect. Carr isable to use the colour to contrast it with the greens of the foliage andground cover and the intense blue of the ocean. Here Carr is able to makefull use of the lessons she learned with Harry Phelan Gibb in France. Inthe manuscript for Growing Pains she describes one of his sketches asfollows: “It was not a copy of the woods & fields, it was a realization ofthem. The colors were not matched, they mixed with air. You wentthrough space to meet reality. Space was the saliva that made your objectsswallowable.” This is an apt description of this work, the tree has palpableweight and exists within a fully realized landscape. Carr is not afraid touse colour expressively rather than matching it to reality ~ this is seen inthe trunk of the tree itself but also in the foliage of both foreground andbackground trees. It is a vivid and exciting canvas and one which, whileindebted to the example of Gibb, is clearly Carr’s own vision.

This work has a portrait of an unidentified young woman on the verso,which Carr essentially discarded as she obscured the portrait by washy

paint when she decided to use the other side of the canvas. Carefulconservation to remove this overpaint has revealed this sensitive image.This work, which may date from the period of her early training in SanFrancisco at the California School of Design (now the San Francisco ArtInstitute) which she attended from 1890 ~ 1893, is an important earlyexample of Carr’s work as a portraitist. While there are several earlywatercolour portraits, this is the earliest oil portrait known. Looselypainted, this somewhat ethereal portrait recalls the work of EugèneCarrière, the French painter who was immensely popular and widelyadmired in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

ESTIMATE: $500,000 ~ 700,000


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Spring Showers (Budding Poplars III)watercolour on paper, May 194514 1/2 x 21 1/2 in, 36.8 x 54.6 cm

PROVENANCE:Douglas Duncan Picture Loan Society, TorontoS.M. Gossage, Montreal, 1953Private Collection, TorontoPrivate Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE:Milne to Alan Jarvis, Jarvis Papers, National Gallery of Canada, undatedIan Thom, David Milne, 1991, page 167

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné ofthe Paintings Volume 2: 1929 ~ 1953, 1998, reproduced page 863,catalogue #405.26

EXHIBITED:Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, 1992

Ian Thom writes: “Milne’s watercolours from the forties are amongst hismost extraordinary achievements. In luminous washes floating across thepage…Milne has come close to his ‘desire to set things down with as littleexpenditure of aesthetic means as possible…to wish them on without anymaterial agent.’ This grace and fluidity is, however, a product ofexceptional skill.” This work was painted at Uxbridge, Ontario, whereMilne moved to in 1940.

ESTIMATE: $20,000 ~ 25,000


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150 MARC~AURÈLE FORTINARCA 1888 ~ 1970

Ville franchewatercolour and charcoal on paper, signed and on verso titled25 1/2 x 18 1/2 in, 64.8 x 47 cm

PROVENANCE:By descent to the present Private Collection, Arizona

Typical of Fortin’s watercolours, a base of form for the work is establishedby his use of strong outlines of charcoal over which watercolour islayered, contrasting rich areas of colour such as the blue water and brownbrick with areas lightly coloured. This serves to emphasize the essentialstructure of the work in the graceful curves of the streets and the forms ofthe architecture.

ESTIMATE: $10,000 ~ 15,000

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149 MARC~AURÈLE FORTINARCA 1888 ~ 1970

Paysage ~ scène européennewatercolour and charcoal on paper, signed30 x 22 in, 76.2 x 55.9 cm

For Marc~Aurèle Fortin, waterways and the architectural settingsassociated with them ~ bridges, ports and docks ~ represented bothplaces of passage and routes of reverie. Throughout his career Fortinfocused his pictorial attention on the depiction of sites both rural andurban. Scenes connected to modern industry and architecture continuedto fascinate him, including images of ports and bridges, and this thematicconcern would inspire his work while in Europe, as is evident in Paysage ~scène européenne.

ESTIMATE: $25,000 ~ 30,000


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151 FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEYARCA G7 OSA 1881 ~ 1969

Misty Day, West Coast(North Shore from Point Grey, Vancouver)

oil on board, signed and on verso titled Misty Day, West Coaston the Kenneth G. Heffel label, circa 192812 x 15 in, 30.5 x 38.1 cm

PROVENANCE:Sold sale of Important Canadian Art, Sotheby Parke Bernet (Canada) Inc.,May 26, 1981, lot 180Kenneth G. Heffel Fine Art Inc., Vancouver, 1981Private Collection, Calgary

LITERATURE:Naomi Jackson Groves, F.H. Varley to Elizabeth Styring Nutt,January 1, 1932Peter Varley, Frederick H. Varley, 1983, page 16Maria Tippett, Stormy Weather: F.H. Varley, A Biography, 1998, page 150

Although exhibiting regularly through the Ontario Society of Artists andat the National Gallery, as well as teaching at the Ontario College of Art inToronto, Varley had grown restless and had lost interest in easternlandscape. He first saw the Rocky Mountains from the outskirts ofCalgary during a 1924 trip there, and became smitten with the idea ofmoving west, stating to his wife Maud that “from now on I want to paintmountains.” After making his decision to do so, he confided hismotivation to Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery, stating, “I wantbadly to try out many adventures in paint that have been caged~intoo long.”

In 1926, Varley accepted a teaching position at the Vancouver School ofDecorative and Applied Arts, and by all accounts was an enthusiasticteacher who had a good rapport with his students. Varley’s work hadalready been exhibited in Vancouver ~ in 1921 at the British Columbia ArtLeague’s gallery and in 1922 with his fellow Group of Seven members atthe Pacific National Exhibition. Although the Vancouver art scene was notwell developed compared to the East, the British Columbia Artists’League, formed in 1920, was working to change that.

In 1927 Varley and his family moved into The Bungalow at 3857 Point

Grey Road which overlooked Jericho Beach, the Gulf of Georgia, BowenIsland and the North Shore mountains. Varley was immediatelyenchanted by Vancouver’s beauty and poetry of atmosphere, particularlycloud and mist effects drifting over the ocean and across the mountains.The house had a large deck built out over the beach and from this loftyvantage point Varley painted the magnificent view. As Varley’s son Peterrecounts, “Dad would often paint from a corner of the deck, sittingstraight~backed, on a kitchen chair, another chair reversed in front tohold his sketch box. His whole being became absorbed in seeing andsensing, mouth working as if tasting the emeralds and rose madder on thebrush tips. He shifted the familiar forms of the mountains, altering theirshapes into a lyrical freedom his work had not known until then.”

Not only did his work find a new lyrical freedom, but his paletteexpanded into iridescent jewel tones of blue, green and purple, whichwere unique to him. These colours established a tranquil mood in hisworks, and Varley was known to have considered blue~green to be aspiritual colour. In Misty Day, West Coast, Varley contrasts theneighbouring hues of deep blue, turquoise and pale blue of sky and waterwith warm tones in the rocky foreshore and mountain. His blues pervadethe scene, creating an element of spatial de~materialization in contrast tosolid mountain and rock. Varley was greatly interested in the depiction ofmists and cloud and the evocative atmosphere this brought into thedrama of the landscape. It is intriguing to note that Varley was interestedin historical Chinese painters, and felt that Chinese painting had capturedthe landscape in a way that he admired. Perhaps he was influenced byChinese landscape painters’ fusing of emotion with scenery, and theirbelief that that a work of art should function both as an object ofcontemplation and as a communication of a poetic sentiment inherent inthat landscape which is being contemplated. Varley’s passion for the BClandscape shines from his work, and is embodied in his statement that“British Columbia is Heaven, it trembles within me and pains with itswonder as when a child [in England] I first awakened to the song of theearth at home…Only the hills are bigger, the torrents are bigger, the sea ishere and the sky is vast.” Varley’s British Columbia paintings arebecoming increasingly rare to the market, and Misty Day, West Coast is avisually stunning example of this body of work.

ESTIMATE: $175,000 ~ 225,000


152 FRANKLIN MILTON ARMINGTONMSA 1876 ~ 1941

Les pins à St. Efflamoil on canvas, signed and dated 1916and on verso signed and titled24 1/4 x 19 7/8 in, 61.6 x 50.5 cm

PROVENANCE:Galerie Lucien Lefebvre~Foinet, ParisPrivate Collection, New York

This work is a very good example of Armington’s artistic style.Perspective, colour and application have produced a breathtakinglandscape scene where the trees appear impressively grand due to theperspective of the painting. There is evidence of an impressionistic stylein the shrubbery of the foreground, which adds to the natural light effectsof the painting.

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 15,000

153 FRANK (FRANZ) HANS JOHNSTONARCA CSPWC G7 OSA 1888 ~ 1949

Cabin in the Snowtempera on paper board, signed8 x 6 in, 20.3 x 15.2 cm

PROVENANCE:Roberts Gallery, TorontoPrivate Collection, Toronto

Johnston achieved a reputation throughout his career for his abilityto capture the effects of light, and his works from his trips tonorthern Ontario are fine studies of the play of light on snow. Cabinin the Snow shows his extraordinary ability, rendered in broadstrokes of tempera paint.

ESTIMATE: $6,000 ~ 8,000

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154 J.E.H. (JAMES EDWARD HERVEY)MACDONALDALC CGP G7 OSA RCA 1873 ~ 1932

Algonquin Parkoil on panel, on verso titled and dated 19138 x 10 in, 20.3 x 25.4 cm

PROVENANCE:Laing Galleries, TorontoPrivate Collection, Vancouver

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000

155 WILLIAM KURELEKARCA OC OSA 1927 ~ 1977

Hare Hunting on Warm Winter’s Day,Renfrew County

mixed media on board, initialed and dated 1975and on verso titled8 1/4 x 13 1/4 in, 21 x 33.7 cm

PROVENANCE:Loch Mayberry Fine Art Inc., WinnipegPrivate Collection, Toronto

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 16,000

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156 A.J. (ALFRED JOSEPH) CASSONCGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~ 1992

Winter Sceneoil on panel, signed and on verso signed, circa 19309 1/4 x 11 1/4 in, 23.5 x 28.6 cm

PROVENANCE:Private Collection, Toronto

In 1926, Casson became a member of the Group of Seven. Winter Scene isa stunning work that would have been produced early in Casson’s artisticcareer. Casson, the youngest member of the Group, was in his thirties inthe 1930s, and it was in this decade and the early 1940s that Cassonpainted many of his finest works. Casson’s sketches from this period werethe nine by eleven inch size, and it is in his later work that he switches hissketch size to the twelve by fifteen inch works.

ESTIMATE: $20,000 ~ 30,000


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Cathedral Mountainoil on board, on verso signed, titledand estate stamp, circa 19288 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm

PROVENANCE:Collection of the Artist; By descent to Thoreau MacDonald, ThornhillArthur P. Holden, Toronto; Private Collection, Toronto

This charming panel by J.E.H. MacDonald is fresh and bright. It is a viewof Cathedral Mountain, a favourite peak of the artist, from one of thelower elevations in this high mountain range. Most often, MacDonalddepicted Cathedral Mountain looking across a wide distance from the

southwest shore of Lake O’Hara, or from the higher locations at Opabinand Oesa, rather than from below as we see here. It may be thatMacDonald had not yet been to those other locations. This sketching spoton the southeastern shoreline of lower O’Hara Lake is a short walk fromthe Log Cabin Camp where MacDonald stayed in1924, and he wouldhave encountered it early in his explorations that year. The work is quitedecorative in handling; the trees framing our view are executed with anart nouveau flourish, the rocks colourful and slick, the water alive andswirling. The composition is reminiscent of Morning, Lake O’Hara, 1926,one of his finest canvasses, now in the collection of The Sobey ArtFoundation.

We thank Lisa Christensen (author of The Lake O’Hara Art of J.E.H.MacDonald and Hiker’s Guide) for contributing the above essay.

ESTIMATE: $100,000 ~ 150,000



Mt. Huber, Lake O’Haraoil on board, dated September 10, 1930 and on versosigned, titled Mt. Huber? Lake O’Hara and dated8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm

LITERATURE:National Archives of Canada, J.E.H. MacDonald Papers, 30 D 111, Volume 3

Wiwaxy Gap has a reputation as a grunt of a hike today ~ straight up. It is aspot J.E.H. MacDonald often depicted in his O’Hara sketches, and one ofthe views in his favourite 360 degree mountain panorama, which could bepainted comfortably from the Opabin Plateau. MacDonald would settle inthe boulder~strewn ledges where he often worked, having a cache for tea

nearby. In the sketch, we see a slight edge of one of the Wiwaxy Peaks onthe very left of the work, Wiwaxy Gap itself with a grey cloud peekingover it, and Mount Huber on the right. It is a similar location to the sketchMountains and Larches, Rocky Mountains, in the collection of the NationalGallery of Canada. Significantly, the sketch dates from 1930 ~ his last yearpainting in the Canadian Rockies and the year he formed a club withfellow artists and photographers Peter and Catharine Whyte, and Tommyand Adeline Link, which they called the Opabin Shale~Splitters. In hisjournal from the day this work was painted, he writes: “A very clearmorning, blue sky and no cloud. We all went to Opabin and had a finetime among the rocks and valleys.” The Shale~Splitters hiked together atO’Hara from about September 6 to September 17 of that year.

We thank Lisa Christensen (author of the Lake O’Hara Art ofJ.E.H. MacDonald and Hiker’s Guide) for contributing the above essay.

ESTIMATE: $30,000 ~ 40,000

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159


Parrot at Warren Roadoil on board, initialed and dated 1918 indistinctlyand on verso signed and titled on a label8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm

PROVENANCE:Gift from the Artist to the previous owner’s grandparents, TorontoSold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House,November 24, 2005, lot 10Private Collection, Toronto

The previous owner’s grandparents were very close friends of J.E.H.MacDonald and his wife. They lived at 169 Warren Road, the garden of

which is the subject of this painting. The MacDonalds stayed at theirresidence often and in fact, after J.E.H. MacDonald passed away, Mrs.MacDonald lived for a short time with them on Warren Road.

ESTIMATE: $100,000 ~ 150,000

160 WILLIAM GOODRIDGE ROBERTSCAS CGP CSGA CSPWC OC OSA RCA 1904 ~ 1974

Still Life with Antlersoil on canvas, signed and on verso signed, titled, dated 1945and inscribed with the Dominion Gallery Inventory #B606on the Musée de la province de Québec label30 x 38 in, 76.2 x 96.5 cm


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161 WILLIAM GOODRIDGE ROBERTSCAS CGP CSGA CSPWC OC OSA RCA 1904 ~ 1974

Green Cloth and Grey Walloil on board, signed and on verso titledand dated 1966 on the Roberts Gallery label12 x 16 in, 30.5 x 40.6 cm

PROVENANCE:Roberts Gallery, TorontoPrivate Collection, Montreal

ESTIMATE: $4,000 ~ 5,000

PROVENANCE:Acquired directly from the Artist by the current owner,Dr. Jean Sutherland Boggs, past Director of the National Gallery ofCanada from 1966 to 1976

EXHIBITED:Musée de la province de Québec

Roberts is particularly known for his understated still life paintings. Theson of a New Brunswick poet and novelist, he studied at the École desbeaux~arts de Montréal and at the Art League in New York. In the 1940she taught at the Art Association of Montreal with Arthur Lismer, and wasan official war artist for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Lismer’s assistant atthe time was Jean Sutherland Boggs, later to be Dr. Boggs, Director of theNational Gallery of Canada from 1966 to 1976. Boggs became a friend ofRoberts and his wife, and bought this important early painting directlyfrom the artist. It was painted on the porch of a small cabin which Robertsrented near Orford in the Eastern Townships. The subject matter is anassemblage of the few simple objects which lay around the cabin and canbe seen as a reflection of the artist’s humble financial situation at the time.

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 15,000

162 LAURA ADELAINE LYALL MUNTZARCA OSA 1860 ~ 1930

Chrysanthemumsoil on canvas, signed, circa 191020 x 24 in, 50.8 x 61 cm

PROVENANCE:Private Collection, Ontario

ESTIMATE: $12,000 ~ 15,000

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163 LAWREN STEWART HARRISALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS 1885 ~ 1970

Sand Lake, Algomaoil on panel, signed and on versosigned, titled and inscribed $60, 192110 1/2 x 13 3/4 in, 26.7 x 34.9 cm

PROVENANCE:Acquired from the Artist by a Private Collection, OntarioBy descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario

Harris and Jackson were constant sketching partners in the early years ofthe 1920s. They worked together at Algoma many times on the boxcartrips, painting unnamed lakes and spending their nights in the warmth oftheir railway boxcar. In Sand Lake, Algoma and in Lot 164, we have asketch of the same view painted by each of them, quite likely done

working side by side. Harris employs his careful brushwork to depict thetracery of the treetops which stand out starkly against the light of thesetting sun. The treatment recalls his decorative snow scenes of a few yearsprior, yet the work is much freer, less detailed, more about the wildernessthan about the detail of the wilderness. Harris’s trees and the reflections inthe water are the main theme of this work, in contrast to Jackson’s wherethe various parts of the scene have equal weight. Harris and Jackson bothliked to paint late in the day. In Harris’s version of the Sand Lake scene thework is set in late afternoon or early evening, with the light fading, longshadows and the lake touched with red.

ESTIMATE: $175,000 ~ 225,000

heffel fine art auction house 125 · heffel fine art auction house 125 ... corners in his 1947...

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