Auction of Important Canadian Art With Ritchie's

Wednesday, 02 November 2005 12:37

TORONTO, CANADA.-Sotheby’s Canada, in association with Ritchies, is pleased to announce details of their sale of Important Canadian Art. The sale, featuring 224 lots, is expected to fetch $5.9 million to $8 million, the highest yet for Sotheby's, in association with Ritchies, 38 years in the Canadian market and the highest value per lot among Canadian auction houses. From a private collection, a group of impressive Krieghoffs will be offered, the finest to come to auction in over a decade. Most notable among them is Krieghoff’s portrait of John Budden, his longtime friend and patron, and one of the most important portraits of 19th century Canada. It is estimated to fetch $200,000-300,000. We are also pleased to offer the final portion of property from the Collection of the late R. Fraser Elliott, O.C., one of Canada’s foremost collectors, and someone whose activities and benefactions in the cultural world of Canada are legendary. Two David Milne canvases from his Palgrave period and a Lawren Harris mountain sketch are but examples among his discriminating choices. Featured on the catalogue cover is Robert Clow Todd’s highly rare work, Sledges and Figures Skating on the Frozen Lake in Front of Montmorency Falls ($175,000-250,000). Since the late 18th century, the Montmorency Ice Cone near Quebec City had been a favourite subject for artists captivated by its unusual beauty. One of the stars of the auction is Lawren Harris’s magisterial Algoma Hill, which depicts a scene near Mitchell Lake, Batchewana, and incorporates a castle-like hill of rock. Algoma Hill was a pivotal work for Harris; it advanced his artistic vision and inspired his later work in other Canadian locations. Painted in 1920, the work measures 46 x 54 in. and is estimated to bring $800,000-1.2 million. Two other major canvases by Harris will also be up on the block – Row of Six Houses, Backview, City Painting III ($400,000-600,000). J.E.H. MacDonald’s, Spruce and Maple, Algoma ($100,000-150,000), is an exciting offering, since MacDonald’s paintings of Algoma are extremely scarce and rarely come to auction. This exceptionally fine work was painted in 1919, just a year before the formation of the Group of Seven, when MacDonald was on the second "Group of Seven box car trip" to Algoma with Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson and Frank Johnston. The artists lived in a railway boxcar, which was shunted from siding to siding as they painted in the Algoma district for several weeks that autumn. It was the Algoma landscape, above all others, that inspired MacDonald; in these paintings, more than any other period of his work, he was able to express his ideals more forcefully than at any other time. A major work by J.W. Morrice Tanger, La Ville, last seen in 1926, has emerged from a private collection in Morocco, where it was painted in the winter of 1912-13, when Morrice was spending a second winter there with Henri Matisse. Although they worked independently during the day, the two artists fraternized over drinks at cafes and spent long evenings together over dinner, during which art was undoubtedly much discussed. Among contemporary works, in which Sotheby's in association with Ritchies has been a leader, are major works by Jack Bush, Ron Martin, Michael Snow, Claude Tousignant, Christopher Pratt, Gordon Smith, Guido Molinari, and Richard Gorman. Jack Bush’s talent is well represented with the vibrant April Blue Green ($50,000-70,000), and Encounter, painted in 1955, when Bush was a member of Painters Eleven and his painting had reached a maturity and power that was distinctively his own.

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