Claude Tousignant, Absurdo (1964) – Price Realized $188,800
May 28, 2019 (Toronto, ON) – An energetic and hypnotizing canvas by Claude Tousignant had bidders spellbound during the Tuesday evening Consignor Canadian Fine Art Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art, when it fetched $188,800 (all prices include the 18% Buyer’s Premium), more than tripling the opening bid. Absurdo (1964) drew feverish bidding attention from participants in the room and on the telephone before being hammered down well beyond expectation.
David Milne’s Soft Hills (Misty Hills) (Boston Corners, N.Y.), a masterful 1917 watercolour also attracted strong attention in the packed auction gallery at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum, finally selling for $112,100, more than doubling the painting’s pre-sale estimate of $40,000-60,000. The stunning watercolour appeared for its first time at auction with Consignor and the rarity drew praise and attention from collectors across Canada.
Algoma Sketch XCII (Algoma Autumn), a 1920 oil sketch portraying the region where the Group of Seven embarked on their earliest sketching trips as an official association sold for $125,000 during the week, while a small graphite sketch by the artist (Algoma) fetched $25,960, exceeding its pre-sale auction estimate.
A close friend of Harris and Group of Seven, Tom Thomson’s Road Near Leith (1908) sold for $100,300, the early canvas, depicting the region where the painter was born and his family lived, exceeding the high-end of expectation.
Prairie-born Colour-Field painter William Perehduoff also turned heads during the May auction with AC-69-29 (1969) commanding strong competition in the auction gallery before finally selling for $51,920, more than doubling the opening bid volleyed by the auctioneer.
Other notable results during Consignor’s spring auction include:
Bill Reid,Bear Cub Pendant (1990), the 22k gold jewellery work by the internationally renowned Haida artist, fetched $47,200 (exceeding the high-end of pre-auction expectation).
Jack Bush, Ochre Blue Square, the small canvas by the celebrated post-war painter selling for $30,680, while an earlier, 1951 work by the artist, Lovers, sold for $28,320 (within expectation).
William Kurelek, Tale of a Dog, a gift from the painter to the consignor, a fellow framer and friend, achieved $10,620 (exceeding the high-end of pre-auction expectation).
Frederick Varley, Spring Meadow, Don Valley, a vivid canvas painted during the period in which the Group of Seven were associated, sold for $28,320 (within expectation).
The season continues with a second online session of Canadian artwork on offer until June 5th and a further session of Canadian and International artwork included in the Consignor June Online Auction between June 9th and 16th.
Auction Showcases Important Non-Figurative Works in Canadian Art History
Consignor’s Fall Live Auction of Canadian Art presents an impressive selection of abstract painting from artists across the country and through the decades. Early ventures into abstraction in Canada occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, although they were sporadic and inconsistent. These artists, notably Kathleen Munn, Bertram Brooker, Lawren Harris and Jock MacDonald, were heavily influenced by European artistic movements, namely Cubism, Surrealism and Symbolism. An examination of the abstract works in Consignor’s November sale can help illustrate the story of how abstraction emerged and developed throughout Canada in the following decades.
In the 1940s, Montreal gave rise to the highly-influential Automatistes, Canada’s first avant-garde art movement. Under the leadership of Paul-Émile Borduas, a group of young artists rebelled against their artistically conservative and politically and religiously repressive province. They strove for creative spontaneity, free from academic rules.
After reading André Breton’s “Le Surréalisme et la peinture” in 1945, Jean-Paul Riopelle was inspired to break away from tradition to pursue non-representational painting. The young artist created several small watercolours in the next two years, consisting of web-like black lines, inspired by Surrealism and Breton’s automatic writing techniques, such as Sans titre of 1946, lot 6 in Consignor’s November sale.
Another member of the Automatistes, Marcelle Ferron was encouraged by Borduas to abandon landscape painting in favour of a more radical abstraction. From 1946 to 1953, Ferron preferred a ‘sgraffito’ technique, applying multiple layers of pigment and scraping away between applications with a palette knife. This signature approach of Ferron is exemplified in the colourful layers of paint in Sans titre (1949), lot 101 in the Live Auction.
In the following decade abstraction spread across Canada. Toronto exploded as an art centre in the 1950s, largely influenced by the Abstract Expressionists in New York. Harold Town was a founder and member of the Painters Eleven, a group of Toronto abstract artists that exhibited together during the 1950s. Rich colour and thick paint application, as exemplified in Clandeboy Reprise(1959), lot 71, are characteristic of Town’s approach to abstraction, inspired by the New York School.
Contemporary artist Michael Snow exhibited in Toronto in the mid-to-late 1950s at the Greenwich Gallery. Though today he is known as a pioneer of conceptualist and multimedia art throughout the world, Snow’s work of these years were also heavily influenced by American abstract artists such as De Kooning, Kline, and Rothko. Off Minor(1958), lot 25 in Consignor’s November auction, exemplifies Snow’s affiliation with avant-garde abstract movements at the time, shortly prior to creating his famous Walking Woman Works.
A notable and influential group of Canadian abstract artists formed in Regina in the 1960s, known as the Regina Five. Founding member Ron Bloore was instrumental in starting the Emma Lake workshops as a way for practising artists to break from the artistic isolation they felt in the prairies. As a professor of art history and archaeology, the influence of archeological excavation and ancient civilizations worked their way into Bloore’s painting.The monochromatic palette of Untitled, lot 86, references the white marble buildings and sculptures of ancient Greece and the Classical period.
During the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops held in 1962-63, Saskatchewan artist William Perehudoff was introduced to Post-Painterly Abstraction by art critic Clement Greenberg and American artist Kenneth Noland. Many of the artist’s wide horizontal canvases of the mid-to-late 1970s are composed of vibrant parallel bands of colour, such as AC-78-20, lot 11 in the live auction. The effect of the flat plains and open skies that are so dramatically present throughout Saskatchewan is often detectable in Perehudoff’s work – AC-78-20 may be evocative of a prairie sunset.
Jack Shadbolt was an innovative and dominant figure in the Vancouver art scene beginning in the 1940s. Shadbolt drew from many sources of inspiration, including Cubism, Surrealism, American Regionalism and Northwest Coast art. The artist met Emily Carr in 1930 while attending Victoria College. Carr left a strong impression on Shadbolt’s life and work; they were both inspired by the spiritual unity with nature that is apparent in Northwest Coast art. Sea Edge 5 (1978), lot 9, is exemplary of Jack Shadbolt’s bold and colourful work of the late seventies. Sea Edge 5 serves as part of a series on the theme of abstracted seascapes, and Contexts: Variations on Primavera Theme, lot 10, is one of 15 hand-painted posters of the ‘primavera’ theme, which together form a mosaic-like mural.
Abstract painting in Canada has continued to evolve through a multitude of approaches in the 1970s, 80s and through to today. Lot 8,Rituel, by Léon Bellefleur, Lot 31, Spring Yellows – B by Gershon Iskowitz, and Lot 103, Les feuilles d’un astre by Jean-Paul Jérôme, among many other non-figurative artworks in Consignor’s Fall Live Auction, demonstrate the enduring development of unique abstract styles throughout the country, from the ‘gestural’ to the ‘hard-edge’. Visit our gallery and view the full catalogue on the Consignor website for more artworks and details regarding the Fall Live Auction of Important Canadian Art on November 23rd at the Gardiner Museum.
(L to R) Lawren Harris, Lake Superior; Emily Carr, European Scene; Mary Pratt, Baking Bread; Michael Snow, Off Minor
From Charlottetown to Vancouver, Consignor’s National Travels Yield Notable Works by Emily Carr, Mary Pratt & Alex Colville to be offered on November 23rd
(Toronto – November 1, 2017) – Behind many masterpieces, there is a sketch that formulates the artist’s ideas and vision. Consignor Canadian Fine Art announces its fall semi-annual auction highlights that will include a rare pencil sketch by Lawren Harris, the preparatory work for of one of his most renowned canvases, Lake Superior, which currently hangs in the Thomson collection in the Art Gallery of Ontario. The sketch, once owned by his wife Bess Harris, carries an auction estimate valued at $20,000 – $30,000; however, its rarity and significance as the precursor to a major canvas could challenge the record for a pencil sketch by the Group of Seven artist. It debuts on the auction block at Consignor’s live auction event taking place Thursday, November 23, 2017at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto.
“The significance of pencil sketching to Lawren Harris is well known,” says Rob Cowley, President of Consignor. “His pad of paper and pencil were just as important as the oils and brushes he carried on sketching trips. We’re thrilled to have acquired this important piece of narrative in Harris’s creative process, particularly a sketch that is connected to one of his most renowned works. It is a stunning work and we expect lively bidding when it reaches the block on the 23rd.”
Fellow artist and close friend of Harris, Yvonne McKague Housser quoted the below about the artist’s process in graphite: “His drawings are a key which open the door to what he was thinking and painting… The drawings were important as an introduction, to clarify his mind before he started a painting.”
This past summer, Consignor set out on a 10-city Art Roadshow travelling from the Maritimes to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina and Vancouver, inviting the public to consult with their specialists regarding works of art for valuation. It was during the tour that Consignor discovered some of its most unique offerings and exceptional works including the Lake Superior sketch. Other highlights from the tour, which will be offered at Consignor’s Fall Auction of Important Canadian Art include:
Emily Carr, European Street Scene, watercolour painted in 1911 during her artistic training in France (auction estimate $150,000 – $175,000), discovered in Calgary, AB
A.J. Casson, Bridge Over Humber River, one of the first outdoor sketches by the artist (auction estimate $20,000 – $30,000), discovered in British Columbia
Featured on the cover of the Consignor fall auction catalogue is a 1958 canvas by Michael Snow titled Off Minor, being offered for the first time at auction with an estimated value of $40,000 – $60,000. The abstract painting, which measures 60” X 36”, was privately owned by Joseph Gladstone, the brother of Toronto artist Gerald Gladstone, and has not been seen at auction until now.
Live previews are ongoing at the Consignor Canadian Fine Art Gallery located at 326 Dundas Street W. and viewable at consignor.ca. Consignor’s Fall Live Auction of Important Canadian Art event will take place on Thursday, November 23, 7:00pm at the Gardiner Museum located at 111 Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON.
Last December, Rob Cowley, the president of the Toronto-based auction house Consignor Canadian Fine Art and Appraisers, got an email from an Australian collector inquiring about a piece of art. When he opened the attached photograph, he knew he was looking at something extraordinary. Even though the image was low-res and fuzzy, he instantly recognized it as a version of Island-MacCallum Lake by Lawren Harris, a painting so emblematic of the country’s most important art movement, it was the cover of the National Gallery of Canada’s 1995 book, The Group of Seven: Art for a Nation, written in celebration of the famous painters’ 75th anniversary.
First exhibited in 1921, Island-MacCallum Lake (which now belongs to the Vancouver Art Gallery) is a fall scene of a tree-covered island resting in serene Algoma waters. Long known as one of Harris’s most important works, its subject is one the artist returned to repeatedly; he made at least four known variations of the painting—one of which sold in 2008 for just over a million, reputedly to the actor and comedian Steve Martin.
“Because its tall, thin trees are so distinct,” Cowley says, he knew that he had been sent an image of the painting that Harris had done as a study for Island-MacCallum Lake. He also knew that this work was extremely special because its whereabouts had been unknown. “It had never been in an exhibition, or a book, and that it had never been seen by anyone but its owners’ friends and family for most of the last century.”
From a picture of the back of the painting, Cowley also knew there was no question about its authenticity. It showed a rare label from the Mellors-Laing Galleries, once located at 759 Yonge St. in Toronto. “Because the gallery was in existence for only one year—1940,” says Cowley, “we could date the work’s sale.” The painting’s verso showed the number 48, which corresponded to an inventory of Harris’s art created in 1936.
Talented, well-educated and wealthy (he was heir to the fortune of farm-machinery manufacturer Massey-Harris Co. Ltd) Lawren Harris was the perfect patrician voice to lead the early 20th-century charge for Canadian art. After attending the University of Toronto, he spent four years in Berlin from 1904 to 1908, where he found himself observing a culture whose art schools were being shaken by new approaches toward painting. Impressionism, expressionism, and abstraction were teachings that he brought home and shared with friends, including Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald. He became the unofficial leader of the Group of Seven, which held its first exhibition in May 1920.
Algoma, the northwestern Ontario region beyond Lake Superior, where Harris found his subject for Island-MacCallum Lake, became a critical geographic inspiration for the group. Harris first visited the territory in May 1918. Mesmerized by its expansive vistas of trees and winding rivers where no clearings could be spotted for miles, he returned to the uncharted territory repeatedly and with fellow Group of Seven members MacDonald, Frank Johnston and A.Y. Jackson. They travelled in a railway boxcar that Harris had refurbished with a sink and a stove so that it could be used for transport and as a living quarter. Few of the lakes in Algoma could be found on a map, so the group named the bright waters they painted after people they admired. Harris titled the scene in Island-MacCallum Lake in homage to Dr. James MacCallum, the renowned patron of Tom Thomson.
What Harris most certainly would never have imagined is how six decades later his study for that work, now known as Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48), would find its way to Australia. In 1940, a Toronto businessman purchased the painting at the Mellors-Laing Galleries. He and his wife placed it on the wall of their family room, where bedtime stories were read to their young daughter. In the 1960s, that daughter moved with her husband to Canberra, but Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) always remained in her mind. Knowing this, her parents willed her the work, and in the 1980s it became part of her South Pacific home. The painting “always reminded me of comfortable family times and camp days in northern Ontario,” she told Maclean’s, requesting to remain anonymous.
She contacted Cowley not long after Steve Martin thrust Harris into the international art spotlight. Martin, a collector of such 20th-century cultural game- changers as Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat and Edward Hopper, purchased works by the Canadian painter after he was struck by Harris’s unique ability to render landscape “in a non-European way.” When Ann Philbin, director of Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, saw paintings by Harris in Martin’s collection she convinced the star to use his celebrity to curate an exhibition for her institution. Wanting to bring Harris to the world’s attention, he agreed, and last October The Idea of North (co-curated with the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Andrew Hunter) opened in L.A. before it travelled to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Next month the show comes to Toronto’s AGO. “Ultimately,” Martin told Maclean’s in advance of the L.A. show, “I think the work is just going to slay everyone.”
Meanwhile, the market has paid unprecedented amounts for his art. Last November, his sales record was broken when the auction house Heffel sold Mountain and Glacier(1930) for $4.6 million, more than triple its presale high estimate of $1.5 million. That hasn’t gone unnoticed by those who own works by Harris. Heffel, as well as Canadian auction house Waddington’s, have Harris paintings in their spring sales. “Arguably there could never be a better time than now to sell works by Harris,” said David Silcox, art historian and former director of Sotheby’s Canada.
Still, because of the Canberra owner’s bond with Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48), she initially had “no interest in selling the work,” says Cowley. “She wanted an appraisal of her painting.” Things only began to change when Cowley explained the historical significance of what was hanging in her living room. By late January, she began to wonder, “How can I hang on to such a critical piece?”
As she is a widow living alone, learning about the value of the work sparked concerns over whether her home had a proper storage and security system. As well, because the painting meant so much to her, she said, “I wanted to make sure that the work ended up in the hands of a collector or institution that appreciated its importance.”
Still, she had a final reservation before letting Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) out of her home: How would it be sent to Canada? The painting, which was under glass, could not be transported in this format, but removing its frame was a challenge for anyone but an expert. Cowley offered a suggestion: “What if I came to your house to pick up the painting?” That persuaded her to consign the work.
And so, in early February, Cowley left for his first visit to Australia, which, including travel was a 90-hour round trip. “I flew out on a Sunday, arrived on a Tuesday, visited my consignor on the Wednesday and flew back on Thursday.”
When he arrived at his client’s house, Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) was sitting on her living room sofa. Although the painting had a thin layer of dirt on it—a combination of soot from the woodburning stove in the boxcar where Harris first kept the work plus more than eight decades of dust—Cowley knew the condition of the work was exceptional. “You don’t worry when the painting is dirty,” he explained. “It would be more concerning if it had been improperly cleaned, in which case sometimes damage is done to the art.”
For the next 25 hours Cowley transported Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) further than any other work by Lawren Harris has ever travelled. The painting, which he carried in a specially insulated, custom-built brief case, was never out of his grasp.
Once back in Toronto, he went straight to the studio of a leading conservator of works by the Group of Seven. Now Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) is as clean as when Harris finished it in 1920. “Over the last century there was a bit of curvature to the board, which is not uncommon with wood panels,” says Cowley. “Other than that it is pristine.”
On May 31, 2016, Cowley himself will stand at the podium taking bids when Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) is placed on the block at Consignor Canadian Fine Art’s Spring Auction of Important Canadian Art. For him as well as his client—be it a major gallery or private collector—the scholarship on Harris has taken a step forward. Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48) has now been publicly catalogued, it can be viewed online, it is part of a new dialogue and will likely make it into exhibitions in the near future. “The painting brings me back to the reason why I went into the business,” says Cowley, “It’s a chance to hold history and share it.”
Harris Among Important Canadian Artists Highlighted in First-Ever Live Auction Event for Consignor Canadian Fine Art on May 31, 2016
(Toronto – March 31, 2016) – An exceptional Lawren Harris oil sketch that was recently discovered in a private collection half way across the globe in Australia, will debut on the auction block nearly 80 years since it was first acquired from a Toronto gallery in 1940. Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48), an autumn oil sketch painted by Harris in 1919/1920, during the time when the Group of Seven officially formed as an association of painters, is expected to fetch $400,000 to $600,000 at Consignor Canadian Fine Art’s inaugural Live Auction of Important Canadian Art, taking place at the historic Berkeley Church, in downtown Toronto on May 31, 2016.
In addition to its pristine condition, the value and rarity of this particular Harris sketch stems from the fact that it served as the preparatory work for several of the artist’s well-known large canvases including Island, MacCallum Lake (1921) part of the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery; as well as for three others: Northern Island, Northern Painting XXV, 1924; Northern Painting 25, Northern Island II; and Island, Northern Painting XXI, which are all believed to currently reside in private collections. Harris first visited the Algoma region of Ontario in 1918 and returned on multiple occasions with fellow members of the Group of Seven. Algoma Sketch 48 was acquired by an anonymous buyer in 1940 from the historic Laing Mellors Gallery in Toronto, later travelling with the family when they moved overseas.
“We’re thrilled to offer such an exemplary example of Lawren Harris’ work in our first live auction,” said Rob Cowley, President of Consignor Canadian Fine Art. “It has become increasingly rare to find a Harris preparatory sketch for any of his well-known works, let alone four. We made the trip to Australia to secure the consignment personally from the client and we are delighted to be introducing this important artwork to Canadian collectors.”
Lawren Harris is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, and his works are currently at the height of popularity with the much-lauded retrospective The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris, co-curated by actor, comedian and art-collector Steve Martin, anticipated to make its Canadian premiere at the Art Gallery of Ontario in July 2016.
Several weeks of live previews will begin during the first week of May at the Consignor Canadian Fine Art Gallery located at 326 Dundas Street W. Consignor’s inaugural live Spring Auction of Important Canadian Art event will take place on Tuesday, May 31, 7:00 pm at the Berkeley Church, located at 315 Queen St. E in Toronto, ON.
“Through careful consideration and feedback from our clientele, we decided that it was time to begin this new chapter for Consignor,” said Lydia Abbott, Managing Director of Consignor Canadian Fine Art. “It is with great enthusiasm that we announce our first live auction of Important Canadian Art this spring with an exciting selection of artwork, including work by many of the most sought-after artists in the art market right now.”
The live auction event begins a new tradition for Consignor, augmenting its current slate of notable online auctions established over the past three years through Consignor.ca. Since its inception in 2013, Consignor’s auctions have included headline-grabbing works such as a rare 100-year-old Tom Thomson portrait (Daydreaming, sold for $172,500) and an undiscovered William Kurelek (Ukrainian Proverb, sold for $41,400). Consignor’s offering of Jack Bush’s Summer Lake broke online auction records in May 2014 for the most expensive painting by a Canadian artist to be sold at an online auction ($310,500), and its June 2014 auction saw eight artists’ records broken.
Consignor is also viewing artwork for consideration for the upcoming Online Auction of Canadian Art, acting as the second session to the live sale, with bidding open at Consignor.ca between June 1 – 8, 2016.
