Posted by & filed under Cowley Abbott Updates.

Patrick & Franklin
Lot 39: Franklin Carmichael, “Study of Trees, Autumn” (circa 1920-22), oil on beaverboard, 10 x 12 ins, Estimated: $60,000-80,000, Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art
(June 15th)

This is one of the works in our Spring Live Auction that just keeps drawing my attention back in for another close look. Carmichael’s mastery of the medium is on full display here. The surface buzzes with autumn colours and the paint handling is both sensitive and confident. The best of the Group sketches have an incredible immediacy to them, a quality this work has in spades.

Lot 39: Franklin Carmichael, “Study of Trees, Autumn” (circa 1920-22), oil on beaverboard, 10 x 12 ins, Estimated: $60,000-80,000, Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art
(June 15th)

Learn more about this Franklin Carmichael oil painting at https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW40521. Included in our Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art on June 15th at Toronto’s Globe & Mail Centre!

Patrick Staheli, Art Specialist & Manager – Online Auctions. Contact Patrick at [email protected].

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Peter & Pegi:
Lot 33, Pegi Nicol MacLeod Jump Rope, oil on canvas, 33 x 24 ins, Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art (June 15th)

This won’t come as a surprise to you, but I see a lot of art. The special works I experience stay with me and the very special works are revisited in my memory time and time again.

Pegi Nicol MacLeod A Descent of Lilies , oil on canvas, 122 x 91.6 cm, The National Gallery of Canada

Pegi Nicol MacLeod’s A Descent of Lilies in the National Gallery of Canada collection is one of those unforgettable pieces. I saw it at the McMichael’s exhibition of Uninvited: Canadian Women Artist in the Modern Moment.  To me, this masterpiece, was such a powerfully creative and beautiful work it outshone all the other paintings in the exhibition.  I was reminded of the experience recently when I saw another MacLeod painting which is included in our Live Auction of Important Canadian Art, June 15.

Lot 33, Pegi Nicol MacLeod Jump Rope, oil on canvas, 33 x 24 ins, Spring Live Auction of Important Canadian Art (June 15th)

Jump Rope (lot 33), is a painting we sold to a collector during my time at Masters Gallery in Calgary. After enjoying this great work for many years, the B.C owner has decided to sell. During my time at the gallery in Calgary we sold several terrific MacLeod paintings that came to us out of the artist’s estate. Jump Rope was one of them. Not only is it one of the largest New York canvases I’ve seen, it also is one of the best examples from this period. The painting’s visual impact, composition and condition are extraordinary, and it is a treat to see it again. Jump Rope is one of my favourite paintings in the auction. Check it out online at https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW40773

Peter Ohler, Private Sales & Western Canada Representative / Senior Canadian Art Specialist. Contact Peter at [email protected].

Posted by & filed under Cowley Abbott Updates.

The auction market is certainly alive and well and Cowley Abbott is delighted to be entrusted with exceptional Historical, Post-War, and Contemporary artworks included in our current dedicated May online auctions. The auctions complement our Live Auction of Important Canadian Art and offer collectors the opportunity to build their collections with rare gems of important artworks. This week we are rounding up a sampling of many of the highlights in the auctions.

Historical Canadian Art

On the heels of the widely successful “Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment” exhibition curated by Sarah Milroy and hosted by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection before travelling to the Glenbow in Calgary and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, women artists have been going through a renaissance on the market. With important works and texts uncovering some of the lesser-known areas of Canadian Art, the market has been enriched with a deeper understanding of these integral women and their contributions to the canon of Canadian art history.

Anne Savage “House in the Hills / Hills & Trees”

Anne Savage “Lower St. Lawrence, Métis”

Anne Savage often depicted rural Quebec landscapes, favouring farm scenes and forest landscapes. Similar to her fellow Beaver Hall members, Savage maintained a high level of rhythm of line and form within her artworks. The artworks in our May Online Auction of Historical Canadian Art have been executed with a keen sense of form, compositional balance, and a nod to abstraction with the simply rendered buildings. On the artist’s work, art critic Richard H. Haviland explains: “She is completely the landscape artist. A modernist, she is an able interpreter of the Canadian scene, and seeks to bring out the main characteristics of her subject with a bold summarization of forms. Her work is strongly coloured and shows a fine sense of design.” The keen use of vibrant greens and teal juxtaposing with soft pastels are a hallmark of the artist’s work and imbue a unique energy and palette differing from the Group of Seven and many of her male counter parts.

Bertram Brooker “Oaks on Assiniboine”

Upon visiting Winnipeg in the summer of 1929 and meeting with Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, Bertram Brooker abandoned pure abstraction for the exploration of abstraction in figural and natural forms within the landscape. Rather than progress to abstraction as many of his peers had, Brooker instead utilised this bold initial experimentation with abstraction to incorporate into this later body of work. Heavily influenced by FitzGerald, Brooker adopted a refined and simplified stylistic handling of form, not dissimilar to the graphic arts of his early professional experience as a graphic artist. Rather than embrace the wild and ragged handling of paint to express the rugged terrain of the Canadian landscape, Brooker instead saw how the landscape could be abstracted and flattened while maintaining a refined dynamism. Utilizing compositional balance, “Oaks on Assiniboine” explores the modern handling of the landscape in the thirties, with a harnessing of simplified formalism, energetic movement with the diagonal lines within the natural forms, rendered in graphic black ink. Especially for emerging collectors, this work on paper is an excellent example of the artist’s history as a graphic designer and his exploration of modernism in landscape art.

Frederic Bell-Smith “Westminster Bridge, London”

Born in London, England, his father, John Bell-Smith, was a portrait and miniature painter. He studied in London at the South Kensington Art Schools, and in Paris under Courtois, Dupain, and T.A. Harrison. F.M. Bell-Smith has captured this iconic London landmark with vigour, depicting London as a sea of colour and a hive of activity. The acute detail in this work is testament to the artist’s keen talent of controlling the watercolour medium. The work captures the misty grey atmosphere of the city while the figures go about their day selling flowers, carting grain, commuting on London’s famous double-decker buses, and strolling along the bridge protected by black umbrellas. Bell-Smith mastered the difficult task of conveying the wet conditions with reflective puddles and a hazed background barely visible through the thick fog. Of particular note is the bright pops of colour in the work set against the otherwise blue-grey tonal scene; the red cap of the small girl walking with her sister, a bright green advertisement cladding the red bus, and the yellow blooms laying on the flower seller’s tray. The work is an exceptional example of the artist’s skill as a watercolourist and gives a charming snapshot into the artist’s life in London documenting his surroundings.

Post-War and Contemporary Art

William Hodd McElcheran “A Man & Muse”

A young artist trained in painting, McElcheran only dabbled in sculpture before committing to the medium. Inspired by European masters such as Giacomo Manzù, Alberto Giacometti, Donatello, and Michelangelo, McElcheran was interested in the heroic larger than life presence of figurative works. First working as a designer and producing religious figures, McElcheran began to develop the ‘Everyman’ form which became the forerunner to his iconic ‘Businessman’ image. This work incorporates the ‘Everyman’ while still referencing the artist’s religious motifs with an ethereal angel-like muse gracefully looking down on the man. There is a rhythmic quality to the sculpture with the gentle curve of the forms in harmony with each other. It is as though the muse is in a position of ‘saviour’ for the man who reaches up from his toes, with a longing gaze requesting to be taken away. From a taped interview with Dorothy Cameron for the Toronto City Hall exhibition catalogue, McElcheran explained, “For thousands of years artists have painted, modelled and carved the human form. I am thankful for this spadework, but I am not going to stop now and say that nothing more can be down with this infinite theme. The Greeks lived before Freud; the Renaissance came before Darwin. Today we have something else to say about man! The artist is one of the few people who still have the freedom to choose. In the face of fifteen thousand years of human thought, out of the confrontation of this vast environment of human creativity, he has the power to choose what he loves and infuse it with his own spirit.”

Mary Pratt “Grapes in a Colander”

A mature work by the artist, this mixed media piece exemplifies the artist’s strength in finding beauty in the everyday. While her husband Christopher Pratt, painted full-time, Mary Pratt did so only when she had a spare moment in her homemaking duties. She found her subjects in her daily routine, with a focus on food – jars of jelly, bowls of fruit, raw meat and fish. Pratt elevated these images of everyday household objects from the banal to something beautiful and significant. With regards to her choice of subject matter, the artist declared: “My strength has always been to find something where others found nothing. There’s a depth to everything, and everything is worth looking at, like those roses that are now past their prime. Everything is worth consideration. I really believe that.”. The luminous yellow of the grapes acts as a beacon of light emanating from the work and is complemented by the bright warm red of the colander reflected in the surface below. The work stands as a delightful representation of Pratt’s interest in capturing the effects of light to add a dramatic or theatrical aspect to her artwork.

Jean-Philippe Dallaire “Le chute d’Icare”

The artist lived in Paris throughout different periods of his life, exposed to the works of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dali. The reduction of form, simplification of line, and oblong shapes of colour within the composition are indicative of the artist’s practice of incorporating multiple tokens of abstract techniques into his works. Jean-Philippe Dallaire is best known for his imaginative and animated paintings composed of unconventional and macabre figures. He was inspired by Italian theatre, mythological figures, surrealism, synthetic cubism, and art brut. In his original and bold artwork, such as “Le chute d’Icare”, the real and the imaginary are intertwined in a world of form and colour. Here, the artist represents the Greek story of the Fall of Icarus, the cautionary tale advising that youthful carelessness will lead to one’s downfall. Dallaire always remained a representational painter, despite a continued interest in abstraction. The artist played a role as a precursor in the return to figure painting in Canada during the late 1960s.

Many more fantastic works pepper our May online auctions with full artwork details included in our online catalogue listing. Contact our specialists for more information and we would be delighted to assist!

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A warm welcome to Eryn Brobyn as she joins the Cowley Abbott team!

Eryn holds a Masters degree in Art Gallery and Museum studies from the University of Leeds and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History with a minor in Studio Art from the University of Guelph. Upon graduating from the University of Guelph she was the recipient of the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation Printmaking Award. While completing her Masters degree she worked at Harewood House in Yorkshire where she utilized her art historical knowledge and gained experience of museum procedures, public relations and client service and art handling skills in her role as Senior House Guide.

Eryn joins Cowley Abbott with eight years of commercial art world experience having spent the majority of her career working for a global auction house in London, UK. She has a comprehensive knowledge of the auction world having advanced through a number of roles to her current position as an Art Specialist. Initially specializing in prints and topographical pictures, these days she considers herself a generalist with specialist knowledge ranging from historical and contemporary Canadian to international works.

Eryn can be contacted directly by email at [email protected].

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We are pleased to welcome Catherine Lacroix to the Cowley Abbott team!

After completing her undergraduate studies at Concordia University, Catherine received her Master’s in Art History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she specialized in Renaissance art. She then interned at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, researching European works within the permanent collection while providing administrative assistance.

Eager to further explore the commercial art world, Catherine undertook a short course at Christie’s in New York before moving to Vancouver to work at YKLM Auctions as part of the Canadian contemporary and Asian art departments. She contributed to establishing the reputation and increasing the visibility of this new auction house among local collectors and artists.

Catherine Lacroix can be reached directly by e-mail at [email protected]

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30 years in Calgary, 6 years in Vancouver and now, later this spring, here on the second floor at Cowley Abbott on Dundas St. in Toronto, Peter Ohler will have a new home to meet with clients and show a selection of Top Quality Canadian Art available for Private Sale. Please feel free to contact Peter at [email protected] for more details or drop in to view his recent acquisitions.

One of the recent acquisitions that will be on display, a wonderful 1927 David Milne oil.

David Milne
Under the Porch, Big Moose Lake,
Adirondacks, N.Y. 13 September 1927
Oil on canvas
12×16 in.

Milne inventory #207.98

Provenance
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto c.1980
Private Collection
Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, 1990
Private Collection

Exhibited
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, Centenary
Exhibition, 1982, no. 7

The verandah of the staff house at the Glenmore Hotel on Big Moose Lake provided David Milne with a sheltered painting place on several occasions. Under the Porch as well as The Glenmore, Big Moose, and Hotel Across the Way were all painted from this location.

During the five years between the spring of 1924 and 1929, Milne’s life was split between Big Moose Lake in the summers (where his time was largely absorbed by building a teahouse) and Lake Placid in the winters (where he and Patsy ran the teahouse at Ski-T, at the foot of the Intervale ski-jump). The construction schedule at Big Moose Lake and the responsibilities at the Lake Placid Club cut heavily into Milne’s painting time and, although he produced some outstanding paintings, his overall production fell sharply.

David Milne Jr and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Toronto, 1998, cat. no. 207.98

Posted by & filed under Cowley Abbott News & Press, Cowley Abbott Updates, Sale Updates.

Looking through the Prints, Photography and Multiples auction, we see excellent works by the masters of the 20th Century, including Picasso, Motherwell, Dali, Albers and Chagall. But there are two exceptionally rare prints that are wonderful examples of the difference between an etching and an engraving.

River Drifters (River Drivers) by Frank Weston Benson

The first is entitled Rivers Drifters (Drivers) by Frank Weston Benson, who was already an accomplished painter when he took up printmaking. Benson was a member of a group, who became known as The Ten American Painters. They were an exhibition group that included Impressionists, Tonalists and Figure painters, such as Childe Hassam and John Henry Twatchman. William Merritt Chase would join the group later upon the death of Twachtman.  Benson was exhibiting with the group when he took up etching recreationally in the early part of the 20th Century. He would have great success exhibiting and selling his work in this medium. His usual subject matter of choice was wildlife or sporting subjects.

However, in River Drifters (Drivers) from 1914, no wildlife is present, instead he has focused attention on two loggers working along the Grand Lake Stream in Washington County. Especially wonderful is the small detail of the pipe in the standing figure’s mouth. This is a fantastic example of the etching technique, where the lines have been burned (etched) onto the plate using a chemical process, having been coated in a substance that is acid resistant called the etching ground. The image is then drawn through the ground to reveal the plate below, which is then bathed in acid etching the plate. When compared to etching, engraving is a much more physical process, where lines are carved into the plate using sharp tools producing a cleaner more pronounced line.

Three Girls on a Chicken (Sasowsky 214) by Reginald Marsh

Reginald Marsh studied under John Sloan at the Art Students League in New York. His subject matter were the people of New York, whether at play on Coney Island, dancing at a night club, riding the subway or just walking the street. Here is another American artist who took printmaking to a new level. Not only was he concerned with the finished product, but he was also obsessed with how he arrived there. Part of his process was making sure the temperature in his studio was just right for printmaking. Marsh was also aware of the age of the bath that his plates were soaked in, recording how long the paper soaked, observing the heating of the plate and the nature of the ink used in printing. Three Girls on a Chicken is from 1941, from an edition of approximately only twenty and is an extremely scarce engraving presenting Marsh at his finest.

Perry Tung viewing the offerings of this month’s online auction

Cowley Abbott is delighted to offer these rare works in our Prints, Photography and Multiples Auction currently open for bidding until April 19th.

Posted by & filed under Cowley Abbott Updates.

Anna is a Senior Specialist of Canadian Art at Cowley Abbott, having more than ten years of experience in the Canadian art world. While continually remaining highly engaged with all aspects of art and culture, Anna is passionate about absorbing as much as she can through exhibitions, shows, talks, publications and more.

The Toronto arts scene is robust, having expanded and grown immensely over recent years. As one of the members of Cowley Abbott who was born and bred in Toronto, Anna, what have you noticed in terms of the arts and culture community in the city?

I grew up going to exhibitions and shows at the AGO, ROM, TSO, National Ballet, etc. with my parents. I am thankful for those nostalgic memories, as it fostered a steadfast interest and love for art and culture from a young age. It is a wonderful sign of growth for the arts community of Toronto to see new art galleries popping up and art institutions being founded. Private galleries and auction houses, for example, are no longer primarily located in the Yorkville area, but are now scattered throughout the city, signalling positive expansion. The pandemic certainly changed how we interact with and appreciate art exhibitions, creating exciting virtual opportunities (which Cowley Abbott embraced), but it really is exhilarating to be back at our Canadian art and cultural institutions in-person again. Attend an exhibition or show as soon as you can!

Cowley Abbott now holds a twice-yearly Inuit and First Nations Auction, amongst the many other exciting auctions. This is an exciting venture and one that all of the team feel strongly about in terms of learning and respecting the artwork. You have a profound interest in historical Canadian art, but we hear you also enjoy studying Indigenous art?

I do indeed have a profound interest in historical Canadian art – anything that I can sink my teeth into that affords me the chance for a deep dive into research, but this also applies for Inuit and First Nations art. I had the rare opportunity many years ago to work with and learn from a friend with vast experience in Inuit art. (Actually, my entrance essay for the Christie’s Master’s program explored the sculptural creations of the Inuit artist, Manasie Akpaliapik.) As a result, I enjoy discovering new artists and having the opportunity to handle Inuit artworks entrusted to CA for sale – the tactile element is wonderful. With fantastic organizations like The Inuit Art Foundation, which seeks to support Inuit artists through the beautiful Inuit Art Quarterly (subscribe today!), as well the recent publications on Indigenous and Inuit artists from the Art Canada Institute, we can learn more about this beautiful and unique art form and the many talented artists. Make sure to visit the AGO’s current exhibition, “Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful”, and read all you can!

Anna Holmes can be reached directly by e-mail at [email protected]. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Introducing the Cowley Abbott Team” in a week!

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Patrick graduated from OCADU in 2005 and has 15 years of experience working in fine art galleries and auction houses. Joining the Cowley Abbott team in 2019, Patrick has enthusiastically continued developing his knowledge of historical, modern and contemporary Canadian art.

Patrick, you are immersed in art in all aspects of your life, as you are an artist yourself! This is of great benefit to Cowley Abbott and wonderful to have an artist on staff. Can you tell us a bit about your art practice and inspiration?

It has definitely been useful to draw on a familiarity with painting materials and processes. I often find myself looking very closely at paintings and thinking about the process the artist went through. It is such an immense privilege to be surrounded by incredible works by so many different artists each day. My own paintings are a mix of different influences, sort of a dialogue between geometric structures and more painterly forms. It’s abstract, but I see it as a “content-based abstraction”.

As an alumnus of the Ontario College of Art and Design, you walked the halls that many celebrated Canadian artists also frequented. Can you share what your studies at OCAD were focused on and how that experience informed your decision to work in the art world?

The history associated with OCAD is pretty fascinating. It’s so rewarding to look at art and also learn about the lives of artists, local histories and the wider social and cultural contexts. While I was at OCAD, the focus was very much on studio practice, and it was a great time to experiment with different mediums and connect with peers and teachers. Any long-term creative pursuit is going to have ups and downs, but painting seems to have a way of constantly pulling me back. So I feel very fortunate to be working in a field where I’m very much engaged with art of the past and present.

Patrick Staheli can be reached directly by e-mail at [email protected]. Stay tuned for the next installment of “Introducing the Cowley Abbott Team” in a week!

Posted by & filed under Cowley Abbott News & Press, Cowley Abbott Updates, How to.

Lot 147: Ronald York Wilson, Prehistoric Enigma
mixed media on paper, 8.75 x 9 ins
Estimate: $400-600

Accessible Art Picks in the February Online Auctions

Cowley Abbott’s February online auctions are divided into three categories: Canada & Abroad, Three Dimensions, Works on Paper & Prints. I am going to highlight some of my (more affordable) picks and provide a bit of background information as to why I chose them.

Lot 14: W.E. Atkinson, Shades of Evening
oil on canvas, 20 x 16 ins
Estimate: $1,500-2,000

In my previous blog post, I mentioned how I like auctions because they expose you to a wide range of art, making you consider some artworks you wouldn’t have otherwise sought out. For example, I am generally drawn to abstract art because I studied it in school and it is modern and often colourful. If I were to look to buy art at a gallery I would probably seek out a modern art exhibition. That being said, the artworks that strike me the most in this month’s sales would be considered quite traditional: George Reid’s Sketch for “Spring and William Edwin Atkinson Shades of Evening. They are both soft and romantic, with a very impressionistic quality. This goes to show that auctions can open your eyes to new things – they provide the opportunity to surprise yourself!

Lot 58: Manly MacDonald, Baker House Close, Edinburgh
etching, 10.25 x 8 ins
Estimate $250-350

Etchings are a beautiful type of printmaking that require an impressive and painstaking technique. The image is first etched by hand into a copper plate, then submerged in acid, then run through a printing press. The process requires an incredible attention to detail with essentially no margin for error, and as a result I feel that etchings deserve more attention than they often receive. Manly MacDonald’s etching Baker House Close, Edinburgh is a charming and delicate depiction of a Scottish street scene, and it has an estimate of only $250-350.

Lot 104: Marion Post Wolcott
Jitterbugging on a Saturday Night in Juke Joint near Clarksdale, MI, 1939

gelatin print, 10 x 8.75 ins
Estimate: $1,000-1,500

Marion Post Wolcott was a notable American photographer, best known for documenting poverty and deprivation in the United States during the Great Depression. Her photographs are in the collections of large museums such as the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is exciting to see one of Wolcott’s historical photographs from 1939 offered in the February Works on Paper & Prints auction: lot 104, Jitterbugging on a Saturday Night in Juke Joint near Clarksdale, MI, 1939.

Lot 153: Harold Town, Stretch Blue on Grey
serigraph, 40 x 28.5 ins
Estimate: $300-400

Harold Town’s Stretch Blue on Grey is a fantastic print. The stretched-out blue bands are fun and would add the perfect pop of not-too-bright colour to a room. It was made in 1971, so it bears that 60s/70s mod aesthetic, yet it could also pass as contemporary. With an estimate of only $300-400, it is really a great opportunity!

Lot 168: Ivan Eyre, Echo
etching, 10 x 13 ins
Estimate: $300-400

Echo by Ivan Eyre is another example of the intricate etching technique, as well as an example of the accessibility of the artist’s prints in comparison to his oil paintings. Eyre is a contemporary artist whose work is in demand at the gallery level and auction level. Eyre’s acrylic painting Amber Pass was in Cowley Abbott’s June 2021 live auction, with an estimate of $80,000-120,000, and the work sold way above the estimate for $228,000. The artist’s prints, such as Echo, with an estimate of $300-400, are evidently a much more accessible way to own one of his works. Bonus: it is nicely framed!

Lot 76: Catherine Widgery, Businessman with Attaché Case
painted aluminum
Estimate: $1,500-2,000
Lot 81: Catherine Widgery, Woman with Baby Carriage
painted aluminum
Estimate: $1,500-2,000

Two aluminum maquettes for Catherine Widgery’s art installation “City People”  are being offered in the Three Dimensions sale. Located on Front Street across from Toronto’s Union Station since 1989, “City People” consists of various pedestrian figures made of painted aluminum – some are stationary and mounted on the wall, while many are mounted on pedestals. Businessman with Attaché Case and Woman with Baby Carriage are a fun opportunity to own a piece of Widgery’s process in creating the famous art installation.

I invite you to browse the three February auction sessions, and feel free to contact us for any further information at [email protected]. The auctions close March 1, 2022.