Cowley Abbott est ravi de présenter, pour la saison des enchères d’automne 2025, une sélection distinguée d’œuvres d’art québécois couvrant plus d’un siècle d’innovation artistique et d’expression culturelle. Des premiers portraits à l’abstraction d’après-guerre, ces œuvres retracent l’évolution de la vision artistique dans la province.
Les scènes intimes d’enfants et les croquis de la France réalisés par J.W. Morrice illustrent comment l’artiste a fait le pont entre les traditions académiques du XIXᵉ siècle et l’émergence d’une vision moderne dans la peinture canadienne.
Une remarquable huile de 1950 par Jean Paul Riopelle marque le début de sa série de mosaïques la plus célébrée. L’artiste venait alors de s’établir à Paris, où il se sentit libéré du poids oppressant du contrôle de l’Église catholique sur la société québécoise. Riopelle chercha à inventer son propre langage visuel et à créer librement, loin de tout dogme et de toute contrainte.
Alfred Pellan fut l’un des premiers artistes québécois à introduire le modernisme européen au Canada. Après avoir étudié et travaillé à Paris dans les années 1920 et 1930, il retourna à Montréal avec un style audacieux et imaginatif influencé par le surréalisme, le cubisme et le fauvisme. L’œuvre de Pellan est rare sur le marché des enchères, et nous sommes ravis de présenter cette saison deux œuvres dynamiques, Chasse sous-marine et Au soleil noir, toutes deux datées de 1958.
Cowley Abbott a également l’honneur d’offrir deux œuvres rares de Paul-Émile Borduas, figure centrale de l’art abstrait canadien et chef de file des Automatistes. Défenseur de la liberté artistique, Borduas contribua à ouvrir une nouvelle ère de modernité au Canada et inspira les transformations sociales et culturelles qui ont suivi lors de la Révolution tranquille. Les Trois baigneuses, une huile sur toile de 1941, témoigne de son intérêt pour l’approche formelle de Paul Cézanne, cette œuvre s’inspirant particulièrement des Grandes baigneuses du Philadelphia Museum of Art.
La gouache Abstractionno. 10 ou Figure athénienne fait partie d’un ensemble de quarante-cinq œuvres exposées au printemps 1942 à Montréal lors de l’exposition Œuvres surréalistes de Borduas. Cette présentation est largement reconnue comme le point de départ du mouvement automatiste montréalais.
Peinte en 1964, au cœur de sa « période classique » la plus connue, Jeune fille en jaune illustre l’exploration par Jean Paul Lemieux de la figure humaine placée dans un vaste paysage ambigu, évoquant immobilité, introspection et humanisme.
Ces œuvres célèbrent la contribution exceptionnelle de la province à l’histoire de l’art canadien, dans sa recherche de beauté, son esprit d’expérimentation et la force durable de son identité. Le Québec a constamment été une force motrice, particulièrement dans les moments de changement et d’innovation artistique. Cowley Abbott est honoré de présenter cette sélection d’œuvres et a hâte d’accueillir les collectionneurs pour découvrir et enchérir sur ces chefs-d’œuvre lors de la vente aux enchères de maîtres canadiens du 26 novembre. Cliquez ici pour consulter le catalogue de la vente.
Now on view at our gallery until September 30th, Ideas Of Far North was curated by Mark A. Cheetham, exploring how visions of this region have changed over a century.
From early maps to lavishly illustrated travel narratives to oral histories, paintings, and prints, images of the far north from both southern and Indigenous standpoints have been increasingly integral to its understanding. Beginning in the 1920s, some of Ontario’s best-known artists, notably Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, and later, Doris McCarthy, travelled to, pictured, and defined for many southerners the look and nature of the far north, including the Arctic. Their views encapsulate a still-potent identity for many Canadians, but for others, paradigms to revise.
Challenged by Indigenous and settler artists, and shaped by global environmental concerns, familiar paradigms have evolved. Once seen as an existential threat, the region is now recognized as itself vulnerable to climate change. The exhibition invites us to examine the constant interaction between different versions of the far north from our southern perspective in Canada and from other parts of the circumpolar north.
Doris Jean McCarthy, Pangnirtung, 1973. Acrylic on canvas. 24 x 30 ins
Doris McCarthy is perhaps best known for her images of icebergs. Her first excursion this far north was in 1972 after she retired from a forty-year teaching career. She returned in 1973 and then frequently to different locations in the far north. In Pangnirtung, she presents one of the most physically dramatic locales in Nunavut.
Paul Walde, Glen Alps Score from “Alaska Variations”, 2016. Archival digital print on matte paper. 15 x 33 ins
Glen Alps is an aural and visual mapping of the flora on Little O’Malley Mountain at Glen Alps in Anchorage, Alaska. Walde composed the score by “assigning instruments to each major grouping of vegetation on the mountain face; [he] translates the location and size of the trees and shrubs into standard notation, with each species being represented by a group of instruments.” He explores the considerable extent to which plants at higher altitudes and latitudes are especially vulnerable to climate disruption. His sonically emotive Glen Alps is an explicitly environmental artwork and an example of ecoacoustics. If he were to redo the work now, after almost ten years, change in the vegetation would produce a different score.
Laura Millard, Crossing 1, 2017. Digital print on Hahnemuehle paper with graphite, gouache and chalk. 44 x 65.5 ins
This remarkable image was made at Three Mile Lake in the Muskoka Lakes region north of Toronto. That it is a drawing over a drone photograph begins to suggest its innovativeness, as does the fact that the interlacing circles on the frozen lake were inscribed by Millard with a snowmobile. The inevitable racket of producing this ephemeral pattern contrasts profoundly with its stillness as an image, an evocative silence claimed by the deer—captured serendipitously by the drone camera—as they purposefully cross the lake in a straight line. Crossing I makes an environmental point. In Millard’s words, “I am interested in the contrast between the orderly movement of the deer against the chaotic path of the Skidoo and how it reverses our assumptions of the rational human and the wild animal.”
Maureen Gruben, Untitled (Sled), 2023. Salvaged sled, clay and acrylic on paint. 33 x 14.5 x 6 ins. Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole, Toronto
Maureen Gruben grew up and now works in Tuktoyaktuk, on the Arctic Ocean in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories. Her parents were traditional Inuvialuit knowledge keepers, a culture she maintains through works such as Untitled (Sled). She has arranged and photographed modern, working versions of the qamutiiks (sleds) not unlike those we see in A.Y. Jackson’s painting. But this sculptural example is different because it has been built up from a toy sled, an armature that Gruben salvaged—as she often does—from her local landfill site. The work is literally recycled, an environmental priority she embraces and also a metaphor for the reappearance of this Inuit invention in miniature. Without picturing a landscape, this work is very much about land, its uses and preservation. Gruben maintains the original’s playfulness in an art world setting by placing the toy on a plinth and reconstituting its surface to give it the appearance of a ‘serious’ bronze sculpture.
Analogue photography is inevitably a recreation, a ‘fixing’ of momentary light conditions. Tristan Duke takes the self-referentiality of this material fact further by fabricating his photographic lenses from the same glacial ice that he photographed while on the Arctic Circle Residency Program in Svalbard in the summer of 2022. In a material and an elusive, haunting sense, he is photographing ice with ice. The ice is creating a pictorial autobiography. The wet surfaces of his ice lenses betoken melting glaciers, yet ironically, without the clarity of this liquid surface, his photographs would not be successful.
Tristan Duke, Life Boat at Dahlbreen Glacier, Svalbard 02, 2022. Ice lens photograph, pigment print. 42 × 60 ins
Life Boat at Dahlbreen Glacier, Svalbard 02 is an image of everyday transport to and from the expedition ship Antigua. Yet the global climate emergency might make us think of climate refugees or of an immediate maritime crisis. Duke asks, “is this the rescue party or the ones in need of rescue?” And where is the pilot heading? This question could be extrapolated to the Arctic and the planet.
Tristan Duke, Palisades Fire, California 03, 2025. Ice lens photograph, pigment print. 42 x 60 ins
Not content to show us the climate crisis in the far north alone, Duke has also photographed fires with ice lenses. Here he materializes two bold ideas: the first lenses used for starting fires were made of ice by Zhang Hua in third-century China. Today, the climate disruption experienced at the poles is also responsible for the increased frequency of fires worldwide.
Laura Millard, Motion Lamp 3, Svalbard, 2024. Refurbished vintage motion lamp, photograph and collage on backlit film, 12 x 6 ins (diameter)
Laura Millard was part of an invited group of artists and scientists on the Arctic Circle Alumni Residency in the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard in the summer of 2024. These islands at 82 degrees north are heating more quickly than anywhere else on the planet, with a dramatically negative effect. Among Millard’s reckonings with this reality is a suite of motion lamps that combine her photographs of disappearing glaciers with lamps that rotate thanks to heat convection from their bulbs. Popular in the mid-twentieth century as mementos of tourist sites such as Niagara Falls, Millard reconstitutes the lamps themselves and what they show to underline the increase in global temperatures in the increasingly touristic far north. People watch this happening in her images, but as in Crossing 1, we humans are turning to climate issues too slowly, even pointlessly ‘going in circles.’ The lamps seem as poignantly fragile as the ecologies they present.
To inquire about the availability of these works, please contact us at info@cowleyabbott.ca
Ideas Of Far North Life & Environment 1920s – 2020s
Join Art Specialist Katherine Meredith as she speaks with Simone Ludlow and Erika Veh, designers of handmade one-of-a-kind cushions using vintage fabrics. Their company Ludlow & Veh also offers interior design and art advisory consultations. With backgrounds in art history, auctions, design and marketing, they share Katherine’s passion for collecting art with patience and intention.
How would you describe your design style?
Slow design. Not all the same style, not all the same era. Balance, texture, layers, not matching, eclectic. We love including vintage pieces and antiques, something with a patina and a story to it. If you do it intentionally and lovingly, it will work. Never feel like something is done. There is an expression that goes something like- “a room is only finished when you run out of money!”
Where do you find inspiration?
Art, nature, travel, film. Pedro Pascal’s apartment in the recent film Materialists, and movies like Home Alone, The Shining, I am Love, and The Birdcage. We are inspired by place and time. Matisse interior paintings. Unusual colour combinations we spot on the street or in nature.
Why do you think original fine art is an important part of interior design?
It’s a layer that finishes everything. Art adds a depth and a tone of your own personality to your home. There is something lively to a home filled with original art. It takes emotion. You don’t want your house to look like a staged showroom, or the same as the house down the block. A mass-produced print from a box store doesn’t elicit pleasure, it just fills a wall. Art adds personality, meaning, joy.
What advice would you give to someone who is new to art collecting?
Buy what you love, and then your house will be a reflection of your personality. It doesn’t matter if the artist is new, local, unknown or from the past. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It should be something that speaks to you. Don’t set out to buy art that matches your decor. If you love it, it will work and you will find a place for it. Have a bit of patience. People want things so quickly and so effortlessly, but it means so much more when you take your time and put effort into it, and it shows. You feel better about it because it’s a reflection of you.
How do you approach auctions specifically, in comparison to other ways of acquiring art? Do you find any advantages or challenges?
Advantages: you see such a broader scope of art, and artists you wouldn’t normally see or necessarily seek out. Better value. There’s no inflated art gallery commission – the price is what the market will stand.
Challenges: the high volume of artwork – you have to have the patience to look through the entire listing. Everything at auctions is framed “as-is” and it can be difficult to imagine a work in a new frame that is better suited to your space. But framing is everything and can really transform the art and the room!
If you could choose any artworks from Canadian art history to put in your own living room, what would you choose and why?
Erika: There are many Canadian artists I admire and support. If I have to select just one piece – I would have to say Horse and Train (1954) by Alex Colville. Its haunting simplicity captures the tension between nature and machine, which feels very relevant at this time in the world. It also evokes a sense of Romanticism in the solitary, noble horse confronting the unstoppable force of modernity. A reminder that life is constantly moving, changing, and that inevitably time escapes us all.
Simone: This is almost impossible to answer, so I’m simply going with immediate impulses. I love Alex Colville, and I especially love his works featuring dogs, so perhaps Stove. It’s such an intimate and tender piece, and it captures so well the simple (and magical) joy of sharing your life with a dog.
The original Stove painting resides in a private collection. A serigraph was sold by Cowley Abbott in 2018.
I also love Jessie Oonark, so almost anything by her. I love her use of colour, and the bold, graphic nature of her work.
Untitled by Jessie Oonark. Sold by Cowley Abbott in 2014.
Margaux Williamson’s more recent works of interiors are also favourites. As I mentioned before, I gravitate to pieces featuring interiors, and Margaux’s are so interesting and I find them entirely captivating.
And I mean, who wouldn’t want a Lawren Harris iceberg?
If you could choose any artworks from ALL of art history to put in your own living room, what would you choose and why?
Simone: This is truly an impossible question! Based entirely on immediate instincts – The Little Street by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum. I also have always loved David Hockney; he’s so joyful and loves life, and that is so apparent through his work. I saw his recent retrospective in Paris, and I am particularly drawn to the paintings of his home in LA and his British landscapes. Paul Nash’s 1930’s painting Harbour and Room at Tate Modern has also been a constant fascination. I also absolutely love the art and design from the turn-of-the-century Vienna Secession movement led by Gustav Klimt.
Erika: If I could select a piece of art for my home, it would be Sonia Delaunay’s Electric Prisms (1914). I had the pleasure of viewing it in New York, Guggenheim’s exhibition “Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris 1910-1930”. Both the scale and bold rhythmic motions of colour have stayed with me ever since. I have also always carried the same admiration for the Nike of Samothrace at the Louvre, a timeless emblem of victory, hope and forward momentum.
Which artworks from our September online auction do you have your eye on? And how would you style them in a room?
Simone: What a wealth of beauty to choose from! One selection would be Lawren Harris’ Study of a Verandah. I love witnessing the traces of an artist’s process, and in this piece the sketches of the trees and the script on the paper’s reverse delight me. The verandah itself is also so inviting – the architecture draws the viewer in. I would love to sit there and have a glass of wine.
Lot 199. Lawren Harris, Study of a Verandah. Graphite. Estimate: $3,000 – $4,000
I also gravitate to Fortin’s Montréal. I love his use of colour and the somewhat chaotic, dense scene he has created. I went to school in Montréal, and this piece evokes the feeling of the city for me – layered, busy, a bit gritty, beautiful, full of life.
Lot 125. Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Montréal. Watercolour. Estimate: $10,000-15,000
I also must include some more graphic pieces – I always love them for balance. The colours in Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra (who knew?) are beautiful, and I appreciate the feeling of motion that it suggests. Philomène by Jacques Hurtubise echoes the Sinatra piece in an interesting way, and I would love them displayed together. The blue and red are arresting, and I love their juxtaposition with the off-white ground.
Lot 17. Frank Sinatra, Fly Me To The Moon. Colour lithograph. Estimate: $900-1,200
Erika: I am in love with Jim Ritchie’s female figure sculpture from the Quebec lot! It inspires me because it reminds me of the beauty, resilience and softness I recognize in the women I cherish in my life.
I also have a black and white striped marble plinth where this sculpture would look so stunning!
Lot 152. Jim Ritchie, Female Figure; Cubist Nude. Bronze sculpture; pastel on paper. Estimate: $900-1,200
What I love about Winter Sleighing Scene by A.Y. Jackson is that, while the artist captures a distinctly Canadian winter scene, he departs from the expected palette of icy blues and greys, choosing instead a feminine blush for the sleigh and lively touches of pink in the trees. A choice that brings unexpected warmth and a smile to the winter scene.
I was also drawn to Fly Me To The Moon by Sinatra for its bold shapes and vibrant interplay of colour, which is a style reminiscent of one of my favourite short lived art movements; Orphism – with its rhythmic energy and sense of movement. And perhaps also because the artist was also the infamous crooner!
For more information on Ludlow & Veh, check out their website and Instagram. And for further conversation on collecting art with intention, join Simone, Erika and the Cowley Abbott team for our 5 à 7 on Thursday, September 11th. RSVP at collect@cowleyabbott.ca.
Cowley Abbott’s June Online Auction features a plethora of captivating works, from the bold geometry of Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop Art to the meditative landscapes of Alexander Young Jackson and John William Beatty. These works celebrate the diversity of modern painting and the enduring legacy of artists who continue to shape our visual and cultural heritage.
Old Birch Trees by A.Y. Jackson
A.Y. Jackson Old Birch Trees, Calabogie
Alexander Young Jackson, a founding member of the Group of Seven, was born in Montreal in 1882. His early training in Paris exposed him to European Impressionism, which he later adapted to depict the Canadian landscape. Old Birch Trees is a poignant example of Jackson’s ability to capture the essence of the Canadian wilderness with sensitivity and precision. In this painting, Jackson portrays a cluster of birch trees, their white bark contracting against the surrounding foliage. The composition’s simplicity furthers the emotional depth of the painting, evoking a sense of solitude and reverence for nature.
Beech Woods by John William Beatty
John W. Beatty Beech Woods, 1927
John William Beatty, an English-born Canadian artist, was known for his detailed landscape paintings that often depicted the Ontario countryside. Born in 1869, Beaty’s work often features his meticulous attention to detail and a deep appreciation for the natural environment. Painted in 1927, Beech Woods showcases his ability to capture the tranquility of the Canadian landscape. In this piece, Beatty depicts a serene woodland scene with beech trees standing tall amidst a carpet of fallen leaves. The soft interplay of light filtering through the canopy creates a peaceful ambiance, inviting viewers to pause and reflect and Beatty’s precise brushwork and subtle colour palette enhance the painting’s sense of realism.
White Breaking by Jack Leonard Shadbolt
Jack Shadbolt White Breaking, 1965
Jack Leonard Shadbolt, a Canadian painter and printmaker, was born in 1909 in England and immigrated to Canada in 1911. His early exposure to European modernism influenced his development as an artist. White Breaking, painted in 1965, is a powerful example of Shadbolt’s abstract expressionist style. The painting features a stark contrast between white and dark tones, creating a sense of tension within the work. Shadbolt’s use of bold brushstrokes and layered textures conveys energy which is reflected in his interest in the emotional human experience. The title, White Breaking, suggests a moment of rupture of transformation and invites the viewer to stop and think about the Shadbolt’s intended meaning.
Waiting by Max Weber
Max Weber Waiting
Max Weber, a pivotal figure in early 20th-century American modernism, was born in Russia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the United States as a child. Trained at the National Academy of Design and influenced by modernism, Weber’s expressive abstraction bridged European influences and American sensibilities. In Waiting (1957), Weber uses both watercolour and gouache to convey a poignant moment of anticipation. The composition’s angular lines and overlapping shapes suggest a fusion of the figure with its environment, playing with the relationship between subject and environment. The work reflects Weber’s interest in the psychology of the human experience and capturing a moment of stillness before action.
Foot Medication Poster (Corlett App. 3) by Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein Foot Medication Poster (Corlett App. 3)
A leading figure in the Pop Art movement, Roy Lichtenstein, was born in New York City in 1923. Initially trained as a commercial artist, Lichtenstein’s work often drew from the visual language of advertising, comic strips, and mass media. His 1963 lithograph, Foot Medication Poster(Corlett App. 3), exemplifies his signature style – bold lines, flat colours, and a satirical take on consumer culture. This piece was created as a promotional poster for an exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, featuring works by other prominent artists of the time. The image depicts a hand applying medication to a foot, rendered in Lichtenstein’s Ben-Day dots and graphic precision. The subject matter of a mundane and everyday action elevates the ordinary to the level of high art, challenging traditional notions of what constitutes worthy subject matter.
Perforated Space Divider Screen Maquette by Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer, an Austrian-American artist and designer, was a prominent member of the Bauhaus school, known for its integration of art, design, and architecture. Born in 1900 in Austria, Bayer’s work spanned various media, including graphic design, typography, and industrial design. His Perforated Space Divider Screen Maquette is a testament to his innovative approach to spatial design. This maquette represents Bayer’s exploration of modular design principles, aiming to create flexible and functional spaces within architectural environments. The perforated screen design allows for light and air to pass through, showing the dynamic between solid forms and the void-like background. It reflects Bayer’s belief in the functional integration of art and design, where aesthetics serve both form and purpose.
Our nation’s post-war artists were on strong display during the May 28th spring live auction with Cowley Abbott featuring paintings and sculpture by artists from across Canada that dazzled collectors during weeks of previews in Calgary and Toronto. The excitement during the viewings carried to sale night as rapid bidding carried prices well within estimate and, in several instances, beyond the high-end of expectation.
Yves Gaucher Ocres, jaune et vert, 1974
Jack Bush Vic Day, 1974Harold Town Spector,1960
Sorel Etrog High Society, 1964Norval Morrisseau Conversation with Our White Brother, 1980Marcelle Ferron Sans titre, 1962
