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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.

This season, Cowley Abbott’s offerings of early Canadian paintings and works on paper provided collectors the opportunity to bid upon examples that represented our country’s creators starting from Confederation. These examples excited collectors throughout our previews and drove bidders to raise their paddles high (in the auction gallery, on the telephone and online), pressing several of the works of art to exceed pre-sale expectation. 

From rare 1880s watercolours by Frances Anne Hopkins to an electric diptych by Wanda Koop, the Cowley Abbott spring live auction featured rare and important work from celebrated female Canadian artists, spanning more than 150 years of creation. Regardless of the period of the artwork, the rarity and quality of the paintings and works on paper invited spirited bidding with several works well exceeding their estimates. 

The Group of Seven were represented strongly in the Cowley Abbott spring live auction last week with eight of the ten members of the celebrated association featured. Many of the exceptional Group artworks made their auction debut, inspiring fierce bidding and driving strong results. Here are some of the artworks by the Group that excited collectors during the spring sale.