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.
Marcelle Ferron Sans titre, 1964
Emily Carr Fir Trees, circa 1935
Frances Anne Hopkins Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, 1864
Cowley Abbott’s international art department has continued to grow steadily over the past five years, attracting artwork of note by artists globally to a collecting audience across Canada and beyond. Importantly, these offerings are providing an opportunity for Canadian collectors to acquire international artworks within our borders, while also serving our clients around the globe. This season provided a focused grouping of paintings, works on paper and sculpture from artists around the world, with representation from the United States, France, Spain and Mexico. The quality and rarity of these works attracted determined strategy from bidders, leading to another season of strong results.
Gene Davis Hell’s Calendar #3
Andy Warhol Turtle (F&S II.360A), 1985
Jessie Willcox Smith Study for a Portrait
Andy Warhol Wayne Gretzky #99 (F&S II.306)
Eugenio Fernández Granell Characters Coming Out of the Clouds, 1974
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.
Franklin Carmichael Old Orchard, 1940Alfred Joseph Casson The Village Store, Bradford, circa 1928
Lawren Harris Northern Lake, circa 1925
J.E.H. MacDonald Church by the Sea, N.S., 1922
Arthur Lismer Light Breaking Through, Lake Superior, 1927Frank Hans Johnston Along the Line, Algoma, 1918
View Rob Cowley’s Video Highlighting “Fir Trees”, circa 1935 by Emily Carr
Celebrated Female Artists Featuring Emily Carr
Cowley Abbott is delighted to share Fir Trees, circa 1935 by Emily Carr this auction season. Carr’s oil on paper sketches are amongst her most important contributions to Canadian art. No other Canadian painter explored the idea of the sketch more intensely and brilliantly than Emily Carr and this work is a prime example.
Cowley Abbott is very proud to be entrusted with a strong selection of works by Canadian and international female artists in the Spring Live Auction of Select Masterworks of Canadian and International Art on May 28th. We hope you will visit our auction preview at the Toronto gallery to enjoy these artworks.
Emily Carr, Fir Trees, circa 1935
Fern Isabel Coppedge Autumn SceneLise Gervais Le double anneau dans l’oeil
Rita Letendre Sans titreMarcelle Ferron Sans titre
Maud Lewis Two FishermenFrances Anne Hopkins Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior
Alexandra Luke Exanimo (From the Heart)
Pegi Nicol MacLeod School GardenJessie Willcox Smith Study for a Portrait
Peter Clapham Sheppard: Chronicler of the Urban Environment
Cowley Abbott is delighted to be entrusted with a rare and masterful work by Peter Clapham Sheppard, The Bridge Builders, Construction, Bloor Street Viaduct, 1915.
P.C. Sheppard was one of the first among Toronto’s early twentieth century modernists to record the urban experience during a period of dynamic growth and change. Such massive building projects proclaimed this city’s unstoppable industrial and technological age. Bridge Builders is an emblem of the aspirational spirit of a confident nation that will soon emerge from the crucible of war proud, independent, and with a new global identity. Sheppard is captivated by the movement, light, and activity of ports, railyards, markets, parades and the circus. The artist extols the humanity of the workers who laboured there, mostly new immigrants, whose toil wove together the rich multicultural fabric we enjoy in Toronto today.
Cowley Abbott is very proud to be entrusted with this painting, which makes its auction debut in our Spring Live Auction of Select Masterworks of Canadian and International Art on May 28th.
Peter Clapham Sheppard The Bridge Builders, Construction, Bloor Street Viaduct, 1915
Cowley Abbott is excited to present an extraordinary collection of post-war & contemporary art in our upcoming live auction, “Select Masterworks of Canadian & International Art” set to take place on May 28th at the Globe & Mail Centre.
This event promises to be an exciting evening, showcasing artworks that have shaped the artistic landscape over the decades. Whether you’re an avid collector or a curious art enthusiast, this auction offers a unique opportunity to witness and acquire works that tell compelling stories of creativity and innovation.
Discover the artworks of Jack Bush in the Spring Live Auction with Anna Holmes
Jack Bush: A Master of Colour
Cowley Abbott is delighted to be offering six significant artworks by the celebrated Canadian artist Jack Bush in our Spring Live Auction of Select Masterworks of Canadian and International Art on May 28th, spanning the painter’s storied career. A master of colour, Jack Bush said facing a large empty expanse of canvas was “the thrill of a lifetime” but added that the “toughest thing in the world, on that bare canvas, is to put the first colour on, the first mark.”
From our earliest sales, Cowley Abbott has been fortunate to regularly have been entrusted with rare and important artwork by Jack Bush, becoming a major player in the sale of the painter’s work over the past decade and establishing the global auction record for the artist.
We are pleased to feature a range of masterworks by the modern painter whose creative trajectory flowed from landscapes to abstraction, exemplified in the selection being presented for sale. We hope you will visit the Cowley Abbott gallery to stand in front of these commanding works during our preview starting on Friday, May 16th.
Watch Lydia Abbott discuss two magnificent artworks by Frances Anne Hopkins
The two watercolours in the May 28th live auction represent major subjects of Frances Anne Hopkins’s artistic oeuvre.
Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, is one of several sketches that Hopkins made during her first trip on Lake Superior in July 1864 and formed the basis for the first painting by her to be accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1869 (now in the collection of the Glenbow Museum). Five sketches related to the painting are known to exist and Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, is believed to be the first large-scale work prepared. The hues in this watercolour are remarkably bright, and the detail is exquisite, recording the moment when canoeing transformed from being a means of travel and the transport of goods, into a leisure time pursuit.
Lumber Raft on the Ottawa, signed and dated 1886, represents another Canadian theme which Frances Anne Hopkins chose to represent on several occasions. Hopkins would have likely encountered such timber rafts during her journeys on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. This watercolour shows one of the large timber rafts floating down the river, possibly on Lake of Two Mountains, and is more atmospheric than many of the other works of this subject, with the fog on the river and the cooking fires surrounded by the crewmen. It offers a romantic and enchanting insight into a particular aspect of nineteenth-century Canadian life.
Cowley Abbott is pleased to present these two masterworks for sale on May 28th in the live auction of Select Masterworks of Canadian & International Art. We hope that you will visit the auction preview at the gallery beginning Friday, May 16th to enjoy these rare works on paper by Frances Anne Hopkins.
Frances Anne Hopkins Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, 1864
Frances Anne Hopkins Lumber Raft on the Ottawa, 1886
If you are interested in offering artwork by one of the artists listed in our directory (or other possible artists), please submit details of your artwork or Contact Us for further assistance.
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