BONHAMS LATEST CANADIAN ART SALE TOPS CAD $1M
Friend of Somerset Maugham, Matisse and Gauguin leads results in Canadian Art Sale at Bonhams
Bonhams Sale of Canadian Art on 30th November made a total of CAD $1,046,670 with 86.5% sold by value.
Top picture in the sale was Lot 223, a James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) titled `On the March in France, circa 1918.’ It stormed past its pre-sale estimate of CAD $80,000 -120,000 to make CAD$204,000.
The Canadian landscape painter JW Morrice was the inspiration behind the alcoholic poet Cronshaw in Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage. Morrice is widely considered to be the first great Canadian painter, if also an archetype for the booze-drenched bohemians of the Belle Époque.
A man of independent means, he trained as a lawyer in Montreal before leaving Canada for Paris. There he spent the better part of his working life and came into association with the likes of Maugham, Matisse, Gauguin and Clive Bell. Despite briefly abandoning France at the outbreak of hostilities, Morrice was commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook to capture scenes of the Great War for the House of Commons in Ottawa.
In 1918 he travelled to numerous sites in France in order to make sketches for this commission, one of which is this preparatory study that would eventually be realised as the canvas titled Canadian Troops at the Front, now in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
The sale attracted global interest, attested to by the substantial number of bids from overseas. These confirm the view that the art market is in fine health despite the recent turbulence in the financial sector. In particular Silver and Jewelry performed strongly.
Speaking after the sale, Jack. Kerr - Wilson, President of Bonhams Canada said: “Against a backdrop of the worst recession since the 1920s, Canadian Art has once again demonstrated its lasting appeal. There was huge interest and some very strong prices with one or two new world records achieved for Canadian artists.
The top ten in the sale were:
223 | CAD$204,000 | CAD$80,000 - 120,000 | |||
James Wilson Morrice (Canadian, 1865-1924) On the March in France c.1918 | |||||
204 | CAD$108,000 | CAD$100,000 - 150,000 | |||
Henrietta Mabel May, ARCA BCSA CGP FCA (Canadian, 1877-1971) Summer Landscape, Knowlton, Quebec | |||||
224 | CAD$102,000 | CAD$100,000 - 150,000 | |||
Edward John Hughes, BCFSA CGP RCA (Canadian, 1913-2007) Saseenos Hilltop | |||||
225 | CAD$81,000 | CAD$30,000 - 40,000 | |||
Cornelius David Krieghoff (Canadian, 1815-1872) Dolly's Tavern, St.James st. Montreal | |||||
203 | CAD$68,400 | CAD$4,000 - 6,000 | |||
Peleg Franklin Brownell, RCA OSA CAC (Canadian, 1857-1946) Reading, an interior scene with two girls reading by a window | |||||
195 | CAD$31,200 | CAD$20,000 - 30,000 | |||
Harold Barling Town, RCA,OSA,CGP,CPE,OC (Canadian, 1924-1990) Frost Green | |||||
219 | CAD$30,000 | CAD$30,000 - 40,000 | |||
Cornelius David Krieghoff (Canadian, 1815-1872) The Narrows, Lake St Charles | |||||
202 | CAD$25,200 | CAD$20,000 - 30,000 | |||
Maurice Galbraith Cullen, RCA (Canadian, 1866-1934) Winter Evening in the Laurentians | |||||
141 | CAD$24,000 | CAD$20,000 - 30,000 | |||
A George III Indian Peace Medal presented to Egomenay - Cornhanger - of the Arbre Croche of the Ottawas, together with two original documents dated 1764 | |||||
220 | CAD$24,000 | CAD$15,000 - 20,000 | |||
Henrietta Mabel May, ARCA BCSA CGP FCA (Canadian, 1877-1971) Grey Shack at Knowlton,P.Q. c.1928 | |||||
Bonhams is now welcoming consignments of Canadian art for its next Canadian Sale on Monday May 31st.
