Canadian auction house Heffel will go on sale on 1er December, some 80 works of art, including several paintings by great Canadian masters. Specifically Assiniboine Hunting Buffalo, a buffalo hunt by painter Paul Kane estimated at between 2.5 and 3.5 million.
Originally from Ireland, Paul Kane (1810-1871) was one of the great North American painters of the XIXe century. Living in the Toronto area, he has documented with his figurative paintings the daily life of Canadians, especially Aboriginal communities. Many of his paintings can be found in museums, for example at the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas. As a result, his works are extremely rare on the art market.
It is therefore exceptional to see a canvas as Assiniboine Hunting Buffalo offered for sale by Heffel. This is a high-quality documentary work in which we can feel both Kane’s European inspirations and his interest in the native communities of the Prairies, notably the Assiniboine, whom he visited between 1845 and 1848, near the river. Saskatchewan.
In this painting, he stages, in a somewhat romantic way, a buffalo hunt, the emblematic animal of the Aboriginals of this region.
He was inspired by an engraving by Bartolomeo Pinelli from 1815, in which two young riders spear a bull. A work that he must have discovered during a trip to Italy.
“He was very good at portraiture and truthful representations,” says Tania Poggione, director of the Montreal office of Heffel. This buffalo hunting scene has been painted three times by Kane. One of the three canvases, Buffalo hunting assiniboine, of the same size, is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Tania Poggione, Director of the Montreal office of Heffel
Heffel rarely sold works by Paul Kane. The last time was in 2004. Two years ago, a work by Kane, Scene in the Northwest: Portrait of John Henry Lefroy, had been sold by Sotheby’s in Toronto for 5.1 million, which was a Canadian record. Record broken in 2016 with the sale, by Heffel this time, for 11.2 million, of the canvas Mountain Forms, by Lawren Harris.
There are six works by Lawren Harris put on sale this fall by Heffel, including From Sentinel Pass above Moraine Lake, Rocky Mts, an oil on cardboard from 1929-1930, and Painting (Formative III), a magnificent abstraction from 1950.
Lawren Harris is one of the first to have abstraction in Canada.
Tania Poggione
The other highly coveted canvas will certainly be Cordova Drift, an oil painting of the Canadian forest on the edge of an energetic Pacific, by Emily Carr, of which no less than seven paintings will be on sale in Toronto.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Cordova Drift, 1931, Emily Carr (1871-1945), oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm. Estimate: between 2 and 3 million.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
From Sentinel Pass above Moraine Lake, Rocky Mts, 1929-1930, Lawren Harris (1885-1970), oil on cardboard, 30.5 x 38.1 cm. Estimate: between $ 400,000 and $ 600,000.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Spring, 1916, Tom Thomson (1877-1917), oil on cardboard, 21.6 x 26.7 cm. Estimate: between $ 600,000 and $ 800,000.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Night walk, 1981, Alex Colville (1920-2013), acrylic polymer emulsion on cardboard, 45 x 45 cm. Estimate: between $ 400,000 and $ 600,000.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Assortment of 20 porcelain plates and standing plates, hand painted by Cornelius David Krieghoff (1815-1872). Estimate: between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Sway # 1, 1966, Jack Bush (1909-1977), acrylic on canvas, 205.7 x 264.2 cm. Estimate: between $ 250,000 and $ 350,000.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Bi-serial purple-ocher, 1969, Guido Molinari (1933-2004), acrylic on canvas, 281.9 x 228.6 cm. Estimate: between $ 200,000 and $ 300,000.
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PHOTO WARD BASTIAN, PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Mountain and lake, 1926, Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), oil on canvas, 81.3 x 101.6 cm. Estimate: between $ 400,000 and $ 600,000.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY HEFFEL
Untitled (series Gitksan), around 1956, Jean Paul Riopelle (1923-2002), gouache on paper, 49.5 x 64.8 cm. Estimate: between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000.
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The auction also includes Spring, 1916, small canvas by Tom Thomson showing a bucolic Canadian landscape during the snowmelt. An expressive and typical work of the icon of the Group of Seven, known for his intimate relationship with nature, nature which unfortunately and mysteriously engulfed him too soon. Heffel also sells a meticulous work of Alex Colville, Night walk, from 1981, as well as two of his preparatory studies. Five works by Riopelle, two works by Betty Goodwin, a great Molinari (Bi-serial purple-ocher) or a beautiful set of hand-decorated plates by Cornelius Krieghoff, well preserved. The Heffel house expects sales of between 12 and 17 million.
The works are presented free of charge at the Montreal office of Heffel, at 1840, rue Sherbrooke Ouest, until November 11.
Visit the Heffel website