When New York art dealer Allen Treibitz went to a barn sale in the Hamptons a few months ago, a painting hanging in the old structure immediately caught his eye.
The work depicting a grizzly bear carved atop a memorial totem pole bore the signature of iconic Canadian painter Emily Carr, but Treibitz was unfamiliar with her work and legacy.
Yet he knew there was something special about this painting.
“She stood out from everything else in that barn,” the 61-year-old, who has been selling art for more than 40 years, said during a video call.
Treibitz purchased the painting for US$50 (about CA$67) and after doing some preliminary research, realized that its value was likely much higher.
It wasn’t until he contacted Canada’s Heffel Fine Art auction house that he understood the significance of his discovery.
“We were provided with photos and I had no doubt that this was an exciting discovery worthy of Cinderella,” said the president of the auction house, David Heffel, during ‘an interview.
The painting will be sold at auction on November 20 in Toronto, with its value estimated at between $100,000 and $200,000.
The work entitled Masset, QCI was painted in 1912 as part of Carr’s efforts to create an extensive inventory of the artistic heritage of British Columbia’s First Nations communities. It depicts an Indigenous memorial pole that stood in Masset, a village in the province’s Haida Gwaii archipelago.
The work was reportedly a gift given to Carr’s friend Nell Cozier and her husband in the 1930s and had since hung in a barn in the Hamptons. The couple had moved to the area to work as caretakers of a large estate after originally living in Victoria.
“I see a lot of very interesting things (but) this one is […] “The most important thing I’ve ever found,” Treibitz said. The fact that she was found and returned to where she came from is very important. »
A poorly received painting
Carr incorporated into the painting techniques and styles she learned while studying art in Paris from 1910 to 1911, including working with brightly colored watercolors, said Gerta Moray, a former history professor of art at the University of Guelph.
Moray, who is the author of a book on First Nations imagery in Carr’s work, said the style of the painting was seen as a setback for the artist at the time. Carr was born in Victoria in 1871 and was closely associated with the famous Group of Seven, which included Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris and AY Jackson.
“Unfortunately, due to its modern Parisian post-impressionist style, the painting was not well received locally,” she explained. She was then unable to find a destination for it, neither in the provincial museum, nor by obtaining a certain number of public purchases. »
Heffel said the painting was found in its original frame and stretcher, and nothing had been done to it since it hung in the barn.
“It needed a good cleaning and refreshing,” he said.
Carr painted the same memorial pole again in 1937, but from a different angle.
Before going to auction, his 1912 painting will be previewed at Heffel galleries in several cities, starting in Calgary on Friday and continuing through the weekend.
It will then be exhibited in Vancouver from October 16 to 21, in Montreal from October 31 to November 5 and in Toronto from November 15 to 19.
Treibitz would like the painting to be given to a collector of Carr’s work or to a museum.