2017 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed; titled on a plaque
Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, May 29, 1980 (lot 225)

Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski grew up in the Russian part of Poland. He studied at the academies in Warsaw, Dresden and Prague. From 1873, he was taught by the Hungarian painter Alexander von Wagner at the Academy in Munich. He settled in Munich in 1876, and joined the Polish circle of Jozef Brand, at the Munich Academy. Encouraged by his teacher, he joined the Polish group of artists in Munich, eventually becoming their most prominent representative, and the best known Polish-born painter of the 19th Century Munich School. Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski received innumerable awards during his lifetime for his works depicting rural life in Russian Poland. Among his favorite subjects were sleigh rides, teams of horses and packs of wolves.

The winter sleigh ride, or Kulig, of which this work is an excellent example, is one of the central motifs of Polish art. It is depicted here as a fast and festive ride through the snowy, open fields of Poland on a horse-drawn sleigh. The Kulig was an event organized amongst the Polish aristocracy, where a cavalcade of horse-pulled sleighs, often beautifully decorated, travelled from one manor house to another. The event was usually accompanied by raucous singing, hooting and bonfires in the evening. Participants of the sleigh ride, often dressed in thick warm coats, would warm themselves with vodka and hearty foods. It typically ended with a large feast, held in one of the manor houses, where guest were entertained by musicians and dances.

Notes:

signed; titled on a plaque; inscribed “Monachium, Warzaway” lower left
Exhibited: Dresden Exhibition, 1884 (on plaque)
Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, May 29, 1980 (lot 223)

Notes:

signed

Nicholas de Grandmaison’s first exposure to indigenous Canadians was in 1930, on a trip to The Pas, in northern Manitoba. It was a life altering encounter. He felt an immediate connection and affinity with the First Nations people, one that compelled him to seek further encounters. He travelled broadly in his pursuit, to various Cree communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and then to Southern Alberta where he encountered the Blackfoot, Sarcee, Peigan, Stoney, and Blood Tribes that he would come to know well. De Grandmaison dedicated his career to recording the faces of First Nations individuals, considering it a “great honour” to paint them. He could see that these were a People in transition, and whose traditional way of life was threatened. When he realized that his work had historical significance, he began to collect more information on his sitters, taking photographs, noting information, and recording oral histories.

Nicholas de Grandmaison’s dignified and expressive portraits skillfully capture the humanity of each individual, while also capturing the proud and ancient spirit within. As a body of work, their cultural significance is momentous. De Grandmaison received many honours for his work: He was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy; he was awarded the Order of Canada; he received an honourary degree from the University of Calgary; and perhaps the greatest tribute came in 1959, when he was made an Honorary Chief of the Peigan Nation and given the Blackfoot name of Eenuk-Sahpo’p (Little Plume).

Literature: History in Their Blood: The Indian Portraits of Nicholas de Grandmaison” (Hugh A.Dempsey; 1982).

Notes:

signed

Notes:

titled on stretcher verso with inscription “fought at Custer Massacre, 1876”
Exhibited: Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK, Qu’Appelle: Tales of Two Valleys, #158 (label verso); illustrated p. 58 of the exhibition catalogue
Provenance: Former collection of John M. and Ethelene Gareau, Calgary, AB; Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB (label verso)

Notes:

signed & dated recto; signed, titled & inscribed “A136” verso
Literature: “The Ojibway Dream, Arthur Shilling”; Tundra Books, Toronto (1986)

Notes:

signed

Notes:

signed & editioned; titled on the artist’s plaque; foundry mark of Powell Bronze, Kalispell, MT

Notes:

signed; titled on the artist’s plaque; foundry mark of Powell Bronze, Kalispell, MT

Notes:

signed & titled