2019 December | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed lower right ; titled on a plaque, and on a label verso

Notes:

signed lower right; signed & titled verso

Belmore Browne was born in Staten Island, New York to a household of considerable means. He studied at the New York School of Art and the Academie Julian in Paris. His best-known paintings show scenes of Alaska, the Northwest and, perhaps most notably, the Canadian Rockies.

After a short term serving in World War I, Browne, ever the avid outdoorsman, moved his family to Banff, Alberta. They built a small house on the main road that runs between the townsite and the Banff Springs Hotel; for the next 25 years this was the primary Browne family residence. Belmore and his son George were constant companions on the many trails of the Canadian Rockies. Eschewing guides, they always handled their own pack train, and camped in the alpine valleys.

Browne, a contributing member of the American Alpine Club, penned the article, “Paintbrush on the Heights”, for the Club’s 1941 journal, in an attempt to explain his reverence for, and urge to paint the mountains of Canada. He writes:

Beyond the shadow of Assiniboine or any of its brothers there are vast stretches of little-known mountains that roll eastward to the plains or westward to the wilds of British Columbia. Here one may find only an occasional peak of qualifying height, but among their seemingly modest ramparts one will discover spots of unsurpassed ruggedness and beauty. You will lay aside your ice-axe for the axe of the woodsman and hew a trail through the windfalls of virgin timber. You will find lakes and streams that no fisherman’s eyes have rested on and high mountain valleys where your horses stand knee-deep in mountain ‘feed’ and snort their disapproval of the moose or elk that disturbs their rest.

You will feel the same mental exaltation in reaching such a spot that you would feel in being the first to gain a difficult summit, and on these painting trips you will have adventures aplenty, for in packing horses beyond the blazed trail you will lead the life of early pioneers.

For the past twenty summers I have taken my family into the mountains surrounding Banff. On each trip we have tried to reach places we have not seen before, but vast stretches of untried country still beckon us on.

So grasp your paintbrush firmly, courageous reader, for, while its strange whims may lead you to the belief that you have clutched a witches’ broomstick, it will carry you to visions you will never glimpse otherwise.

Notes:

signed lower right; titled on the old backing verso

Notes:

signed, titled & editioned upper centre

Note: Printed from 4 blocks in raw sienna, alizarin crimson, grey & ivory black. Illustrated: page 108 “Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue” (Hana Leaper & Osborne Samuel; Lund Humphries, 2015); page 121 of “Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School” (Stephen Coppel; Scholar Press, 1995); pages 44 and 62 of “Sybil Andrews” (Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1982)

Reference: Coppel SA54; Leaper 63

Sybil Andrews was born in the small town of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England. She apprenticed, then worked as a welder, during WWI, all the while taking art classes by correspondence. In 1922, she was able to enroll in the Heatherley School of Fine Art. Then, after accepting the position of school secretary at the newly formed Grosvenor School of Modern Art (in 1925), Andrews began to attend Claude Flight’s classes in linoleum-cut printing. Flight, a new instructor at the school, was influenced by Futurism, Cubism and Vorticism, and brought with him a modern approach to art, as well as innovative printmaking techniques.

Andrews thrived in this medium, producing numerous works in the Hammersmith (London) studio that she shared with like-minded artist Cyrill Power. During WWII, she once again worked as a welder for the war effort (this time working on warships instead of airplanes). Following the War, Andrews married and moved to Campbell River, on Vancouver Island. Here, she lived a simple life, teaching art and music. Andrews did not begin creating linocuts again until 1951. Her new home influenced her work, as she was still driven by the desire to create “art that can show the everyday life of today”. This everyday scene, of a farmer ploughing a field, his horse team pulling him over the horizon, embodies those elements that define Sybil Andrew’s work: strong colour, streamlined design, sweeping lines and patterns that come together to create a sense of energy and movement. In this way, Andrews is able to reconcile the paradox of the timeless with the modern.

A copy of this work can be found in numerous public collections including: Glenbow Museum; National Gallery of Canada; The British Museum; Burnaby Art Gallery; and Campbell River Museum.

The Glenbow Museum held a retrospective exhibition of Sybil Andrews work in 1982, and the current exhibition “Sybil Andrews: Art and Life” runs until January 12, 2020.

Notes:

signed lower right; titled & dated verso