2020 June | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed lower left; signed & titled verso

Notes:

signed & dated lower left; titled on the stretcher verso

Notes:

signed lower left
Literature: History in Their Blood: The Indian Portraits of Nicholas de Grandmaison (Hugh A. Dempsey; Douglas & McIntryre Ltd.; 1982); “Drawn from the Past: Nicholas de Grandmaison” (Gordon Snyder; Snyder Fine Arts; 2007)

Notes:

signed lower right; titled on a plaque and on the gallery label

Provenance: Former collection of Alex Fraser, Vancouver BC; Masters Gallery, Calgary AB

Literature: “James Henderson: Wicite Owapa Wicasa, The Man who Paints the Old Men” (Dan Ring, James Lanigan and Neal Mcleod; Mendel Art Gallery; 2010)

James Henderson is a pioneering figure in the history of art in Saskatchewan. He was one of the first professionally trained artists to settle in Saskatchewan, having been born in Glasgow, Scotland, and trained at the Glasgow School of Art. Henderson had been working as a commercial artist in London, and after first coming to Regina, he settled in Fort Qu’Appele. Henderson was fascinated by the landscape of the Qu’Appelle Valley and by the Indigenous peoples of the Canadian West.

In 1924, Henderson is known to have exhibited a portrait titled “Sioux Indian” at the British Empire Exhibition (Wembley, London), followed by “Weasel Calf, Blackfoot Chief” the next year. Also in 1925, Henderson exhibited three portraits (along with several landscapes) in the exhibition “Artists of Saskatchewan”, at the University of Toronto’s Hart House. Following this success, he was commissioned by the University of Saskatchewan to paint twelve portraits representing the tribes of Saskatchewan and Alberta. During the following years, Henderson’s portraits were exhibited broadly, including several times at the National Gallery of Canada. Henderson’s historically important portraits can be found in numerous public collections, including: Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon); McKenzie Art Gallery (Regina); Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton); Glenbow Museum (Calgary); Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; and National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa)

Notes:

signed lower left; titled on the exhibition label verso

Exhibition: Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Provenance: Estate of Bill and Peggy Code, Calgary AB

London played an important role in shaping Max Bates’ career. Bates first visited London as a youngster in 1912, on an extended trip with his family. Later, when he felt rejected in Alberta, and confined by the traditional local art scene, Bates travelled to London in 1930/31. This marked the beginning of a transformative 15 year absence from Calgary. While in London, Bates grew and flourished as an artist. He reportedly took in two thousand art exhibitions; he exhibited regularly; he became a member of the Twenties Group (1932-1939), an association of prominent Expressionists and Surrealists; and his work was included along with many of the great masters in the politically important Artists International Association Exhibition of 1937. Following this period, Bates enlisted with the British Territorial Army and spent five years as a prisoner of war, leaving a forever-changed Europe for Calgary in 1946.

Bates returned to Europe once again during 1958/1959, with his wife Charlotte, visiting a number of sites he had seen prior to the War, including some in London. During this trip, Bates sketched and took notes for paintings that he would develop upon his return home.

Notes:

Exhibited: Hart House Ajax, University of Toronto (March 1947); “Thirty Paintings by David Milne”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (May 2-13, 1947)

Provenance: Former collection of the late J. R. Shaw, Calgary AB; Masters Gallery, Calgary AB; Douglas Udell Gallery, Edmonton AB

Literature: “Painting Place: The Life and Work of David B. Milne” (David P. Silcox; University of Toronto Press; 1996); “David Milne” (Ian M. Thom; Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.; 1991)

In 1937, after taking a 12 year break from the medium, David Milne once again began to work in watercolours, and they would dominate his body of work during the final years of his career. Milne reduced his scenes with delicate precision, guided by what he described as “aesthetic emotion’. Where his Group of Seven contemporaries were bold and expressive, drawing strength and influence from the Group, Milne’s work was quiet and introspective – almost austere – and defied categorization. Often described as reclusive, for Milne, art and life were integrally interconnected, and he compulsively viewed the natural world around him from the lens of an artist. Though Milne had gained a love of nature at an early age, the subjects of his paintings were secondary to his artistic impression, and to the works themselves. David Milne was incredibly insightful and adept at expressing his internal process, which we glimpse in this 1936 quote:

“Do you like flowers? So do I, but I never paint them. I didn’t even see the hepaticas. I saw, instead, an arrangement of the lines, spaces, hues, values and relations that I habitually use. That is, I saw one of my own pictures, a little different from ones done before, changed slightly, very slightly, by what I saw before me.'”

Notes:

signed & dated lower right

Provenance: Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal QC (Cullen Inv. No. 154); Canadian Fine Arts, Toronto ON; Masters Gallery, Calgary AB

Maurice Galbraith Cullen was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and moved with his family to Montreal as a boy. At age fourteen, while working as a sales clerk, he began his formal art education, training at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts et Sciences, and privately with sculptor Louis-Philippe Hebert. In 1887, an inheritance from his mother allowed Cullen to move to France to further his studies. In Paris, he trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Academies Julian and Colarossi. Here, Cullen was taught in the traditional French academic style of painting, though he was drawn to Impressionism and the Barbizon School. While in France, he met several fellow Canadian artists, including James Wilson Morrice and William Brymner, who became his sketching partners. During these years, Cullen spent his summers in the French countryside and sketching the Brittany Coast, often in the company of Morrice. Cullen exhibited at the Paris Salon and become an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-arts. Cullen returned to Montreal in 1895 and opened a studio, soon exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Art Association of Montreal. In 1900, Cullen embarked on his last major painting trip overseas. He spent the following two years painting at numerous locations, including Brittany, Venice, Florence, Southern France and North Africa. This work dates from this time period, and depicts a coastal scene in Brittany, an area Cullen enjoyed revisiting. Brittany was an important artistic centre, drawing artists from around the world, who appreciated the area for its rugged scenery, traditional customs and artistic camaraderie.

Notes:

bears signature lower right and verso

Provenance: Arthur Leggett Fine Art and Antiques, Toronto ON; Jerrold Morris Gallery, Toronto ON; Masters Gallery, Calgary AB; Private collection; Calgary AB; Former collection of A. K. Prakash, Toronto ON; Private collection, Winnipeg MB

Exhibited: “Canadian Artists in Paris and the French Influence”, Glenbow Museum, Calgary AB (October 16, 1999-January 3, 2000.

Notes:

initialed lower left; signed and estate stamped on the old backing verso
Provenance: Estate of the Artist; The Morris Gallery, Toronto ON; Brock Galleries, Penticton BC; Loch Gallery, Winnipeg MB

Notes:

signed lower right; titled verso

Provenance: Galerie Eric Klinkhoff, Montreal QC

Born and raised in the Vancouver area, Molly Joan Lamb studied at the Vancouver School of Art (1938-41) before enlisting with the Canadian Women’s Army Corp. in 1942. She became Canada’s first female official war artist three years later, meeting fellow artist Bruno Bobak during her time in London, England. After marrying, the Bobaks returned to Vancouver for a number of years, before Bruno Bobak accepted a teaching position at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where the couple settled and lived for over 50 years. Molly Lamb Bobak went on to have a long teaching and exhibition career and was honored with a travelling retrospective of her work in 1992. Her work can be found in many public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.