2025 June | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed and titled lower right

Notes:

signed lower right

Notes:

signed lower right; titled verso and on the matting

Provenance: Estate of the Roland Gissing, by descent.

Notes:

inscribed “To Penny / Xmas 1963” verso

Gissing gifted this work to Lloyd C. (Penny) Laverick and his wife Jessie. Gissing and Laverick, both members of the Calgary Sketch Club, were long-time sketching partners. Their frequent outings, often including artist Matt Lindstrom, took them to remote areas of the foothills. This work was later returned to Gissing’s Estate.

Provenance: Estate of Roland Gissing, by descent; Former collection of Lloyd C. (Penny) and Jessie Laverick.

Notes:

signed lower right

Notes:

signed, titled, dated and editioned in the cast

Notes:

signed and dated in the cast; inscribed “O. E. Beil-78” in the cast

Note: This work is an authorized posthumous casting, created under the supervision of the artist’s estate.

Notes:

signed, dated and editioned in the cast; titled on the artist’s plaque

Note: This bronze was commissioned by the Ranchmen’s Club in honour of the club’s centenary (1891-1991).

Notes:

signed and dated lower right; titled on the matting and below the image in the margin

English-born Roland Gissing arrived in Calgary in 1913, as an 18-year-old drawn by the lure of the “Wild West” and cowboy culture. He spent 10 years working as a ranch hand, covering a distance between Peace River and Mexico, while sketching and drawing as a pastime. Gissing made the decision to become a professional artist in 1923 and began forging connections within the Calgary art community, including with R. L. Harvey (who oversaw the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede Art Department) and Leonard Richmond (a CPR painter and influential art instructor). Gissing received some formal instruction and his body of work soon impressed Ernie Richardson (of the Calgary Stampede & Exhibition), who granted Gissing a one-man show of his pastel and watercolour works – the artist’s chosen medium at the time. The 1929 show was received with such enthusiasm that a second exhibition was held later that year, hosted by art dealer Jack Booth.

Early works such as this one are rare, and the subject matter comes from Gissing’s genuine love for and experience with ranch life. Gissing remained a working cowboy throughout his life, though his art career moved to landscapes in oil beginning in the 1930s. He would occasionally return to cowboy subject matter.

Notes:

signed in the margin lower right

Provenance: Harlow, McDonald & Company, New York NY (label verso).

Note: This print is illustrated on page 113 (Plate 12) of “Carl Rungius: The Complete Prints” (Donald E. Crouch; Mountain Press Publishing Company; 1989). Aside from the proofs, this work was issued in an edition of 100.