Lot # 241
LAWREN STEWART HARRIS
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS 1885 - 1970 Canadian

Iceberg, Baffin's Bay North
oil on board, 1930
on verso signed, titled twice and inscribed "owned by C.J. Harris" and in graphite "C.S. Band"
12 x 15 in,  30.5 x 38.1 cm

Provenance:
Charles S. Band, Toronto
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, National Gallery of Canada, listed, titled as Iceberg, Baffin Island North, unpaginated
Jeremy Adamson, Lawren S. Harris, Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes, 1906 - 1930, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1978, listed page 231, and the 1930 canvas entitled Icebergs, Davis Strait, reproduced page 197
Christopher Jackson, Lawren Harris, North by West: The Arctic and Rocky Mountain Paintings of Lawren Harris 1924 - 1931, Glenbow Museum, 1991, entitled Iceberg, Baffin Island North, reproduced page 53
Andrew Hunter and Ian Thom, Lawren Stewart Harris: A Painter's Progress, The Americas Society, 2000, page 36, the 1930 canvas entitled Icebergs, Davis Strait reproduced page 40

Exhibited:
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Arctic Sketches by A.Y. Jackson, R.C.A. and Lawren Harris, November 26 - December 8, 1930, titled as Icebergs, Baffin Bay North, catalogue #14
Art Gallery of Toronto, Arctic Sketches by Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson, R.C.A., May 1931, titled as Iceberg, North Baffin Bay, catalogue #430
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, catalogue #18
Art Gallery of Hamilton, The C.S. Band Collection, November 5 - 30, 1954, catalogue #16
Vancouver Art Gallery, Painting and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, March 1 - 21, 1960, catalogue #18
Art Gallery of Ontario, Lawren S. Harris: Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes, 1906 - 1930, January 14 - February 26, 1978, titled as Iceberg, Baffin Bay North, catalogue #169
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, North by West: The Arctic and Rocky Mountain Paintings of Lawren Harris 1924 - 1931, April - June 1991, catalogue #59

Remarkable in the estate of Charles S. Band are the oil studies for iconic Canadian masterworks. Iceberg, Baffin's Bay North, is the final oil sketch for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection's masterpiece canvas, Icebergs, Davis Strait. Like other masterpieces in the estate, this oil sketch can be considered the birth of a Canadian icon.
Lawren Harris was captivated by the search for universal, singular spiritual truth. This search took him further and further into the northern regions of Canada, and it was in Canada's Arctic that he found the land at its most simple, spare and austere. Whereas in the southern regions, below the tree line, Harris was stripping the land bare, in the Arctic, the land was already naked. Here, amongst the ice and water, in the cold clarity of the north, Harris spent almost two months working, and produced some of his most profound, dramatic paintings. His journey towards abstraction that had begun in the Rockies crystallized in the Arctic where, in the icebergs, Harris was free to explore one of nature's purest natural forms. Here, as Ian Thom writes, "it is almost as if this journey were the fulfillment of Harris's destiny."
At the same time that Harris was exploring the scenery of northern Canada, he had become involved in the theatre scene in Toronto. Hart House Theatre was funded by, and built in honour of, Hart Massey, and was state-of-the-art. Harris was very interested in set design, and more particularly with the way in which theatre affects its audience. His search for other-worldly, mystical, out-of-body experiences found solid footing in theatre, where temporal belief is suspended in order to immerse one's self in the time, place and setting of the play. So it should be, Harris felt, in viewing art.
Harris's iceberg works have the quality of being set as if they are on a stage. The massive ice forms seem to float in the centre of a space that is somehow, despite its apparent vastness, contained. We are invited to become a part of Harris's spiritual journey, as theatre-goers are invited to watch a play. How much we get out of it depends on how much we are willing to surrender to what we are seeing. It depends on our imagination and our willingness to participate in the heightened state of being that is being offered to us by this work.
In addition to their stage set parallels, Harris's Arctic works often feel as if the sense of the space in the picture plane is somehow indefinable. Here, we drift or float outside of Harris's mystical spatial organization. A metaphor for the state of our life in the physical place of existence, the iceberg, by contrast, sits in the spiritual plane. These are two separate places, and in the Arctic works the journey to join Harris requires a leap of faith. The light in Iceberg, Baffin's Bay North is inexplicably ethereal and comes from an indefinable source, perhaps the icebergs themselves. A glowing blue breaks the surface of the almost black water, indicative of the massive bulk of ice beneath. The iceberg forms are remotely beautiful, an essay in blue, which, being the theosophical colour symbol for faith, asks that we accept them. Thus faith, being the basis of knowledge, will lead us forward.
As Harris progressed down his spiritual path, the paintings he created progressed in an evenly matched stride, and it is in the Arctic works that we are required to make the biggest leap of faith. To cross the frigid waters and join Harris at his mystical goal, we must suspend our expectations of landscape art and embrace what Harris offers us: serene, pure, unadorned form. Upon the close of the Arctic period of Harris's career, he broke entirely with representational landscape and began his foray into pure abstraction.
Icebergs, Baffin's Bay North is offered here for sale for the first time since Charles S. Band acquired this masterwork.
For full cataloguing, text and images in PDF format, please click here.

Sold For: $1,521,000.00 CAD
Estimate: $1,200,000 ~ $1,600,000 CAD

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Lot # 242
LAWREN STEWART HARRIS
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS 1885 - 1970 Canadian

In Buchanan Bay, Ellesmere Island
oil on board, 1930
on verso signed, titled twice and inscribed in graphite "C.S. Band"
12 x 15 in,  30.5 x 38.1 cm

Provenance:
Charles S. Band, Toronto
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Lawren Harris, Paintings 1910 - 1948, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1948, listed page 36
Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, National Gallery of Canada, listed, unpaginated
Jeremy Adamson, Art Gallery of Ontario, Lawren S. Harris: Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes 1906 - 1930, 1978, reproduced page 200, figure #32
Christopher Jackson, North by West: The Arctic and Rocky Mountain Paintings of Lawren Harris, 1924 - 1931, Glenbow Museum, 1991, page 17

Exhibited:
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Arctic Sketches by A.Y. Jackson, R.C.A. and Lawren Harris, December 1930, catalogue #12
Art Gallery of Toronto, Arctic Sketches by Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson, R.C.A., May 1931, catalogue #402
Art Gallery of Toronto, Lawren Harris, Paintings 1910 - 1948, October - November 1948, catalogue #136
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, catalogue #19
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, catalogue #136
Art Gallery of Hamilton, The C.S. Band Collection, November 5 - 30, 1954, catalogue #17
Art Gallery of Ontario, Lawren S. Harris: Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes 1906 - 1930, January 14 - February 26, 1978

To Canadians, the idea of the north conjures up imagery of vast sheets of ice, uninhabited frozen places and remote beauty. The Arctic is enshrined in our minds in endless cold white, a quintessentially Canadian place. In 1930, when Lawren Harris visited the Arctic with A.Y. Jackson, it seemed as if they were visiting the final destination. The Group of Seven had, between them, painted the vast variety of Canada in all its many seasons and faces. From Halifax in the flood of spring to the verdant West Coast, from the tangle of Algoma to the summits of the Rockies, the Arctic was, by extension, a logical final step.
In Buchanan Bay, Ellesmere Island is at once both delicate and bold, forbidding and enticing in its serene Arctic beauty. Harris painted three iceberg forms, set a distance away from an ice shelf in the near ground, that seem to float as one mass. The new white snow on their tops blends seamlessly with the facetted, gem-like, blue ice of their ancient interiors. The sky is handled simply - just a few bands of blue grey and slice of pinkish white. The movement in these colour bands indicates a vanishing point that is well out of the work, and reminds us of the vastness of this region, the unimaginably large distances of the north. The icebergs themselves take the form that melting has given them - abstract and strange, they follow no pattern, ascribe to no mathematical theory. Their transitory nature is reinforced by the smaller patches of ice that drift about them in the water.
The spiritual depth of Harris's Arctic works cannot be underestimated, and to understand why, we must first understand where Harris was at spiritually, at the time of his Arctic journey. The Group of Seven had exhibited together, faced their critics together, grown and changed. Franz Johnston had resigned from the Group in 1924, later to be replaced by A.J. Casson in 1926. Varley had moved to Vancouver that same year. It was a time of change, and Harris was seeking new direction in his work. He corresponded with Emily Carr, speaking to her of his doubts and assuring her of her own worth as a painter. Like her, he was grasping for something more in his art, something that he knew could not be found in traditional landscape painting. Harris's journey down the path of theosophical practice also had grown more devout, more all consuming. He wanted clarity, simplicity and directness. The Arctic was the perfect place for this ripening sense of profound spirituality to crystallize.
In addition to noting the changes in Harris's peer group and the overall direction of the Group of Seven, it is essential to understand how much Harris was truly open to the profound, ready to be touched by something more than the mundane workings of daily life. He wanted spiritual experiences - to be lifted up, so to speak, above the day to day. His imagination had been swept up in the idea of the north long before his visit, and once in the Arctic, as Christopher Jackson writes, "Harris seemed to drink in the psychic atmosphere of the place he saw as the spiritual epicenter of the world." He was in search of basic form, and in the icebergs, he found it.
Harris's icebergs have a different kind of beauty than his delicate street scenes, his bold mountain paintings, his charged Algoma paintings, and even the works from the north shore of Lake Superior. Icebergs exist for only a short time, and we, in viewing them, have been privileged to share, however briefly, in one of Nature's greatest manifestations of beauty, her purest form of creation. We cannot help being awed by them, and surrender to their wonder, having no recourse to question or explain. This was the moment of understanding that Harris sought in his spiritual quest - a moment, if you will, of truth.
Perhaps Harris, in his austere iceberg paintings, is also speaking about the fleeting nature of life. We can wonder if Harris saw the parallels with the end of an era, the end of the heyday of the Group of Seven and the end of his exploration of the Canadian landscape in their melting forms. Whether or nor Harris was aware of the irony of the subject in his last landscape works, it is not lost on us looking back at them almost 80 years later. In their still beauty, trapped by Harris in oil on board, the icebergs speak of endings. They mark the end of an extraordinary period of landscape painting in the life of a groundbreaking painter, as Harris produced only 36 sketches and six canvases of Arctic imagery. These were his last explorations of realistic landscape. Like the iceberg itself, these works are among Harris's greatest and most rare manifestations of beauty.

Sold For: $1,111,500.00 CAD
Estimate: $550,000 ~ $750,000 CAD

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Lot # 243
ARTHUR LISMER
CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA 1885 - 1969 Canadian

Killicks No. 1, Cape Breton Island, NS
oil on board,
signed twice and dated 1945 and on verso signed, titled and dated on the artist's label and inscribed "catalogue #122" and "Band" and in graphite "Band Dec 49"
12 x 16 in,  30.5 x 40.6 cm

Provenance:
Collection of the Artist
Charles S. Band, Toronto
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, National Gallery of Canada, listed, unpaginated
Lois Darroch, Bright Land: A Warm Look at Arthur Lismer, 1981, page 142

Exhibited:
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, catalogue #34
Art Gallery of Hamilton, The C.S. Band Collection, November 5 - 30, 1954, catalogue #131
Vancouver Art Gallery, Painting and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, March 1 - 21, 1960, catalogue #11
Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, Canadian Paintings and Drawings from the C.S. Band Collection, April 29 - May 29, 1961, catalogue #59

Arthur Lismer realized the importance of allowing his work to evolve. By the 1940s, the landscape paintings of the Group of Seven were no longer regarded as avant-garde, and as a result Lismer turned to new subjects such as the vibrant sea life of Cape Breton, and his painting style began to change. In the 1920s, Lismer taught students that paintings should be, as he stated, "so organized that you can walk into the middle, sit down and reflect and then walk out again." His works from the 1940s move away from carefully ordered compositions, and instead focus on subtle colouring and the sculptural contouring of objects almost to the point of abstraction, as demonstrated in this stunning still life painting. Lismer was aware of the emergence of abstraction in Montreal in the 1940s and 1950s, and although his changing style was more conservative, he whole-heartedly supported this new creativity. As Lois Darroch comments, "Lismer was not a man to be frightened by an explosion. He had helped to start one himself."
There is a crayon and watercolour sketch on verso.

Sold For: $32,175.00 CAD
Estimate: $20,000 ~ $30,000 CAD

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Lot # 244
ARTHUR LISMER
CGP CSGA CSPWC G7 OSA RCA 1885 - 1969 Canadian

Tree, Georgian Bay
ink and wash drawing on paper,
initialed and dated 1962 and on verso signed and inscribed "Helen & Charles Band from Arthur & Esther Lismer, Sept. 62"
9 1/2 x 7 in,  24.1 x 17.8 cm

Provenance:
Charles S. Band, Toronto
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Sold For: $4,972.50 CAD
Estimate: $1,500 ~ $2,000 CAD

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Lot # 245
ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON
ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 - 1974 Canadian

North Shore, Lake Superior
oil on canvas,
signed and on verso signed, dated 1926 and inscribed "Studio Bldg Severn St., Toronto" and "C.S. Band"
25 x 32 in,  63.5 x 81.3 cm

Provenance:
Collection of the Artist
Charles S. Band, Toronto, acquired from the above in 1937
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, National Gallery of Canada, listed, unpaginated
The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, Contemporary Canadian Painting and Drawing, Albright Art Gallery, 1958, listed page 7
The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 1963, reproduced page 15
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter's Country, The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1964, pages 57, 58 and 105
Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven, 1970, reproduced page 154

Exhibited:
The Art Gallery of Toronto, Pictures from the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Charles S. Band, titled as Lake Superior, 1926, October 1947
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Band, 1953, catalogue #26
Art Gallery of Hamilton, The C.S. Band Collection, November 5 - 30, 1954, catalogue #123
Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, Contemporary Canadian Painting and Drawing, October 1 - November 2, 1958, catalogue #19
The Art Gallery of Toronto, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, February 15 - March 24, 1963, traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, May 23 - September 1, 1963, catalogue #26
David B. Findlay Galleries, New York, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, A Loan Exhibition on the Occasion of the Celebration and Centennial of Canadian Confederation, May 1 - October 4, 1967, traveling to the Albany Institute of History and Art, Confederati

In his autobiography A Painter's Country, A.Y. Jackson writes about the collectors who came to his studio during his career. In a chapter entitled "Some Visitors at the Studio", and scattered here and there throughout the rest of the text, Jackson recalls his patrons, the collectors who determined to purchase the work of the Group when others were denouncing it. Among these early enthusiasts he counts Charles S. Band, and acknowledged the impact of his support, stating, "With such enlightened people giving a lead and showing their faith in the work of Canadian artists, the vital phase of the Group's battle against entrenched conservatism was ended." Band's purchase of this magnificent Lake Superior canvas speaks to his enlightened understanding of Canadian art and his keen understanding of Jackson's work
Lake Superior appealed greatly to Jackson's sensibilities. He loved the roll of the land, the exposed rock, the earthy toughness of windswept shores and scrubby forests. He understood it, and knew what it took to travel and camp there. The land had a toughness that matched his own, and he was its equal. The variety of colour appealed to him as well; it was a vivid tapestry of a landscape that he loved. Jackson wrote, "The CPR main line follows the north shore of Lake Superior from Heron Bay westward to Port Arthur. I know of no more impressive scenery in Canada for the landscape painter. There is a sublime order to it, the long curves of the beaches, the sweeping ranges of hills, and the headlands that push out into the lake. Inland there are intimate little lakes, stretches of muskeg, outcrops of rock; there is little soil for agriculture. In autumn the whole country glows with colour; the huckleberry and the pincherry turn crimson, the mountain ash is loaded with red berries, the poplar and the birch turn yellow and the tamarac greenish gold." Jackson sketched the North Shore there repeatedly, usually in the company of Lawren Harris, later turning some of these sketches into oils on canvas. His understanding of the region is what makes these canvases really sing. Jackson's knowledge of the land he painted was hard won through first hand experience. He tramped through muskeg, snowshoed across winter fields, paddled down rivers. He kept his feet firmly on the land he painted - it was his point of contact, his creative source. Unlike Harris, whose connection to the land was increasingly intellectual, Jackson's was physical.
In North Shore, Lake Superior, we see all the elements that make a Jackson painting really stand out. In the middle ground, we have Jackson's rolling rhythmic hills, so exemplary of his Algoma and Lake Superior works, and used with mastery here. The vast surface of Lake Superior runs directly out behind the hills, taking our eye with it across the windblown water's surface to the distant shore. Rain clouds billow along the top edge of the canvas, their churning humid forms reflecting light back to the lake below. In the near ground, impressionistic shrubs break up the rhythm of the hills, and a small, sinuous tree sits defiantly in the immediate foreground. This little tree, quietly reminiscent of Jackson's The Red Maple (in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada), bends with the same rhythm as the hills, but its branches run perpendicular to them. It has a rather jaunty, impertinent character to it. Still hung with berries, it defies the end of summer, refusing to let go of its fruit. Jackson's ability to dance subtle colour across the surface of a canvas works in rhapsody here; warm red-browns move through grey and blue into silver-blue, and are touched with dashes of purple and red. The variety of directions of the brushwork in the canvas contributes greatly to its varied interest, as do the bands of light that edge the headlands in the water.
We know from Jackson's autobiography that the weather was often poor during his camping trips to Lake Superior. Harris, his companion one year, would rise before daylight and start moving about the tent, prodding Jackson to rise. Jackson would complain: "What's the use of getting up...It's raining." Harris would invariably reply, "It is clearing in the west." In this sublime canvas, regardless of the direction we are looking, it appears to be clearing in the distance.
North Shore, Lake Superior is indeed a Jackson masterwork. As with other works from the estate of Helen E. Band, this magnificent painting, originally acquired directly from the artist by Charles S. Band, is available here for the first time since leaving Jackson's studio.

Sold For: $526,500.00 CAD
Estimate: $450,000 ~ $550,000 CAD

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Lot # 246
HENRY MOORE
CH FBA OM 1898 - 1986 British

Maquette for Figure on Steps
bronze sculpture, 1956
editioned : from an edition of 10 plus one artist's cast
6 1/2 x 7 1/8 x 6 1/2 in,  16.5 x 18.1 x 16.5 cm

Provenance:
Collection of the Artist
Charles S. Band, Toronto, acquired from the above in 1958
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Lund Humphries, Henry Moore: Complete Sculptures 1955 - 64, volume 3, reproduced pages 34 - 35, catalogue #426

Charles S. Band acquired this work from Henry Moore in 1958. Included with this lot are three letters from Miss Margaret McLeod of the Fine Arts Department of the British Council regarding its acquisition. Following are excerpts of these fascinating letters from Miss McLeod that reveal Charles Band's pursuit of his collecting passion:
1st April, 1958
Dear Mr. Band,
Thank you for your last letter. A few days after it arrived I was lucky enough to spend a day down at Henry Moore's studio and I told him again that you seemed to be very keen to have the small maquette of the draped figure on the steps if a cast could possibly be found for you. It so happens that there is one available, it was the last cast in the edition and had been kept back for Mrs. Moore but as a larger version of the sculpture is being made she has decided she does not need to keep the maquette. It would therefore be possible for you to buy it for £175 if you wish. The little figure itself is 6 ½ inches high.
Would you be good enough to let me know as soon as possible if you wish to purchase this maquette as Henry Moore is having to reserve a certain number of works for his American and English dealers and I am sure this work will go to one or other of them.
Yours sincerely
M. McLeod (Miss)
Fine Arts Department
6th June, 1958
Dear Mr. Band,
I am just off to Italy, so please excuse this rather brief note. I have spoken to Henry Moore about your wanting to see the draped figure on steps before you decide whether or not to purchase it. He is, therefore, arranging for the bronze to be packed and sent to the Toronto Art Gallery by air freight. I gather that he has an agent in Canada and should you decide not to purchase the figure he will give you the name of the Dealer, so that you can hand it over to him. If you remember, he said that you could have the bronze for £175. This is a slightly reduced price for you and should not be mentioned to anybody.
Very best wishes to you all,
Yours sincerely,
M. McLeod (Miss)
This sculpture is from an edition of 10 plus one artist's cast, this lot being the artist's cast, which was part of Mrs. Moore's collection as noted above. It was cast by Fiorini Ltd. This superb work is the maquette for Working Model for Draped Seated Woman: Figure on Steps (LH 427) of the same date and for the related monumental 1957 - 1958 Draped Seated Woman (LH 428). Draped Seated Woman, 1957 - 1958, was cast by Susse Fondeur in a bronze edition of 6 plus one artist's cast. All six casts of the Draped Seated Woman are in public collections in the UK, Germany, Belgium, USA, Australia and Israel - the artist's cast is in a private collection in London.
The figure itself in all three versions uses drapery to accentuate the contours of the female form, a hallmark of Moore's great works of this period. Maquette for Figure on Steps is a magnificent example of Henry Moore's 1950s period and is the study for one of Moore's great monumental works.
The black and white photograph shows the plaster Maquette for Figure on Steps in Henry Moore's Top Studio at Perry Green at his Hoglands home. Tucked away in Hertfordshire's undulating countryside, Hoglands was Henry Moore's home from 1940 until 1986. Perry Green is now home to the Henry Moore Foundation, the centre for research on Moore.
We thank the Henry Moore Foundation for their assistance in cataloguing this work.

Sold For: $198,900.00 CAD
Estimate: $175,000 ~ $225,000 CAD

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Lot # 247
FREDERICK HORSMAN VARLEY
ARCA G7 OSA 1881 - 1969 Canadian

Twin Bays, Kootenay Lake
conté drawing on paper,
signed and on verso titled on various labels and inscribed with the Varley Inventory #84
13 1/2 x 16 1/2 in,  34.3 x 41.9 cm

Provenance:
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Charles S. Band, Toronto
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 1963, listed page 28

Exhibited:
The Art Gallery of Toronto, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Band, February 15 - March 24, 1963, traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, May 23 - September 1, 1963, catalogue #66

Sold For: $3,802.50 CAD
Estimate: $2,500 ~ $3,500 CAD

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Lot # 248
HAROLD BARLING TOWN
CGP CPE CSGA OC OSA P11 RCA 1924 - 1991 Canadian

President's Lady (Jacqueline Kennedy)
compressed charcoal on Arches paper,
signed and dated 1963 and on verso signed, titled and dated
29 1/2 x 22 in,  74.9 x 55.9 cm

Provenance:
Jerrold Morris International Gallery Ltd., Toronto,
Charles S. Band, Toronto, acquired from the above in 1964
Estate of Helen E. Band, Toronto

Literature:
Poets and Other People, Drawings by Harold Town, Art Gallery of Windsor, 1980, listed page 13

Exhibited:
Art Gallery of Windsor, Poets and Other People, Drawings by Harold Town, September 28 - October 26, 1980, catalogue #17

The Harold Town exhibition catalogue is included with this lot.

Sold For: $4,972.50 CAD
Estimate: $3,000 ~ $4,000 CAD

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Lot # 249
ALBERT HENRY ROBINSON
CGP RCA 1881 - 1956 Canadian

Fishing Boats at Quebec
oil on panel,
signed and dated 1924 and on verso initialed, titled and dated
11 x 13 in,  27.9 x 33 cm

Provenance:
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, BC

Born in Hamilton, Albert Robinson went to Paris to study art in 1903 - 1904, before returning to live in Montreal. The French Impressionist influence on Robinson is important. Like other fellow Canadian artists who studied in France and then returned to Canada, Robinson worked to utilize what he saw and learned abroad, and expressed it in his Quebec subjects. It is as if, when returning home, these artists started seeing and painting their own country in a completely new light, discovering its aesthetic greatness. This panel of boats in Quebec City's harbour is a brilliant example of Robinson's unique use of brush-stroke and colour to convey atmosphere in an impressionistic way. The ecru, white and light mauve reflections are masterfully executed, as every stroke of paint has its purpose in reflecting the shimmering light in the water. The use of the light tones subtlety contrasting with the boat's graceful green bow focuses the viewer's eye directly into the centre of this evocative work.

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Lot # 250
LAWREN STEWART HARRIS
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS 1885 - 1970 Canadian

LSH #73
oil on canvas, circa 1938 ~ 1940
on verso stamped Lawren Harris LSH Holdings Ltd 73
55 1/2 x 34 1/2 in,  141 x 87.6 cm

Provenance:
Private Collection, Montreal

Literature:
Lawren Harris: Paintings, 1910 - 1948, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 1948, page 32

As early as the 1920s, we can see the first hints of abstraction appearing in Lawren Harris's work. In his late Rocky Mountain paintings, particularly the Isolation Peak works, the North Shore of Lake Superior works from around the same time, and his Arctic works, we see the forms he found in nature being filtered through a rigorous system of simplification. At this time, he was seeking to paint the spirit of the scene, not to render it literally. His long-held interest in theosophy had become full-fledged practice, and its visual language was becoming apparent in his paintings, along with the geometric forms of dynamic symmetry. The two concepts, theosophy, with its system of triangles and colour equivalents for spiritual states, and dynamic symmetry, a system of geometry seeking perfect balance and harmony, sat well with one another. Harris, with his desire to move forward, ever upward, to reach something more in his work, embraced them both.
Harris's dedication to his search was so great that a major break with convention was required. He stopped painting entirely for two years beginning in 1932. Harris saw his art as a way of communicating his spiritual interpretation of the world to others. We, the uninitiated, could share his spiritual clarity through his art - he was the prophet, we his congregation. All aspects of his life were concentrated in pursuit of this goal. In 1934, Harris left his wife of 24 years and their three children, and married painter and theosophist Bess Housser, who had been married to Fred Housser, a long-time champion of the Group of Seven. Bess was similarly intellectually inclined, and to escape the resulting scandal, they moved to New Hampshire, where Harris took up painting again, further exploring abstraction. In the New Hampshire works, triangular shapes that could have come from mountain forms appear. These triangles might reference the White Mountains nearby, where he hiked and sketched, or perhaps they are simply coincidental, as this shape frequently occurs in his abstract works. Circles, triangles and upward-thrusting lines figure strongly, along with dramatic light and bold contrasts.
In 1938, Harris and Bess moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a pilgrimage of sorts. Santa Fe was considered a place of enlightenment, and had been home to an artists' colony since the end of the nineteenth century. There, he and Bess found others who shared their interests, and Harris helped found the Transcendental Group of Painters. In the high mountains and bright, clear light, he moved still further into abstraction. He stated that his abstractions had always been based on a beginning idea, and many of these ideas, while not strictly based on nature, came from nature, and in Santa Fe the light heavily influenced his abstract forms. Brilliant, flooding, yellow-white light is Santa Fe's most bold manifestation of nature. There, in the high altitude atmosphere, with rounded pueblo architecture, desert sands, with brilliant light overlaying it all, some of the Harris's most beautiful abstracts were painted.
In LSH #73 we see the forms and colours of both theosophy and dynamic symmetry at play; the triangle, the circle and the semicircle; yellow, white and blue. There is a very strong feeling of verticality, not just determined by the format of the work, but by the lines within the work and the strong sense of upward movement it contains, which is suggestive of seeking. Transparent colours lay over one another, with the circles in the lower portion of the work acting almost as magnifiers, suggestive of knowing, bringing lines and intersecting corners into sharpened clarity. The work speaks of balance and lightness, of heightened awareness and understanding, of simplicity and purity.
World War II would necessitate Harris's return to Canada. He settled in Vancouver, where his abstracts continued to evolve based on his natural surroundings, and his works took on a cool palette, more prominently featured triangular mountain-like forms, and had a shimmering, vibrating feeling that would lead the way to automatic drawings.

Sold For: $152,100.00 CAD
Estimate: $50,000 ~ $70,000 CAD

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