Sold for: $31,250

PROVENANCE
The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

William Kurelek’s prairie paintings are evocative, highly narrativized and often didactic works that reminisce on the artist’s upbringing in the farms and fields of rural Manitoba. This vivid painting is an excellent example of both the humour and technical skill that Kurelek would employ to create his tangible, nostalgic imagery. Here, a pair of sodden farmhands herd their cattle through driving late-summer rain, presumably returning to the barn. While one figure has suddenly lost his boot in the muddy trail mid-stride, the other seems to be having an easier time: barefoot, ankles mired and pants rolled up, he has pulled his jacket over his head, bent against the rain. The title of the work suggests that it’s easier to accept this sort of hardship as inevitable but temporary, and it would be better to get on without your boots if necessary: indeed, the cows themselves seem entirely unperturbed. The distant horizon of fields and steely sky are rendered with an unsullied, receding flatness, while the deluge and slickening grass are evoked with tactile fineness in a flurry of lines etched across the surface. The overall effect is to give a sense of immediacy and presence to the scene: we can smell the dampness of the earth, and hear the bustling herd and spattering puddles.

This work is in the original frame made by Kurelek.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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