PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by Sadie Gairns, Toronto
Canadian Fine Arts, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, page 63
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 66

EXHIBITED
Hart House, University of Toronto, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Sir Frederick Banting, February 13-March 1, 1943
London Regional Art and Historical Museums, Banting and Jackson: An Artistic Brotherhood, 1997-98, catalogue #16

"Another year, with Banting and Randolph Hewton, I went to St. Irénée and here Banting was nearly found out again. He liked to wear old clothes; thus dressed, he hoped he looked like a farmer." —A.Y. Jackson

Although he was a world-famous Nobel laureate for his co-discovery of insulin, Dr. Frederick Banting generally avoided the spotlight. On sketching trips with A.Y. Jackson, he would go by pseudonyms such as “Fred Grant” and seek to go unnoticed. Part of his aim was to dedicate his focus to creating accomplished and sensitively observed works, such as this fine painting. Jackson wrote shortly after Banting's death, while painting in Quebec: “The last time I was here was with Fred Banting and we had a very happy time together. He was quite the greatest man in Canada and yet seemed so completely unconscious of it.”

The original owner of this work was Sadie Gairns, one of Banting’s laboratory assistants, who likely received it as a gift from the artist. Notably, Gairns was also the original owner of Banting's "The Lab", his sketch of his University of Toronto laboratory, sold by Heffel in November of 2018.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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