Sold for: $10,625

PROVENANCE
Purchased directly from the artist by Private Collection, St. John’s, Newfoundland
By descent to present Private Collection, Ontario

This nuanced, finely painted watercolour speaks to the extreme specificity and sensitivity of Christopher Pratt’s artistic practice and its place in Canadian art. It conveys, with a draughtsman’s precision, an expanse of land gently touched by the first snows of winter. Although exacting, this precision does not overwhelm the feeling of the work, which is of a heightened and subtly surreal tone, placing it well within the important tradition of East Coast magic realism. This tradition was initiated primarily by Alex Colville, who was a major influence on Pratt, having instructed the younger artist at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. Colville instilled a deep respect for technical rigour in his students, who also included Christopher’s then wife Mary Pratt. Colville’s influence can be sensed here in the fine renderings of form, and in the still-present grid lines on the paper—a hallmark of his instruction that aimed to ensure a geometric exactness and control. At the same time both meticulous and intimate, this is a work that emerged from an indelible and irreplaceable moment in Canadian art history.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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