News Release

Heffel's May 26 Auction Highlights Quebec Art

Montreal - May 2, 2010

Heffel Fine Art Auction House's upcoming two-session spring sale contains gems of Quebec art history representing both the historical and contemporary periods of art in this province. The auction is expected to be one of the top grossing auctions in Canadian fine art history. On May 26, Heffel Fine Art Auction House will hold its live auction of Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art at 4 pm, immediately followed by Fine Canadian Art at 7 pm, at the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Together, the two sales are estimated at $12 - $15 million.

Jean-Paul Lemieux
Ti-Gus The first session offers 100 first-rate lots of Post-War & Contemporary Art, and includes a wide range of influential pieces from Quebec artists. Jean-Paul Lemieux's delightful Ti-Gus, a 1962 oil on canvas portrait, is a stunning work that graces the cover of the Heffel catalogue and heralds the richness of creativity in the Quebec art world after the Second World War. Estimated at $150,000 - $250,000, Ti-Gus is a haunting single figure against a simplified landscape - classic Lemieux and a universal and archetypal image. Ti-Gus is consigned to Heffel's from a Canadian philanthropist who will donate the proceeds from the sale of this work to various Canadian charities.

Important works by a number of the infamous Automatists will no doubt be hotly contended. From the same philanthropist comes Paul-Émile Borduas's La danseuse jaune et la bête, a prized early Automatist period work, estimated at $80,000 - $120,000. Another Borduas from a private collector, the stunning 1955 Persistance des noirs was exhibited at the 1955 São Paulo Bienal has the same conservative estimate.

Paul-Émile Borduas
La danseuse jaune et la bête Jean-Paul Riopelle's De couples indiscrets is a large 1968 canvas that Dr. François-Marc Gagnon describes as giving "long-lasting contemplative pleasure to the onlooker". Masterworks such as these will set the tone of the sale. "Riopelle currently holds the record highest price of $1,667,500 for a contemporary work of art sold in Canada, set when Heffel's sold Il était une fois une ville in 2006," says Robert Heffel, Vice-President of Heffel Fine Art Auction House. Riopelle is also represented by two untitled watercolour and ink works from 1955 and 1963, both fluid and superb examples of his skill in this medium.

Naze iman brun, by Pierre Gavreau, was part of Riopelle's collection when he lived in France. Gavreau's apartment was the venue for the first Automatist exhibition in 1947, and Naze iman brun was painted that year, thus is an important early work.

Fernand Leduc's energetic and complex Composition from 1949 is a rare oil that was exhibited in a two-man show featuring Leduc and Riopelle in Paris in 1950.

Jean-Paul Riopelle
De couples indiscrets Rita Letendre's Automatist period is represented by Tourmente from 1962, and her Maquette for Toronto City Hall is a rare example of an unrealized commission by Letendre and a work that points the way to her hard-edged period.

Jean McEwen, influenced by the Automatists and a leader in the Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal, painted the stunning red abstract oil on canvas Rouge sur rouge in 1962, conservatively estimated at $60,000 - $80,000.

Also remarkable in this sale are works from the estate and family of Arthur Erickson, the internationally renowned West Coast architect. Two excellent works by Montreal artist Claude Tousignant - Double 36 (Mars Phthalocyanine) and The Double with Three - are estimated at $10,000 - $15,000 and $7,000 - $9,000 respectively. Both works are circular diptychs from his Op Art period, and fine examples of painting as pure sensation.

From other collectors come works from the Plasticien movement's founder Rodolphe de Repentigny. Sans Titre was painted in 1955, the same year he wrote the Plasticien manifesto. It is modestly estimated at $20,000 - $30,000.

Ray Mead, who had a successful career as a commercial artist in Montreal and was a member of the Painters Eleven group, is represented by two works, Dark Centre from 1958 and Tidal Blue from 1991. "Opportunities to own works by the founders of Quebec's most significant contemporary art movements are rare," says Tania Poggione, Director of Heffel's Montreal office. "This sale has a remarkable array of such works." Other Quebec painters and painters of Quebec round out the sale, with an excellent selection of Jean-Philippe Dallaire and John Little.

Albert Robinson
St-Urbain Immediately following the first session, Heffel's Fine Canadian Art Sale at 7 pm brings the roots of Quebec art into the limelight. James Wilson Morrice was a pivotal figure in Canadian art and a monumental artistic influence in Quebec. An expatriate for most of his career, Café - Paris from 1943, Boulevard des Batignolles, Paris and Ship in the Harbour represent his international travels.

A.Y. Jackson, who perhaps painted more of Quebec than any other landscape painter, has a selection of 20 works in the sale.

Of four works by Maurice Cullen, three depict his beloved Quebec landscape: After a Snowfall in the Laurentians, The North River Near St. Margaret's, both estimated at $30,00 - $45,000, and A March Afternoon, Laurentians (North River), estimated at $9,000 - $12,000. The fourth Cullen is a dramatic view of an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland.

The Beaver Hall Hill Group of Painters is represented by Kathleen Morris, Henrietta Mabel May and Anne Savage. At Beauport, Quebec by Morris is an excellent example of the group's modernist works. The figurative and landscape works by May include the very fine Late Winter, Lower St. Lawrence, estimated at $30,000 - $40,000. Savage's Winter Morning, expected to bring $70,000 - $90,000, is a rhythmic dance of colour, and comes from one of three important estates that have entrusted works to the Heffel spring sales.

Edwin Holgate
Frog Pond
(Great Bug Pond, Cachée River) Quebec collector Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton, who purchased the stunning Savage in 1956, had a deep love for Quebec, where she was born and lived out an accomplished and long life. "Mrs. Thornton's connection to her art collection ties together her childhood experiences in Montreal and her love of the natural landscape of Canada," says David Heffel, President of Heffel Fine Art Auction House. "She was very tied to her home province, and loved the Laurentians especially. She chose her art very carefully, it had to mean something significant to her. Over her lifetime she built a remarkable collection of works that all tie back to her own experiences in some way."

Mrs. Thornton's estate includes some of the most important works in the Heffel sale: seven masterworks by Lawren Harris, eight by A.Y. Jackson, and seven by Arthur Lismer alone. The early, impressionist-style Winter by Lawren Harris is a dance of colour and light, estimated at $300,000 - $500,000. Harris's Arctic Sketch IX, from 1930, is serenely beautiful and a classic example of Harris at his peak of landscape painting, also estimated at $300,000 - $500,000.

The Albert Robinson work that comes from Thornton's estate is considered one his most accomplished. St-Urbain is estimated at $300,000 - $500,000 and is expected to set a new record for the artist.

The Edwin Holgate painting that Mrs. Thornton purchased in 1947 was done from his painting cabin at Lac Tremblant in the Laurentians where Mrs. Thornton also lived. Frog Pond (Great Bug Pond, Cachée River) is estimated at $80,000 - $120,000 and is the sketch for the canvas Great Bug Pond, Cachée River, sold at Heffel's in 1999.

"The number of outstanding works from Quebec artists and from Quebec collections in our spring sales is quite remarkable," says David Heffel. "Quebec's art history is rich, and collectors like Mrs. Thornton knew this early on. She chose well, and people like her enabled artists to succeed. Subsequently, Quebec gave rise to some very important modern art movements in Canada, and a generation later, we are seeing the results as avid collectors rush to embrace their works."

Arthur Lismer
The Sheep's Nose, Bon Echo Additionally, there are many works outside of the Quebec movements and representing other parts of Canada. Group of Seven member Arthur Lismer's stunning The Sheep's Nose, Bon Echo, from 1922, pays homage to Walt Whitman, the early days of the Group of Seven (it was exhibited in their 1922 show) and to a beloved place in Canada's wilderness. This large canvas depicts Bon Echo Rock, one of Canada's natural wonders, in Ontario's Bon Echo Provincial Park. It is a popular tourist destination and a place ripe with Canadian history, lore and myth. Lismer painted there repeatedly, and this work was included in the National Gallery of Canada's exhibition, The Group of Seven - Art for a Nation, in 1995.

The spring auction consists of 222 works of art by Canada's greatest artists divided into two sessions. Information and the online version of the sale catalogues can be found at www.heffel.com.

Previews of the work are scheduled for:

• Montreal - May 6 - 8, 11 am - 6 p.m.,
  Galerie Heffel, 1840 rue Sherbrooke Ouest
• Toronto - May 13 - 15, 11 am - 6 pm,
  Heffel Gallery, 13 Hazelton Avenue
• Vancouver - May 22 - 25, 11 am - 6 pm and May 26, 10 am - 12 pm,
  Heffel Gallery, 2247 Granville Street

The Spring Auction will take place at the Vancouver Convention Centre West, located at 1055 Canada Place. The first session begins at 4 pm and the second at 7 pm.

For more information contact:

Robert Heffel: 604 732-6505 or 604 418-0100
robert@heffel.com

David Heffel: 604 732-6505 or 604 418-6505
david@heffel.com

Tania Poggione,
Director of Heffel's Montreal office: (514) 939-6505
tania@heffel.com

Heffel Fine Art Auction House - Canada's National Fine Art Auction House

Heffel Fine Art Auction House has the most experienced team of fine art specialists in the business, providing customers with the best opportunity for maximizing the value of their works. Heffel Fine Art Auction House has a national presence with offices and galleries in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and representatives in Calgary and Victoria.