Alexander Colville
Alexander Colville
1920 - 2013
PC CC
Alex Colville is Canada’s finest realist painter. Born in Toronto in 1920, the Colville family moved to St. Catharines when he was seven, and, in 1929, to Nova Scotia. From 1938 to 1942, Colville attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Immediately after completing university in 1942, Colville entered the Canadian army. He was appointed an official war artist, travelling overseas in 1944. Of the group of works he produced during this period, 126 are in the collection of Canadian War Museum Art Collection.

After the end of the war in 1945, Colville joined Mount Allison University as a member of the faculty. His academic career consumed the majority of his time until about 1950, and it was not until 1951 that he held his first exhibition, at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John. In 1952 he held his first exhibition outside of Canada in a group show at the Hewitt Gallery in New York, followed by solo shows in 1953 and 1955. In the years to follow, he would exhibit at the Hart House Gallery, Laing Galleries in Toronto and the Banfer Gallery in New York. In 1963, Colville resigned from his teaching position at Mount Allison to devote himself entirely to his artistic career. His successes as an artist continued - in 1965 he was commissioned to design Canada’s centennial coins and in 1966 he was chosen along with Yves Gaucher and Sorel Etrog to represent Canada at the prestigious Venice Biennale. From 1967 to 1968, Colville returned to academia as a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz before spending six months in West Berlin as a visiting artist in 1971. In 1978, he designed a medal for the Governor General. During the 1970s he showed with Marlborough Fine Art and Fischer Fine Art in London. The only other Canadian artist that could claim international recognition at that time was Jean Paul Riopelle.

Colville was the recipient of numerous prestigious honours including an appointment as Chancellor of Acadia University in Wolfville in 1981 and the Companion of the Order of Canada in 1982. Throughout his illustrious career, Colville received many honorary degrees from numerous universities such as Mount Allison University, Sackville, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, University of Windsor and Memorial University, St. John’s. In 1983, the National Gallery of Ontario held a retrospective of his work and the exhibition traveled throughout Canada and internationally to Germany and the Far East. Eleven years later, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal held a major exhibition of his work in 1994. Colville had a strong relationship with the National Gallery of Canada, having served as a board member from 1990 to 1993, and in 2000, the National Gallery celebrated Colville’s eightieth birthday by mounting an exhibition of his work. An exhibition originating at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 2003 toured from 2004 to 2005.

Colville changed his painting medium various times, using oil, tempera, synthetic resin and acrylic polymer emulsion. He spent extensive amounts of time on each work, calculating and executing the precise measurements and proportions of each element in his images, tightening the composition to the point of its greatest dynamic tension. Colville, while representing the world he experienced in his daily life, always addressed philosophical questions. He examined the unanswerable nature of what it is to be human and live in this world, and in doing so, brought the mystery at the basis of all existence into his work. The universality of Colville’s work, his unique style and vision, combined with the meticulous perfection of his images, made him an artist of international stature.

Colville died in 2013 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. In 2014, the Art Gallery of Ontario held a retrospective of his work that traveled to the National Gallery of Canada in 2015.
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Dog and Bridge by Alexander Colville vendu pour $2,401,250
Alexander Colville
Dog and Bridge
35 1/2 x 35 1/2 in, 90.2 x 90.2 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 800 000 $ - 1 200 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 2 401 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 15 juillet 2020
June Noon by Alexander Colville vendu pour $2,161,250
Alexander Colville
June Noon
30 x 30 in, 76.2 x 76.2 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 1 500 000 $ - 2 500 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 2 161 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, jeudi, 25 mai 2023
Harbour by Alexander Colville vendu pour $1,888,000
Alexander Colville
Harbour
13 1/2 x 21 1/2 in, 34.3 x 54.6 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 500 000 $ - 700 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 1 888 000 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fall 2015 - 1st Session, jeudi, 26 novembre 2015
Coastal Figure by Alexander Colville vendu pour $1,561,250
Alexander Colville
Coastal Figure
25 1/4 x 55 in, 64.1 x 139.7 cm
tempera émaillée sur panneau
Estimation : 650 000 $ - 850 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 1 561 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 01 juin 2022
Man on Verandah by Alexander Colville vendu pour $1,287,000
Alexander Colville
Man on Verandah
15 x 20 in, 38.1 x 50.8 cm
tempera émaillée sur panneau
Estimation : 400 000 $ - 600 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 1 287 000 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fall 2010 - 1st Session, jeudi, 25 novembre 2010
Swimming Dog and Canoe by Alexander Colville vendu pour $1,180,000
Alexander Colville
Swimming Dog and Canoe
21 x 47 in, 53.4 x 119.4 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 300 000 $ - 500 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 1 180 000 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Spring 2016 - 1st Session, mercredi, 25 mai 2016
Night Walk by Alexander Colville vendu pour $901,250
Alexander Colville
Night Walk
17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in, 45 x 45 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 400 000 $ - 600 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 901 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 01 décembre 2021
Woman with Revolver by Alexander Colville vendu pour $841,250
Alexander Colville
Woman with Revolver
22 1/2 x 11 1/2 in, 57.2 x 29.2 cm
émulsion de polymère acrylique sur panneau
Estimation : 600 000 $ - 800 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 841 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 02 décembre 2020
Two Boys Playing by Alexander Colville vendu pour $721,250
Alexander Colville
Two Boys Playing
20 x 20 in, 50.8 x 50.8 cm
tempera émaillée sur panneau
Estimation : 600 000 $ - 800 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 721 250 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Post-War & Contemporary Art, mercredi, 21 novembre 2018
Two Pacers by Alexander Colville vendu pour $690,000
Alexander Colville
Two Pacers
24 x 32 in, 61 x 81.3 cm
tempera sur panneau
Estimation : 200 000 $ - 300 000 $ CDN
Vendu pour : 690 000 $ CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fine Canadian Art Spring 2007, mercredi, 23 mai 2007