Sold for: $109,250

PROVENANCE
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, Montreal
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 25, 2005, lot 5
Property from an Important Private Collection to Benefit a Charitable Foundation

LITERATURE
Barbara Meadowcroft, Painting Friends, 1999, page 86
Dorota Kozinska, Kathleen Morris: Retrospective Exhibition, Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., 2003, page 5

EXHIBITED
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Kathleen Morris, RCA, Loan Exhibition, June 13 - 27, 1976, catalogue #38

Kathleen Morris lived in Ottawa from 1923 to 1929 with her mother, Eliza. Morris had a nervous ailment that impaired her speech, but she was nevertheless very confident due to, as Barbara Meadowcroft writes, “the intelligent support and boundless love given her by her mother and brothers. Mrs. Morris devoted her life to her.” Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery in Ottawa during that time, was a supporter, and the National Gallery of Canada acquired one of her works. Brown was instrumental in including many Canadian artists in the important Wembley exhibition in England in 1924 to 1925, and Morris was one of them.

An aspect of beauty in this painting is its luscious colour. Dorota Kozinska writes of Morris, “Her art can be compared to the work of the Nabis, a group of mainly French painters active in the 1890s, whose works were influenced by Gauguin’s expressive use of colour and rhythmic pattern. Like them, Morris translated her surroundings in an intuitive manner, guided by colour more than form.” Scenes like this capture a world no longer with us – the picturesque outdoor market with horse-drawn carriages - and Morris paints it with great feeling.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars