Sold for: $82,600

PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Vincent Price Gallery of Fine Art at Sears
Private Collection, Vancouver, early 1960s
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 25, 2005, lot 144
Private Collection, Toronto

In 1953, E.J. Hughes was approached to do illustrations by The Lamp, a publication of the Standard Oil Company. In the summer of that year, Hughes journeyed up the British Columbia coast to Namu, Echo Bay, and Minstrel and Gilford Islands on the Standard Oil ship the Imperial Nanaimo. The 39 drawings he did on this trip formed the basis for five paintings that would be reproduced in The Lamp. From this group of drawings, the title of the graphite study for this watercolour, Imperial Oil Dock at Prince Rupert, pinpoints the location of this scene. Hughes’s keen eye picks out the plethora of interesting details on the dock of this small coastal community, from the industrial structures to the small rowboat and the men at work. The distinctive deck cranes of the ship bring attention to the dramatic sky, whose warm colours reflect back in the shimmer of the ocean. Hughes’s mastery of the medium is impressive in this marvelously atmospheric watercolour.

The Imperial Nanaimo at dock was the central image of the fine 1953 Hughes canvas Echo Bay, BC, sold by Heffel in spring of 1999, and now in the collection of the Audain Museum, Whistler.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars