Sold for: $93,600

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Ontario
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 2, 2002, lot 85
Private Collection, USA
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 28, 2013, lot 145

LITERATURE
Emily Carr, Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr, 2006, pages 161 and 165

In her journals, Emily Carr expressed her pleasure at walking the beach – easily accessed from her home in Victoria – with its aqueous atmospheres, its interesting flotsam of driftwood, and its salt-washed stones mingled with sea life such as crabs and urchins. Nature was the balm for her soul, and she wrote, “The beach was sublime this morning...the sea kissed the pebbles and the little breeze petted everything.” This fine seascape is dominated by the tranquil sea and a sky full of impending weather. Carr wrote of her striving to capture such ephemeral effects: “That which moves across the water is...hardly even as solid a thing as a thought...It’s more like a breath, involuntary and alive, coming, going, always there but impossible to hang on to. Oh! I want to get that thing.” In contrast to the intangibility of the atmosphere, Carr anchors the foreground with dense, dark driftwood, and the shapes at the left suggest an echo of Britain’s prehistoric standing stones. Strong form, an active sky and Carr’s command of sea airs make this an outstanding painting.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars