Sold for: $109,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New Hampshire
Important Canadian Art, Sotheby's Canada, May 11, 1994, lot 136
Angus and Cathy MacNaughton, California

LITERATURE
J. Russell Harper, Krieghoff, 1999, page xi

Cornelius Krieghoff was one of a small group of artists in the nineteenth century, including Paul Kane, whose work had a specifically Canadian character. Krieghoff’s paintings of habitants, Indigenous people, army officers, city dwellers and the landscape, as J. Russell Harper noted, “have an intimacy, verve, and sense of quality that grips the attention as do no others by his generation of Canadian artists.” An important part of Krieghoff’s oeuvre were images of the habitants of Quebec in their rural settings, captured carrying out their everyday activities. The artist took a romantic view of these people, seeing them as hard-working but fun loving, fond of eating, drinking and dancing.

Habitant Farm in Winter is replete with charming details - a horse pulling a berline-barque sleigh stops by a farmhouse, its occupants chatting with the gesticulating farmer, observed by two children and a figure on the veranda. The sturdy canadien horse bends down to look at the dog in an echo of the human social exchange. Krieghoff’s depiction of the life of these vital people is fascinating. Habitant Farm in Winter is also a finely painted landscape; it is a tour de force of visual effects, showcasing Krieghoff’s exquisite handling of snow, fine detail in the trees and the softly glowing layers of clouds in the overcast sky.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars