Sold for: $58,250

PROVENANCE
Marlborough-Godard, Toronto
W.H. Graham, Toronto, 1972
M.F. Feheley, Toronto, circa 1977
Christopher Varley, Toronto, 1988
Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary, 1988
Norman Swyers, British Columbia, 1988
Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary, 1995
Private Collection, Vancouver, 2008

LITERATURE
Joyce Zemans, "David Milne, 1911 - 1915," artscanada, no. 176 / 177, February/March 1973, page 73, reproduced page 73
David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 1: 1882 - 1928, 1998, page 137, reproduced page 150, catalogue #106.42

EXHIBITED
Marlborough-Godard, Toronto, November 16 - December 9, 1972, catalogue #36
Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, 1997

From 1915, David Milne spent a year and a half in New York City. It was an eventful time – he was elected to the board of control of the New York Water Color Club, and seven of his watercolours were selected for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, for which he won the Silver Medal. He was busy with art societies and juries and also organized a show of his watercolours in his apartment – dramatically painting the walls black to show off the brilliance of his palette.

In a review of Milne’s 1972 exhibition of works from 1911 to 1915 at Marlborough Godard Gallery, Joyce Zemans wrote, “Milne’s paintings were…often orchestrated into a peaceful andante, as in Slate Houses, 1915 where briefly noted white geometric shapes, pale cubes nestled among trees, suggest roofs and houses and set up an interplay between themselves and the rounded rhythmic forms of foliage.” A fine example of Milne’s mastery of the medium of watercolour, Slate Houses, New York is typical of his work at this time, when he often painted in black, white and green only. The work shows his “black core convention,” as he described it, in which trees were depicted with a dark core surrounded by white to represent how trees looked against the light.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars