1815 - 1872
Canadian
Skating on the Pond
oil on canvas, circa 1860
signed, titled on a plaque and inscribed Quebec indistinctly
25 x 30 in, 63.5 x 76.2 cm
Estimate: $70,000 - $90,000 CAD
Sold for: $169,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Gilbert A. LaBine, Ontario
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto
The iconic paintings of Cornelius Krieghoff form an early chapter in Canada's visual history and celebrate our identity as a northern nation. His work defines the ideal of hardy settlers not only managing to survive the harsh Canadian winters, but thriving in them and embracing them. This charming and carefully detailed painting is filled with vignettes depicting that ideal, including two jauntily dressed figures on snowshoes, a man loading firewood onto a skid, a family—complete with a happy dog—on the ice, and skaters in the distance. Krieghoff’s characteristic accents of bright colour enliven the scene, but the real tour de force in this work is the ice itself. It is clear that the artist had made many observations of the nature of ice. Here, it is cracked in places and dotted with frozen reeds, while protruding sticks mark the shoreline. In the distance we see the scoring of skate blades. Even the bottom of the pond can be clearly seen through the glassy ice in certain areas, attesting to Krieghoff’s experience painting this transitory effect of winter.
Estimate: $70,000 - $90,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.