Sold for: $49,250

PROVENANCE
Sold sale of Important Canadian Art, Sotheby's Canada, May 11, 1994, lot 163
Private Collection, Ontario

Kathleen Morris was an important early Quebec modernist, known for her dynamic depictions of the streets and marketplaces of Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. Born into a family that was part of Montreal’s Protestant elite, Morris studied with William Brymner and Maurice Cullen at the Art Association of Montreal, where she absorbed contemporary artistic trends. She joined the Beaver Hall Group in 1920, a pivotal Montreal association that included many women members. In this classic work by Morris, people wend their way on snowy sidewalks to one of Montreal’s many churches, here an integral part of an urban neighbourhood. The modernity of Morris’s work is evident in the broad, fluid brush-strokes and the bold, reductive depiction of form. She sketched in her figures with enough detail to be individuals, but with a similarity that emphasizes their shared community of worship. Morris’s sensitive perception of winter light and atmosphere in Sunday Morning, Old Montreal makes this an outstanding painting from her oeuvre.

Morris’s Montreal subjects are in the collections of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the National Gallery of Canada and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars