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LOT 106

CGP CSPWC G7 OC POSA PRCA
1898 - 1992
Canadian

House at Whitney
oil on board
signed and on verso signed, titled and dated 1940
9 3/8 x 11 1/4 in, 23.8 x 28.6 cm

Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000 CAD

Sold for: $61,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Collection of Don and Joyce Blyth, Ontario
Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd., October 9, 2021, lot 238
Private Collection, Toronto


This 1940 oil sketch by A.J. Casson is, in many ways, classic. The autumnal treeline, rendered in a cropped, rhythmic pattern, and the powder-blue sky sashed with geometric clouds are touchstones of his style. The rolling, rocky forms of the hillside, in a nuanced earth-toned palette, descend gently towards another key Casson archetype, a modest country home, near the middle foreground. The artist’s depictions of rural Ontario architecture are central to his oeuvre, cultivated over decades of sketching journeys by car with his friend, mentor and fellow Group of Seven member Franklin Carmichael. Warm and bucolic, these images speak with sentiment to a period and way of life Casson saw as being lost to time. These homes, mills and storefronts, often depicted in the gentle shade of pink used here, perhaps relate to the artist’s childhood, when the countryside was simple and welcoming. Not only a master of mood, colour and composition, Casson also excelled in his expressions of light, depicted here as full, dazzling sunshine, rendered lyrical by the rich, deep purple chosen for the shadows.


Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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