RCA
1887 - 1980
Canadian
Chief Trader Archibald McDonald Descending the Fraser, 1828
oil on canvas, circa 1942
signed and on verso titled on the Hudson’s Bay Company Collection label
32 x 26 in, 81.3 x 66 cm
Estimate: $7,000 - $9,000 CAD
Sold for: $361,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Collection of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Canada
LITERATURE
Hudson’s Bay Company, Company Calendar, 1944, reproduced
Olive and Harold Knox, “Chief Factor Archibald McDonald,” The Beaver, March 1944, reproduced page 43
The Beaver, April – May 1986, reproduced front cover
Peter C. Newman, Company of Adventurers, Volume 2, Caesars of the Wilderness, 1987, reproduced page 375
Andrea M. Paci, “Picture This: Hudson’s Bay Company Calendar Images and Their Documentary Legacy, 1913 – 1970,” master’s thesis, University of Manitoba / University of Winnipeg, 2000, mentioned page 108, listed page 124 and reproduced page 133
Canada’s History, June – July 2014, reproduced front cover
Mark Collin Reid, “An Epic Tale,” Canada’s History, April – May 2020, reproduced pages 20 – 21
EXHIBITED
HBC Victoria Gallery, 2003 – 2004
A huge birchbark trading canoe, its bow emblazoned with the Hudson’s Bay Company mark, blasts through the rapids of BC’s Fraser River. Paddlers fore and aft work to pilot the open boat down the swirl of coloured water, while the brightly lit peaks of the Fraser River canyon swell behind them. Huddled in the centre, holding the brim of his hat to keep it from flying away, is Archibald McDonald, chief trader of the HBC. In 1828, McDonald was traveling alongside HBC Governor George Simpson to the Pacific Coast, where McDonald would take up his new post at Fort Langley, in the central Fraser Valley. This scene, awash in its dynamism and romance, captures the drama and danger of the routes that encompassed the HBC’s trade network. Here, Adam Sherriff Scott recalls the best of the Canadian painting tradition depicting canoes shooting rapids, spectacularly established by Cornelius Krieghoff a century earlier.
Please note: on verso is a charcoal sketch, potentially of the artist’s wife.
For more information on the Hudson's Bay Company Calendar Paintings in PDF format, please click here.
Estimate: $7,000 - $9,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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