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LOT 002

BCSFA CGP OC RCA
1913 - 2007
Canadian

The Pacific Coast (Near Bamfield)
watercolour on paper
signed and dated 2003 and on verso signed, titled and dated
18 x 24 in, 45.7 x 61 cm

Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000 CAD

Sold for: $67,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by Pat Salmon, British Columbia
A gift from the above to the present Private Collection, British Columbia

LITERATURE
Jacques Barbeau, The E.J. Hughes Album: The Paintings, Volume 1, 1932 – 1991, 2011, three similar paintings reproduced: The West Coast Near Bamfield (1959), page 31; Breaker Beach, Vancouver Island (1963), page 39; and The West Coast Near Bamfield II, BC (1981), page 77


In 1959, E.J. Hughes purchased his first car and, bolstered by funds from his 1958 Canada Council fellowship, embarked on a sketching trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island. The car gave him a new freedom to reach his sketching locations without extensive hiking, and in bad weather, he used it as his mobile studio. He sketched at Brady’s Beach and Breaker Beach, both south of Bamfield, and produced a group of works based on this wild and stunning scenery. The sketching material Hughes gathered there would also inspire studio works for decades. Hughes was a superb watercolourist, and by 1991 watercolour had become his primary medium. In this remarkable watercolour from 2003, he revisits his earlier versions of Breaker Beach, where the intense wind from the open Pacific lashes the land and the wave surge throws up driftwood onto a pristine shoreline. Hughes’s fine eye for detail and composition is brilliant here – from the patterns of rocks and driftwood on the shore to the picturesque rocky islet crowned by wind-blasted pines, The Pacific Coast (Near Bamfield) captures the essence of the West Coast’s untamed beauty.


Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.