Sold for: $121,250

PROVENANCE
Continental Galleries of Fine Art, Montreal
Estate of Holt Dunn, Montreal
Sold sale of Canadian Art, Bonhams Canada, May 25, 2009, lot 25
Private Collection
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William P. Wilder, Toronto

LITERATURE
A.K. Prakash, Impressionism in Canada: A Journey of Rediscovery, 2015, page 633

EXHIBITED
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, Hommage à Robert W. Pilot, September 1988, catalogue #23

This is a classic composition by Robert Pilot – a view of Quebec City from Dufferin Terrace, with its series of picturesque gazebos overlooking the St. Lawrence River. In the background is the Citadelle and the Dufferin Terrace Slides, a ramp used annually as a toboggan run during the Quebec Winter Carnival. The painting is animated by the people who walk and ski along the wide boardwalk, enjoying the view. Pilot’s sensitive treatment of snow is in full force here - subtle grey and blue tones are used to depict the tracks of people and skis in the slushy snow and to give definition to the banks of piled snow. Pilot was a master at portraying the delicate atmospheres of twilight and overcast late afternoon winter days, and here a cool winter light evenly suffuses the scene. This painting, produced in 1962, looks back to a more gentle, leisurely time. As A.K. Prakash notes, “In his later life Pilot enjoyed reworking some of the sketches from his early years – as he expressed it, ‘letting myself go in an effort to capture the essential poetry of the scene I had worked on in my youth.’ ”

For the biography on Mr. and Mrs. William P. Wilder in PDF format please click here.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars