PROVENANCE
Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal
Estate of W.J. Bennett, Montreal
Private Collection, Victoria

LITERATURE
David Milne (1882 - 1953): A Survey Exhibition, Galerie Godard Lefort, 1971
David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume 2: 1882 - 1928, 1998, reproduced page 927, catalogue #501.7

EXHIBITED
Picture Loan Society, Toronto, Small Oils by David Milne, 1922 - 1945, March 8 - 21, 1952, catalogue #13
Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal, David Milne (1882 - 1953): A Survey Exhibition, April 22 - May 15, 1971, catalogue #30
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, David Milne (1882 - 1953), Retrospective Exhibition, September 2001, catalogue #60

In the fall of 1947, David Milne, while based at Uxbridge, explored Baptiste Lake south of Algonquin Park. Subjects from his Baptiste Lake sketchbooks from that trip were completed at Uxbridge (the catalogue raisonné notes that this is likely a Baptiste Lake subject). This enchanting still life, including both natural and man-made objects, incorporates crabapples that Milne found on a walk. Still life subjects recurred throughout Milne’s oeuvre, with an emphasis on the abstract qualities of paint and colour and the aesthetic feelings they created. In Wild Apples, Milne uses soft, painterly brush-strokes loaded with luscious tones of red, orange and gold in autumn leaves, mushrooms and crabapples against a chocolate base and a backdrop of flesh and pink tones. Wild Apples is a feast of colour, lifting the ordinary into the extraordinary. The catalogue raisonné, in light of Milne mentioning painting a small oil still life around October 7 of 1947, states, “We believe the small oil was Wild Apples. If so, it is the only Baptiste Lake oil and probably the last canvas Milne painted.” After this, watercolours were Milne’s focus, making this a rare canvas from this period.

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