AAM BHG CGP CSGA G7 RCA
1892 - 1977
Canadian
Airmen Working on Spitfires
watercolour and ink on paper
signed, dated May 13, 1943 and inscribed "wall and soil darker - ground light, all left plane in shadow - reflection of sun on top of wing, All rest darker than sky"
12 x 13 3/4 in, 30.5 x 34.9 cm
Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000 CAD
Sold for: $10,620
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
Group of Seven artist Edwin Holgate was involved with the Canadian art program during World War II. Already a well known artist at that time, he received permission to sketch the armed forces in Halifax in 1941, and in 1942 sketched shipyard workers in Sorel, Quebec. During that same year he became an advisor for the Canadian War Records Committee, and in 1943 was appointed an official war artist. He was deployed to England, and sketched at Kenley air base in Surrey and Leeming air base in Yorkshire. The Spitfire was a high-performance fighter plane, and many were based at Kenley. As Holgate was not allowed to accompany the air force on their missions, he sketched the activities around the planes on the ground. Airmen Working on Spitfires is a fine example of Holgate's interest in the vital activities of the support crews who maintained these iconic planes.
Works by Holgate from this period are in the collection of the Canadian War Museum, including the 1943 canvas Spitfire at Dawn Readiness and the circa 1943 oil Grooming a Spitfire.
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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