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LOT DETAILS
         
         
         
         
         

This session is closed for bidding.
Current bid: $60,000 CAD
Bidding History
Paddle # Date Amount

37738 28-Oct-2021 05:59:53 PM $60,000

2328 28-Oct-2021 05:56:30 PM $55,000

846565 28-Oct-2021 05:55:18 PM $50,000

2328 28-Oct-2021 05:53:58 PM $47,500

846565 28-Oct-2021 05:08:14 PM $45,000

2328 28-Oct-2021 05:05:27 PM $42,500

23414 28-Oct-2021 05:03:11 PM $40,000 AutoBid

846565 28-Oct-2021 05:03:10 PM $37,500 AutoBid

23414 28-Oct-2021 05:03:10 PM $35,000 AutoBid

846565 28-Oct-2021 05:03:10 PM $32,500 AutoBid

23414 28-Oct-2021 01:32:04 PM $30,000

10357 28-Oct-2021 01:08:22 PM $27,500

2328 28-Oct-2021 11:59:20 AM $25,000

816427 28-Oct-2021 05:26:16 AM $22,500

24672 27-Oct-2021 03:53:42 PM $20,000

846565 27-Oct-2021 03:40:10 PM $19,000

24672 27-Oct-2021 03:22:49 PM $18,000

846565 26-Oct-2021 06:33:18 PM $17,000

30232 26-Oct-2021 06:08:02 PM $16,000

846565 26-Oct-2021 12:17:51 PM $15,000

22955 15-Oct-2021 04:40:18 PM $14,000

The bidding history list updated on: Thursday, March 28, 2024 05:21:50

LOT 514

ARCA CSPWC G7 OSA
1888 - 1949
Canadian

The North Country
oil on board
signed and on verso signed and titled
22 x 29 3/4 in, 55.9 x 75.6 cm

Estimate: $15,000 - $20,000 CAD

Sold for: $73,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by Hugh C. McRae, Toronto, circa 1947
By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
Donald Jones, “Group of Seven became Six when Frank Johnston Quit”, Toronto Star, September 10, 1983, page H8


This painting was acquired from the artist by Hugh C. McRae of Toronto, a successful mining industrialist, and it has remained in the family’s collection for over 70 years. Working in gold extraction, McRae may have been drawn to the idealistic depiction of a rugged northern landscape that he would have been familiar with. It is worth remembering that Johnston himself once apprenticed as a jewelry designer; indeed, Toronto Star columnist Donald Jones once wrote that “Johnston’s colours were so vivid and so accurate that it was said mineralogists could identify ore-bearing rocks in his paintings.”

Like many of Johnston’s best works, it is the artist’s emphatic use of lighting that elevates the scene. The scene depicts two men - prospectors, traders, hunters, or perhaps just travelers - navigating their canoe through whitewater rapids. The light suggests late afternoon or early morning, but the camp in the background - with the canvas tent and twist of smoke from a fire - suggests this is late in the day - the advancing shadow of dusk already complicating the mens’ work. The interplay between light and shadow and the realistic and the picturesque, as well as a careful attention to detail, come together to make this a stunning example of Johnston’s work.


All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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