Sold for: $29,250

PROVENANCE
The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Private Collection, USA

William Kurelek’s depictions of the Canadian landscape often show the vast, empty Prairie, so closely associated with his upbringing on a rural Manitoba farm. Wide, flat skies, immense fields, distant horizons, and roads and fences that seem to run without end out of our view are common in his work. Yet despite their seeming emptiness, such works are full of small details finely painted. Here, dry wisps of grass poke through the wind-crusted snow that has been painted in varying shades of white, showing us the artist’s knowledge of the subtleties of winter colour. Footprints, each unique and carefully rendered, plod across the winter field as the figure moves away and then returns to the scene. His red clothing and hat contrast vividly with the otherwise all-white composition.

Kurelek’s works often portray passages from the New Testament, as is the case here where he depicts Matthew’s parable of a man who, once the unclean spirit has left him, has gone out in search of rest and, finding none, has begun the journey home where he will find God again.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars