Sold for: $125,000

PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Peter and Joanne Brown Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Jacques Barbeau, The E.J. Hughes Album: The Paintings, Volume 1, 1932 - 1991, 2011, reproduced page 58

EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Hamilton, 24th Annual Winter Show (label on verso)

E.J. Hughes found the shipping activities at the harbour of Crofton intriguing. In a number of works, he depicted the freighters that docked at its wharf, which were an important part of the mill industry of this town. His acute powers of observation are in full play here, manifested in the carefully considered elements of space, composition and colour. The geometric patterns present in man-made structures caught his eye, such as the vertical lines of the pilings supporting the dock and the horizontal lines of the stacked lumber, which contrast with the sinuous forms in nature, such as the languorous waves ruffling the surface of the ocean. Rich hues of blue and turquoise in the ocean and sky are enlivened by the bright orange and red of the lumber on the dock. The rising plume from the smokestack is a classic Hughes element, often seen in his depictions of tugboats and early coastal steamers. Hughes’s panorama is a fine one, soaring out from the hillside covered in rippling golden grasses over the detailed dock scene and on to the snow-capped mountains at the farthest horizon.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars