Sold for: $41,300

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Ontario
Sold sale of Important Canadian Art, Sotheby's Canada, May 10, 1995, lot 203
Peter and Joanne Brown Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.'s Canada, 1968, page 2

Naomi Jackson Groves stated that A.Y. Jackson was “probably the first professional Canadian artist to reach the far North.” He traveled to the eastern Arctic aboard the government patrol ship the SS Beothic in 1927 and in the summer of 1930. His companion on the 1930 trip was fellow Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris. They produced graphite drawings as the Beothic sailed and oil sketches during shore excursions and in their cabin “studio.” The landscape, as we see in this stunning Ellesmere Island work, was unique, with jutting rocks, steep-sided cliffs and floating icebergs, which were prevalent that summer—described by Jackson as “the most fantastic forms in blue-green and pearl.” Jackson captured the electric atmosphere of this scene, with streamers of clouds rising on the left towards the upper formations and chunks of ice tossing in the frigid sea. His sense of rhythm is manifest in the roll of the rock formations in the foreground, emphasized by thick brush-strokes with pastel highlights. Crackling with vitality, Rice Strait (Off Ellesmere Island, Arctic) is an outstanding painting from this 1930 trip.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars