Ernest Caven Atkins
(1907 - 2000) Canadian Group of Painters
Previously Sold Works
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
Beausejour Morn
brown pencil on paper
signed, titled and dated 1931 lower right
8.5 x 11.5 ins ( 21.6 x 29.2 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $400.00 - $600.00
Price Realized $600.00
Sale date: October 26th 2021
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
Trees in the Snow
lithograph
signed, titled, dated 1935 and numbered 10/40 in the lower margin
16.25 x 19.75 ins ( 41.3 x 50.2 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $150.00 - $250.00
Price Realized $420.00
Sale date: March 1st 2022
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
Still Life
watercolour
signed and dated 1953 lower right
13 x 19.5 ins ( 33 x 49.5 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $400.00 - $600.00
Price Realized $390.00
Sale date: December 14th 2021
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
The Sandbanks
graphite drawing
signed and dated 1944 lower left
8.5 x 11.25 ins ( 21.6 x 28.6 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $400.00 - $600.00
Price Realized $360.00
Sale date: October 26th 2021
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
Along the Sawback Range
woodblock
signed, titled, numbered 20/50 and dated 1932 in the lower margin
5.5 x 7.5 ins ( 14 x 19.1 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $100.00 - $200.00
Price Realized $266.00
Sale date: April 18th 2018
ERNEST CAVEN ATKINS
Baie St. Paul Hospital
oil on canvas board
signed and dated 1936 lower left; signed, titled (as “Bay St. Paul Hospital”) and dated 1936 on the reverse
10.5 x 13.5 ins ( 26.7 x 34.3 cms )
Auction Estimate: $4,000.00 - $6,000.00
Price Realized $2,640.00
Sale date: July 19th 2022
Caven Atkins Biography
(1907 - 2000) Canadian Group of Painters
Ernest Caven Atkins was born in London, Ontario in 1907. He studied in Chicago at Meyer Both Commercial Art School in 1924. From 1925 to 1928 he studied under Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald at the Winnipeg School of Art. He taught painting at Queen’s University in 1943 and at the Ontario College of Art in 1945. An authority on painting media he wrote an article for Canadian Art magazine on the cautions to be exercised when using wax, distemper, fresco, egg tempera, oil and watercolours.
He exhibited with the Canadian Group of Painters and was a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour of which he was a former president. He worked with the commercial art firm of Brigden’s with other local artists including Bertram Brooker and Charles Comfort. Atkins later taught at the Winnipeg School of Art. At the end of World War II he settled in Michigan, where he died in 2000. The National Gallery of Canada has in their collection some of his war industry paintings of the Second World War.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977
