The Brickworks, Toronto by Peter Clapham Sheppard
P.C. Sheppard
The Brickworks, Toronto
oil on board
signed lower right; artist estate stamp and inscribed “Brickworks” on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $3,000.00 - $4,000.00
Price Realized $4,140.00
Sale date: November 23rd 2017
Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Ontario
Often focusing on the industrialization of Toronto in the early twentieth century, Sheppard's documentary depiction of The Brickworks serves as a historical token of the integral quarry industry in Toronto. The former quarry produced bricks for landmark institutions including Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall, Massey Hall and the Ontario Legislature. The site now stands as a public park dedicated to environmental community and cultural projects.
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Peter Clapham Sheppard
(1882 - 1965) OSA, RCA
Peter Clapham Sheppard was born in Toronto on October 21, 1881. He apprenticed at engraving houses such as at Rolph, Clark, Stone Ltd. in Toronto, where he became a highly skilled lithographer. He received his art training at the Central Ontario School of Art and Design and the Ontario College of Art under George Reid, John William Beatty, and William Cruickshank. Between 1912 and 1914, he obtained nine Honours Diplomas for for painting and drawing and was awarded the Sir Edmund Walker Scholarship and the Stone Scholarship (Life Classes).
After 1912, Sheppard travelled extensively throughout Europe and the United States. He was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1918 and an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1929. His works were shown in many of the annual R.C.A., O.S.A. and C.N.E. exhibitions, along side works by Tom Thomson, Frederick Varley and J.E.H. MacDonald. His artworks were also included in The British Empire Exhibition, Wembley 1925, L’Exposition D’Art Canadien, Paris 1927, The Exhibition of Contemporary Canadian Painting (Southern Dominions) 1936 and The World’s Fair, New York 1939. Sheppard’s work is held in collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian War Museum and the National Gallery of Canada.
In 2010, Sheppard’s works were prominently featured in the “Defiant Spirits” exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, curated by noted Canadian author Ross King. Powerful images such as “The Building of the Bloor Street Viaduct (1916)”, “Toronto Gasworks, (1912)” and “The Engine Home, (1919)” attested to Sheppard’s unchronicled contribution to modernism and to the city of Toronto in the formative years of its art history. P.C. Sheppard’s artwork is visible at the thirty-three second mark within this “Group of Seven: Defiant Sprits Exhibition” video - http://goo.gl/FS4C7x
(Source: The Estate of the Artist)
