incised signature and dated 1946 lower right; signed, titled and dated July 1946 on the reverse
12 × 16 in (30.5 × 40.6 cm)
Auction Estimate:$25,000 - $35,000
Sale date:November 23, 2017
Price Realized
$21,850
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Mary Pratt, Newfoundland
Private Collection, Ontario
Private Collection, Calgary
Literature
Dennis Reid, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, Toronto, 1985, pages 42-43
Travelling extensively and internationally throughout his life, juggling roles as an artist, teacher and Canadian art ambassador, Arthur Lismer returned to his tradition of lengthy summer sketching holidays in 1945. Cape Breton Island “now became most important in terms of his work” with Lismer visiting the region to paint during summers in 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1950, usually staying around Ingonish and Neil’s Harbour.
Dennis Reid remarks that Lismer’s work on Cape Breton Island is “strong, assured, often innovative” and “dominates the period following the middle of the decade.” “Lismer was repeatedly drawn back to the small villages such as Neil’s Harbour and Ingonish, attracted by the fishing culture as practiced in the fashioning of docks and boats, killicks, buoys and traps, and all the other paraphernalia necessary to derive life from the sea. These objects crafted by the fishermen were to Lismer evidence of a fundamental creative response to the environment, reflecting attitudes fixed on simple but profound values…the particular inherent beauty of Nova Scotian fishing handicrafts is Lismer’s constant postwar theme.”
