signed lower right; signed, titled and dated 1973 on the stretcher
22 × 28 in (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
Auction Estimate:$10,000 - $15,000
Sale date:September 24, 2020
Price Realized
$10,800
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto
John Little devoted his artistic practice to capturing the charm of the streets of Montreal. As a result of his long and prolific career, the artist has preserved the city’s heritage through his depictions of residential streets, documenting the architectural details of Montreal’s buildings In “Les arbres de rue Berri”, Little depicts a thoroughfare of the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood in 1973. The monochromatic canvas represents a familiar experience to Canadian city dwellers: a sidewalk covered in grey and slushy March snow, trampled on by the many pedestrian commuters. Multiple perspective lines are formed by the bare trees, the sidewalk, the road and the two rows of buildings, leading the eye to two figures at the end of the street. Fortunately, the buildings of Berri street have been largely preserved and the scene remains visually accurate today; only the automobiles reveal the fact that we are looking at Montreal of another era.
