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Barachois by Doris Jean McCarthy

Artwork by Doris Jean McCarthy, Barachois

Doris McCarthy
Barachois

oil on board
signed lower left; signed, titled and dated 1941 with a pencil sketch of the subject on the reverse
11.5 x 13.5 ins ( 29.2 x 34.3 cms )

Auction Estimate: $9,000.00$7,000.00 - $9,000.00

Price Realized $9,600.00
Sale date: June 9th 2021

Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
Murray Whyte, “Doris McCarthy exhibit speaks to the artist as lover of life”, Toronto Star, June 27, 2010
Born in Calgary and raised in Toronto, Doris McCarthy is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost landscape painters. In a 2004 interview with Harold Klunder, the artist remarked: “I was influenced very strongly by the tradition of going out into nature and painting what was there. I bought it. And I still buy it.” Throughout her career Doris McCarthy enjoyed many painting adventures across Canada and abroad. She went on multiple trips to Quebec in the 1940s to paint its wide-ranging scenery. In this oil painting, McCarthy depicts Barachois, which is a village on the Gaspé coast, now considered a neighbourhood within the city of Percé. The area is known for their shallow tidal lagoons, or barachois, which are partially separated and protected by the sea by a sandbar. McCarthy presents a tranquil scene of docked sailboats and rowboats floating in one of these lagoons on a cloudy day.

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Doris Jean McCarthy
(1910 - 2010) RCA, OSA

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Born in Calgary, Alberta, McCarthy attended the Ontario College of Art from 1926–1930 where she was awarded various scholarships and prizes. She became a teacher shortly thereafter and taught most frequently at Central Technical School in downtown Toronto from 1932 until she retired in 1972. She spent most of her life living and working in Scarborough, Ontario though she travelled abroad extensively and painted the landscapes of various countries including: Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, England and Ireland. McCarthy was probably best-known for her Canadian landscapes and her depictions of Arctic icebergs.

McCarthy's work has been exhibited and collected extensively in Canada and abroad, in both public and private art galleries including: The National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Doris McCarthy Art Gallery. McCarthy also penned three autobiographies chronicling the various stages of her life: A Fool in Paradise (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1990), The Good Wine (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1991), and Ninety Years Wise (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2004). She was also the recipient of the Order of Ontario, the Order of Canada; honorary degrees from the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, Trent University, the University of Alberta, and Nipissing University; and an honorary fellowship from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She died on November 25, 2010.