signed lower right; signed and titled on a label on the reverse
10 × 12 in (25.4 × 30.5 cm)
Auction Estimate:$7,000 - $9,000
Sale date:November 22, 2021
Price Realized
$7,200
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibited
“Small Picture Exhibition”, Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto, 1947
Literature
A. K. Prakash, “Independent Spirits: Early Canadian Women Artists”, Richmond Hill, 2008, reproduced page 143
As early as 1905, Marion Long had begun to search different areas of Toronto for models and subjects for her work. Her interest in painting the city intensified further with her training in New York at the Art Students League. One of her teachers, Robert Henri, encouraged his students to abandon traditional academic subject matter in favour of observing and documenting the everyday world around them. While Long is well-known for her portraits and figure studies, she did take Henri’s advice when she settled in Toronto and opened a studio in 1913; there, she painted many scenes of city life and architecture. Later she moved into Studio One, near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets, which had been occupied by A.Y. Jackson and Tom Thomson. Long eventually relocated into her own studio on Grenville Street but resided at her home on Poplar Plains Road.
“Bay Street Looking South” is one of Marion Long’s classic urban scenes that provide the viewer with a charming glimpse of Toronto from a previous time. A.K. Prakash writes of this oil painting: “Bay Street Looking South is a characteristic work that reveals the aesthetic feeling Long brought to her art. In this small sketch, she evocatively captures Toronto’s Bay Street in the midst of fog. The figures at the left offer a sense of narrative, but one that is as muted and restrained as the colours of the picture.” The subtle yet recognizable silhouette of the Royal York Hotel looms in the distance, enveloped in a fog that fills the atmospheric sky. Prakash praises the artist’s mastery of the strong formal elements in this picture, stating: “Long said that she found the urban street scene rich in values of light and shadow, personality, colouring and background, all qualities found here, combined with her powerful ability to convey location.”
