Marion Hope Nelson Hooker, Old Fire Place, oil on canvas, 1906

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Old Fire Place, 1906

oil on canvas

signed lower left; signed and dated 1906 lower right; inscribed “No. 39 Deserted Fireplace Dawn painted by Marion Nelson Hooker” on label on the reverse; partial R.C.A. label present on reverse of framing

10 × 12.5 in (25.4 × 31.8 cm)

Auction Estimate:$400 - $600

Sale date:January 18 - February 1, 2022

Price Realized

$1,680

(including Buyer's Premium)

Provenance

Private Collection, Ontario

Exhibited

Royal Canadian Academy, November 29, 1912, Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, no. 250 as “Old Fire Place”

Literature

Mary Jo Hughes, “Marion Nelson Hooker, Two Lives - One Passion”, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, 1999, no. 29, pages 53-58 for a similar work of c. 1904

“Old Fire Place” was painted after Marion Nelson married Frank Nelson in 1907 and moved from St. Catharines, Ontario, to Selkirk, Manitoba. Eager to re-launch her career, Nelson lost no time re-establishing her presence in the societies by exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists. Likely this scene records a fire place in a pioneer log cabin, one that she would have discovered still existed in the region when she arrived, but she explored the subject using a format already familiar to her. However, the crispness of visualization and clarity of light speaks of a new power in her handling of paint.