Winter Sleighing Scene with a Covered Bridge, circa 1966

Acquired directly from the Artist By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto

Lance Woolaver, “Maud Lewis: The Heart on the Door”, Halifax, 2016, page 205

Painted “circa” 1966, “Winter Sleighing Scene with a Covered Bridge” was created a few years after the closure of the Alms House, where Everett Lewis, Maud’s husband, had been employed. Maud’s painting business became the couple’s sole source of income. It was also painted at a time when Maud’s star was rising. During the summer months, cars would line the gravel shoulder of the highway in front of the Maud Lewis House as tourists visited to buy an inexpensive souvenir of their trip to Nova Scotia. Lewis’s paintings were still selling for less than $10 to $12. The pictures would turn out to be savvy investments. Winter sleigh scenes are some of the most complex compositions produced by Maud Lewis. The layered fore, mid and background create depth and guide the eye through the scene. We follow the trail of sleighs as they wind along the road creating movement through the picture. The subject is a popular serial image. Lewis rarely left the confines of her small home and the repetition of the scenes suggests the repetition of the everyday hustle and bustle of life in Digby County. As Maud’s friend and neighbour, Flora Amero would recollect of the area, “it was a small world but a pretty place”.