York Boat on Lake Winnipeg, 1930 by Walter Joseph Phillips

Provenance:
Marie Guest
Collection of The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1957

Literature:
Malvina Bolus, "The Beaver: Magazine of the North", Winter 1969, a similar work illustrated page 4
Roger H. Boulet, "The Tranquility and the Turbulence", Markham, Ontario, 1981, a similar work illustrated page 133
Roger H. Boulet, "Walter J. Phillips: The Complete Graphic Works", Markham, Ontario, 1981, a similar work illustrated pages 10 and 335
Maria Tippett and Douglas Cole, "Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips on Canadian Nature and Art", Manitoba, 1982, a similar work illustrated (unpaginated plate)
Nancy E. Green, Kate Rutherford and Toni Tomlinson, "Walter J. Phillips", Portland, 2013, pages 27-30, a similar work illustrated page 30

Walter Joseph Phillips is revered as one of Canada’s most accomplished printmakers, with artworks rich in masterful technique, graceful design and harmonious balance. The formation of a colour woodcut is a long process. The first step is to create a sketch in the field, then produce a watercolour in the studio and then, design the woodblock, which involves carving the blocks and preparing the paper.

Here, Phillips depicts one of the iconic trading vessels of the Hudson’s Bay Company. These boats played an integral role in transporting goods from inland trading posts to York Factory on the Hudson Bay. The painstaking detail of the precise, curved lines that are repeated in the waves, boat and sail attest to the artist’s talent at printmaking. "York Boat on Lake Winnipeg" is one of Phillips’ most popular images, with editions included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, The Glenbow Museum and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

This artwork is being sold to benefit the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq in establishing an endowment fund to support more diverse representation in the permanent collection, beginning with contemporary Canadian art. Cowley Abbott is pleased to donate our selling commission to the fund as part of the sale.