March Mist by Robert Wakeham Pilot
Robert Pilot
March Mist
oil on canvas
signed lower right; titled in pencil to the stretcher
21 x 28 in ( 53.3 x 71.1 cm )
Auction Estimate: $10,000.00 - $15,000.00
Price Realized $28,800.00
Sale date: November 27th 2024
Continental Galleries of Fine Art, Montreal, circa 1965
By descent to the present Private Collection, Connecticut, USA
The artist captures the soft ambience of the winter season in this scene of a bustling Montreal street, perhaps depicting a south view of Sherbrooke Street towards the Roddick Gates of McGill University. The influence of Impressionism is evident in the artist’s muted palette of pastel greys and mauves, which casts a cold mist over the frost- tipped trees. Textural brushwork also lends a sense of authenticity to the scene, where thick snowbanks frame the slush-laden street with tracks made by the runners of horse-drawn sleighs. As a renowned practitioner of Impressionism in Canada, Pilot’s scenes of winter serve as an expression of this style in a quintessentially Canadian context.
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Robert Wakeham Pilot
(1898 - 1967) PRCA
Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Robert Pilot moved to Montreal in 1910 when his widowed mother married well-known Canadian artist Maurice Cullen. Pilot found he was attracted to the artistic life as he helped his stepfather with chores in the studio and began sketching. He studied figure drawing at the Royal Canadian Academy and learned landscape painting with Cullen. As a student at the Art Association of Montreal, he was recognized as a gifted pupil by instructor William Brymner, who offered instruction to the penniless young artist free of charge on the condition that he would pay the fees when he was able.
After serving overseas in WWI he returned to Montreal and was invited to participate in the first Group of Seven exhibition in 1920. For a time he concentrated on the etching medium, with the desire to develop his own style apart from that of his stepfather. He was given the opportunity to study in Paris with the help of a generous patron and travelled to Paris in 1920. There he studied at the Academie Julian and exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1922. On his return to Canada he was elected an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. Exhibiting with the RCA gave him more visibility and some of his works were acquired by the National Gallery of Canada. After several successful exhibitions he travelled abroad painting in France, Spain, and North Africa. In addition to oil paintings and etchings he worked in pastel and completed several mural commissions in public buildings. More successful shows followed and he continued to paint, although he served his country once again in WW2. His Canadian impressionist painting style was shaped by his years in France, the influence of his stepfather, Maurice Cullen, and the work of J. W. Morrice, whom he greatly admired. He was elected president of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1952. Pilot died in 1967 and was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1969.
