PROVENANCE
Barbeau Owen Foundation Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Jacques Barbeau, A Journey with E.J. Hughes: One Collector’s Odyssey, 2005, page 75, reproduced page 80 and listed page 164
Jacques Barbeau, E.J. Hughes Through the Decades, Volume 2, The Paper Works, 1931 – 1986, 2014, reproduced page 23 and listed page 84
Robert Amos, E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia, 2019, page 2, and the related 1938 sketch The Artist’s Wife on Second Beach reproduced page 27

Who was the wife of E.J. Hughes? Her full name was Rosabel Fern Irvin Smith, known as “Fern.” Hughes biographer Robert Amos described her as “the only girl he ever fell for and his constant companion until her death in 1974 at age fifty-eight.” As related by Amos, Hughes first met Fern while he was sketching in Stanley Park. “I was impressed by her polite seriousness,” said the artist. “For once I had met somebody who was easy to talk to.” The pair were married in Vancouver’s West End on February 10, 1940.

Hughes made this sketch and another also dated 1938, The Artist’s Wife on Second Beach, during the couple’s courtship, in the years leading up to the Second World War. This pencil sketch sensitively conveys Fern’s relaxed pose and slightly serious expression. In the words of Jacques Barbeau, “Hughes certainly captured an intriguing personality.” A touching detail is the heart-shaped pendant around the sitter’s neck.

Collector Jacques Barbeau said his interest in the art of Hughes was first sparked when he saw one of the artist’s paintings reproduced on the front cover of a 1958 Vancouver telephone directory. More than a decade later, in 1969, Barbeau acquired his first work by Hughes after paying a visit to the Dominion Gallery in Montreal, which had represented Hughes since 1951. Barbeau purchased several “cartoons,” the detailed graphite drawings that the artist, a meticulous draughtsman, would prepare leading up to an oil painting. Over the years, as Hughes transitioned from oils to acrylics and watercolours, the collection of Barbeau and his wife Margaret Ann (née Owen) grew to 80 works, encompassing sketches, prints and paintings from all phases of the artist’s lengthy career. Fifteen masterpieces from this prominent collection have been on loan to the Audain Art Museum in Whistler since 2016, on public display in the Barbeau–Owen Gallery.

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