Sold for: $91,250

PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Vincent Massey, 1934
A gift to H.O. McCurry, Ottawa, circa 1935
Canadian Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, Prints and Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Sotheby's Canada, November 11, 1980, lot 69
Downstairs Gallery, Edmonton
Important Canadian Art, Sotheby's Canada, May 14, 1984, lot 154
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
David P. Silcox, Painting Place: The Life and Work of David B. Milne, 1996, reproduced page 268
David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 2: 1929 – 1953, 1998, reproduced page 571, catalogue #303.2

In 1933, David Milne separated from his wife and left the village of Palgrave, Ontario, where he had lived for three years, and set out to explore the Trent Canal–Severn River system by canoe, taking along his painting supplies. He first camped over the summer on the Severn River near Big Chute, while looking for a site to build a cabin. Six Mile Lake, an isolated location a mile and a half from Big Chute, was his choice. There Milne was submerged in the natural world, and it provided inspiration unbroken by the distractions of people. The landscape there was one he was familiar with from his time in the western Adirondacks and Temagami—bush, trees, rivers, lakes and rocky outcroppings. These outcroppings are featured here, their strong forms highlighted in white and defined by roughly brushed areas of black. Milne used bright colour on the boats, and patches of orange and mauve add further vivacity to the scene. Black lines define forms and enclose colour areas, while water and sky are a featureless grey, pushing the eye to the foreground and the boats that seem casually yet artfully arrayed on the rocks. Rowboats on Shore I is a bold painting, full of aesthetic pleasures.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars