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LOT 106

BCSFA CGP
1871 - 1945
Canadian

Captain Jack's House
watercolour on paper, 1929
signed and on verso titled on the gallery label and inscribed variously on the paper sheet
16 1/2 x 14 1/2 in, 41.9 x 36.8 cm

Estimate: $125,000 - $175,000 CAD

Sold for: $133,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
The Fine Art Galleries, T. Eaton Co. Ltd., Toronto
Highly Important Sale by Auction, Waddington's, May 30, 1985, lot 938
Private Collection, Ontario
By descent to the present Private Estate, Ontario

LITERATURE
Doris Shadbolt, Emily Carr, 1990, page 50


In 1929, Emily Carr traveled to Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. She took a train to Port Alberni, where she boarded a steamer that took her down Alberni Inlet to the Pacific Ocean and then 95 miles up the west coast to Nootka Island, landing at Yuquot (Friendly Cove). Yuquot, which means “where the winds blow from all directions,” was an important location for the people of Nootka Sound to come together. It was a headquarters, like a parliament, and all the tribes had big houses there, with the highest ranking in the centre and others arrayed along the beach. It was also the site of the first encounters of Spanish explorers and Captain James Cook with Indigenous peoples. Yuquot was an important trading centre, and at its height, it had 1,500 inhabitants.

Captain Jack was a high-ranking hereditary chief of the Mowachaht Band in the 1920s and 1930s in Yuquot. In 1924, when Lieutenant-Governor Walter Cameron Nicol went to Yuquot to unveil a memorial to Captain Cook, Captain Jack used the opportunity to give a speech protesting the potlatch ban. On the first visit to Yuquot in 1929 by Governor General Freeman-Thomas, Earl of Willingdon, a pole carved for Captain Jack was given to Freeman-Thomas, who then intended to ship the pole to Rideau Hall in Ottawa. However, technically, he was then participating in a potlatch (the giving away of goods for free), a ceremonial practice outlawed at that time. If Freeman-Thomas had kept the pole, he would have been guilty of an offence which carried a jail term. However, Captain Jack and the village never expected him to accept the pole outright. It was given in the old potlatch understanding—a gift to be received and returned. Given the dispute and the high cost of transportation, Freeman-Thomas decided in the end to leave the pole in the village.

Captain Jack’s house was recorded as being in the centre of the village, with his pole in front of it, and Carr painted this pole and the interior of the house, with its richly carved inside posts. However, the house that Carr depicts here is at the far end of the village, near a bluff. Research identifies the house as belonging to the Maltsasath, the 13th ranked chiefly family of the Mowachaht, who had the rights to build houses at the north end of the village adjacent to the rock bluff. Nevertheless, this work is titled Captain Jack’s House on the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. Gallery label.

This striking watercolour has a similar approach to that of the important 1929 canvas entitled Church in Yuquot Village (collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, bequest of Charles S. Band), also produced from Carr’s sketching on site. Both buildings are white and shown as isolated in the woods, although they both face the unseen beach. No people are near, and the white buildings stand in stark contrast to the wall of vegetation behind. Church in Yuquot Village shows the influence of Cubism in its depiction of the forest, and although this style is looser and not so defined in the watercolour, it is there in the upper left, in the geometry of V-shaped slashes.

In 1928, American artist Mark Tobey came to Victoria to give a course in painting in Carr’s studio, and he advised her to “get off the monochrome, even to exaggerate light and shade, to watch rhythmic relations…,” in the words of Doris Shadbolt. You can see the effect of his advice in this watercolour. Rather than the dark, enfolded forests she depicted in the past, Carr’s treatment of the forest is very light and free, with rhythmic squiggles and loose brushwork. The scene glows with illumination—from the light golden foreground and the yellow tones in the bushes either side of the house, which glows white in the centre. Captain Jack’s House is a fascinating record of this significant Indigenous community, and of Carr’s respect for and desire to capture the vibrant life of the village. This house stands like a glowing icon in the natural beauty of its setting.


Estimate: $125,000 - $175,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.