AANFM RCA
1923 - 1999
Canadian
Hommage au soleil, jaunes de l'après-midi
oil on canvas
on verso signed, titled twice variously, dated 16 Septembre 1964 indistinctly and stamped with the artist's stamp and the gallery stamp
50 x 46 in, 127 x 116.8 cm
Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 CAD
Sold for: $31,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal
Private Collection, Ontario
LITERATURE
Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2007, page 178
Jean McEwen’s Hommage au soleil series was inspired by a trip to Majorca, Spain. Although committed to abstraction, McEwen admitted to being influenced by observation of nature, like Claude Monet, whose late work was abstracted from his garden. McEwen said he studied “the lattice of lights and shadows formed by the crossing of light through branches and leaves” to understand how to express the vibration of colour. Roald Nasgaard wrote, “If somewhere, as McEwen implied to [art critic Fernande] Saint-Martin, his vision had roots in natural observation, he expunged the representational in both space and colour, visual experience evoked alone by thick and luminescent coloured matter.” In this radiant painting, the impression of intense light and heat is exuded from layers of white, orange and yellow pigment, textural, amorphous and mottled. A softly glowing backdrop pushes the orange and yellow squares forward, and the central column pulls up to the surface, its white transmuting into darkening shades of blue, an intimation of the sea. Hommage au soleil, jaunes de l'après-midi, with layers of warm hues creating light from its depths, superbly demonstrates why McEwen was considered a consummate colourist.
Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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