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LOT 119

1891 - 1941
Canadian

Cobalt
oil on board
signed and on verso initialed, titled, dated 1932 and inscribed "5528" and "97"
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm

Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000 CAD

Sold for: $79,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
McCready Galleries Inc., Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 120


This bright and accomplished oil on board was completed by Frederick Banting on a sketching trip to the Ontario mining town of Cobalt in the early winter of 1932. This one-time boom town was already in decline by the early 1930s, with the silver mining that began there at the turn of the century then all but stopped. Banting’s sketching companion on this trip was A.Y. Jackson; at this point, the pair had already painted together several times since their first trip, to Quebec, five years prior. Cobalt attracted many other artists of the era, such as Franklin Carmichael and Yvonne McKague Housser, who also saw the subject as a means of expressing a burgeoning Canadian modernism. Naomi Jackson Groves recalls Jackson discovering striking compositions in the community’s “steep slopes, the jutting mineshafts and higgledy-piggledy houses built before the streets, which wend their way around them with picturesque irregularity.” While Jackson’s work from this particular excursion is well represented in important public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, examples from Banting are exceedingly rare.

This year marks the centenary of Dr. Banting's co-discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto.

There is a canceled painting on verso obscured beneath heavy paint.


Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000 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.