OSA RCA SCA
1846 - 1923
Canadian
Harvesting Hops, BC
watercolour on paper
signed and dated 1888 and on verso titled on the gallery label and inscribed "76.00"
13 1/2 x 19 3/4 in, 34.3 x 50.2 cm
Estimate: $15,000 - $25,000 CAD
Sold for: $6,250
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
LITERATURE
Roger Boulet, Vistas: Artists on the Canadian Pacific Railway, Glenbow Museum, 2009, page 144, titled as Harvesting Hops, reproduced page 144
EXHIBITED
Manoir Richelieu Art Exhibition, Quebec, catalogue #3
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Vistas: Artists on the Canadian Pacific Railway, June 20 - September 20, 2009, catalogue #14
In 1886, the Canadian Pacific Railway initiated train service from eastern Canada to the Rocky Mountains, and the company’s president, William Van Horne, an avid collector and painter, decided to offer rail passes to artists, to paint the dramatic scenery being opened up to visitors. In 1887, Frederic Bell-Smith first traveled west to the Rockies on one of these passes; he returned in 1888, riding all the way to the coast, where he saw the scene that inspired this fascinating watercolour. Roger Boulet wrote, “For decades, the fertile area along the lower reaches of the Fraser River between Harrison Lake and Mission was planted with extensive hop growing fields. In the early days, many First Nations men and women were employed by the hop-growing farms in the Agassiz and Sardis area. The depiction of agricultural subject matter in British Columbia is uncommon among the artists who worked along the railway, but the subject was not neglected and the agricultural potential of the land is frequently mentioned by travelers’ written accounts.” This fine, large and detailed watercolour is a rare historical work from Bell-Smith’s western oeuvre.
Estimate: $15,000 - $25,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
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