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This session is closed for bidding.
Current bid: $1,700 CAD
Bidding History
Paddle # Date Amount

34311 26-Sep-2024 11:31:58 AM $1,700

27029 26-Sep-2024 12:30:43 AM $1,600 AutoBid

34311 26-Sep-2024 12:30:43 AM $1,500 AutoBid

27029 26-Sep-2024 12:30:42 AM $1,400 AutoBid

34311 06-Sep-2024 05:40:49 PM $1,300

The bidding history list updated on: Monday, October 07, 2024 08:31:57

LOT 108

BCSFA CGP OC RCA
1913 - 2007
Canadian

The Artist's Wife in an Armchair
graphite on paper
signed and on verso signed, titled, dated 1938 and inscribed variously
11 x 8 5/8 in, 27.9 x 21.9 cm

Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500 CAD

Sold for: $2,125

Preview at: Heffel Vancouver

PROVENANCE
Barbeau Owen Foundation Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Jacques Barbeau, A Journey with E.J. Hughes: One Collector’s Odyssey, 2005, page 75, reproduced page 80 and listed page 164
Jacques Barbeau, E.J. Hughes Through the Decades, Volume 2, The Paper Works, 1931 – 1986, 2014, reproduced page 23 and listed page 84
Robert Amos, E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia, 2019, page 2, and the related 1938 sketch The Artist’s Wife on Second Beach reproduced page 27


Who was the wife of E.J. Hughes? Her full name was Rosabel Fern Irvin Smith, known as “Fern.” Hughes biographer Robert Amos described her as “the only girl he ever fell for and his constant companion until her death in 1974 at age fifty-eight.” As related by Amos, Hughes first met Fern while he was sketching in Stanley Park. “I was impressed by her polite seriousness,” said the artist. “For once I had met somebody who was easy to talk to.” The pair were married in Vancouver’s West End on February 10, 1940.

Hughes made this sketch and another also dated 1938, The Artist’s Wife on Second Beach, during the couple’s courtship, in the years leading up to the Second World War. This pencil sketch sensitively conveys Fern’s relaxed pose and slightly serious expression. In the words of Jacques Barbeau, “Hughes certainly captured an intriguing personality.” A touching detail is the heart-shaped pendant around the sitter’s neck.

Collector Jacques Barbeau said his interest in the art of Hughes was first sparked when he saw one of the artist’s paintings reproduced on the front cover of a 1958 Vancouver telephone directory. More than a decade later, in 1969, Barbeau acquired his first work by Hughes after paying a visit to the Dominion Gallery in Montreal, which had represented Hughes since 1951. Barbeau purchased several “cartoons,” the detailed graphite drawings that the artist, a meticulous draughtsman, would prepare leading up to an oil painting. Over the years, as Hughes transitioned from oils to acrylics and watercolours, the collection of Barbeau and his wife Margaret Ann (née Owen) grew to 80 works, encompassing sketches, prints and paintings from all phases of the artist’s lengthy career. Fifteen masterpieces from this prominent collection have been on loan to the Audain Art Museum in Whistler since 2016, on public display in the Barbeau–Owen Gallery.


All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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