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This session is closed for bidding.
Current bid: $3,500 CAD
Bidding History
Paddle # Date Amount

61314 26-Sep-2024 02:01:50 PM $3,500 AutoBid

23110 26-Sep-2024 02:01:50 PM $3,250 AutoBid

61314 26-Sep-2024 02:01:50 PM $3,000 AutoBid

23110 26-Sep-2024 01:59:20 PM $2,750 AutoBid

37806 25-Sep-2024 04:36:13 PM $2,500 AutoBid

823573 25-Sep-2024 04:36:13 PM $2,250

37806 24-Sep-2024 05:44:11 PM $2,000 AutoBid

823573 24-Sep-2024 05:44:11 PM $1,900

37806 24-Sep-2024 05:43:45 PM $1,800 AutoBid

823573 24-Sep-2024 05:43:45 PM $1,700

37806 24-Sep-2024 05:27:33 PM $1,600 AutoBid

823573 24-Sep-2024 01:50:11 AM $1,500

2009 23-Sep-2024 02:11:05 PM $1,400

823573 20-Sep-2024 02:22:27 PM $1,300

The bidding history list updated on: Friday, November 01, 2024 04:22:28

LOT 104

BCSFA CGP OC RCA
1913 - 2007
Canadian

Near Second Beach
linocut on paper
signed and in the plate, editioned 3/60 and dated 1936 and in the plate
9 1/2 x 11 3/4 in, 24.1 x 29.8 cm

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

Sold for: $4,375

Preview at:

PROVENANCE
By descent to a Private Collection, Vancouver
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 5, 1998, lot 4
Barbeau Owen Foundation Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom, E.J. Hughes, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2002, page 25, same image reproduced page 38
Jacques Barbeau, A Journey with E.J. Hughes: One Collector's Odyssey, 2005, page 87, reproduced page 88 and listed page 164
Jacques Barbeau, E.J. Hughes Through the Decades, Volume 2, The Paper Works, 1931 – 1986, 2014, reproduced page 17 and listed page 84
Robert Amos, E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia, 2019, page 26, same image reproduced page 25

EXHIBITED
Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C. Society of Fine Arts: 27th Annual Exhibition, April 16 - May 2, 1937, catalogue #72


E.J. Hughes is renowned for his BC coastal and interior landscapes, rendered in oil, acrylic, and watercolour. His work in the medium of printmaking is less well known. Ian Thom wrote, “Although his print oeuvre is small—only twenty or so—he is one of the most significant printmakers to have worked in British Columbia.”

Angling for commercial success in the Depression years, Hughes produced a small suite of linocuts depicting Stanley Park in the mid-1930s, including this pleasing view of Second Beach. Dating from 1936, this early work predates the building of Second Beach Pool in 1940. It brings to mind the fine block prints of Walter J. Phillips, whose work Hughes admired. Of special interest, Robert Amos relates that it was while sketching in Stanley Park that Hughes met his future wife, Fern Smith.

Jacques Barbeau wrote about this print, “The mood is tranquil and serene. Yet it illustrates Hughes’ subtle ability to suggest less to achieve more.” With very few colours and sure, sinuous lines, Hughes generates interest in the foreshore rocks, the ocean waves and the dark evergreens beyond. Near Second Beach telegraphs Hughes’s graphic design skills and is one of his rare print works. This same image, with a slightly different tonal range, is in the National Gallery of Canada’s Prints and Drawings collection (acc. no. 29253).

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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