Sold for: $4,688

PROVENANCE
Barbeau Owen Foundation Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom, E.J. Hughes, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2002, the related 1955 canvas reproduced page 126
Jacques Barbeau, A Journey with E.J. Hughes: One Collector’s Odyssey, 2005, reproduced page 45 and listed page 165, and the related 1955 canvas reproduced page 47 and listed page 166
Jacques Barbeau, E.J. Hughes Through the Decades, Volume 2, The Paper Works, 1931 – 1986, 2014, reproduced page 35 and listed page 84

EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Windsor, Art For All, 1976, catalogue #126

When E.J. Hughes visited a favourite scenic spot, he would make one or more detailed sketches, often recording colour notes right on the sketch. Such is the case with the 1948 sketch Looking North from Qualicum Beach (Low Tide at Qualicum). Hughes conceived his compositions in these sketches, which are full of precise details. Back in his studio, the artist relied on such sketches when working up canvases. This particular sketch relates directly to a later oil painting, also titled Looking North from Qualicum Beach (1955). In the canvas Hughes has added one additional person standing on the sand, looking out to sea at the tideline, but otherwise the sketch and the finished oil are remarkably consistent.

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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