Sold for: $55,250

PROVENANCE
Barbeau Owen Foundation Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Jacques Barbeau, A Journey with E.J. Hughes: One Collector's Odyssey, 2005, page 107, reproduced page 106 and listed page 168

In the early 1990s, as E.J. Hughes entered his ninth decade, he found he could no longer stand for prolonged periods before his easel to paint large canvases. At this time, he transitioned to the medium of watercolour, which was one he had used early in his career. He also chose to revisit some of the classic landscapes he had painted in oils and repaint them as watercolours. The Seashore Near Crofton is one such work. Jacques Barbeau called it “an apt variation of a previous theme—the 1973 Arbutus Tree. In the newer work the artist relied on an even more subtle format. The freighter is omitted and the ferry is realigned … to accentuate its impact, but not to overshadow the pivotal arbutus tree.”

In this superb composition, the mottled appearance of the peeling arbutus bark is echoed in the play of light and shadow on the rocks and driftwood below. One can almost smell the tangy salt aroma characteristic of such a BC coastal scene.

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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