Please note our offices will be closed from Friday March 29 through Monday April 1 for Easter. Local pick-ups will start on Tuesday April 2.
      
      
      

LOT 001

BCSFA CGP OC RCA
1913 - 2007
Canadian

Entrance to Nanaimo Harbour
oil on board
signed and dated 1948 and on verso signed, titled, dated, inscribed with the Dominion Gallery inventory #F1354 and stamped Dominion Gallery
8 1/2 x 10 3/4 in, 21.6 x 27.3 cm

Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

Sold for: $73,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Acquired from the above by a Private Collection, Ottawa, 1952
By descent to the present Private Collection, Maryland, USA

LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom, E.J. Hughes, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2002, the 1950 canvas Steamer Arriving at Nanaimo reproduced page 86


The late 1940s and early 1950s were a pivotal time in the life of E.J. Hughes—after being an official war artist, he was demobilized in 1946 and settled in Victoria, resuming his painting of British Columbia. Lawren Harris, then living in Vancouver, offered him valuable consultation, and Hughes was nominated to the Canadian Group of Painters. Over the next few years, his work was acquired by Hart House, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, and he was discovered by influential art dealer Dr. Max Stern of Montreal’s Dominion Gallery.

During 1948, funded by an Emily Carr scholarship, Hughes made a sketching trip to the east coast of Vancouver Island, including Nanaimo—the subject of this rare early work. Hughes used these oil sketches to create larger studio paintings, and a 1950 canvas entitled Steamer Arriving at Nanaimo shows a close-up view of a similar steamer pulling up to this same dock. The coastal steamer is an important motif in Hughes’s work. These unique and striking boats plied the waters of the West Coast for decades, and now that they are gone, we treasure them in Hughes’s work with a romantic nostalgia.


Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.