Sold for: $21,250

PROVENANCE
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, Toronto
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 19, 2008, lot 166
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Joyce Millar, The Beaver Hall Group: Painting in Montreal, 1920 - 1940, Women’s Art Journal, 1992, page 7

Joy, light and an intimate sentimentality are expressed in the idyllic landscape paintings of Mabel May. Her position within the Beaver Hall Group throughout the decades of the twenties and thirties was important to the emergence of this predominantly female artistic group. At a time when many of members of the Group of Seven were taking the vast north as their subject impetus, the Beaver Hall Group was focusing on the Laurentians and Eastern townships of Quebec. The women of Beaver Hall expressed the beauty and romance of Montreal streets and felt that the old Quebec villages were deserving of attention. In a progressive and individual manner, though influenced by Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson (who was also an early member of the Beaver Hall Group), each female artist aimed to express her own identity and artistic style in her work.

May’s Old Houses, Baie~Saint-Paul embodies the style elements characteristic of a work from the Beaver Hall period. The compositional layout with rolling hills and pastel colour palette are May’s strengths. In 1924, May spent part of her winter painting with both A.Y. Jackson and Randolph Hewton in the Baie~Saint-Paul area. Critics noted that works from this time were “lyrical expressions of winter, mountains and sky in beautifully muted tones.” This panel is double-sided, with the verso depicting a complete study of a summer landscape with train tracks, a work which offers an insight into May’s contribution to the evolution and adaptation of Impressionism in Canada. While spending time in Paris in her youth, she was undoubtedly moved by the artistic masters of the Impressionist movement. May was captivated by the Impressionists' modern subjects, such as steam engines and railways, during a time when industry and transportation were becoming increasingly important. As is evident in this summer landscape, May painted similar themes in the loose brush-stroke style made famous by Impressionist masters.

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