Works by Lawren Harris, Emily Carr, J.E.H. Macdonald highlight Heffel fall sale
October 29, 2012 - 12:06 PM
TORONTO - Works by esteemed Canadian artists Lawren Harris, Emily Carr, J. E. H. Macdonald, and William Kurelek are among the highlights of next month's Heffel fall auction.
A total of 162 lots will be on the auction block on Nov. 22 in Toronto.
One of the biggest price tags is on Harris's "Hurdy Gurdy," which Heffel expects could fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.
The Vancouver-based auction house says the Group of Seven member treasured the work, which depicts Toronto's Ward district.
Harris kept it in his own private collection until he gave it to his daughter.
Also carrying a pre-sale estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 is Carr's "Skidegate" oil on board — one of seven works in the sale by the late Victoria native.
Another Carr painting, "Frivolous September — Up the Gorge (Blue Sky and Forest)," with a pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $250,000, originated from the family of biochemist Charles Best, a co-discoverer of insulin. Included with the work are copies of handwritten and typed exchanges between the Bests, Carr and friend Ira Dilworth.
Other Group of Seven members represented in the sale include Macdonald, whose "Study for Lake O'Hara and Cathedral Mountain, Rockies" and "Morning, Mountain Camp (Cathedral Peak from O'Hara Camp)" have pre-sale estimates of $200,000 to $250,000.
Works by Kurelek, A.Y. Jackson and Jean Paul Lemieux also have price tags in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Heffel predicts the sale could reach between $7 million and $10 million in total, noting many of the pieces haven't been publicly displayed in decades.
The works will be on preview in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, from Nov. 17 to Nov. 22
Heffel's spring 2012 live auction achieved a total of $14.6 million.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012