Tom Thomson paintings highlight Canadian fall auctions

Always a draw for Canadian collectors, works by Tom Thomson will be among the major highlights on offer in Toronto next week at the annual fall auctions of Canadian art.

The upcoming sales from auction houses Heffel, Sotheby's Canada (in conjunction with Ritchies) and Joyner Waddington will offer artwork spanning many favourites — with familiar names like Emily Carr, Jean-Paul Riopelle, David Milne and the Group of Seven to cross the block.

However, Thomson in particular was spotlighted by each house.

Auction house Heffel is putting Tom Thomson's small 1917 painting Northern Lights on the block.
(Heffel)

Vancouver-based Heffel, which in recent years has garnered a number of record-setting prices for Canadian art, has classed Thomson's small 1917 painting Northern Lights among the top works at its upcoming sale. The work carries a pre-sale estimate of $750,000 to $950,000.

"There's only five Northern Lights panels painted by Tom Thomson, three of which are in institutions. One [that] was acquired by Ken Thompson may be soon in an institution, and this could be the last in private hands," David Heffel told CBCNews.ca Arts.

Heffel, who runs the auction house with his brother Robert, said their company has been lucky with finding "pockets of paintings" originally bought in the 1930s, '40s and '50s and held carefully in family collections over the years.

"As time's gone by, it's been fewer and far between that we've seen major canvases by the Group of Seven," he said. "I don't anticipate anytime soon that we'll have a [Lawren] Harris canvas like Houses or the big canvas Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior" — which each carry a pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.

Joyner Waddington will offer Tom Thomson's Spring Thaw during its fall 2007 auction of Canadian art.
(Joyner Waddington)

Joyner Waddington has also named a rare Tom Thomson oil-on-panel work as one of the highlights of its two-day sale next week, choosing to feature Spring Thaw on the cover of its catalogue.

The small painting, which Thomson gave to his sister as a gift and which remained in their family for more than 50 years, carries a pre-sale estimate of $300,000 to $400,000.

"Certainly works by Thomson have been at the top level of the major, kind of blue-chip works that have been selling during the surge in the Canadian art market," Joyner Waddington director Rob Cowley said.

Algonquin Park, the small Thomson oil sketch depicting fall colours that is being touted for the Sotheby's-Ritchies sale, comes complete with an intriguing back story. 

The painting, which officials believe dates from the final autumn before his mysterious death, was discovered amid a vast and valuable private collection in Vermont that also turned up pieces by the Group of Seven and a treasure trove of works by the Beaver Hall Group.

In early September, Sotheby's Canada received a call from a Vermont trust company requesting a representative to visit and appraise a Canadian art collection belonging to one of their deceased clients.

The Tom Thomson oil sketch Algonquin Park was discovered in a private collection in Vermont, amid a trove of Canadian art.
(Sotheby's/Ritchies)

Sotheby's Canada president David Silcox, who travelled to Vermont to scout out the pieces, said he walked into the farmhouse in rural Vermont that was packed full of "a remarkable collection of Canadian art," with pieces displayed, stacked in piles, leaning against walls and even shoved under furniture.

"And there behind the sofa, behind one of the easy chairs, I picked up a painting and it was a Tom Thomson," he said.

"It's not rare, but it's wonderful when it happens. It's the sort of thing we look for in the market, in the auction business, we look for something that is, as we say, 'fresh to the market.' ... It's something that people haven't seen in a while, if at all."

Ultimately, close to 100 pieces were deemed of significant value, Silcox said. Thomson's Algonquin Park carries a pre-sale estimate of between $400,000 and $600,000.

Jungen's mask among contemporary lots

Aside from these traditional favourites, however, Silcox said he was excited about the more contemporary works on offer next week by the likes of Jack Shadbolt, Jack Bush, Michael Snow, Joanne Tod and Attila Richard Lukacs.

Brian Jungen's series Prototypes for a New Understanding invokes West Coast First Nations masks, including this one made from deconstructed Nike Air Jordan sneakers.
(Sotheby's/Ritchies)

Of particular interest is what is being billed as mixed-media artist Brian Jungen's first sculpture to be sold at auction: Prototypes for New Understanding #5, one of his First Nations-inspired masks created from deconstructed Nike Air Jordan sneakers. The dramatic work was given a pre-sale estimate of $25,000-$35,000.

The inaugural Sobey Art Award winner's pieces "are really hard to get. They are really rare," Silcox said. "There's actually been quite a bit of excitement both in Canada and elsewhere [over the piece]."

Though one disappointing sale in New York last week caused many to worry about a downturn in the skyrocketing prices on the international auction market, the Canadian auction houses say they feel more secure because of the domestic market's much more conservative nature and smaller scale.

"We take a conservative approach," Heffel said about his company's pricing tactic, adding however that "estimates have been moving up as our prior sales [totals] have."

Silcox expressed optimism about next week's sale.

"Three reasons, really: We've got very good material. Second, we've got it very modestly estimated ... and third, we've got a very wide range of things and we don't have a lot of very expensive paintings," he said.

"I think we'll do very well."

Sotheby's Canada will kick things off with its fall sale in Toronto on Monday morning, with Joyner Waddington's two-day event following on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

The Heffel sale, also in Toronto, takes place the evening of Friday, Nov. 23.