The previously unheralded Emily Carr painting Masset, QCI (1912), which an eagle-eyed dealer bought for $50 at a New York barn sale earlier this year, exceeded expectations at the Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s autumn sale Wednesday night (20 November) in Toronto.
The 16in by 13in work, depicting a bear totem on Haida Gwaii, was given a high estimate of C$200,000 ($143,000). Competitive bidding ultimately pushed its price up to nearly C$300,000 ($214,000), or C$349,250 ($250,000) with fees—a swift surge of 500,000% from its price at the barn sale.
It was among the highlights of a star-studded sale that took in C$22.7m ($16.2m) overall, prompting the firm’s president David Heffel to utter every auctioneer’s favourite words in the early going: “Busy, busy.”
Four more works by Carr were on offer during the sale, with her larger oil on paper on board composition Metchosin (around 1934) topping the group, selling for a fee-inclusive C$541,250 ($387,000).
It was a Carr contemporary, the ill-fated Tom Thomson (who drowned on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park at just 39 in 1917), who brought the biggest results of the night. Two of his major works were on offer in the third portion of the three-session evening sale, devoted to the collection of Torben V. Kristiansen, a Vancouver dealer with a fondness for the Group of Seven, who died last year. (The single-owner sale was preceded by sessions devoted to post-war and contemporary art and Canadian, Impressionist and modern art.)
Tom Thomson, Tamarack Swamp, 1915 Courtesy Heffel Fine Art Auction House
Both Thomson oils from the Kristiansen collection, Winter Morning and Tamarack Swamp (both 1915), topped C$2m. Winter Morning surpassed its C$1.5m high estimate to sell for C$2.2m ($1.5m, including fees), while Tamarack Swamp took in C$2.1m ($1.5m), ahead of its high estimate of C$1.6m. A third, smallish Thomson, Northern Lake (around 1911-13), went earlier in the evening for C$541,250 ($387,000).
Another of Canada’s early art stars, the Group of Seven’s Frederick Varley (1881-1969), achieved new heights with his Bridge Over Lynn (1935-36), which took inC$1.3m ($930,000). Depicting British Columbia’s Lynn Valley, it was among a smattering of Varley works still in private hands.
A more Modern star, Jean Paul Riopelle, was well represented at the sale, with seven pieces on offer. The large oil painting Iceberg (1980) outdid the others, taking in C$661,250 ($473,000), around twice its high estimate, while the earlier Composition (1958) went for C$421,250 ($301,000).
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening that was not related to Carr was a textural, abstract painting by Marcelle Ferron, Candelle (1959), which went for a stunning C$841,250 ($601,000), around six times its low estimate of C$125,000, generating a sizeable ovation from the crowd in attendance. A co-signatory of Québec’s post-war Modernist manifesto Refus global, Ferron is best known today for her abstract stained-glass windows.
The Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak’s 1960 print The Enchanted Owl, deaccessioned and consigned by the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan, set a new auction record for the artist, realising C$289,250 ($207,000). The image is well known to older Canadians, having appeared on a postage stamp several decades ago.
Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart, The Dance Screen (The Scream Too), 2024 Courtesy Heffel Fine Art Auction House
Finally, a very unusual piece, a unique 10kg solid gold coin from the Royal Canadian Mint, based on a large wood carving The Dance Screen (The Scream Too) by the celebrated Haida artist Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart, sold for C$1.5m ($1.1m). That was good enough to set an auction record for Hart and for any coin ever sold in Canada.
“That was an electric auction,” Heffel said after the last lot had crossed the auction block. “Very exciting.”