TORONTO - A rare Lawren Harris Arctic sketch, a David Milne work depicting a pickle jar and a Tom Thomson woodland piece are among the gems of this month's Joyner Spring Auction of Important Canadian Art.
Set for May 27, the sale includes "Island Off Greenland, Arctic Sketch XIX," which Harris painted during his trip to the north with fellow Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson in summer 1930.
Measuring 30 by 38 centimetres, the auction house says the oil sketch comes from a private Alberta collection and has a conservative auction estimate of $500,000 to $700,000.
Meanwhile, "Fall Woods, Algonquin Park," a 1914 oil on panel by Thomson, is expected to fetch $400,000 to $600,000.
Joyner says that sketch was originally acquired by Toronto's Laing Galleries directly from Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Thomson's sister. Isabelle Dunbar, the aunt of renowned Canadian scientist George Garland, bought it from Laing for her then-young nephew in the late 1930s or early '40s, and he kept it until his death in spring 2008.
Also hailing from a private Toronto collection is Milne's 1935 painting "Pickle Jar," which is expected to fetch between $60,000 and $80,000. Joyner says Milne put a star beside the name of the painting on an inventory list, indicating he felt it was "particularly successful."
The Joyner Spring Auction of Important Canadian Art also includes works by Frederick Banting, Cornelius Krieghoff, Robert Pilot, Frederick Varley and Jean-Paul Riopelle, among others.
It will take place at Waddington's Auction Galleries.
