TORONTO.- One of Canada’s preeminent, largest and most exhibited private collections of historical Canadian art went under the hammer last night at Cowley Abbott’s Fall Live Auction event in Toronto. Marking the first of three landmark live auctions dedicated to the private collection, a bidding frenzy helped to break 12 artist records with most artworks in the sale exceeding - and often doubling, tripling or more - presale estimates (all results are inclusive of the buyer’s premium). Cowley Abbott’s two session live auction event, which also included their Live Auction of Important Canadian Art in the afternoon, achieved a combined $19.6 million.

The highlight of the evening was an Emily Carr masterwork, The Totem of the Bear and the Moon, 1912, selling for $3.12 million, coming close to challenging the current artist record of $3.39 million. Sold for the first time at auction, this rare canvas has been included in important exhibitions for more than a century.

Also offered for public sale for the first time, Tom Thomson’s Petawawa Gorges (1916) doubled the low-end estimate, selling for $2.22 million to excited audience applause. The painting was part of the artist’s family’s collection for over fifty years before being acquired by the collection owners in 1972. Other versions of this composition are in major public collections across Canada. A second work by the iconic painter, a rare sketch for a known canvas, Evening, Pine Island, also exceeded expectations, selling for $1.68 million.

The auction set a new artist record for Group of Seven artist AY Jackson with the large oil canvas Tadenac, November achieving $936,000, exceeding the previous record of $760,500.

Other notable results from the evening included:

• Internationally celebrated artist James Wilson Morrice’s rare canvas Neige, Canada (Snow Canada) (circa 1905) doubled the presale estimate selling for $1.26 million in its auction debut. The accompanying sketch for the painting, Study for “Neige, Canada” sold for six times the estimate at $408,000.

• The oldest painting in the collection, a rare canvas by Paul Kane, Ojibwa Camp in the Spider Islands (c. 1845), sold for $1.08 million.

• Debuting at auction, Lawren Harris’ study for a canvas in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, North Shore, Lake Superior, doubled expectations, selling for $1.03 million




• David Milne’s Young Cedars (1919), painted during one of the most esteemed periods of his career, sold for $792,000, more than doubling its presale estimate.

Additional artist records set include:

• Adrien Hébert, The Eaton’s Window, Montreal (1937) sold for $408,000, nine times the previous artist record of $45,600.

• Jock Macdonald’s Drying Herring Roe sold for $408,000, quadrupling the previous record of $88,750.

• Frances Anne Hopkins achieved a new artist record of $552,000 with her 1867 canvas Voyageurs Encampment (Camp Scene on the Ottawa), tripling the previous record.

• Records were also set for Florence Carlyle, L.L. FitzGerald, Ozias Leduc, Antoine Sebastien Plamondon, Henry Sandham, Charlotte Schreiber, P.C. Sheppard and Mary Wrinch.

The collection of rare artworks was expertly curated over a period of 60 years and features prime example, museum quality paintings, drawings and sculptures by Canada’s most celebrated historical artists. The remainder of the collection will be offered through two additional live auction events held by Cowley Abbott in 2023.

Earlier in the afternoon, Cowley Abbott’s Fall Live Auction of Important Canadian Art also experienced strong results for Canadian female artists.

• Marcelle Ferron’s large, vibrant, and dynamic canvas Sans titre doubled its presale estimate, selling for $1.26 million.

• Indigenous artist Rita Letendre’s evocative work Terre feconde sold for $264,000, double the low end presale estimate for the painting.