TORONTO.- The second part of the two-session live auction is devoted entirely to the second of three landmark sales of one of Canada’s preeminent, largest and most exhibited private collections of historical Canadian art. Expertly curated over a period of 60 years, the collection of rare and remarkable artworks features prime example, museum quality paintings, drawings and sculptures by Canada’s most celebrated historical artists.

Cowley Abbott to donate selling commission from the sale of a rare set of Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II portraits to Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq to support the purchase of contemporary Indigenous art.

The collection is already on pace to become the highest-grossing private collection of Canadian art ever sold at auction. Highlights of the second sale includes Lawren Harris’ masterwork “Quiet Lake (Northern Painting 12)” (valued at $2M - $3M), Emily Carr’s “Kitwancool” ($1M - $1.5M) and a rare Tom Thomson oil painting, “Ragged Oaks” ($1M- $1.5M). The second session of the private collection is valued at $6 million.

The first sale of 57 artworks from the private collection in fall 2022 saw all but one artwork sold, fifty works of art exceeding the high-end pre-sale auction estimate, shattered 10 artist records at auction and achieved $16.9 Million in sales (exceeding the high-end of pre-sale forecasting by almost 50 per cent).

The two-session live auction, Important Canadian & International Art and Artwork from An Important Private Collection (Part Two), takes place on Thursday, June 8 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. EDT respectively at the Globe and Mail Centre, 351 King St. East, Toronto, and will also be livestreamed online at cowleyabbott.ca, allowing for simultaneous in-person, telephone, absentee and real-time online bidding – enabling prospective buyers to participate from anywhere in the world.

Before hitting the auction block, all artworks included in the two-session live sale will be displayed in a free public exhibition at Cowley Abbott’s gallery, 326 Dundas Street West, across the street from the Art Gallery of Ontario, free for the public to view from now until June 7.

Highlights from the sales include:

David Bowie
Nail-Head of Trent Reznor
Auction Estimate: $35,000 - $60,000

Part of Bowie’s DHeads series, this portrait is of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) lead singer Trent Reznor. In 1995 NIN opened for David Bowie on his Outside Tour, where he sang 'Hurt' with Reznor. During their time spent on tour together in the 1990s, a close friendship was born that lasted until Bowie’s death in 2016. The painting includes part of the lyrics to NIN's big hit 'Hurt', written in Bowie’s handwriting.

Tom Thomson
Ragged Oaks
Auction Estimate: $1M - $1.5M

This rare painting was created during Thomson’s prime artistic period, painted in 2016, the year before his mysterious and untimely death. It was first exhibited in Montreal in March/April 1919 and later all over the world. It was owned by Thomson’s family before becoming a part of a private collection, where it has remained until now.

Lawren Harris
Quiet Lake (Northern Painting 12), circa 1926-1928
Auction Estimate: $2M - $3M

This stunning museum-quality oil on canvas has been exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally and featured widely in literature about Harris and Canadian art. It is an evolution of an earlier, award-winning canvas “Northern Lake” (currently in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection) and the site is a subject he revisited several times.

Emily Carr
Kitwancool, circa 1928
Auction Estimate: $1M - $1.5M

In 1928 Carr was able to secure passage to the village of Kitwancool (now Gitanyow), the Gitxsan village on the Kitwanga River, renowned for its majestic totem poles, where she painted this canvas. She first attempted to visit the village in 1912, but was denied access by the elders.