A portray by famend B.C. artist Emily Carr that bought for $50 US at a barn sale in New York State fetched $290,000 Cdn at a Toronto public sale on Wednesday evening.
Heffel Advantageous Artwork Public sale Home bought the portray to the best bidder.
Artwork vendor Allen Treibitz purchased the portray, Masset, Q.C.I., just a few months in the past within the Hamptons however he was unfamiliar with Carr’s work and legacy. He knew, nevertheless, that there was one thing particular concerning the portray.
The piece, painted in 1912, depicts a carved grizzly bear atop a memorial totem pole and bears Carr’s signature.
Carr was born in Victoria in 1871 and was intently related to the famend Group of Seven, which incorporates Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson.
The found piece was painted as a part of Carr’s efforts to create an in depth file of the inventive heritage of First Nations communities in British Columbia. The Indigenous memorial put up depicted within the portray stood in Masset, a village within the province’s Haida Gwaii archipelago.
The piece is believed to have been a present to Carr’s pal Nell Cozier and her husband within the Thirties and has been hanging in a barn within the Hamptons since. The couple had moved to the world to work as caretakers for a big property after initially dwelling in Victoria.
