VANCOUVER – This spring’s Heffel auction of Canadian post-war and contemporary art far exceeded organizers expectations with sales totalling $14.6 million.
Before the bidding began the auction house had said it expected sales in the $9 to$12 million range.
The painting “La plage américaine” by Quebec artist Jean-Paul Lemieux fetched the highest price at $1,813,500 – nearly three times the pre-auction estimate.
Lemieux, who died in 1990, is considered one of the foremost Quebec painters of the 20th century.
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Another of his paintings, “Le mois de juin,” sold for $380,250 at Thursday night’s auction.
As anticipated, there was huge interest in the works of Emily Carr – considered one of North America’s most influential female artists.
Her “Eagle Totem” went for $1,638,000. Seven of Carr’s works, including “War Canoes,” “Alert Bay” and “Autumn Woods,” went under the gavel, ringing up blistering sales of $2.8 million.
Another auction highlight was what Heffel termed the “triumphant return to Canada” of Lawren Harris’ “Lake Superior,” a sketch for a canvas that sold for $526,500.
Harris’ “Building the Ice House, Hamilton” sold for $380,250.
Another bidding war drove the price for J.E.H. MacDonald’s “Early Autumn, Montreal River, Algoma,” to $526,500 – more than five times the original estimate, and a record for a MacDonald sketch.
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