The release for sale of a private collection curated over a 60-year period prompted a bidding frenzy at Canadian auctioneers Cowley Abbott, setting records for eight artists, including Clarence Gagnon, above.
Gagnon’s large-scale canvas, Ice Harvest, Quebec fetched a record-breaking $984,000 for the Québécois artist, while Sun and Wind, Georgian Bay, by the Group of Seven’s Frederick Varley was also sold for $984,000 – more than 10 times the high end, pre-auction estimate of $90,000.
Clarence Gagnon is best known for his rural Quebec landscape paintings and the illustrations for Louis Hémon’s novel Maria Chapdelaine, 1934. Gagnon was also an award winning printmaker, a passionate outdoorsman, and an active promoter of Quebec handicrafts.
Detail for the Gagnon painting at the top of the post: Ice Harvest Quebec, 1935, oil on canvas, 25 x 36 in
Read more about the art and artists that smashed records at Cowley Abbott, Toronto, here.
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I like Gagnon’s work so much — thanks for showcasing it
It also was a revelation to me, wasn’t aware of him really before the painting came up at the auction.