80/150: Peter Doig’s ‘Nostalgia for Canada’

Peter Doig (b: 1959) is one of the most respected figurative painters of our time — and it’s his depictions of Canada, where he grew up, that have become the most famous and financially successful.

Target, painted in 2000, contains the nostalgia for a Canada of the mind that has so distinctly flavoured so many of Peter Doig’s greatest pictures – Christie’s

Painted the year of Doig’s move from Canada to Trinidad, the painting “serves as a poignant farewell to the wintry imagery that defined his practice during the 1990s,” says Christie’s, where the painting was auctioned last month for $7.15 million US. (Doig moved from Trinidad to London in 2021)

In ‘Target’ Peter Doig presents a scene half-remembered, glimpsed through red branches, where a lone figure stands upon a frozen lake. Deeply autobiographical in nature, it offers a blurred portrait of the artist’s brother, painted as a distant memory.

Doig has had strong success. His 1990 painting Swamped (above) sold at auction in 2021 for $39 million US — a huge sum that made headlines around the world. It was one of the many images the Scottish-born artist has painted of Canada (see the CBC feature on his Canadian paintings here) Below, a 2026 interview video interspersed with images of his work.

A long feature on Peter Doig was posted previously on Canadian Art Junkie (below)

Peter Doig: No Foreign Lands

Peter Doig at Christie’s, here.

Peter Doig’s website, here.

Peter Doig at the National Gallery of Canada here.

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This is No. 80 in 150 Artists, an ongoing series on Canadian artists you should know.