Expectations were exceeded at the House of Heffel spring auctions in Toronto on Thursday night (May 25). The sales brought in a total of C$17 million, or $12.4 million (including fees), around the high end of the auction house’s pre-sale estimate of between 10 and 15 million. Canadian dollars (estimates do not include auction house premiums).
Alex Colville celebrated June noon (1963) led the parade, selling for C$2.1 million with fees ($1.5 million). David and Robert Heffel’s team of auctioneers noted more than once that the Canadian dollar was on the agenda during the sale, especially since the US dollar is currently valued at around 35% moreover. Colville’s 30-by-30-inch composition depicts the artist and his wife Rhoda, he gazing out to sea, she naked in a tent. It had spent around 50 years in a private collection in Germany after being presented at the Venice Biennale in 1966.
EJ Hughes, Abandoned Village, Rivers Inlet, BC1947 Courtesy Heffel
Colville’s work went on sale late in the first sale of the evening, which featured post-war and contemporary art. Before that, the painting by EJ Hughes Abandoned Village, Rivers Inlet, BC (1947) grossed CA$1,801,250 with fees ($1.3M), just beating its high estimate. It was recorded by its sole owner, the Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia, who acquired it in 1948.
Another highlight of the first session was the intervention of Lawren Harris Picture of the North (1952), which easily exceeded its high estimate of C$550,000, selling for a hammer price of C$850,000, or just over C$1 million including fees ($750,000). According to a spokesperson for Heffel, this result set a record for a Harris abstraction at auction. At a Heffel sale in 2016, the 1926 canvas by Harris mountain shapes define a new standard in the Canadian art market when it was knocked down to C$11.2 million ($8.3 million).
Lawren Harris, Picture of the North1952 Courtesy Heffel
There was considerable interest in four works by the automatist Jean Paul Riopelle, which is understandable since this year marks the centenary of his birth, with the corollary festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. His oil on canvas from 1958 Abundance went for CA$661,250 with premium ($485,000), nearly double its high estimate, while its 1957 Untitled, which had exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, was acquired at the same price. It was snatched late by a woman bidding in the auction room – there were many competing online and telephone bidders – surprising auctioneer David Heffel. “She came out of nowhere,” he said.
Jean-Paul Riopelle, Abundance1958 Courtesy Heffel
The 1963 portrait of Jean Paul Lemieux was also a source of income. Samuel, which more than doubled its low estimate to sell for just over CA$500,000 including fees ($367,000). The abstraction of Jack Bush in 1973 plume totem boasted similar numbers.
Andy Warhol was present again after the record sale of a print of Queen Elizabeth II at Heffel House last November. The pop art giant set what Heffel called ‘another world record’ last night, this time for an edition of his 1983 silkscreen bald eagle, endangered species , which cost just over CA$300,000 with fees ($221,000), double its high estimate. Notably, the bald eagle has since been removed from the endangered species list – it was one of ten species depicted in the series – and is thriving again, like the market for Warhol prints.
Emily Carr, Sitka Totem1912 Courtesy Heffel
The second session of the evening, focusing on Canadian, Impressionist and Modern art, got off to a strong start when Emily Carr1912 canvas Sitka Totem, which had only been seen by the general public once in the last century, grossed C$1.2 million including fees ($882,000). A spokesperson for Heffel noted that its value had increased by a factor of around 3,000 since the painting last changed hands for C$400. Another Carr oil, pine in the forestexceeded expectations when it left for CA$420,000 with fees ($308,000).
Other big numbers were won by Arthur Lismer of the Group of Seven, whose painting An Ontario village (1923) collected CA$750,000 with fees ($550,000). A work by fellow band member AY Jackson, Emileville (1913), also exceeded expectations, grossing CA$570,000 with fees ($418,000), almost four times its low estimate.
