An array of Lawren Harris smashes Canadian record sales

A painting by Lawren Harris, a founding member of the Group of Seven in Toronto Wednesday smashed the record price for a Canadian work sold at auction.

This is the table entitled “Mountain Forms” which has been sold for the sum of $ 11,210,000, an amount including the buyer’s premium of 18%.

“A fierce battle between bidders on site and other telephone allowed this painting in 1926 to establish a new brand for the artist and a new record for a Canadian work auctioned, being acquired for more than double the previous record, “said Thursday the Heffel auction house that sold the work.

Its presale estimate was 3 to $ 5 million.

The previous record for a Canadian work, or $ 5,062,000, dated from 2002 and had been hit by “Scene in the Northwest – Portrait of John Henry Lefroy,” the painter Paul Kane.

Other Lawren Harris paintings were sold by Heffel Wednesday. By adding their prices to that of “Mountain Forms” Harris’s works have reached $ 16 961 320 out of total sales of $ 41 million.

During the sale, added Heffel, “major works of post-war and contemporary performed by Quebec artists also achieved are impressive.” “These could include” bi-serial Mutation “Guido Molinari, sold $ 306 $ 800 (his estimate went from $ 100,000 to $ 150,000) and” Sunday “by Jean Paul Lemieux, acquired for $ 914 500 (evaluation ranged 700 000 to $ 900 000). ”

For his part, “The Woodpile, Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré”, a Canadian scene by Montreal painter James Wilson Morrice, was sold for $ 1.18 million, “recalling thereby the strength of the Quebec impressionist market (it was estimated between $ 1 million and $ 1.5 million), “reported the house Heffel.