Would you pay $1.2 million for this Lake Superior painting?

A large 1923 oil painting of Lake Superior by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris is expected to be one of the top draws at an upcoming major auction of Canadian fine art in Toronto.

Harris's Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior (Lake Superior Painting XI) is expected to sell for between $800,000 ~ $1.2 million at Heffel Fine Art Auction House's fall auction on November 23.

The 40-by-52 inch canvas (shown) is "a perfect match to his evolving sense of spirituality," the auction house says.

It's one of 19 works by Harris to be auctioned next month, along with many more by other Group of Seven members and landmark Canadian artists including Emily Carr.

Click on these links to see other Lawren Harris depictions of local interest to be offered at the same sale:

Coldwell, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Sketch XXII ($200,000~$250,000)

Lake Superior XXXVI ($125,000~$175,000)

North of Lake Superior ($175,000~$225,000)

Mongoose Lake, Algoma II (Algoma Sketches XI) ($125,000 ~ $175,000)

Pool, Algoma, Sand Lake (Algoma Sketches LXXIX) ($125,000~$175,000)

Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior (Lake Superior Painting XI) $800,000~$1,200,000

Sand Lake, Algoma ($175,000~$225,000)

Also at the Heffel auction, a two-sided oil painted by A.Y. Jackson at Sand Lake is expected to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000.

To view both sides of this work, follow these links:

Sand Lake, Algoma

An Algoma River

The live auction takes place at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 23, at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Queen’s Park Ballroom, 4 Avenue Road in Toronto.

The following description of Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior (Lake Superior Painting XI) is from the Heffel Fine Art catalogue:

************************* Lot #133

LAWREN STEWART HARRIS ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS 1885 - 1970 Canadian

Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior (Lake Superior Painting XI)

oil on canvas, signed and dated 1923 and on verso signed, titled on the artist's label and on the stretcher, inscribed F 72 and stamped Lawren Harris LSH Holdings Ltd 179

40 x 52 in, 101.6 x 132.1 cm

Provenance

- Collection of the artist

- John A. MacAulay, Esq., Winnipeg

- Robin Carol MacAulay

- Sold sale of 19th and 20th Century Canadian Paintings, Prints, Drawings and Watercolours, Christie, Manson & Woods (Canada) Ltd., Montreal, October 24, 1974, lot 142, reproduced catalogue front cover

- Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, 1974

- Acquired from the above in 1974 by the present private Montreal collector

Literature

- Lawren S. Harris, Contrasts, A Book of Verse, 1922

- Russell Harper et al, Lawren Harris, Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, 1963, listed page 84, catalogue #26

- Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrove, Lawren Harris, 1976, page 52

- Jeremy Adamson, Lawren S. Harris, Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes, 1906 - 1930, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1978, reproduced page 125

Exhibited

- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Lawren Harris, Retrospective Exhibition, June 7 - September 8, 1963, traveling to The Vancouver Art Gallery, October 4 - 27, 1963, catalogue #26 as Collection of the Artist (label on verso)

Harris and Lake Superior are inextricably linked.

Although he had first visited the eastern end of the lake in 1918, his first important trip to the area was in 1921 and he returned each year until 1927, often in the company of his colleagues in the Group.

In 1921 and 1922 he sketched there with A. Y. Jackson, and in 1923 he visited the region with Arthur Lismer. His images of the landscape on the north shore of North America's largest lake are among his finest achievements, and include such significant works as Pic Island, Lake Superior (McMichael Canadian Art Collection), North Shore, Lake Superior (National Gallery of Canada), Clouds, Lake Superior (Winnipeg Art Gallery), Above Lake Superior (Art Gallery of Ontario), and First Snow, North Shore, Lake Superior (Vancouver Art Gallery) among others. The Lake Superior experience was crucial to the formation of Harris's mature style as an artist.

The austere landscape of the region provided Harris with a perfect match to his evolving sense of spirituality.

A theosophist, Harris believed that the remote regions of the world were closer to an idealized spirituality, removed from the daily matters of life and he believed that this spirituality could and should be expressed in his work.

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