It took more than six agonizing minutes for the victor to be declared yesterday in a fierce battle for a large oil painting by Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris.
That's an eternity in art auctions, where works usually sell in less than 70 seconds, but perhaps a reasonable amount of time if you're going to spend almost $1.1-million -- the winning bid for Harris's Figure with Rays of Light (Arctic Group III) at Sotheby's biannual sale of important Canadian art in Toronto.
The tension-filled Harris bidding was the highlight of Sotheby's sale in association with Ritchies, one that saw more than 150 lots out of 185 sell for a total of $7.26-million, including buyer's premium. Certainly, it was the painting that sold for the most money, after going into the auction valued at $100,000 to $150,000. The 122-cm-by-152.4-cm work is considered one of Harris's most important, a bridge between the representational paintings that distinguished his first 25 years as an artist and the abstract, metaphysical works that surfaced after 1935. The painting disappeared from view for more than 60 years and before it was consigned to Sotheby's earlier this year, it had been stored, unhung, in the basement of a home in Scarborough, Ont.
Adding to the excitement yesterday were record-setting prices for works by Alex Colville, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Henrietta Mabel May, Jack Shadbolt and Robert Pilot. The total take well surpassed the pre-sale estimate of $3.3- to $4.5-million, another affirmation of current robustness of the Canadian resale art market.
Anticipation was high before the auction that a 1953 Colville tempera painting, Soldier and Girl at a Station would do well, but it's doubtful anyone expected it eventually would be hammered down for $575,000 ($663,750 with premium) -- almost 10 times its high-end pre-sale estimate of $60,000 and more than twice the old record for a Colville, $264,500, set last year.
The consensus yesterday was that the buyer of Figure with Rays of Light is Canada's most famous art collector, Toronto's Kenneth Thomson, who late last week spent almost $1.7-million on another Harris -- a sketch done in 1930 -- at the Heffel brothers' spring auction in Vancouver. In both instances, the winning bidder was David Loch, the tight-lipped Winnipeg-based art dealer who's represented Thomson in bidding wars for years. It was Loch who, in May, 2001, bought the most expensive Harris painting ever, Baffin Island, for $2.5-million, which Thomson announced two years later he would donate to the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Bidding for Figure with Rays of Light started at $65,000, then moved upwards in increments that ranged from $5,000 to $25,000, until Loch, a cellphone glued to his right ear, prevailed with a bid of $950,000 ($1.095-million with premium), prompting the hushed audience to break into relieved applause. His main opponent reportedly was a Calgary collector who, bidding by phone, pulled out of the joust after a bid of $925,000.
Loch also purchased another rarity, a David Milne 1924 oil whose whereabouts had been unknown for almost 80 years. The Yard at the Glenmore Hotel was consigned earlier this year by a Connecticut collector, along with two Milne etchings. Valued at $175,000 to $225,000 -- one of the highest pre-sale estimates ever for a Milne -- the oil went to Loch for $255,500, including premium. The drypoints, each valued at $15,000 to $20,000, sold for $45,000 and $36,000.
Loch also was the top bidder for Colville's Soldier and Girl at a Station. (It's not known for whom he purchased Soldier and Girl. Thomson is not regarded as a Colville collector.)
The only major disappointment for Sotheby's was the no-sale of The Harbour by J. W. Morrice. At $200,000 to $250,000, this modest-sized oil carried the auction's highest pre-sale estimate. Yet bidding stalled at $165,000 and the work was withdrawn.
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