Canadian Fine Art
Discover the illuminating art of The Canadian Impressionists and the early avant-garde artists of Canada.
Baraset House spotlights works by Canadian artists who lit up the North American art scene with their captivating images and luminous visions. We proudly highlight the ground-breaking female artists of Canada in the early twentieth century, as well as some of Canada's earliest and most celebrated historical artists.
Robert Harris
c.m.g., p.r.c.a., o.s.a.
(Canadian, 1849-1919)
Miss Kathleen Pyke, Montreal
June 1913
Distinguished as one of Canada's greatest academic painters, one of the first artists named to The Royal Canadian Academy (1880), the longest serving President of The Royal Canadian Academy of Art (1893-1906), and the first Canadian artist to be created a Companion of The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael & St. George CMG (1902), Robert Harris studied in Paris during a pivotal moment in modern art history: the birth of Impressionism.
Having trained under Léon Bonnat, Harris excelled as an academic portraitist, and became famous for his monumental work The Fathers of Confederation, perhaps Canada's best known historical painting. Later in his career, Harris adopted an Impressionist-influenced style after purchasing the first book in English on the subject, The French Impressionists (1860–1900) by Camille Mauclair.
As demonstrated in this sensitive wedding portrait of Miss Kathleen Pyke of Montreal and Hudson Heights, Harris deftly assimilates quick dashes of vibrant colour and the fluid brushwork of the French Impressionists, while maintaining the formal characteristics of academic portraiture for which he became famous.
Alberta Cleland
a.a.m.
(Canadian, 1876-1960)
Construction of The Roddick Gates, McGill University
circa 1925
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​Of historical Canadian interest. The Roddick Gates Entrance to McGill Univeristy, Sherbrooke Street, Montreal, opened in the spring of 1925. The wrought iron fencing - missing in this image - was installed after the completion in spring 1925 of the limestone pillars. This work captures a period during the construction of the gates, when heavy snows halted the contruction progress. Based on a photograph of the construction in the McCord Museum (Montreal) dated November 28, 1924, this painting dates to the winter months between December 1924 and March 1925.
Henrietta 'Etta'
Chant Hopper
(Canadian, 1895-1959)
Honesty
Still life with Silver dollar and Swan
dated 1932
Signed 'H' bottom right
Inscribed 'Painted by Etta Chant Hopper 1932' on reverse
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This post-impressionist still life depicts the flowering plant Lunaria, also called 'Silver Dollar Plant' or 'Honesty' displayed in a pottery swan planter, with blue drape to the background.
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Henrietta Margaret Chant Hopper, known as 'Etta', was a Canadian post-impressionist artist, illustrator and graphic designer, born in Toronto.
Etta exhibited at The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in the 1930s, illustrated numerous Canadian books, and designed the official seal of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Elizabeth Annie McGillivray Knowles
a.r.c.a.
(Canadian, 1866-1928)
Duck Puddle
dated 1914
​Provenance:
Private collection of the artist, Elizabeth McGillivray Knowles (d.1928);
Estate of Farquhar McGillivray Knowles (d.1932).
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Signed & dated lower right 'E A McGillivray Knowles 1914'
Titled on reverse; signed estate certificate on reverse
Oil on board
8 inches by 10 inches (20.3cm by 25.4cm)
Jack Beder
c.a.s., c.s.p.w.c., c.s.g.a
(Canadian, 1910-1987)
Sunlit Coast
(Nova Scotia) 1950
Exhibited at
Exhibited at Galerie Antoine, 939, Victoria Square (Montreal, Quebec) 1951.
Exhibited at Young Men's Hebrew Association, Mount Royal Avenue (Montreal, Quebec) "Jewish Painters of Montreal Exhibition" 1951.
Exhibited at the William P. Wolfe Gallery (Montreal, Quebec) 1964.
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Oil on masonite.
Signed 'Beder' lower right.
Titled and dated verso. Inventory #477.
16 inches by 20 inches (in original hand-carved artist's frame)
Jack Beder
c.a.s., c.s.p.w.c., c.s.g.a
(Canadian, 1910-1987)
Strawstack
(Nova Scotia) 1946
Exhibited at
Exhibited at Galerie Antoine, 939, Victoria Square (Montreal, Quebec) 1951.
Exhibited at Young Men's Hebrew Association, Mount Royal Avenue (Montreal, Quebec) "Jewish Painters of Montreal Exhibition" 1951.
Exhibited at the William P. Wolfe Gallery (Montreal, Quebec) 1964.
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Oil on masonite.
Signed 'Beder' lower right.
Titled and dated verso. Inventory #424.
16 inches by 20 inches (in original hand-carved artist's frame)
Jack Beder
c.a.s., c.s.p.w.c., c.s.g.a
(Canadian, 1910-1987)
Barricade
(Laurentians) 1955
Exhibited at
Panorama of Montreal Painting,
Ile Ste-Hélène barracks, June 4 - September 3, 1956/
Panorama de la peinture montréalaise,
Restaurant Hélène-de-Champlain, Montréal (QC), 4 juin-3 sept. 1956
(Organisation de l'exposition : Service des Parcs de la Ville de Montréal)
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Oil on masonite. Signed 'Beder' lower right.
Titled and dated verso. Inventory #563.
17 inches by 30 inches (22 inches by 36 inches in original hand-carved frame)
​Signed W. A. Sherwood and dated 1896 bottom right
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This early avant-garde Canadian Impressionist painting is likely a related study to the full length painting at The Art Gallery of Ontario titled 'Portrait of Mary Patterson' also dated 1896.
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The quick Impressionist brush strokes and highly unusual pose of the sitter makes this study a very forward-looking 19th century work by a Toronto artist.
William Albert
Sherwood
a.r.c.a.
(Canadian, 1855-1919)
Portrait study of a Lady
in a pink feathered evening gown
dated 1896
Gilbert Stuart Newton
r.a.
(Canadian, 1794-1835)
Portrait of Catarina Schindlerin
​Madame Schinderlin was a German opera singer who made her London debut in 'Armida' at the King's Theatre 1775.
Provenance:
Formerly in the collection of John Heugh (1878)
Formerly in the collection of Sit John Pender (1897)
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1794 and nephew to the famed American artist Gilbert Stuart, Gilbert Stuart Newton was the first Canadian artist accepted into The Royal Academy (London).
Alice des Clayes
r.c.a., c.s.p.w.c.
(Canadian, 1890-1968)
Taking seaweed from the surf, St. Malo
circa 1925
Exhibited at
The Art Association of Montreal 42nd Annual Spring Exhibition (1925), no.83,
"Bringing in the seaweed from the surf, St. Malo"
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Literature:
The Art Association of Montreal Annual Spring Exhibition, Montreal April 26, 1925.
Gazette (Montreal) April 3 1925, p.6: "an effective seashore scene with horses and cart, by Alice Des Clayes ARCA"
John A. Hammond
r.c.a.
(Canadian, 1843-1939)
Harbour of St John, New Brunswick
circa 1891-1892
Between 1891-1892, Hammond exhibited a series of luminous views of St John Harbour at The Royal Canadian Academy of Art which took inpiration from the ground-breaking studies of light, colour and atmosphere achieved by Joseph William Mallord Turner (1775-1851). Hammond applied Turner's techiniques to the industrial maritime seascapes of New Brunswick.
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"Mr. Hammond is essentially a painter of the sea and of the harbour, with its shipping, and that his greatest success are his atmospheric effects, when he fixes on canvas the prismatic beauty that comes from the sunlight struggling through the fog.” (Toronto Star 1920)
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André Lapine
a.r.c.a.
(Canadian, 1866-1952)
In the Sugar Bush
circa 1940
​Signed 'André Lapine, A.R.C.A.' lower right
Titled 'In the sugar bush' and inscribed inventory no.68 on reverse.
André Lapine became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1909, and was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1919. He exhibited frequently at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts until the 1940s.
Lapine was also a member of the Graphic Arts Club, the Toronto Arts and Letters Club and a founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.
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Harold Wellington McCrea
r.c.a.
(Canadian, 1887-1969)
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Signed 'McCrea' lower right; titled on the stretcher and on an exhibition label to the reverse.
Provenance:
Sotheby's (Royal Ontario Museum auction, Toronto) Important Canadian Art, 18 May 2001.
Dominion Gallery (Montreal, Canada)
Collection of Dr. Max Stern (Montreal, Canada)
McCrea's works are held in The National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and numerous important Canadian collections. McCrea was commissioned by Lady Eaton to paint a ground-breaking mural in the turret room of Eaton Hall (King City) 'in the round' giving homage to the indigenous inhabitants of King City.
The Hill Road
circa 1930
