BC Business
Heffel Fine Auction House, ranked 11th worldwide, displays major works October 28-31
Mountains East of Maligne Lake by Lawren Harris, on display at Vancouver’s Heffel Gallery
Heffel Fine Art Auction House, headquartered in Vancouver and Toronto, is the only Canadian auction house to be ranked in world’s top 250 auction houses by American art industry publication Art + Auction. Heffel placed 11th in the annual list, which is based on the value of the previous year’s sales.
Last year the firm auctioned the most valuable work by a Canadian artist ever sold at auction, Lawren Harris’s Mountain Forms, for a record $11.21 million.
Another Lawren Harris canvas, estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, will be available at the next live auction in Toronto on November 22. It and other works are on display in Vancouver at the Heffel Gallery, 2247 Granville Street, Saturday, October 28, to Tuesday, October 31, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. They include:
Harris’s Mountains East of Maligne Lake. The 1925 canvas has been exhibited extensively and returns to Canada after spending decades in a private collection abroad (estimated value $2,500,000-$3,500,000). Also on offer is Study for Mountains East of Maligne Lake, the graphite drawing that laid the groundwork for the painting (estimated value $8,000-$12,000).
Jean-Paul Riopelle’s 1953 Composition (estimated value $400,000-$600,000).
Works from Lawren Harris’s Mountain Sketch LXXXVI and Morin Islands transformative period of abstraction, including Composition 10 (estimated value $300,000-$400,000).
Harris’s Cathedral Mountain From Yoho Valley, Mountain Sketch LXXXVI, Morin Island, Eclipse Sound, North Baffin Island and Arctic Painting XXXVI.
Three large-scale Jack Bush canvases: Winged Totem, 3 on Purple and Still.
A.J. Casson’s Old Lumber Village, which depicts an Ontario village and features an iconic church (estimated value $200,000-$300,000).
From German-born American artist Josef Albers’s Homage series, Study for Homage to the Square: New Garland (estimated value $80,000-$100,000).
Three works by Emily Carr spanning pivotal periods of her artistic career. Indian Encampment, Vancouver is an early work and a brilliant example of the artist’s deep interest in Vancouver’s indigenous population (estimated value $50,000-$70,000).
Works by distinguished artists from around the world, including M.F. Husain and Milton Avery.
Canadian works including E.J. Hughes’s Crofton Wharf, David Milne’s Stumps in the Swamp/Hillside Near Palgrave and David Blackwood’s Ephraim Kelloway’s September Door ’59.
Heffel Fine Art Inc. opened in 1978 in Vancouver. Heffel Fine Art Auction House, a division of Heffel Gallery Ltd., was established in 1995. Since 1999, Heffel has conducted monthly online auctions. The firm expanded to a national auction house with the opening of an Ottawa office and Heffel Gallery, Toronto, in 2002; Galerie Heffel, Montreal, in 2005; and Heffel Gallery, Calgary, in 2016.