Helen Galloway McNicoll Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Helen Galloway McNicoll Art Value Price Guide

Sep. 17, 2020
HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL, R.C.A., THE ORCHARD AT ELMHURST DAIRY, MONTREAL, C.1910, oil on canvas, 20 ins x 24.25 ins; 50.8 cms x 61.6 cms
Est: $60,000 - $90,000
HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL, R.C.A. THE ORCHARD AT ELMHURST DAIRY, MONTREAL, C.1910 oil on canvas inscribed "Painting by Miss Helen G. McNicoll, 1879 - 1915" to frame, and stamped with the artist's studio stamp #32 on the canvas and stretcher 20 ins x 24.25 ins; 50.8 cms x 61.6 cms Provenance: A gift from the Artist to Mrs. T.A. Trenholme By descent to Private Collection, Quebec Exhibited: Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #32 Literature: Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed p. 5 Paul Duval, Canadian Impressionism, 1990, p. 92 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, for a similar circa 1908 oil entitled A Wayside Farm, p. 35. A gift from the artist to Mrs. Trenholme, a close friend of the McNicoll family, this painting depicts the orchard and barns of the Elmhurst Dairy Farm. Mrs. Trenholme’s husband, Thomas Anderson, was the founder of this Montreal-area dairy, located in what is now the city’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. Thomas Trenholme took great care and pride with his herd—the business stayed within the Trenholme family for just shy of 100 years, and was known for producing high-quality milk as well as for an iconic neighbourhood ice cream parlour. Elmhurst Dairy was sold to Parmalat in 1970. Like the dairy farm itself, the painting stayed in the Trenholme family for generations. Along with this excellent provenance, the painting was included in a 1925 memorial exhibition for Helen McNicoll organized by the Art Association of Montreal and is included in the corresponding literature. Another charming touch is an accompanying beachside photo of the McNicoll and Trenholme families. Art historian Paul Duval called McNicoll “possibly [Canada’s] best Impressionist painter.” 1 Indeed, railway pioneer William Van Horne acquired one of McNicoll’s works in 1909, positioning it next to paintings by Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt and other European Impressionists in his collection. McNicoll’s work was well received in her lifetime—despite Impressionism never gaining much traction in Canada—but faded from view after her death. Samantha Burton suggests that this was perhaps due to the dominance of the Group of Seven and the quest for a more “Canadian” school of painting, rather than a style that was seen as imported and foreign. 2 A major exhibition of her work in 1999 at the Art Gallery of Ontario helped introduce McNicoll to wider audiences and reposition her as one of Canada’s foremost artists. True to the roots of Impressionism, McNicoll was fascinated by the transient nature of light and colour, well evidenced in this painting. While McNicoll’s brushstrokes conjure up a strong sense of movement—the grass in particular seems positively effervescent—the overall composition is restful and calm. Her use of darker tones to evoke the lengthening shadows on the field is particularly poignant, transporting the viewer to a fleeting summer’s day in a friend’s orchard. 1https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-influential-art-writer-paul-duval-championed-lawren-harris/ 2https://aci-iac.ca/art-books/helen-mcnicoll/significance-and-critical-issues/#a-legacy-forgotten Estimate: $60,000–90,000
Waddington's
Nov. 22, 2012
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on board Harbour Scene 12 3/4 x 16 5/8 inches 32.4 x 42.2 centimeters Provenance:Estate of the Artist By descent within the family of the Artist, USA Helen McNicoll's mastery of Impressionism was forged in England, while immersed in the modernist milieu at the Slade School of Art in London, followed by Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives under Algernon Talmage. There plein air painting was practiced and was fully absorbed by McNicoll, as seen in her gorgeous gardens, sunlit fields, beaches, flowing streams and harbours. Her rendering of water demonstrates her exquisite ability to depict shimmering, reflected light and the freshness of sea atmospheres. McNicoll worked with a natural tonal palette of browns, greens and grey-blue, applied with fluid brush-strokes that established a tranquil mood. This delightful harbour scene with its picturesque boats also includes a fine architectural detail of a historic tower amid the town. This remarkable, trailblazing female artist gained recognition in a time when male artists dominated, showing in Canada through the Art Association of Montreal, the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists. In England she was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists. Her significance resonates and gains ground in contemporary times. This work is being offered by a direct descendant of the McNicoll family.
Heffel
Nov. 22, 2012
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Tea Time 24 x 20 1/8 inches 61 x 51.1 centimeters on verso stamped on the canvas and on the stretcher with the Studio Helen McNicoll estate stamp, #14 Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 4 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, page 63, reproduced page 31, listed page 79 Provenance:Private Collection, Toronto Private Collection Exhibited:Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #14 Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, September 10 - December 12, 1999, catalogue #34 Helen McNicoll, one of Canada's most important Impressionists, was well known for her portrayals of light-filled interiors and sun-drenched outdoor settings. Leisurely pastimes and everyday pursuits such as reading, having tea, going to the beach or gathering fruit and flowers were subjects of great interest to McNicoll, and were greatly favoured by the Impressionists. At London's Slade School, she was exposed to modernist ideas and the practice of plein air painting, as well as a new romantic viewpoint which encouraged naturalism in place of the sentimentality of Victorian art. The Slade was a fine choice for McNicoll, as its policy was one of equal opportunity for both men and women students. While she was in London, important exhibitions were on view, such as the one at Grafton Gallery which included 300 French Impressionist works from the collection of French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in 1905. Regarding this painting, Natalie Luckyj comments, "In Tea Time an English garden (perhaps in one of the homes she shared with Dorothea Sharp) becomes a space / site of personal reverie and fragrant scent. It is a private domestic sphere where no female presence is required, only the marker of domesticity - a cloth-covered table." Sharp was a fellow artist and close friend whom McNicoll met in England at St. Ives, while she was attending Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting. St. Ives, on the Cornish coast, was noted for its quality of light and was well known as an artist colony. McNicoll and Sharp traveled and painted together in France and Italy, and in England shared studio and living space. Both were Impressionists and committed to plein air painting. Not only was McNicoll a master of the creation of atmosphere through her Impressionist treatment of colour and brush-stroke, she was also exceptional at conveying a natural and contemplative mood. In Tea Time, the participants partaking of tea have momentarily stepped out of frame, but we can still feel their presence in the teapot and dishes still sitting on the table, and their touch is felt in the well-tended garden, lush with blooms. The space is secluded and attractive in its intimate scale, and the mood is one of peace and pleasure in everyday rituals. Beautiful and radiant with the warmth of a summer's day, Tea Time is a superb work by McNicoll.
Heffel
May. 17, 2012
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $175,000 - $225,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Easter Lilies 21 1/4 x 17 1/8 inches 54 x 43.5 centimeters on verso titled on the stretcher and stamped twice on the canvas and once on the stretcher with the Studio Helen McNicoll estate stamp, #41 Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 5 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, page 17 and a circa 1907 canvas with a similar model entitled The Little Worker, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, reproduced page 51 Provenance:Acquired in the early 1950s from the Artist's sisters, Montreal By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #41 In Helen McNicoll's depiction of children is the essence of an innocent world that recalls late Victorian times, but seen through a more modern eye. McNicoll was from an upper middle class family in Montreal and had private means, but unlike others of her milieu, she used this freedom to pursue her painting, and was Natalie Luckyj relates that she was described as having an "aggressive and active intellect." Before she began her art studies, McNicoll kept scrapbooks of paintings and illustrations with images of women and children, which reflected her deep interest in this subject. At the Art Association of Montreal, she took a class in life drawing from nude models. Her early teacher William Brymner emphasized the importance of working directly from nature and was opened a door to the new Impressionist style of painting. By 1902, McNicoll was on her way to London to attend the Slade School of Art, home to a vital group of British modernist painters. Here she continued her figure studies and had further exposure to Impressionism, as well as to a more natural approach to subject which left behind the sentimentality of Victorian painting. In 1905, she enrolled in Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives under Algernon Talmage, where painting en plein air was pursued. McNicoll honed her Impressionist style, depicting outdoor light with a fine handling of sunlight and shadow. It was likely at St. Ives that McNicoll met British painter Dorothea Sharp, with whom she traveled and painted. At the turn of the century, the Suffragette movement was rising, and women's roles were changing. Breaking traditional female stereotypes, they both practiced plein air painting, and it was of great assistance to McNicoll, who had been rendered deaf by a childhood illness, to have a companion while painting out of doors. Sharp also assisted with arrangements with McNicoll's child models. Easter Lilies, in which a young girl stands amidst a profusion of flowers, caught in an entirely natural, unselfconscious moment, embodies all the finest qualities of McNicoll's work. The play of light through the flowers, particularly in the glowing white lilies, is exquisite. The mood of an idyllic moment in harmony with nature and the delicacy of the child's peaceful contemplation envelops the viewer. The brushwork is fluid and assured, building a density of floral growth against a background of softer, more abstract strokes. McNicoll depicts what may be the same child model in a circa 1907 canvas entitled The Little Worker, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, in which the young girl walks across a sun-drenched field. McNicoll's significance is firmly established in Canada's art history, and her work resonates strongly in contemporary times, as it continues to gather recognition amongst collectors for its intoxicating and sensual perception of light and colour. Her radiant images of women and children, both at work and at leisure, delight with their world of contemplation and the sensory pleasures of their everyday pursuits. J.J. Warren, the father of the collector who acquired this painting from Helen McNicoll's sisters in the early 1950s, was on the board of the Canadian Pacific Railway, as was McNicoll's father, and the two families were friends. When the collector was visiting the McNicoll sisters, Dollie and May, in Montreal she was offered her choice of any of Helen's paintings, then stored in the attic of their Westmount home. She chose this work - referred to in the family as "Girl Among the Lilies" - because it reminded her of her daughter Mary (the present consignor) as a child. This is the first time this painting has been offered on the market.
Heffel
Nov. 24, 2011
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Reflections
Est: $70,000 - $90,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Reflections 18 x 16 inches 45.7 x 40.6 centimeters signed and on verso stamped McNicoll Estate Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 7 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, reproduced page 34, listed page 78 Provenance:Estate of the Artist The Morris Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Vancouver Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, titled as Reflection, catalogue #88 Art Gallery of Ontario, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, 2000 - 2001, traveling to The Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida; the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal; the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, catalogue #17 One of Canada's finest Impressionist artists, Helen McNicoll brought a transcendent sense of light, mood and atmosphere into her work. During her studies in England, McNicoll went to St. Ives in 1905 to study with Algernon Talmage, who stressed the importance of painting en plein air, an important tenet of Impressionism. While abroad, she made a three-month trip to Paris, during which she opened a studio and toured and painted in the countryside, visiting artist colonies in Brittany and Grès-sur-Loing. Paintings such as Reflections are evidence of her firm commitment to an Impressionist style. Her French town scenes often included women going about the business of their day in harmony with their world, as does Reflections. Through sunshine, warmly lighting the houses on the riverbanks and reflected on the shimmering water, McNicoll created a keen impression of the sensory physical world of the village and its tranquil mood. McNicoll died at the young age of 35, leaving a rare and extraordinary body of work, of which this serene atmospheric painting is an outstanding example.
Heffel
May. 17, 2011
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $80,000 - $120,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Making Posies 16 x 18 inches 40.6 x 45.7 centimeters on verso stamped with the Studio Helen McNicoll estate stamp, #18 Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 4 Joan Murray, Helen McNicoll, Oil Paintings from the Estate, The Morris Gallery, 1974, listed and reproduced, unpaginated A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women Artists, 2008, pages 37 and 76 Provenance:Estate of the Artist The Morris Gallery, Toronto, 1974 Private Collection, Toronto By descent to the present Private Estate, Toronto Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #18 The Morris Gallery, Toronto, Helen McNicoll, Oil Paintings from the Estate, November 16 - 30, 1974, catalogue #12 " 'Trailblazers' are artists who changed Canadian art forever. That is, the originality and force of expression embodied in their work have survived the test of time," stated A.K. Prakash. Helen McNicoll is inevitably included in this category. This was an age in which women were not allowed the level of artistic freedom that men experienced in Europe, Canada or elsewhere. We are fortunate to have a handful of female artists that we now consider keystone figures in Canadian art history. This painting is an intimate portrait in which the artist's viewpoint looks outward, perhaps from a windowsill, and depicts two children exploring a sunlit field collecting flowers for a posy. Several art scholars have chosen canvases by McNicoll, above all other artists, to feature as covers for their publications. One example is Paul Duval's renowned publication entitled Canadian Impressionism. Duval recognized early on that it was McNicoll, along with a handful of her female contemporaries, who most clearly exemplified the theories of Impressionism as taught by the legendar French and English Impressionists. Like Claude Monet and McNicoll's teacher Wyndham Lewis, McNicoll was true to certain principles of light, mood and atmosphere derived from the brilliance of sunlight as it reflects in the air and on water. Few Canadian artists could paint gardens, beach scenes, children or sun effects quite like McNicoll. As Prakash observed, "The Impressionists set the standard for this kind of painting; Monet excelled at it, and in Canadian art, McNicoll alone painted to this level." McNicoll's treatment of her subjects was blissful and heartfelt and her atmospheres transcendent; a canvas such as this is a rare and beautiful gift for art patrons.
Heffel
May. 17, 2011
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $200,000 - $300,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Market in Brittany 32 x 26 inches 81.3 x 66 centimeters signed and on verso titled partially on the remnants of The Art Association of Montreal's memorial exhibition label Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, the Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 3 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll, a Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, what is likely this work shown in a 1913 Montreal Daily Star photograph of Helen McNicoll's studio reproduced page 53 Provenance:Acquired directly from the Artist by Mrs. T.A. Trenholme, Montreal By descent to the present Private Collection, Quebec Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #1 For full cataloguing, text and images in PDF format please click here
Heffel
May. 17, 2011
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on panel The Avenue 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 centimeters on verso inscribed on a label ""I received this painting from my father Gordon McNicoll, who was Helen McNicoll's nephew - Stacey McNicoll"" Literature:Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, catalogue #35, the related circa 1912 large format canvas of the same subject entitled The Avenue reproduced page 36 Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25, 2004, the related circa 1912 large format canvas of the same subject entitled The Avenue reproduced page 16, lot 16 Provenance:Estate of the Artist Gordon McNicoll, nephew of the Artist, USA By descent to the present Private Collection, USA In 1905, Helen McNicoll attended Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, a seaside town in Cornwall, England. Here she met Algernon Talmage, the principal of the school, who emphasized the importance of painting en plein air. During the summer, Talmage taught figure classes in a private orchard; these classes were integral to the development of McNicoll's mature painting style. With its carefully constructed pattern of light and shadow down the tree-lined avenue, this work adheres to Talmage's adage, as quoted by Natalie Luckyj, that "there is sunshine in the shadows." Almost certainly, this superb painting with its luminous play of light and fluid brush-strokes was painted en plein air. This atmospheric work is the study for McNicoll's canvas The Avenue, which sold at Heffel on November 25, 2004.
Heffel
May. 26, 2010
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $125,000 - $175,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas By the River 30 x 25 inches 76.2 x 63.5 centimeters on verso titled and stamped twice with the Studio Helen McNicoll Estate Stamp, catalogue #76 Literature:William R. Watson, "Artists of High Order", Montreal Gazette, March 10, 1911 W.R., "Round the Galleries: The Royal Society of British Artists", London Sunday Times, November 2, 1913 Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 7 Provenance:Estate of the Artist By descent to the present Private Collection, USA Exhibited:Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #76 Helen McNicoll was doing the right thing for an emerging artist: returning to square one to plot a development. This painting of a riverside scene reveals her ongoing ambition to bring together light, atmosphere and a tranquil scene with considerable power of handling. McNicoll was trying to wedge Impressionism into the equation, making works in brilliant colours where small patches distributed on the canvas created an all-over pattern that combined in the viewer's eye into a whole, taken at a distance. Here she is painting in her impassioned way, freshly and spontaneously, while meditating on the new values in art which she had learned and in which she believed. The subject - reflections - is one which she used often at an early date, and we notice the way the trees are reflected in the water. Here the shoreline seems to be full of activity, a sign that may indicate a later date, as does the brilliance of the handling of colour and light. One of McNicoll's paintings was described by a critic writing for the London Sunday Times in 1913 as convincing, but not over-emphasized, and the same delicacy of handling can be ascribed to this painting. Her work disarmed all thoughts of labour in the studio and thus achieved the distinctive height of art concealing art, to paraphrase the Montreal art dealer and critic William R. Watson who, in his comprehensive review of the 1911 Art Association of Montreal spring exhibition, singled out McNicoll for special mention in the Montreal Gazette. Like many other artists of her generation, she sought a simpler and more direct experience of nature, but her gift was to attractively fuse the naturalism of earlier styles with more advanced impressionism. As she realized, the tension between the two modes kept things interesting. We thank Joan Murray for contributing the above essay.
Heffel
May. 26, 2010
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $125,000 - $175,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas The Blue Sea (On the Beach at St. Malo) 20 1/4 x 24 inches 51.4 x 61 centimeters on verso inscribed ""On the Beach at St. Malo, Brittany"" and ""Helen G. McNicoll ARCA, RCA"" and stamped with the Studio Helen McNicoll Estate Stamp, #79 Literature:Joan Murray Artists' Files, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, letter from Helen McNicoll to her father, March 19, 1913 and a copy of a photograph Joan Murray, inscription recorded from the original photograph in 1974 Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, 1925, The Art Association of Montreal, reproduced and listed page 7 Provenance:Estate of the Artist By descent to the present Private Collection, USA Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #79 Continental Galleries, Montreal, label on verso Paris was the hub for Impressionism, and a thrilling city in the years following the turn of the century. Helen McNicoll, like other students of Canadian art, would have heard of the new style and particularly its way of handling light and atmosphere. She would have had her attention directed to the movement in Montreal, where she grew up, either through shows at the galleries or through her teacher in the Art Association of Montreal, William Brymner, who had studied in Paris. She would have continued to hear about the new developments in art from study, from about 1902 on, in England at the Slade School of Art at the University of London. Here her teachers would have been artists at the forefront of British modernism, who stressed a combination of academic realism and a study of bodily movement, with new interests in expression and subjectivity achieved through the use of tonal values. Studies at St. Ives in Cornwall with Algernon Talmage, from about 1905 or 1906 on, would have helped her sharpen her use of the style, with its observation of sunlight and its reflection in the shadows of the picture. Talmage told her, ""Remember, there is sunshine in the shadows."" Around 1906, following her studies at St. Ives, McNicoll found a painting companion in the person of painter Dorothea Sharp, an exhibitor and later a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and Vice President of the Society of Women Artists. The two painted together in Brittany, Grez-sur-Loing and Italy, often using the same model, as well as sharing a studio in London. Their efforts also had common aims and subjects. In 1913, McNicoll, like Sharp, was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. On her election, McNicoll wrote her father that ""the older members.....didn't like my things. One old man was very angry and said 'If that picture is right, then the National Gallery is all wrong.'"" McNicoll's bold, summary handling would have been the quality that irked the older members of the Royal Society of British Artists. They would have likely appreciated her subject matter - it was primarily female. Her focus on children, women, workers, family and friends, usually involved in the incidents of everyday life, was, with her powerful style, the keynote of her artistic voice. Through such images, she championed the new Woman and her health, strength and independence, but only in a reticent way. Today, the work of McNicoll is celebrated for the naturalness and charm of its imagery, often of figures in sunlight moving with unconcerned grace. Taking an elevated view of landscape, she told the viewer through her paintings that she was in control of her subject and the pictorial space she invented. She also told the viewer, though modestly, that her experience of the places she visited and in which she painted was authentic, and not the result of tourism, but in her own way, a vision of a person who actually lived in the place. The Blue Sea (On the Beach at St. Malo) is one of the works in her sunny mode. Although McNicoll stressed the distance between the artist and subject, painting the sand in the foreground with its rich tones of orange, gold, cream and ultramarine blue, the viewer feels close to the subject, almost as though he or she is also on the beach - and has become, like McNicoll, a happy visitor. In line with her way of conveying a feeling of an authentic place is McNicoll's assertion of a feeling of solitude and privacy. Like the strolling woman and child and the group in the distance, all of whom are absorbed in looking at the sea, the viewer feels at peace. The figure of the child in the straw hat recalls a child with blond hair and a white pinafore painted by both McNicoll and Sharp. She, or a youngster like her, appears in photographs of the two artists which each took of the other. In the photograph of McNicoll, she is shown fixing the child's hair. On the verso of the original photograph, McNicoll wrote, ""It's so hot that I've put a handkerchief round my neck. It's about 90 in the shade"" (in the photograph, she wears a handkerchief). Perhaps, we may believe, it was the heat that drove McNicoll to the beach to paint this radiant moment. We thank Joan Murray for contributing the above essay.
Heffel
Dec. 03, 2009
HELEN GALLOWAY MCNICOLL 1879 - 1915
Est: $90,000 - $120,000
AN ENGLISH BEACH signed l.r.: H. McNicoll; titled and stamped with the McNicoll studio stamp on the reverse
Sotheby's
Nov. 19, 2008
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $100,000 - $150,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas Girl with Parasol 16 x 18 inches 40.6 x 45.7 centimeters signed and on verso inscribed in graphite ""Helen McNicoll"" Literature:Carol Lowrey, Visions of Light and Air, Canadian Impressionism, 1885 - 1920, Americas Society Art Gallery, 1995, pages 15 - 16 Natalie Luckjy, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, page 53 Provenance:Private Collection, England Helen McNicoll is universally regarded as a pivotal figure in Canadian art, and an artist who was able to fully absorb the Impressionist aesthetic - both formally and thematically - as evidenced in Girl with Parasol. Highly esteemed in her lifetime for her achievements at home and abroad, McNicoll's premature death at the young age of 35, and her small artistic output, has deprived history of her full pictorial promise. Born into a family of wealth and prestige, and imbued with the vision to paint, McNicoll first studied at Montreal's Art Association. With the encouragement of her teacher William Brymner, she enrolled in 1902 at the Slade School of Art in London. Following her initial studies in the city, she proceeded to St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1906, where she studied under Algernon Talmage. It was there that she was so inspired by the teaching of Talmage that her passion for plein air painting was ignited. It was also in St. Ives that she met her great friend and fellow painter, Dorothea Sharp. Her time in London served her well, and she was described "as a true cosmopolite, choosing to remain in Europe, while retaining intermittent contact with the Canadian art world through visits and exhibition activity." McNicoll's reputation increased when her works were published in London's Studio magazine. With her election in 1913 to the Royal Society of British Arts (RBA) her presence in the London art scene was confirmed. Luckyj explains that six of her works were displayed at the RBA's 1913 exhibition, ranging in price from 15 to 36 pounds; while the Montreal Daily Star noted: "Considering there have been only eight elections this year, it is particularly gratifying to Canadians that Miss McNicoll should be one of those chosen and that the maximum number of three of her paintings are hung in the exhibition of the Suffolk Street galleries." McNicoll's significance derives not only from her accomplishment as a painter of women and children, subjects that were previously dismissed as pure genre, but also from her adherence to the Impressionist aesthetic itself. As Carol Lowry explains, "Impressionism constituted the first stage of modernism in Canada, serving as a vital link between nineteenth century academicism and the work of the nationalist landscape painters known as the Group of Seven." Girl with Parasol contains all the key tenets of Impressionism - soft tones and soothing colour, changing qualities of light and a sense of atmosphere applied to an anecdotal theme. The brush-strokes display fluency and confidence, as one can sense the wind moving through the grass, yet this sense of movement is juxtaposed to the serenity of the sitter. This particular model was a favourite of McNicoll's and the motif of the parasol was often used in her oeuvre. Girl with Parasol recalls works such as In the Shadow of the Tree, circa 1914, in the collection of the Musée du Québec, as well as A Quiet Spot and Sunny September, both from 1913 and in private collections. It can be surmised that Girl with Parasol also dates from 1913, as it shares similar subject matter to that seen in A Quiet Spot and Sunny September. This work is of significance in the limited body of work by one of Canada's most important female Impressionists.
Heffel
Nov. 23, 2007
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
Helen Galloway McNicoll 1879 - 1915 Canadian oil on canvas The Foot Bridge, Venice A07F-E05005-001 18 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches 47 x 41.9 centimeters signed and on verso stamped Studio Helen G. McNicoll, catalogue # 33 Literature:Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, The Art Association of Montreal, 1925, catalogue #33, listed page 5 Helen McNicoll: Oil Paintings from the Estate, Morris Gallery, February 7 - 21, 1976, reproduced catalogue #21, listed page 5 Provenance:Morris Gallery, Toronto By descent to the Present Private Collection, Ontario Exhibited:The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, 1925, catalogue #33 Morris Gallery, Toronto, Helen McNicoll: Oil Paintings from the Estate, February 7 - 21, 1976, catalogue #21, entitled The Bridge, Venice Venice in all its splendour has never ceased to capture the mind and imagination of great writers and artists alike. Evidently, Helen McNicoll was not immune to its pull during her studies in London and France, and traveled there with well-known British Impressionist Dorothea Sharp. Sharp and McNicoll shared artistic tastes and sensibilities, often painting together and visiting artist colonies in Brittany and Grès~sur~Loing, and even sharing a studio at 18 rue de la Ferte in Saint~Valéry~sur~Somme. The Foot Bridge, Venice is recorded in the 1925 posthumous Memorial Exhibition of Paintings, and stands as a rare subject in her oeuvre. Gem-like in its size and execution, it captures the very essence of the city with its hidden vistas and connecting bridges. The brightly coloured palette, for which McNicoll is so admired, gives evidence of a hot sunny day. The reflections cast from the architectural elements glimmer in the water, creating a series of jewel-like colours that radiate and leave the viewer wanting more - both of McNicoll and Venice. E50000-70000
Heffel