Lot 117: David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953 Canadian oil on

David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953 Canadian oil on canvas Paint Box, Easel and Canvas 12 x 16 inches 30.5 x 40.6 centimeters signed and on verso titled Painting Place on the Klinkhoff and Laing labels and inscribed on the canvas ""88"" by Massey Literature:David P. Silcox, Painting Place: The Life and Work of David Milne, 1996, pages 236 and 250 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume 2: 1929 - 1953, 1998, reproduced page 574, catalogue #303.13 David Milne (1882 - 1953): Exposition Rétrospective, Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., 2001, reproduced page 6 A.K. Prakash, Canadian Art: Selected Masters from Private Collections, 2003, titled as Painting Place or Paint Box, Easel and Canvas, reproduced page 145 Provenance:Milne sale to Vincent Massey, 1934 Laing Galleries, Toronto, 1958 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal Private Collection, Montreal, 1972 A.K. Prakash & Associates Inc., Toronto, 1999 Private Collection, Toronto, since 2001 Exhibited:Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, David Milne (1882 - 1953): Exposition Rétrospective, September 15 - 29, 2001 Several qualities distinguish this canvas by one of Canada's (and North America's) pre-eminent modern artists, among them its provenance. Always skirting poverty and yet dedicated to making art, David Milne conceived a plan in about 1933 to sell large numbers of his works in one lot. As this was during the Depression, his motive was in part financial. Writing to Alice and Vincent Massey - the eventual purchasers of this canvas - he reasoned that the total price he set for this collection of recent work "isn't large enough to have made their painting a profitable, or even possible, enterprise; yet it is enough to ensure years of undisturbed painting for the artist with simple tastes. The aim is to trade twenty-five years of painting that is past for five or ten years in the future." Selling this and other works to the Masseys, who were among Canada's leading collectors at the time, was prestigious for Milne, even though the subsequent exhibition and sale of some of this work was not what he had envisioned. The Masseys' own invoice number - the large number 88 inscribed on the back of the canvas itself - remains a significant part of this painting. Important, too, is this work's close connection to other canvases and drypoints that Milne referred to with the simple but evocative phrase "painting place". Milne was an extraordinarily keen observer of the visual details and the feel of an individual place; the close view was to him more important than a national outlook. He painted and drew in the United States and in Canada with equal aesthetic commitment. The "painting place" works characteristically show both the observed details of such attention and display for us the artist's simple tools - in this case, the paint box, the easel, the prominent canvas and, of course, part of what the artist sees in nature and sets out to render. Such simplicity and the dedication that an artist's mastery of these restricted means requires are themselves important subjects in the work. It would, however, be a mistake to think that Milne was overly invested in traditional technique or artistic skill, in himself or in the other historical and contemporary artists who interested him. He valued the emotional effect that a picture could give. He believed that speed in both execution and a viewer's apprehension heightened this effect. In a letter from about the time this painting was done, he claimed that "quickness of execution is important." We might agree with Milne that work from this time emphasized immediacy through a certain sketch-like quality, one that he consciously sought and even practiced. He thought for a long time about his motif, then put it down quickly. The resulting immediacy guaranteed authenticity of vision. Paint Box, Easel and Canvas is compelling because of its conciseness. Its compact efficiency contains a wealth of observation - how the traces of red and green vegetation emerge from the darkness of what we take to be the forest - and of implication. With economy and audacity, Milne has us face both the scene he is thinking about and the canvas that will soon receive his painterly ideas. The stark blankness of this canvas is striking. But its temporary emptiness is not threatening, not an omen of the artist's inevitable struggle. Instead, it conveys the moment of excitement that Milne so clearly felt in front of nature. We thank Mark Cheetham, Professor of Art History at the University of Toronto, for contributing the above essay.