Lot 174: Donald M. Flather 1903 - 1990 Canadian oil on

Donald M. Flather 1903 - 1990 Canadian oil on canvas on board Mount Sir Donald 36 x 44 inches 91.4 x 111.7 centimeters signed Provenance:Estate of the Artist Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 14, 2002, lot 159 Private Collection, USA Mount Sir Donald is a peak in the Rogers Pass area of British Columbia. It is the most prominent summit in the Selkirk Mountains, and its good rock quality and classic Matterhorn shape make it a favourite of alpine rock climbers. This striking peak attracted both Canadian artists such as Thomas Mower Martin and Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, who came to British Columbia in the late 1800s on the newly built Canadian Pacific Railway, and well-known American painters such as Albert Bierstadt of the Hudson River School. All three did fine canvases of this subject. Donald Flather's modern depiction of Mount Sir Donald has great clarity of atmosphere, a bright, light-filled palette and a fine eye for form. The repeated split planes in the rocks and the striations of the glacial carvings on its surface make it look as though the mountain peak were chiseled by a sculptor. There are echoes of the work of both W.P. Weston and the Group of Seven's Lawren Harris in Mount Sir Donald, which is one of Flather's most stunning mountain landscapes.