Lot 50: FREDERICK ARTHUR VERNER, O.S.A., A.R.C.A., THE MONARCH OF THE SKIES, oil on canvas, 44 ins x 32.75 ins; 111.8 cms x 83.2 cms

FREDERICK ARTHUR VERNER, O.S.A., A.R.C.A.THE MONARCH OF THE SKIESoil on canvassigned 44 ins x 32.75 ins; 111.8 cms x 83.2 cms Provenance:Private Collection, TorontoLiterature:Joan Murray, The Last Buffalo, The Story of Frederick Arthur Verner, Painter of the Canadian West, Pagurian Press, Toronto, 1984, pages 92-93 and page 75 for Marabou Stork, 1877, reproduced.Across time, the eagle has been adopted by mighty nations as a symbol of good fortune and power. How ironic, therefore, to consider the threat posed to these majestic birds of prey poignantly portrayed by Frederick Verner (1836-1928) in Monarch of the Skies. When Verner was painting the buffalo of the prairies (see Lot 47), the population of these striking creatures was already under serious threat from over-hunting. There are limited statistics about the eagle population during this period, however, Verner’s background ablaze with the setting sun might be an indication that the artist had a hunch that this creature, too, was in peril. Certainly the double motif of sun and skeletal tree placed diagonally across the composition (a combination that dates at least to 1876) were used before to prophesy a premature end to something noble and proud. Though somewhat romanticized, Monarch of the Skies would have struck a chord with Verner’s English audience. As the librarian of the Royal Academy in London explained: “(Verner’s) subjects are very interesting to us who live on this side of the great salt lake; they record things which are doomed to pass away. The buffalo may already be classed with the Great Auk and the Dodo...” The idea of the fragility of nature strikes a chord with the modern viewer, too. This type of subject, while uncommon for Verner, is not unknown and another important animal painting, Marabou Stork of 1877, a watercolour in the collection of the Glenbow Museum, is reproduced in Joan Murray’s 1984 monograph of the artist.Estimate: $20,000–30,000