Lot 143: Horatio Walker 1858 - 1938 Canadian oil on paper

Horatio Walker 1858 - 1938 Canadian oil on paper on board The Ice Cutters, Île d'Orléans 6 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches 15.9 x 23.8 centimeters signed and on verso titled Cutting Ice; Island of Orleans on the Continental Galleries label, Ice Cutters - Ile d'Orleans on the Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin label and Ice Cutting, Ile d'Orleans on the McMichael Canadian Art Collection exhibition label and stamped Dominion Gallery Literature:Charles H. Caffin, "The Art of Horatio Walker", Harper's Monthly, vol. CXVII, 1908, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters, in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, reproduced page 955 F. Newlin Price, Horatio Walker, 1928, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced catalogue #16, unpaginated Pierre-Georges Roy, L'île d'Orléans, 1928, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced pages 448 - 449 "Gift to Local Gallery", 1941, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced, unpaginated "Permanent Collection of Gallery Enriched", 1941, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced page 21 Charles H. Caffin, The Story of American Painting, 1907, 1970 edition, the 1904 canvas entitled The Ice Cutters reproduced page 220 Dorothy Farr, Horatio Walker, 1858 - 1938, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 1977, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced catalogue #18 Provenance:Continental Galleries, Montreal Dominion Gallery, Montreal Galerie Jean-Pierre Valentin, Montreal Private Collection, New York Exhibited:McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Forging the Path: The Forerunners (1870 - 1920), October 2, 2010 - January 23, 2011, exhibited as Ice Cutting, Ile d'Orleans Literature continued: Au fil des collections, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1984, the 1904 canvas The Ice Cutters reproduced, unpaginated
A.K. Prakash, Canadian Art: Selected Masters from Private Collections, 2003, reproduced page 28
Katrina Atanassova, Forging the Path: The Forerunners (1870-1920), McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2011, reproduced, unpaginated There is no doubting the sheer visual magic of Horatio Walker's sketch for The Ice Cutters, in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The powerful and interrelated action of the horse and driver, the distant figures, one of which chops away at a block of ice, the time of day, the weather, the trees in the background greyed by atmosphere, all contribute to an amazing sight, a kind of three-dimensional look into the historic world of old Montreal. It is a mesmerizing and, in its own way, confounding spectacle composed of many contrasts from that of the action-packed horse and man versus the serene sky to the rugged ice-forms versus the impressively subtle colouring. As Charles Caffin wrote in 1907, "The character of the action, as diversely excited by the horse and the man, is rendered with remarkable knowledge and skill. An admirable touch of romantic feeling is introduced by placing the bulk of the hard-breathing, tugging horse in contrast with the ideal loveliness of the sky. Similarly, the ruggedness of the ice-forms is contrasted with the delicacy of their colouring." For a period of about ten years at the turn of the last century, Walker was at the top of his form, producing the most major paintings of his career and at the height of his professional success. Works of this period are imbued with buoyancy and hope as though they reflect the mood of the artist himself. Numbered among them are works such as Ploughing, The First Gleam (1900), The Woodcutters (1905), Ave Maria (1906), The Royal Mail (1909) and Horses at the Trough (1910). The Ice Cutters is perhaps the archetypal painting by Walker. Certainly it is one of the best known. Its subject of habitant and animal was produced for an international clientele. To those who study it, the imagery offers metaphorical depth: it is the story of man and animal against the elements. The simple approach enabled Walker to experiment with sculptural compositions and to make paintings with forthright brushwork and only a slight quality of what could be seen as "traditional touch". This satisfyingly seasonal sketch is complex and daringly close to the final canvas. While his vision was honed in the studio, Walker traveled extensively in the area around his home on the Île d'Orléans and made many sketches on location. This painting must have been one of the last works Walker created before the canvas itself. The result is boldly powerful. This sketch suggests that Walker here sought to evoke the full range of his sensibility, from brusque to delicate. It provides a textbook example of an artist veering away from the art of the past towards a powerful new vocabulary and composition, one which foretokens the art of the future. In many ways, the subject predates and leads the way to compositions of early Canada by all the pioneering Modernists, including Maurice Cullen, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor Côté and Clarence Gagnon. It is the quintessential Walker subject as evidenced by the extensive exhibition history of the canvas throughout the twentieth century. And it truly is a wonder to behold. We thank Joan Murray for contributing the above essay and literature references.