Lot 73: JAMES WILSON MORRICE, R.C.A., HOUSE AND GARDEN, CAPRI, C. 1894, oil on canvas, mounted to canvas, 11 ins x 8 ins; 27.9 cms x 20.3 cms

JAMES WILSON MORRICE, R.C.A.HOUSE AND GARDEN, CAPRI, C. 1894oil on canvas, mounted to canvas 11 ins x 8 ins; 27.9 cms x 20.3 cms Provenance:F.R. Heaton Estate (1939) Gilles Corbeil, Montreal (1952)Dominion Gallery, Montreal (1954)Property of the Phillips FamilyIn spite of an earlier title locating this work to Algiers, this small canvas by James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) depicts a house and garden on the idyllic Italian island of Capri, in the Tyrrhenian Sea.Morrice’s trip to Capri is not well-known. Morrice specialist Lucie Dorais notes that his biographer barely mentions it although the National Gallery of Canada also owns Capri works by Morrice. Lucie Dorais suggests: “Since the trip had been forgotten by the early fifties, (these works) were given fantasy titles, mostly North African, like here... Only one painting never lost its Capri connection: Terrace, Capri (collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), which was kept by Morrice’s companion, Léa Cadoret.” She continues: “Two early Morrice sketchbooks document the artist’s first trip to Italy. According to them, he visited Capri, then Venice...Why Capri? Perhaps Henri Harpignies, the French painter with whom he had taken lessons, had suggested it.”With its wall arched in the middle, it is typical of the island of Capri before the 20th century, as are the shrubs with their pink flowers, which are still abundant. A typical casa colonica, the Italian term for farmhouse, it follows closely this description of Capri vernacular architecture. The dwellings of both countryman and fisherman were based on a minimal modular element, a type of cube made up on the ground floor of a cellar (a sort of larder) and the kitchen, and on the upper floor a room traditionally called the ‘casa’ (house). The two levels were connected by an external staircase. Many walls were arched in the middle, indicating a barrel-vaulted ceiling inside, and everything was, most of the time, thickly whitewashed.”There is no drawing of the house in the Morrice sketchbooks however, which leads Madam Dorais to surmise that this painting was, perhaps, done en plein air. This painting will be included in Lucie Dorais’ forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist.An earlier version of this catalogue entry mistakenly indicates that Lucie Dorais had identified the building depicted here as “the Torre Materita, a medieval house hidden among trees on the road to the lighthouse.” In fact, she has identified the Torre Materita in the "Capri" canvas and its study, both owned by the National Gallery of Canada.Estimate: $20,000–25,000