Lot 61: Mary Frances Pratt 1935 - Canadian watercolour on

Mary Frances Pratt 1935 - Canadian watercolour on paper Study for Blue Bath Water V 30 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches 76.8 x 57.1 centimeters signed and dated 1984 and on verso titled on the gallery label Literature:Maurice Yacowar, "The Paintings of Mary (vs. Christopher) Pratt", Dalhousie Review, Volume 68, Issue 4, Winter 1988 - 1989, page 396 Provenance:Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto An Important Montreal Collection Mary Pratt's first realist painting of a female nude was produced in 1978, after her husband, painter Christopher Pratt, had shown her a collection of photographs he had taken of the young woman who was his model and muse, Donna. Mary continued to work with these images and subsequent photographs in poses that she specifically requested for over a decade, in works that are both intimate and sensual. Mary stated, "Women can be erotic, in a sense, about other women. I mean, women are just plain beautiful. That woman in the Blue Bathwater picture (1983) is a kind of pearly, lush, warm and sensuous thing...I think I dare to be sensuous because this is what I feel about women. I know what it's like to be a woman." In Study for Blue Bath Water V, the young woman, in an unusual pose, is only partially submerged, her attention absorbed by the swirling water rising to engulf her. Sensual, soft and painterly like a Pierre Bonnard bath scene, delicate colour tints suffuse the model's skin, evincing Pratt's fascination with light effects.