Lot 509: Miller Gore Brittain 1912 - 1968 Canadian graphite

Miller Gore Brittain 1912 - 1968 Canadian graphite on paper Preparatory Drawing for the Tuberculosis Hospital Mural 7x 10 inches 17.8 x 25.4 centimeters Literature:Tom Smart, Miller Brittain, When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2007, page 80, listed page 170 Provenance:Mrs. Margaret Brittain, the Artist's mother, Saint John, NB By descent to the present Private Collection, New York Exhibited:The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, Miller Brittain, When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears, April 12 - June 15, traveling in 2008 - 2009 to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John's, the Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, the New Brunswick Museum, Saint John and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Fresh from high school graduation at the age of 17, Miller Brittain registered at New York's Art Students League, where he studied from fall of 1930 through pring of 1932. He returned home to Saint John inspired by the encouragement of his instructors and the exciting Social Realist art then on view in New York. By the late 1930s, Brittain's work was receiving attention from many quarters and he was asked by the director of the Saint John Tuberculosis Hospital to consider tackling a major project for that institution's surgical wing - two large-scale murals depicting the causes and cure of tuberculosis. Brittain first completed another mural commission that still hangs at the Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. He then began to lay out the plans for the hospital mural in the fall of 1941, producing charcoal drawings in both large and small formats. In 1942, with the large cartoons almost finished, Brittain was informed that funds were not available to continue the project. Because the images were never transferred, the large cartoons, most measuring over 9 x 9 feet, have survived and are now in the collection of the New Brunswick Museum. More detailed information and photographs of the mural cartoons can be found in When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears, where Tom Smart writes: ""These drawings are astonishing testaments to Brittain's drawing talent and his power as an artist who understood the dynamics of multi-figure compositions and their ability to carry a didactic and political message.""