Lot 62: Samuel Borenstein 1908 - 1969 Canadian oil on

Samuel Borenstein 1908 - 1969 Canadian oil on canvas Laurentian Scene 19 x 31 1/8 inches 48.3 x 79 centimeters signed Literature:William Kuhns and Leo Rosshandler, Sam Borenstein, 1978, pages 39 and 50 Provenance:Private Collection, Montreal After surviving the war years in Lithuania, Sam Borenstein emigrated to Montreal in 1921. While there, he sought artistic direction in the work of European artists that he admired, such as Vincent van Gogh, Maurice Utrillo and Chaim Soutine, whose explosive, chaotic work greatly stirred him. Borenstein had occasionally visited the Laurentians, but in the early 1940s began to travel there frequently in the summers, painting rural villages. By the late 1950s he had rented an old schoolhouse at Lac Brûlé, and kept a studio there. The Laurentians unleashed Borenstein's palette - he worked in a frenzy of bright colours. His passionate nature is clearly perceived in the slashing, expressionist brush-strokes that threaten to dematerialize these rural houses on a hill. Through his tempestuous and daring technique, the viewer can feel, as William Kuhns writes, "a primal sense of the Laurentians.....Borenstein's sense of a world gusting from within." This energized, richly coloured and textured Laurentians work is the epitome of Borenstein's statement, "How does one control himself when one is so enthusiastic about what one sees?"