Lot 149: Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1891 - 1941 Canadian

Sir Frederick Grant Banting 1891 - 1941 Canadian oil on panel Village in Winter, St. Fidele, Quebec 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches 21 x 26.7 centimeters on verso titled variously, dated 1930 on the Henrietta Banting label and certified by Henrietta Banting, #11 Literature:Michael Bliss, Banting: A Biography, 1984, page 191 Provenance:Henrietta Banting David B. Masur, Montreal Kastel Gallery Inc., Montreal Sold sale of Important Canadian Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, Books and Prints, Sotheby Parke Bernet (Canada) Inc., May 14, 1979, lot 46 Private Collection, Toronto Frederick Banting was catapulted into the spotlight by his co-discovery of insulin in 1923. A man who began his life as a straightforward fellow from an unpretentious rural upbringing, Banting was unprepared for many of the complexities brought on by his success. Stresses, both professional and personal, led him to flee Toronto whenever possible, and in March of 1927 he undertook his first sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Quebeçois villages along the St. Lawrence. This charming scene of the village of Sainte-Fidèle was executed during another trip with Jackson in 1930; it deftly portrays the simple rural landscape which Banting so loved. Visiting these small towns and living amongst their residents, he discovered a way of life that he thought was vanishing. He sought to capture these scenes both as a return to his youth and an escape from everyday life. In his travel diary, he wrote, "The more I think of the city the more I want to live in the country, and the more I think of being a professor of research the more I want to be an artist."