CANADIAN POST~WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART - Heffel

HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 9
PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the Artist
Private Collection, Ontario
LITERATURE:
Scott Watson, Jack Shadbolt, 1990, page 4
During World War II, Jack Shadbolt
enlisted, and in 1944 was based in
Vancouver. After transferring to Ontario
in that same year, he was then posted
overseas to London in February 1945,
although there is documentation that
suggests he traveled there in late 1944,
corroborated by the two dates on this
work. Cornwall was a painting place
favoured by Shadbolt, and this scene is the
tiny fishing village of Mousehole, whose
harbour is protected from the force of the
sea by two distinctive breakwaters. The
nautical details of the boats scattered in a
line out through the harbour entrance, the
seashore atmosphere and the strong stone
walls of the harbour give great charm to
this exceptional watercolour. Throughout
his career, Shadbolt returned to seashore,
harbour and boat themes, from Canada’s
West Coast to Cornwall in England and
Collioure in France. Shadbolt’s great
feeling for the sea began in his childhood
when he sailed in rafts on Victoria’s Dallas
Road beach, and he stated, “It is the shore
where the edge of history washes up to my
door but extends for a thousand miles in
each direction. It is a mysterious,
luminous sea.”
ESTIMATE: $8,000 ~ 12,000
2 JACK LEONARD SHADBOLT
BCSFA CGP CSPWC OC RCA 1909 ~ 1998
Mousehole, Cornwall
watercolour on paper, signed twice and dated 1944 and 1945
and on verso signed, titled, dated 1945 and inscribed
461 N. Glynde Ave., Vancouver, BC
19 x 14 3/4 in, 48.3 x 37.5 cm
2