Lot 5: Alexander Colville 1920 - Canadian ink and tempera

Alexander Colville 1920 - Canadian ink and tempera on paper Four Women 12 1/4 x 18 1/2 inches 31.1 x 47 centimeters signed and dated 10 April 52 and on verso titled Literature:Helen J. Dow, The Art of Alex Colville, 1972, the 1952 tempera on board entitled Four Figures on Wharf, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 60 David Burnett, Colville, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983, page 80, the 1952 tempera on board entitled Four Figures on Wharf, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 74 Tom Smart, Alex Colville: Return, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2005, the 1952 tempera on board entitled Four Figures on Wharf, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 46 Provenance:Private Collection, Toronto Exhibited:The Art Gallery of Toronto, Women's Exhibition Committee, circa 1952 - 1954 The great English sculptor Henry Moore was an artist Alex Colville greatly revered. Colville's Four Women contains references to Moore's style in the formal drapery and robust draughtsmanship of the female forms. The impressive 1952 painting Four Figures on Wharf, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, was based on a number of smaller works including this fine mixed media work. The scholar David Burnett felt that this image refers to Colville's experience of wartime, and was "an abstraction of memory, a reflection of Colville's desire to return home and be reunited with his wife." Of the hauntingly beautiful figures, which are staged on a wharf in the large work, he states,"We cannot identify specific fears and longings in the women; they are anonymous, even in the characterless drapery they wear. We are turned back from them.....as if we are standing on the shore, literally and figuratively standing back from these events, creating an idealized image of memory." The National Gallery acquired several other important Colville canvases during this decade, including Child and Dog and Woman, Man and Boat.