Lot 189: Efa Prudence Heward 1896 - 1947 Canadian oil on board Farm Scene, Brockville

Efa Prudence Heward 1896 - 1947 Canadian oil on board Farm Scene, Brockville
12 x 14 inches 30.5 x 35.6 centimeters Literature:Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall, Canadian Modernist Painters, 2005, pages 49 and 51
A.K. Prakash, Independent Spirit, Early Canadian Women Artists, 2008, pages 96 - 103
Provenance:Family of the Artist
A.K. Prakash & Associates, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto Prudence Heward was a member of Montreal's Beaver Hall Group which formed in 1920, and was known for both her strong figurative works and landscapes. In the late 1920s and 1930s, modernist influences appeared in her work, which exhibited a bold sense of form and a rich colour palette. Art historian Paul Duval called her "one of the most sensitive painters this country has known" and Group of Seven painter A.Y. Jackson stated, "In my opinion, she was the very best painter we ever had in Canada.....I wanted her to join the Group of Seven, but like the Twelve Apostles, no women were included." However, she was invited to show with them in 1928, to critical acclaim. In 1948, Heward was honoured with a memorial exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.
Heward often painted at her family's summer place in Fernbank near Brockville. In this outstanding painting, strongly modelled buildings create a looming, still presence animated by the waiting horse and cart and the stream of smoke. Light and dark contrasts invigorate the scene, with the bright yellow of the cart lighting a vivacious colour spark.