David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953

Douglas Duncan, Picture Loan Society, Toronto

James Coyne, Toronto, 1955

Framing Gallery, Toronto, c. 1970

Private Collection, Toronto, c. 1970

Montreal, Water Colours by David Milne, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, 1954, no. 106

David P. Silcox, Painting Place, the Life and Work of David B. Milne, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1996, illustrated in colour p. 322

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume II, 406.5, p. 881, illustrated

This work is in pristine condition. We would like to thank "In Restauro Conservart Inc." for examing this painting and their original notes are available upon request to Sotheby's.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Milne's love of flowers and his attraction to them was life-long. His brilliance as a student when he began school was in botany, and he sought out native flowers wherever he lived. After he left New York, he always kept a garden, with flowers. Some of his most important canvases in every period of his long career were still lifes of flowers.

His earliest memories were of his mother's beds of flowers and, remembering this, he wrote later:

I think we go to flowers as we go to art, because both are useless. We do not reach out to either as an aid in our struggle for existence. Our devotion to either or both is a statement of faith, a declaration that for us there is more to life than mere continuance; it is good for itself, without purpose; that heaven is not far away and shadowy and unreal, but here, now and very real.

This spray of poppies and lilies stuck in a green vase, which he used many times, has a casual, almost careless, easiness about it. This was a quality that Milne strove to present, and it was achieved, as it most certainly is here, after much thought, careful planning, and faultless execution. Milne's ideal, especially for watercolours, was to be able to wish the paint onto the paper, so delicate and fragile did he want the final image to be. In this work he came as close to the apex of his goal as he ever did.

This is one of four versions of this subject that Milne painted, the first two in August, 1943, and the latter two in early 1946. The three versions are in the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada. A related painting, and really the first of the series, Poppies and Lychnis, is in the National Gallery of Canada.