David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 CAD

bidding is closed

Description

David Brown Milne
Elm Logs
1947

signed and dated lower centre David Milne, Aug. '47; titled, dated and numbered W567 on the reverse
watercolour
34.3 by 53.3 cm.
13 ½ by 21 in.

Provenance

Douglas Duncan, Picture Loan Society, Toronto

Sheila Keiran, from Art Rental at the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1965

Private Collection, Toronto, circa 1978

By descent to a Private Collection, Toronto

Literature

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 2: 1929 - 1953, p. 918, 406.120, reproduced

Catalogue Note

Milne's late years were devoted primarily to painting in watercolour; at Uxbridge, Ontario, his working pattern was steady and productive. He spent an inordinate amount of time working on variations on different subjects that intrigued him. The marathon in this respect was the Ascension series, which ran to at least thirty-three known versions.

The subject of this painting, a nearby sawmill, ran to ten versions, although of these only four are recorded and only three still exist, according to Kathleen Milne's notes of the month before.

She quotes Milne's brief assessment of a composition similar to this: Uses the same ... yellow wash. In this are piles of sawdust in the foreground, dark bank of trees behind. Very effective & strong. Much less scattered than [first version].