A painting by the famous British-Columbian painter Emily Carr, discovered by chance in a barn in New York State, was purchased for $70. The work will be auctioned in Toronto on November 20, and has an estimated value of between $100,000 and $200,000.
Before then, the work will be exhibited in Heffel galleries across the country, including from October 16 to 21 in Vancouver.
Find
Allen Treibitz, a 61-year-old New Yorker, acquired the work for only $50 US (about $70 Canadian) at a barn sale in the Hamptons of New York, without knowing Emily Carr or her heritage.
Dealing in works of art for more than 40 years, he says he was immediately attracted to painting.
It stood out from anything else in that barn.
That’s when he contacted the auction house Heffel Fine Art, in Vancouver, that he realized the value of his find.
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“Masset, QCI,” painted in 1912 by renowned Canadian artist Emily Carr, depicts an Indigenous memorial pole that stood in Masset, British Columbia, a village on the Haida Gwaii archipelago.
Photo : The Canadian Press / Heffel Fine Art Auction House
The work, titled Masset, QCIpainted in 1912, depicts a grizzly bear carved atop an indigenous memorial totem pole that stood in Masset, a village in British Columbia located in the archipelago Haida Gwaii.
During this period, Emily Carr wanted to represent the cultural and spiritual productions of the First Nations, particularly through totems and talismans, offering a modern vision of Western Canada.
Born in Victoria in 1871, the painter was associated with the Group of Seven, which included Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris et A.Y. Jackson.
The lucky buyer of the painting would like it to be sold to a collector of Emily Carr’s works or to a museum.
A lost treasure
The work was said to have been given to friends of Emily Carr in the 1930s. It hung in the couple’s barn and was said to have never moved until Allen Treibitz’s discovery.
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Emily Carr in Haida Gwaii with her dog Billie.
Photo : Royal B.C. Museum Archives
According to Gerta Moray, a former professor of art history at the University of Guelph and author of a book on First Nations imagery in the work of Emily Carr, this painting was poorly received locally due to of his modern Parisian post-impressionist style.
Decades later, Allen Treibitz is delighted to be able to bring the work back to its home country.
I see a lot of very interesting things, but this is the most important one I have ever found.
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