Calgary (10BP) - Experiencing one of their strongest sessions to date, Galvins Auction celebrated their 65th semi-annual art and antique auction October 25 with some outstanding prices. Taking the honours for top lot was Illingworth Kerr's Flatland 4, a 36" x 48" canvas that sold for $15,400. A $9900 bid was taken for Nicholas de Grandmaison's pastel portrait of Mrs. Chiefbody, from Cardston, Alberta, painted c. 1948, while Allen Sapp's Going Back to the Shed at Dusk, 24" x 30", fetched $3850.

A 20" x 30" oil of Early Snow by Georgia Jarvis did well with a bid of $4070, as did Duncan Crockford's Canada Geese at Dawn, 24" x 30", which sold for $3080.Bill Duma's Island on the Bow, 24" x 30" fetched a solid $2750, the same price realised for John Einerssen's Momentum, 36" x 24", painted in 1977.

Illingworth Kerr's Elbow Falls Night, a 12" x 16" oil from 1987 took a bid of $3520, and Allen Sapp's Getting Water for the House, 16" x 12", fetched $1650. A Claude Langevin canvas entitled Poudrerie, 20" x 24", found a buyer at $2090, while Serge Brunoni's Rue St. Anne, Quebec, 30" x 40" took a bid of $2200.

There were several strong prices among a small session of international works, led by a $7150 bid for a Dutch Landscape with Skaters, c.1880, 28" x 42" by V. van Bergen. A typical Bernard Pothast canvas of a Woman Mending with Girl Watching, 16" x 12" sold for $5940, and $5500 was bid for Joseph Thors' Duck Pond, 10" x 16". Irish artist Maurice Wilks' Irish Cottage near Port Rush, 16" x 20", fetched $3850, a Willem Maris panel, 12.5" x 9" of Cows in a Landscape picked up a bid of $2090, and a Jean Louis Meissonier oil of a French Cavalry Officer, 20" x 12", realised $3300.

Other prices of note include a bid of $2860 for Roland Gissing's Winter Logging in the Alberta Foothills, 20" x 24", $2200 for Gaston Rebry's Sapinage en Ete, 18" x 24", and $2640 for a watercolour attributed to Cornelius Krieghoff showing Three Habitants on a Sled Crossing the Ice, 6" x 9".

Also of note was George Horvath's Mountain Pond, 22" x 28" that sold for $2200, Illingworth Kerr's Prairie Slough Evening, 12" x 16" that fetched $3135, and Gabor Nagy's Mountain Stream, 36" x 48" that sold for $2090.

December Session racks up more good prices led by Grandmaison portraits

Galvins solid October sale was followed December  6 with a special Pre-Christmas auction that saw more of the same strong prices. This time the star of the show was the portraiture of Nicholas de Grandmaison (1892-1978). Four works by the artist were included in the sale and all did extremely well. An oil on canvas portrait of a Native Man with Hat, 18" x 14", painted in 1941, sold for $11,000, the same price realised for a pastel of Blood Indian Hungry Crow, 29" x 20", painted in 1950. A bid of $9900 was taken for an oil portrait of a Native Man with Red Scarf, painted c.1950, 22" x 17", while $7700 was the price paid for a 16 x 12" pastel portrait of a Native Man, c.1950.

Horace Champagne's pastel of Wild Roses and Daisies, St. Irene, Quebec, 16" x 20", fetched $2310, a Janet Mitchell watercolour Out in Okatoks, 15" x 22", sold for $1650, and George Horvath's Winter Creek, 22" x 28", fetched $2310, the same price realised for Duncan Crockford's Storm over Caroline, 18" x 24". Neil Patterson's Full Moon Camp, 36" x 48" fetched $2200, while Frederick Verner's Grazing Sheep, a 13" x 20" watercolour from 1898 sold for $1650.