Samuel Borenstein

Lot # 032 Samuel Borenstein CAS QMG 1908 - 1969 Canadian Falling Red Leaves oil on canvas signed and on verso titled and dated 1955 on a label 30 x 22 in 76.2 x 55.9cm Provenance: Louis and Rose Melzack Collection Private Collection, London, England Literature: William Kuhns and L�o Rosshandler, Sam Borenstein, 1978, reproduced page 65 Exhibited: Art Gallery of Hamilton, Sam Borenstein, September - October, 1974 The mid-1950s brought great change for Sam Borenstein, both artistically and personally. William Kuhns wrote, "As Borenstein's work of the fifties evolved, his strokes grew bolder, his colours more vivid, the effect more volatile...Perspective, so elaborately achieved in the earlier landscapes, often had a seething, insecure quality - as though the spaces themselves were vulnerable to the eruptions going on within a canvas." Borenstein and his wife, Judith, were in difficult financial circumstances at the time and Borenstein was forced to ask his friend, Montreal entrepreneur Louis Melzack, for assistance. Melzack and his wife, Rose, owned Classic Bookstore, a popular bookstore on St. Catherines Street, which also served as a cultural hub in Montreal. Melzack acquired 40 Borenstein paintings, which were hung and sold in the store, and as a result, the artist's work was introduced to a wider, elite audience. All the Borensteins in this sale, including Falling Red Leaves, are from the important Melzack collection. Estimate: $20,000 ~ $30,000 CAD Preview at: Heffel Fine Art Auction House Vancouver

Samuel Borenstein (1908-1969) The Vitré street in Montreal in winter signed, inscribed and dated 'Sam Borenstein/Montreal 1936' (lower right) oil and tempera on cardboard 54 x 67 cm. Painted in 1936. Please compare to a similar work by the same hand in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (inv.no. 15239).

Lot # 062 Samuel Borenstein CAS QMG 1908 - 1969 Canadian Laurentian Scene oil on canvas signed 19 x 31 1/8 in 48.3 x 79cm Provenance: Private Collection, Montreal Literature: William Kuhns and Leo Rosshandler, Sam Borenstein, 1978, pages 39 and 50 After surviving the war years in Lithuania, Sam Borenstein emigrated to Montreal in 1921. While there, he sought artistic direction in the work of European artists that he admired, such as Vincent van Gogh, Maurice Utrillo and Chaim Soutine, whose explosive, chaotic work greatly stirred him. Borenstein had occasionally visited the Laurentians, but in the early 1940s began to travel there frequently in the summers, painting rural villages. By the late 1950s he had rented an old schoolhouse at Lac Brûlé, and kept a studio there. The Laurentians unleashed Borenstein's palette - he worked in a frenzy of bright colours. His passionate nature is clearly perceived in the slashing, expressionist brush-strokes that threaten to dematerialize these rural houses on a hill. Through his tempestuous and daring technique, the viewer can feel, as William Kuhns writes, "a primal sense of the Laurentians...Borenstein's sense of a world gusting from within." This energized, richly coloured and textured Laurentians work is the epitome of Borenstein's statement, "How does one control himself when one is so enthusiastic about what one sees?"

LOT 114 SAMUEL BORENSTEIN 1908 - 1969 ST CÉSAIRE, P.Q. signed and dated 1963 lower left; signed, titled and dated 1963 and inscribed Done in the company of Dr. A.Y. Jackson RCA on one of our sketching trips, early Summer on the reverse oil on board 30.5 by 40.5 cm. 12 by 15¾ in.

SAMUEL BORENSTEIN STORMY LANDSCAPE WITH FARMHOUSE, gouache, titled and dated 1954on the reverse 22" x 28"; 55 cm x 70 cm Provenance: Dr. Elliott Emanuel, Montreal. Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal. Private Collection, Ontario. Literature: “Musings: A Canadian Painter”, Canadian Medical AssociationJournal, Ottawa, November 19, 1977, pages 204-205. One of the principal themes of Montreal’’’’s Samuel Borenstein wasthat of scenes painted in the Laurentians, bursting with energy andcolour. In this arresting work, Borenstein obviously relished asubject that could be painted to look at the same time recognizableand timeless. His treatment of paint and handling of gouache almostlike oil, forays into abstraction. Borenstein always teetered onthe edge of abstraction and never more so than here. However, atthe same time, the artist took lessons from one of the greatEuropean “isms,” Expressionism, applying its bright, sometimesarbitrary colour and slashing brushwork to portray the figure,urban buildings and roads, trees, mountains and sky. Stormy Landscape with Farmhouse was once part of the privatecollection of Dr. Elliott Emanuel, a friend and admirer ofBorenstein’’’’s work. In November of 1977, Emanuel contributedMusings: A Canadian Painter to the Canadian Medical AssociationJournal, the doctor displaying his deep appreciation for Borenstein’’’’s work throughout the article, exclaiming, “His pictures are sopowerful that they are difficult to hang beside the work of others,though a roomful has a blazing authenticity.” Stormy Landscape with Farmhouse is one of his most dashing andimportant works, and its bold way with images – a kind of loadednonchalance – makes it something of an apocalyptic anthem. It wasone of the works which appeared in the film on Borenstein by hisdaughter, Joyce Borenstein, The Colours of My Father: A Portrait ofSam Borenstein (1992). We would like to thank art historian, Joan Murray, for contributingthe foregoing essay.