Helen Galloway Mcnicoll

Lot # 115 Helen Galloway McNicoll ARCA RBA 1879 - 1915 Canadian Tea Time oil on canvas circa 1911 on verso stamped on the canvas and on the stretcher with the Studio Helen McNicoll estate stamp, #14 24 x 20 1/8 in 61 x 51.1cm Provenance: Private Collection, Toronto Private Collection Literature: Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, Art Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 4 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999, page 63, reproduced page 31, listed page 79 Exhibited: Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6, 1925, catalogue #14 Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Helen McNicoll, A Canadian Impressionist, September 10 - December 12, 1999, catalogue #34 Helen McNicoll, one of Canada's most important Impressionists, was well known for her portrayals of light-filled interiors and sun-drenched outdoor settings. Leisurely pastimes and everyday pursuits such as reading, having tea, going to the beach or gathering fruit and flowers were subjects of great interest to McNicoll, and were greatly favoured by the Impressionists. At London's Slade School, she was exposed to modernist ideas and the practice of plein air painting, as well as a new romantic viewpoint which encouraged naturalism in place of the sentimentality of Victorian art. The Slade was a fine choice for McNicoll, as its policy was one of equal opportunity for both men and women students. While she was in London, important exhibitions were on view, such as the one at Grafton Gallery which included 300 French Impressionist works from the collection of French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in 1905. Regarding this painting, Natalie Luckyj comments, "In Tea Time an English garden (perhaps in one of the homes she shared with Dorothea Sharp) becomes a space / site of personal reverie and fragrant scent. It is a private domestic sphere where no female presence is required, only the marker of domesticity - a cloth-covered table." Sharp was a fellow artist and close friend whom McNicoll met in England at St. Ives, while she was attending Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting. St. Ives, on the Cornish coast, was noted for its quality of light and was well known as an artist colony. McNicoll and Sharp traveled and painted together in France and Italy, and in England shared studio and living space. Both were Impressionists and committed to plein air painting. Not only was McNicoll a master of the creation of atmosphere through her Impressionist treatment of colour and brush-stroke, she was also exceptional at conveying a natural and contemplative mood. In Tea Time, the participants partaking of tea have momentarily stepped out of frame, but we can still feel their presence in the teapot and dishes still sitting on the table, and their touch is felt in the well-tended garden, lush with blooms. The space is secluded and attractive in its intimate scale, and the mood is one of peace and pleasure in everyday rituals. Beautiful and radiant with the warmth of a summer's day, Tea Time is a superb work by McNicoll.

Lot # 105 Helen Galloway McNicoll ARCA RBA 1879 - 1915 Canadian The Avenue oil on panel circa 1912 on verso inscribed on a label "I received this painting from myfather Gordon McNicoll, who was Helen McNicoll's nephew - StaceyMcNicoll" 14 x 11 in 35.6 x 27.9cm Provenance: Estate of the Artist Gordon McNicoll, nephew of the Artist, USA By descent to the present Private Collection, USA Literature: Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, ArtGallery of Ontario, 1999, catalogue #35, the related circa 1912large format canvas of the same subject entitled The Avenuereproduced page 36 Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 25,2004, the related circa 1912 large format canvas of the samesubject entitled The Avenue reproduced page 16, lot 16 In 1905, Helen McNicoll attended Julius Olsson's School ofLandscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, a seaside town in Cornwall,England. Here she met Algernon Talmage, the principal of theschool, who emphasized the importance of painting en plein air.During the summer, Talmage taught figure classes in a privateorchard; these classes were integral to the development ofMcNicoll's mature painting style. With its carefully constructedpattern of light and shadow down the tree-lined avenue, this workadheres to Talmage's adage, as quoted by Natalie Luckyj, that"there is sunshine in the shadows." Almost certainly, this superbpainting with its luminous play of light and fluid brush-strokeswas painted en plein air. This atmospheric work is the study for McNicoll's canvas TheAvenue, which sold at Heffel on November 25, 2004.

Lot # 111 Helen Galloway McNicoll ARCA RBA 1879 - 1915 Canadian The Blue Sea (On the Beach at St. Malo) oil on canvas circa 1914 on verso inscribed "On the Beach at St. Malo, Brittany" and "HelenG. McNicoll ARCA, RCA" and stamped with the Studio Helen McNicollEstate Stamp, #79 20 1/4 x 24 in 51.4 x 61cm Provenance: Estate of the Artist By descent to the present Private Collection, USA Literature: Joan Murray Artists' Files, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, letter fromHelen McNicoll to her father, March 19, 1913 and a copy of aphotograph Joan Murray, inscription recorded from the original photograph in1974 Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll,RBA, ARCA, 1925, The Art Association of Montreal, reproduced andlisted page 7 Exhibited: The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintingsby the Late Helen G. McNicoll, RBA, ARCA, November 7 - December 6,1925, catalogue #79 Continental Galleries, Montreal, label on verso Paris was the hub for Impressionism, and a thrilling city in theyears following the turn of the century. Helen McNicoll, like otherstudents of Canadian art, would have heard of the new style andparticularly its way of handling light and atmosphere. She wouldhave had her attention directed to the movement in Montreal, whereshe grew up, either through shows at the galleries or through herteacher in the Art Association of Montreal, William Brymner, whohad studied in Paris. She would have continued to hear about thenew developments in art from study, from about 1902 on, in Englandat the Slade School of Art at the University of London. Here herteachers would have been artists at the forefront of Britishmodernism, who stressed a combination of academic realism and astudy of bodily movement, with new interests in expression andsubjectivity achieved through the use of tonal values. Studies atSt. Ives in Cornwall with Algernon Talmage, from about 1905 or 1906on, would have helped her sharpen her use of the style, with itsobservation of sunlight and its reflection in the shadows of thepicture. Talmage told her, "Remember, there is sunshine in theshadows." Around 1906, following her studies at St. Ives, McNicoll found apainting companion in the person of painter Dorothea Sharp, anexhibitor and later a member of the Royal Society of BritishArtists and Vice President of the Society of Women Artists. The twopainted together in Brittany, Grez-sur-Loing and Italy, often usingthe same model, as well as sharing a studio in London. Theirefforts also had common aims and subjects. In 1913, McNicoll, likeSharp, was elected a member of the Royal Society of BritishArtists. On her election, McNicoll wrote her father that "the oldermembers.....didn't like my things. One old man was very angry andsaid 'If that picture is right, then the National Gallery is allwrong.'" McNicoll's bold, summary handling would have been the quality thatirked the older members of the Royal Society of British Artists.They would have likely appreciated her subject matter - it wasprimarily female. Her focus on children, women, workers, family andfriends, usually involved in the incidents of everyday life, was,with her powerful style, the keynote of her artistic voice. Throughsuch images, she championed the new Woman and her health, strengthand independence, but only in a reticent way. Today, the work of McNicoll is celebrated for the naturalness andcharm of its imagery, often of figures in sunlight moving withunconcerned grace. Taking an elevated view of landscape, she toldthe viewer through her paintings that she was in control of hersubject and the pictorial space she invented. She also told theviewer, though modestly, that her experience of the places shevisited and in which she painted was authentic, and not the resultof tourism, but in her own way, a vision of a person who actuallylived in the place. The Blue Sea (On the Beach at St. Malo) is oneof the works in her sunny mode. Although McNicoll stressed thedistance between the artist and subject, painting the sand in theforeground with its rich tones of orange, gold, cream andultramarine blue, the viewer feels close to the subject, almost asthough he or she is also on the beach - and has become, likeMcNicoll, a happy visitor. In line with her way of conveying a feeling of an authentic placeis McNicoll's assertion of a feeling of solitude and privacy. Likethe strolling woman and child and the group in the distance, all ofwhom are absorbed in looking at the sea, the viewer feels atpeace. The figure of the child in the straw hat recalls a child with blondhair and a white pinafore painted by both McNicoll and Sharp. She,or a youngster like her, appears in photographs of the two artistswhich each took of the other. In the photograph of McNicoll, she isshown fixing the child's hair. On the verso of the originalphotograph, McNicoll wrote, "It's so hot that I've put ahandkerchief round my neck. It's about 90 in the shade" (in thephotograph, she wears a handkerchief). Perhaps, we may believe, itwas the heat that drove McNicoll to the beach to paint this radiantmoment. We thank Joan Murray for contributing the above essay.

Lot # 150 Helen Galloway McNicoll ARCA RBA 1879 - 1915 Canadian Girl with Parasol oil on canvas circa 1913 signed and on verso inscribed in graphite "Helen McNicoll" 16 x 18 in 40.6 x 45.7cm Provenance: Private Collection, England Literature: Carol Lowrey, Visions of Light and Air, Canadian Impressionism,1885 - 1920, Americas Society Art Gallery, 1995, pages 15 -16 Natalie Luckjy, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, ArtGallery of Ontario, 1999, page 53 Helen McNicoll is universally regarded as a pivotal figure inCanadian art, and an artist who was able to fully absorb theImpressionist aesthetic - both formally and thematically - asevidenced in Girl with Parasol. Highly esteemed in her lifetime forher achievements at home and abroad, McNicoll's premature death atthe young age of 35, and her small artistic output, has deprivedhistory of her full pictorial promise. Born into a family of wealth and prestige, and imbued with thevision to paint, McNicoll first studied at Montreal's ArtAssociation. With the encouragement of her teacher William Brymner,she enrolled in 1902 at the Slade School of Art in London.Following her initial studies in the city, she proceeded to St.Ives, Cornwall, in 1906, where she studied under Algernon Talmage.It was there that she was so inspired by the teaching of Talmagethat her passion for plein air painting was ignited. It was also inSt. Ives that she met her great friend and fellow painter, DorotheaSharp. Her time in London served her well, and she was described"as a true cosmopolite, choosing to remain in Europe, whileretaining intermittent contact with the Canadian art world throughvisits and exhibition activity." McNicoll's reputation increasedwhen her works were published in London's Studio magazine. With herelection in 1913 to the Royal Society of British Arts (RBA) herpresence in the London art scene was confirmed. Luckyj explainsthat six of her works were displayed at the RBA's 1913 exhibition,ranging in price from 15 to 36 pounds; while the Montreal DailyStar noted: "Considering there have been only eight elections thisyear, it is particularly gratifying to Canadians that Miss McNicollshould be one of those chosen and that the maximum number of threeof her paintings are hung in the exhibition of the Suffolk Streetgalleries." McNicoll's significance derives not only from her accomplishment asa painter of women and children, subjects that were previouslydismissed as pure genre, but also from her adherence to theImpressionist aesthetic itself. As Carol Lowry explains,"Impressionism constituted the first stage of modernism in Canada,serving as a vital link between nineteenth century academicism andthe work of the nationalist landscape painters known as the Groupof Seven." Girl with Parasol contains all the key tenets of Impressionism -soft tones and soothing colour, changing qualities of light and asense of atmosphere applied to an anecdotal theme. Thebrush-strokes display fluency and confidence, as one can sense thewind moving through the grass, yet this sense of movement isjuxtaposed to the serenity of the sitter. This particular model wasa favourite of McNicoll's and the motif of the parasol was oftenused in her oeuvre. Girl with Parasol recalls works such as In theShadow of the Tree, circa 1914, in the collection of the Musée duQuébec, as well as A Quiet Spot and Sunny September, both from 1913and in private collections. It can be surmised that Girl withParasol also dates from 1913, as it shares similar subject matterto that seen in A Quiet Spot and Sunny September. This work is ofsignificance in the limited body of work by one of Canada's mostimportant female Impressionists.

Lot # 066 Helen Galloway McNicoll ARCA RBA 1879 - 1915 Canadian Watching the Boat oil on canvas circa 1912 signed and on verso stamped Studio Helen G. McNicoll, catalogue#57 25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in 64.1 x 76.8cm Provenance: Continental Galleries, Montreal Private Collection, Montreal Literature: "A Loss to Canadian Art", Saturday Night 28, July 10, 1915, page3 Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicoll, TheArt Association of Montreal, 1925, listed page 6 Maria Tippett, By A Lady: Celebrating Three Centuries of Art byCanadian Women, 1992, page 48 Natalie Luckyj, Helen McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist, ArtGallery of Ontario, 1999, pages 15 and 42 Exhibited: The Art Association of Montreal, Memorial Exhibition of Paintingsby the Late Helen G. McNicoll, 1925, catalogue #57 A remembrance from Saturday Night magazine is the perfectintroduction to the Impressionist painter McNicoll: "Possessed ofan aggressive and active intellect, she was constantly applyingherself to new problems of light, line and beauty.Miss McNicoll wasno amateur - there are indeed few painters in the Dominion who taketheir art as seriously as she did." Her dedication to her workcreated intoxicatingly beautiful and luminous canvases, highlysought after to this day and exceedingly rare. McNicoll's formalintroduction to the tenets of Impressionism was through her teacherWilliam Brymner while attending the Art Association of Montreal.Brymner traveled to Paris in 1878, and assimilated the work andstyle of his Parisian counterparts. Wishing to augment her owntraining and with Brymner's encouragement, McNicoll enrolled at theSlade School in London in 1902, and then in 1905 continued herstudies in St. Ives where, under the tutelage of Algernon Talmage,she achieved a high degree of proficiency in her painting. As such, McNicoll's paintings stand as some of the purest examplesof the Impressionist aesthetic that have ever been created by aCanadian artist, and Watching the Boat is no exception. In thiswork, McNicoll depicts the quintessential Impressionist subject: asun-drenched day with her favourite theme of children, who in thiswork are playing by a stream. In Watching the Boat, McNicoll consciously dispels the arduousadherence to technical virtuosity of an academic painting with itsfaithful attachment to chiaroscuro, and opts for a more sensuouspalette, with fresh and vigorous brush-strokes. This directtechnique captures nature and light spontaneously. The result is aless contrived, more highly emotive work - a real Impressionistpainting. Her natural aptitude is evident through the deliberatejuxtapositions employed within the canvas, as in the faithfulrendition of the girls' hats and summer smock dresses contrastedwith the fluidity of her brush-strokes for the vegetation. McNicolldid not consistently sign all her works. The inclusion of thesignature in the lower left stands as a testament to her personalsatisfaction with this particular work. During her lifetime McNicoll achieved a high degree of recognitionboth in Canada and in England. Her works were reproduced inLondon's Studio magazine, she was elected as one of only eightartists to the highly prestigious Royal Society of British Artistsin 1913, and closer to home, under the stewardship of Eric Brown,the National Gallery acquired one of her works, Stubble Fields, fortheir permanent collection. A year before her death in 1914, shewon the Woman's Art Society Prize for her work Under the Shadow ofthe Tent. McNicoll's untimely death at the age of 36 only serves to heighteninterest in her work and enhance her artistic legacy. She is nowfirmly ensconced within the Canadian lexicon of art history, havingrightly earned her fine reputation, as Tippett asserts, as "themost ardent woman disciple of Impressionism." This superb painting has not been viewed since its inclusion in the1925 Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Helen G. McNicollin Montreal, and this is the first time it is being offered atauction.