Sold for: $67,250

PROVENANCE
Watson Art Galleries, Montreal
William Edwin Troup, Ontario
By descent to the present Important Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
Larry Len Peterson, Philip R. Goodwin: America's Sporting & Wildlife Artist, 2007, the 1931 calendar showing the print for A Golden Opportunity reproduced page 249, the print reproduced page 314 and the watercolour reproduced page 332

Along with his friend and contemporary Charles M. Russell, who was heavily influenced by the younger artist, Philip R. Goodwin was pivotal in establishing and popularizing the visual language of an idyllic American wilderness in the early decades of the twentieth century. Goodwin was an avid outdoorsman and canoeist, and his works are grounded in veneration for the landscape and the thrill of the outdoor experience. He depicted an idealized vision of travelers, trappers and sportsmen adventuring in a rugged, untamed wilderness. He quickly rose to fame after illustrating the plates for the first edition of Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild in 1903, and he became one of the most prolific and recognized American wildlife artists.

Goodwin’s tableaus were often arranged as they are here - the subjects are closely framed, caught in an exciting moment. A pair of traders or hunters are interrupted in their journey through the wintery landscape. The men and their sled dogs have emerged into a clearing and stopped suddenly, having spotted a herd of caribou spooked by their arrival. One man works to calm the dogs, while the other rushes to unpack his rifle from the sled. The caribou are distant, about to disappear from view. We witness the scene from behind at eye level, and we are close to the figures as if we are part of the party, while the moment of action expands in front of us.

In this work, landscape functions not just as a backdrop but as a character, founded on the familiarity and veneration of the outdoors nurtured by Goodwin’s own travels. Here, deep snowdrifts and spindly trees stretch out into untouched wilderness, the distant flatland opening up to mountains under a brassy sky. The sense of distance and space serves to amplify the scene, as if it were created for this very moment, and Goodwin dramatizes the outdoors by focusing on a single climactic instant. The scene is a fiction, recalling both the excitement of dogsledding and the icy landscapes of The Call of the Wild, as well as the stories traded around the campfire at day’s end, grounded in Goodwin’s own emotions experienced in the wilderness. It is this blend of the dramatic and the everyday, and the heightened sense of realism, that are key to Goodwin’s enduring popularity.

Goodwin was a prolific artist, producing illustrations for outdoors magazines and adventure books as well as advertisements for sporting companies, firearms and fishing rods. His paintings were widely popularized through their distribution as illustrations for calendars as well as the occasional release of portfolios. Goodwin would first produce an impressionistic watercolour sketch, then send it to his clients for feedback. Once settled on the subject, he would work up a full-size canvas in oil. Publishers would purchase these originals and reprint them with their own titles, often with elements added to the scene by company illustrators, such as the products being advertised (a beer can in a man’s hand, a logo on a package) or informational messages on signboards nailed to trees. This painting was published as a calendar print by the Detroit Graphite Company in 1931 as well as a colour pin-up print by R.C. Company, New York.

Once a run of prints was produced, the original paintings were kept for future use – however, these canvases were often lost or destroyed as companies moved or shuttered. This work is a rare original canvas showcasing Goodwin at his best, masterfully portraying the drama, challenge and opportunities of man in nature.

This work was acquired from the venerable Watson Art Galleries, Montreal and was part of the collection of William Edwin Troup of Jordan Station, Lincoln, Ontario, a passionate collector and former director of the Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre (LMCC). The W.E. Troup Collection housed at the LMCC contains a wealth of nineteenth-century objects and artIfacts related to the Pennsylvania German settlers of the area.

Sir Casimir Gzowski, the first collector to possess this work, was a well-known engineer who moved to Canada in 1841 to work on the Welland Canal. In 1849, he was hired by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad as chief engineer in charge of construction, and he oversaw the building of a rail line from Montreal to Sherbrooke. His contracting firm, C.S. Gzowski and Company continued to work on rail projects, such as the Toronto and Guelph Railway. Gzowski was a founder of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, and became its first president from 1889 to 1891.

Accompanying this lot is the book by Larry Len Peterson, Philip R. Goodwin: America's Sporting & Wildlife Artist.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars