Joseph Sleep

Canadian (1914 - 1978)

Joseph Sleep was a Canadian painter.
Based on ArtValue.ca records, Joseph Sleep's estimated art value is C$2,000 (*)

Joseph Sleep's work could be available for sale at public auction with prices in the range of C$500 - C$5,000, or even much higher.

From ArtValue.ca records, the highest price paid at auction for an acrylic painting work attributed to Joseph Sleep (1914-1978) was C$3,000 - paid for "Cat Portrait With Flowers, Birds And Whales, 1978" at Waddington's in Toronto on Thu, Nov 17, 2022.
ArtValue.ca has 9 auction art sale records for their acrylic painting results, with prices in the range of C$500 to C$5,000.

Untitled - Fish
collage and felt pen on card
Dimensions - 15.88 cms x 38.74 cms (6.25 ins x 15.25 ins)

Lot for sale by Saskatchewan NAC Auction House, Regina
Lot# 114
Sat, Jun 27, 2020

Estimate $100 - $150
Sold for CAD $37

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

After a varied series of jobs including jack-of-all-trades for the traveling circus Bill Lynch Shows, Joe Sleep was interned in 1973 at the Halifax Infirmary. It was during a hospital stay in his late fifties that Sleep first began to paint. The artist recalled that "it was the nurses and the workers that started me painting; to keep me out of trouble...They gave me posters to colour and I started drawing my own and I ain't stopped since". Joseph Sleep used many materials in his work - latex, cardboard, canvas and masonite, felt markers, pen, pencil, ballpoint and even spray paint. Some paintings are "suitcase" size (that could be easily packed by tourists) and others are monumental compositions painted on panels eight feet in length. Joseph Sleep died in 1978.

(*) Value is calculated as an average of the top acrylic painting sale records from ArtValue.ca database.
This information is not intended to substitute professional advice.
To estimate the value of a specific artwork created by Joseph Sleep, follow some of the advice from our Valuating art page, or contact an art specialist if our automated estimate value is greater than C$2,500.