Abstract (Untitled)
81.3 cms x 66 cms (32 ins x 26 ins)
Signed and on verso dated late 1930s on the gallery label
made in 1930
Lot offered for sale by Heffel, Vancouver at the auction event "September 2021 Online auction" held on Thu, Sep 30, 2021.
Lot 112
Lot 112
Estimate: CAD $800 - $1,200
Realised: CAD $3,438
Realised: CAD $3,438
Lot description - from the online catalogue*
Provenance:
Heffel Gallery Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, British Columbia
Notes:
British Columbia’s first professional woman sculptor, Beatrice Lennie was part of the first graduating class of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art in 1929. When Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald started the BC College of Fine Arts in 1933, she was hired to lead the sculpture department. She studied further under Charles Marega (known for sculpting the Lions of the Lions Gate Bridge in Stanley Park), as well as Diego Rivera. After the closure of the BC College of Fine Art, she opened the Beatrice Lennie School of Sculpture in 1936 at 13th and Granville in Vancouver. After a few years she closed the school and began teaching at Crofton House School at 41st and Blenheim. Solo exhibitions of her work were held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1948 and posthumously in 1997.
This abstract work was likely painted in the latter half of the 1930s during the peak years of her creative output, a time in which Vancouver Art Gallery curator Ian Thom stated that Lennie produced “the first significant wholly abstract art in British Columbia.” A stylistically similar painting of hers, described by Thom as her most important painted abstraction, entitled The Atom, circa 1938, is in the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Heffel Gallery Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, British Columbia
Notes:
British Columbia’s first professional woman sculptor, Beatrice Lennie was part of the first graduating class of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art in 1929. When Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald started the BC College of Fine Arts in 1933, she was hired to lead the sculpture department. She studied further under Charles Marega (known for sculpting the Lions of the Lions Gate Bridge in Stanley Park), as well as Diego Rivera. After the closure of the BC College of Fine Art, she opened the Beatrice Lennie School of Sculpture in 1936 at 13th and Granville in Vancouver. After a few years she closed the school and began teaching at Crofton House School at 41st and Blenheim. Solo exhibitions of her work were held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1948 and posthumously in 1997.
This abstract work was likely painted in the latter half of the 1930s during the peak years of her creative output, a time in which Vancouver Art Gallery curator Ian Thom stated that Lennie produced “the first significant wholly abstract art in British Columbia.” A stylistically similar painting of hers, described by Thom as her most important painted abstraction, entitled The Atom, circa 1938, is in the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Most realised prices include the Buyer's Premium of 18-25%, but not the HST/GST Tax.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.
(*) Text and/or Image might be subject matter of Copyright. Check with Heffel auction house for permission to use.