- 79
David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953
Estimate
45,000 - 65,000 CAD
bidding is closed
Description
- David Brown Milne
- Stones and Maple Leaves
- inscribed with artist name, title, Sept. 1945 and O-640 by Douglas Duncan on the reverse
- oil on canvas
- 30.5 by 40.5 cm.
- 12 by 16 in.
Provenance
Douglas Duncan, Picture Loan Society, Toronto
Dr. A.E. Mowry, London
Private Collection, California (by descent to present owner)
Dr. A.E. Mowry, London
Private Collection, California (by descent to present owner)
Literature
David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 2: 1929-1953, 405.62, p. 872, reproduced.
Catalogue Note
This painting and the one following were created in 1945 during Milne’s autumn camping trip to Haliburton, a regular event in Milne's life through the mid-1940s. This annual retreat to the lakes and rivers of cottage country was a well-established ritual for Canadian artists over a number of generations. The fall colour was the visual attraction, of course, but the first cold September night eliminated mosquitos and relieved campers of that pesky nuisance. Cool nights and sunny days were also to be expected and could usually be counted on.
Milne was fascinated by small wild still life arrangements at this time, and he painted a number of them, much as he had been doing with flowers, toys, and other domestic subjects in Uxbridge earlier that summer. Although in a modest format, these works both have a fine sense of organization and scale; and even though the colour scheme is carried out with muted colours and tones, the canvases are still bright and attractive reminders of glorious autumn days when snow covers the ground later in the year.
Milne was fascinated by small wild still life arrangements at this time, and he painted a number of them, much as he had been doing with flowers, toys, and other domestic subjects in Uxbridge earlier that summer. Although in a modest format, these works both have a fine sense of organization and scale; and even though the colour scheme is carried out with muted colours and tones, the canvases are still bright and attractive reminders of glorious autumn days when snow covers the ground later in the year.