Lot 71
ALFRED JOSEPH CASSON, O.S.A., P.R.C.A.
Provenance:
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Estate of Douglas A. Berlis, Toronto
Literature:
Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, His Life & Works / A Tribute, Toronto, 1980, n.p.
Note:
Painted circa 1955.
Duval writes that a small on-the-spot sketch of 1948 possesses a special interest: “Archway in Bancroft brings together two compositional elements of which Casson is particularly fond - the use of an open passageway through a building to create an inner frame within a picture, and the galaxy of tin signs adorning the store in the background. The artist has searched out such sign-studded facades, which provide him with a built-in pattern of colour and shape. The archway effect is used as early as 1917, in the small oil sketch Cowshed, and again in the watercolour Barn Door, Baptiste of 1955.”