Exshaw Near Banff by Doris Jean McCarthy
Doris McCarthy
Exshaw Near Banff
acrylic on board
signed lower right; titled on gallery label on the reverse; inscribed “760928B” on the reverse (indicating the artist’s date of September 28, 1976)
12 x 16 ins ( 30.5 x 40.6 cms )
Auction Estimate: $2,500.00 - $3,500.00
Price Realized $2,990.00
Sale date: November 23rd 2017
Merton Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Doris McCarthy quoted in Brian Brennan, “Doris McCarthy: May 7 - 21, 2005 Mountain Galleries at the Fairmont, Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, AB.”, Galleries West [Online], April 30, 2005.
Committed to depicting the Canadian landscape when abstraction and non-representational painting was in favour within the dialogue of Canadian art, the artist held a deep connection to her time out West in Alberta. Commenting on her travels and sketching trips, McCarthy explains, “I am increasingly familiar with the forms of particular mountains — whether it’s Mount Assiniboine, or Three Sisters or whatever — because they have an individuality with which I have become familiar, which I love.”
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Doris Jean McCarthy
(1910 - 2010) RCA, OSA
Born in Calgary, Alberta, McCarthy attended the Ontario College of Art from 1926–1930 where she was awarded various scholarships and prizes. She became a teacher shortly thereafter and taught most frequently at Central Technical School in downtown Toronto from 1932 until she retired in 1972. She spent most of her life living and working in Scarborough, Ontario though she travelled abroad extensively and painted the landscapes of various countries including: Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, England and Ireland. McCarthy was probably best-known for her Canadian landscapes and her depictions of Arctic icebergs.
McCarthy's work has been exhibited and collected extensively in Canada and abroad, in both public and private art galleries including: The National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Doris McCarthy Art Gallery. McCarthy also penned three autobiographies chronicling the various stages of her life: A Fool in Paradise (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1990), The Good Wine (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1991), and Ninety Years Wise (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2004). She was also the recipient of the Order of Ontario, the Order of Canada; honorary degrees from the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto, Trent University, the University of Alberta, and Nipissing University; and an honorary fellowship from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She died on November 25, 2010.
