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Donna by Christopher Pratt

Artwork by Christopher Pratt, Donna

Chris Pratt
Donna

pencil drawing
signed and dated 1975 lower right
11.5 x 11.5 ins ( 29.2 x 29.2 cms ) ( diameter )

Auction Estimate: $8,000.00$6,000.00 - $8,000.00

Price Realized $7,475.00
Sale date: November 23rd 2017

Provenance:
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto/Calgary
Private Collection, New Brunswick
Literature:
David Silcox and Meriké Weiler, Christopher Pratt, Toronto, 1982, pages 20-21, 126, 130, and 184-85
Figural work is an integral component in Pratt's body of work. Often employing family friends as models, many of the artist's figure drawings, begun first as rough sketches, were later refined into Pratt's signature simplified visual style. A model Pratt often returned to in larger paintings, Donna was a friend of Christopher and Mary Pratt. The artist explained that “[Donna] came from my own world” referring to his practice of weaving his own fantasy, construction and ideas of form, figure and final composition.

On these figural drawings, Christopher Pratt explains, “I feel professionally shortchanged when I can't paint figures...There are always two figures in my figure paintings - the girl and me...I have to be alone, completely by myself, before I can start work. I often work on figures after the model has left the room, so that the work can liberate itself from her - she is herself, this is mine.”
This artwork was secured from a New Brunswick collection during Consignor’s 2017 national appraisal tour.

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Christopher Pratt
(1935 - 2022)

HighlightsWatch Artist

Christopher Pratt was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1935, but spent many boyhood summers in the Bay Roberts area where he now maintains a studio. He moved to New Brunswick in 1953 to attend Mount Allison University, trying several degree programs including biology and medicine. However, with the encouragement of instructors Alex Colville and Lawren Harris Jr. Pratt decided on fine arts.

It was at Mount Allison that he met Mary West. The couple married in 1957, then moved to Scotland where Pratt attended the Glasgow School of Art. Two years later, they returned to Mount Allison University, Sackville, where Pratt completed his fine arts degree. In 1961, Pratt accepted the position of curator at the newly opened Memorial University Art Gallery in St. John's. He remained at the gallery for two and a half years before deciding to concentrate on his painting full-time, moving his family to Salmonier, Newfoundland. Pratt has become one of Canada's best known and most respected artists, known for both meticulous serigraph prints and for powerfully evocative paintings.

In 1980, Pratt designed the Newfoundland flag. He was named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1983 and has a number of honorary degrees from Canadian universities. Three books about Pratt are: Christopher Pratt; The Prints of Christopher Pratt: 1958-1991 and Christopher Pratt: Personal Reflections on a Life in Art. These feature reproductions of many of his works. Pratt's work is part of private and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University and the Vancouver Art Gallery.