The sale set a record for the highest selling Algoma sketch by the artist at auction, tripling a previous Harris sketch, “Herbert Lake Algoma,” which sold for $304,000 in 2013. TORONTO — A rare preparatory oil sketch by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris fetched $977,500 at Consignor Canadian Fine Art’s first live auction event Tuesday night at the Berkeley Church in Toronto. Two additional Harris works are on the Consignor auction block: a Toronto urban sketch, titled “House, Toronto,” which sold for $115,000, and “Shacks,” which sold for $103,500. “Laurentian Landscape,” described as a “foundation work for the establishment of the Group of Seven,” sold for $2.2 million. “Algoma Sketch 48” was created in the fall of 1919 or 1920, around the time the Group of Seven officially formed as an association of painters.

Source: National Post June 01, 2016 16:07 UTC