Sold for: $22,500

PROVENANCE
Gallery One, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
William Gough, David Blackwood: Master Printmaker, 2001, reproduced page x
Katharine Lochnan et al., Black Ice: David Blackwood Prints of Newfoundland, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2011, reproduced plate 60, unpaginated

EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Black Ice: David Blackwood Prints of Newfoundland, February 5 - June 12, 2011, same image, catalogue #60

Within David Blackwood’s rich monument of imagery depicting life on the Labrador Sea, this particular vertical orientation of a humpback whale sounding its tail is a composition he returned to multiple times. At least two large oil tempera paintings of it exist, as well as a large format watercolour and graphite work titled North Atlantic, produced in 2003, and sold by Heffel in May of 2013. This is an image that held the artist’s attention for nearly a decade, and an important example of the whale motif in his work. With the profound size of the whale dwarfing the fleet of schooners, it can be viewed, alongside the other whale works, in the tradition of the Vanitas, instilling humility and awe.

The original purchase of this work stems from a visit by the current owner to the artist’s studio circa 1995, when Blackwood was in the process of completing the plate for this etching. The myth-like imagery was so impactful that a call was immediately placed to reserve an impression when the edition was launched shortly thereafter at Gallery One.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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