This Day in History, 1824: Historic Métis painting comes back to Canada from Australia

The Heffel art auction specializes in selling rare and historic Canadiana.

That said, it doesn’t normally sell 200-year-old paintings of Métis and First Nations scenes from the Red River colony, which would become Winnipeg. Particularly when the watercolours have come back to Canada from Australia.

Two pieces, Métis Man and His Two Wives, and Saulteaux Family Traveling in Winter, were painted by Peter Rindisbacher in 1824, after the young artist immigrated from Switzerland with his family.

The two artworks are quite small – 16.6 by 21 centimetres – but rich in detail.

In A Métis Man and His Two Wives, the man proudly poses with his rifle wearing a blue jacket with a red, white and blue chest piece, in what the Heffel catalogue describes as “a feather-adorned tall felt hat and arrow sash (ceinture fléchée).”

He’s flanked in an outdoor scene by his two wives, one carrying a baby on her back and a pipe in her hands, the other in a shawl.

“The attention to detail that he’s put into these is above and beyond,” said Heffel’s Thibault Bennett. “The chest piece is incredible. The patterning that you see on the baby carrier, the gorgeously done shawl that she’s wearing.”

Rindisbacher only lived in the Red River colony for five years before relocating to the U.S. He died in St. Louis in 1834 at only 28, probably of cholera. His short life means his original paintings are scarce and the pre-auction estimate is $40,000 to $60,000 per painting.

To put their age in perspective, Rindisbacher’s paintings were executed three decades before another early historical work from Western Canada, Paul Kane’s 1855 oil painting, Assiniboine Hunting Buffalo, which Heffel sold for $3,241,250 in 2021.

Rindisbacher’s works were also done a decade before another acclaimed early Canadiana artist, Cornelius Krieghoff, moved to Montreal. (He was born in Holland but also lived in the U.S.)

The Rindisbacher paintings are on display this weekend at the Heffel Gallery at 2247 Granville, at a preview for Heffel’s Nov. 18 live auction in Toronto.

They’re placed nearby the showpiece for the auction, the Emily Carr painting Alert Bay (with Welcome Figure), which has a pre-auction estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million.

It was based on a 1908 watercolour of a First Nations street scene Carr had painted during a trip up the coast. She repainted the scene in 1912, after she had been to France and been influenced by Post-Impressionism and Fauvism.

David Heffel thinks that when Carr returned to B.C. in 1912 and developed a colourful new painting style, it “was probably the happiest period in her life.”

“This painting just exudes warmth and happiness, a playfulness that I think is just at a peak,” said Heffel, who runs the auction with his brother Robert.

“A young child (is) bouncing on the tarp over a war canoe as if it’s a trampoline. There are lots of figures, First Nations subject matter, very bright Fauve (colours), wild palette, a true Carr masterpiece.”

There are 88 works in the auction, including six by Carr, six by E.J. Hughes and five by Jean Paul Riopelle, whose 1953 abstract, Brumaire, has the highest estimate, $1.5 million to $2 million.

A new Riopelle gallery will open Oct. 22 in Quebec City, Espace Riopelle – Pavilion Michael Audain, with most of the funding and art provided by West Vancouver art collector and philanthropist Michael Audain.

Heffel is holding a Jean Paul Riopelle online auction through Oct. 29 that includes 21 of his artworks, with estimates ranging from $2,000 to $150,000.

One of them has what Heffel calls a Cinderella story: the 1947 watercolour was purchased at a thrift store in the Lower Mainland.

The buyer sent a photo to the Heffel gallery, and Heffel’s Deidre Hoffer said “we thought it warranted looking further into.” It was sent to Riopelle’s daughter Yseult Riopelle in Montreal, who confirmed its authenticity. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

“We’ve sold a lot of Riopelle watercolours of this vintage that would have fold lines, as if it was used for a jacket cover of a book,” said Heffel. “In France you could buy books that were banned in Quebec.”

When he went back to Quebec from France, Riopelle would sometimes cover a banned book with a jacket made from a watercolour. This one doesn’t have a fold, though.