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Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Verner’s earliest buffalo paintings were sourced from reproductions, before he turned his focus towards a thorough study of the animals beginning in 1875. It is possible that Verner, despite treks into the wilderness, never saw a buffalo outside of captivity, observing them closely in Wild West shows and zoos. By the early 1860s, when Verner first began his expeditions west, the buffalo herds had greatly receded, and had all but disappeared from Canada by the late 1870s. Yet Verner, captivated by their singular beauty, “never showed the buffalo as a hunted species. He preferred to paint them as magnificent beasts in a proud and free state in nature, at peace with the universe and themselves…” [1]

In search of new audiences, Verner relocated to England in 1880, where he would base himself for the remainder of his life, with the exception of three trips back to Canada. Here he began to develop his buffalo work modelled on sketches made years before as well as on live buffalo observed in captivity in London. His Canadian subject matter held great appeal to British audiences, explained by J.E. Hodgson, Professor of Painting and Librarian to the Royal Academy as recording a past era, “things…which are doomed to pass away.” [2]

This lot is accompanied by hardcover book The Last Buffalo: The Story of Frederick Arthur Verner, Painter of the Canadian West" by Joan Murray.

[1] Joan Murray, The Last Buffalo: The Story of Frederick Arthur Verner, Painter of the Canadian West. (Toronto: Pagurian Press, 1984), 66.
[2] Murray, 97.