Additional Images

Provenance:

Loch Mayberry, Winnipeg, MB
Estate of John Van Haastrecht, Toronto, ON

Exhibited:

Robert Bateman in Russia, touring to Russian State Museum, St. Petersburg; Ivanovo Regional State Museum; Tula Museum of Fine Art; Tsarytsyno Palace Art Museum, Moscow from Oct 2009 – Aug 2010.

Note:

Waddington’s is pleased to present two major canvases by Robert Bateman: Winter Run – Bull Moose, 1994 (lot 233) and Arctic Ice, 1996 (lot 234) in this auction. Produced during the artist’s travels to the Arctic and northern Canada, these canvases are prime examples of Bateman’s mid-1990 period and attest to his mastery in painting Canadian wildlife.

A dedicated naturalist, Bateman is internationally celebrated for his ability to pay close attention and capture the essence of the animal and its surrounding environment in his painting. His practice is largely informed by his environmental advocacy for the protection and conservation of animals’ natural habitats. “Perhaps, in some small way, I can raise the public’s consciousness about the value of those things that are vanishing and encourage people to protect our world for the future.”[1]

Bateman’s paintings have been exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad, including a major retrospective at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in 2007 and a touring exhibition to museums and galleries in Russia, and are held in private collections worldwide.

Robert Bateman describes Arctic Ice:

"The arctic landscape is powerful, majestic and seemingly endless. There is enough life to support one of the world's most gigantic carnivores, the polar bear. His realm is the water, mostly in the form of pack ice. But his massive paws can paddle hundreds of miles from land.

In the glorious light of Davis Strait, between Greenland and Canada's Baffin Island, the colours shift and bounce. It is as if the icebergs, pack ice, open sea and snowy mountains are playing with the clouds to flaunt the possibilities of the spectrum."[2]

[1] Robert Bateman, New Works. (Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2010), 22.
[2] robertbateman.ca/paintings/95-53ArcticIce.html accessed Oct 25 2024.