P.C. Sheppard: Ocean Freighter

Peter Clapham Sheppard’s Ocean Freighter debuted in 1933 at the 61st exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists in Toronto on a weekend when The Toronto Daily Star published an article about German plans for Jewish eradication, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously reassured his country, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” in his inauguration speech as America’s 32nd president.[1] In the depth of the Great Depression and with Adolf Hitler ascendant, Sheppard saw industry and nobility in Toronto’s urban fabric.

The 1933 OSA exhibition included two other masterful paintings of Toronto by Sheppard: The Market (November) (no. 175)[2] and Elizabeth St. (no. 174), which set the current record for a Sheppard painting at auction in November 2018 at Waddington’s.

With these paintings Sheppard portrays a city that is much more than a bricks and mortar version of a landscape that could have been painted by any member of the Group of Seven. From the 1910s to the 1930s Sheppard understood the city as an agglomeration of humans persevering against circumstance.

Ocean Freighter’s low horizon elevates the ship’s looming hull, and overcast light gently infuses a composition that is more meditative than demonstrative. As with his other two paintings in that exhibition, Sheppard’s colours are subtly modulated, brushstrokes distinguish foreground and background activity with clear, extended draws defining the hull, water and wharf, and short, broad and overlapping strokes define the overcast city and sky.

Ocean Freighter was such a standout that Sheppard submitted it to that year’s exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, where it was accepted and then later selected for the touring version of the RCAA exhibition that travelled throughout western Canada and into the United States into late 1934.

Sheppard painted Toronto from street level where it is constantly surprising and enchanting, where barriers are lowest, changes are fastest, and its humanity is closest.

[1] “First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Accessed 6 April 2023, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos1.asp.
[2] Tom Smart, Peter Clapham Sheppard: His Life and Work (Richmond Hill, ON / Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2018), 215 repro. col.

Contributed by Gregory Humeniuk, an art historian, consultant, writer, and curator based in Toronto.

ABOUT THE AUCTION

Our major spring auction of Canadian and International Fine Art features an exceptional collection of important works by noted Canadian and international artists including Frederick Banting, Jack Bush, Clarence Gagnon, William Kurelek, Jean Paul Lemieux, J.W. Morrice, William Perehudoff, Takao Tanabe, Bernard Buffet, Jean Dufy, Francisco Zúñiga, Larry Poons, Jules Olitski, and many more.

The auction is offered online May 8 – 29, 2025.

Previews at our Toronto gallery located at 100 Broadview Avenue, are available:

Wednesday, May 21 from 10 am to 7 pm
Thursday, May 22 from 10 am to 5 pm
Friday, May 23 from 10 am to 5 pm
Saturday, May 24 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Sunday, May 25 from 12 pm to 4 pm
Monday, May 26 from 10 am to 5 pm
Tuesday, May 27 from 10 am to 5 pm
Wednesday, May 28 from 10 am to 5 pm
Thursday, May 29 from 10 am to 12 pm

Or by appointment.

You must be registered to bid in this auction. Please register here.

Contact us to find out more.