The Old House, Anse St. Jean Saguenay
Inscriptions
signed, ‘R. PILOT’ (lower left); titled, ‘Old House - Anse St. Jean (Saguenay)’ (verso)Provenance
Kaspar Gallery, Toronto
Sotheby - Parke-Bernet, New York
Private collection, Ontario, November 1980
Estate of the above
In our close up of this modest home, a significant inclusion is the confident brush strokes, one in blue one in red, which serve to imply a lady in the doorway, attracting the spectator’s gaze.
At the age of 22, Robert Pilot took part in the inaugural exhibition of the Group of Seven, where he was joined by Albert Robinson and Randolph Hewton as the other two non-Group members invited to participate. The following year, he became a founding member and exhibitor in the annual exhibition of the Beaver Hall Group. In his later career, Pilot assumed the role of President of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts.
During World War I Pilot was in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Fifth Division Artillery and re-enlisted in 1941 during World War II serving as Captain in the Black Watch, for his service he was honored with a distinction of an Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1944.