BlogOctober 29, 1974

He paid "mere $75,000" for Harris art

Don Braid, The Montreal Star

Tuesday, October 29th, 1974

Three days later, at an auction at the Ritz Carlton he bought "Grey Day, North Shore, Lake Superior", for $30,000. He calls it a deal because he was ready to pay $65,000 for each of them. "I wouldn’t have hesitated to pay it" said Klinkhoff, adding that he was surprised the paintings sold for such a "low price".

Harris was undoubtedly one of the greatest Canadian painters. One would have to rank him only after Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson at his best. Harris and Jackson were members of the Group of Seven school of painters, who painted in a distinctively Canadian style. Thomson, who died in 1917 and never actually belonged to the Group, is considered its founding spirit. Harris died in 1970. Both paintings were sold from the collection of John A. MacAulay, a Winnipeg lawyer who has the finest private collection of Canadian art anywhere, according to Klinkhoff.

They are the best examples of Harris’ work to appear on the open market for many years, he said. Klinkhoff, who operates a gallery at 1200 Sherbrooke St. W., said he expects the value of all such work to rise steadily because "Canadian painting is being collected voraciously from east to west". He was not acting for a private collector when he bought the Harris paintings, but has "several customers" he plans to contact about buying them. The price? He’ll let them go for less than $65,000 each.