James Wilson Morrice
(1865 - 1924) RCA
Previously Sold Works
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
At Gloucester
watercolour, laid down on paper
titled in the lower left margin
3.75 x 5 ins ( 9.5 x 12.7 cms ) ( sheet )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
On the Terrace, circa 1898
pencil
titled on a gallery label on the reverse
4 x 6.5 in ( 10.2 x 16.5 cm ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $2,000.00 - $3,000.00
Price Realized $3,120.00
Sale date: May 28th 2025
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Beach, St. Malo
pencil drawing
4.25 x 6.5 ins ( 10.8 x 16.5 cms ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $1,500.00 - $2,000.00
Price Realized $1,770.00
Sale date: May 29th 2018
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
Interior with Figures
pencil drawing
4.25 x 6.5 ins ( 10.8 x 16.5 cms ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $1,500.00 - $2,000.00
Price Realized $1,770.00
Sale date: May 29th 2018
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
Study for “Village Street, West Indies” (circa 1916-1919)
watercolour
signed lower left; inscribed “Trinidad - Village Street” on the reverse; F.R. Heaton Estate No. 130
8.25 x 11.75 ins ( 21 x 29.8 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $20,000.00 - $30,000.00
Price Realized $18,500.00
Sale date: September 24th 2020
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
Boats in the Harbour
oil on panel
artist studio stamp and titled on a gallery label on the reverse
6 x 5 ins ( 15.2 x 12.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $30,000.00 - $40,000.00
Price Realized $26,500.00
Sale date: December 6th 2023
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
silkscreen
artist name, title and “Issued by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa” printed in the margin; signed “supervised by A.J. Casson” in the plate; a Sampson Matthews label on the reverse, unframed
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
sampson matthews silkscreen
unframed
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms ) ( sheet )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
sampson matthews silkscreen
unframed
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms ) ( sheet )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
sampson-matthews silkscreen
artist name, title and “Issued by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa” printed in the margin; a Sampson Matthews label on the reverse
29.75 x 40.25 ins ( 75.6 x 102.2 cms )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
5 Silkscreen Prints of Morrice Artworks; 1 Silkscreen Print of Maurice Cullen Artwork
6 silkscreen prints
-”Entrance to a Village”- J.W. Morrice (25.75 x 40 inches);
-”The Circus”- J.W. Morrice ( 25.75 x 40 inches);
-”Portrait of a Woman”- J.W. Morrice (40 x 25.75 inches);
-”European Urban Scene”- J.W. Morrice (33 x 26 inches);
-”Winter Sleigh Scene”- J.W. Morrice (26 x 35.5 inches);
-”Cutting Ice”- Maurice Cullen (26 x 34.75 inches);
each unframed
x ins ( 0 x 0 cms ) ( sheet )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
sampson-matthews silkscreen
signed lower left; a Sampson Matthews label on the reverse
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms )
JAMES WILSON MORRICE
The Ferry, Quebec
sampson-matthews silkscreen
artist name, title and “Issued by the National Gallery of Canada” printed in the margin; a Sampson-Matthews label on the reverse
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms ) ( sheet )
Consignments
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James Wilson Morrice Biography
(1865 - 1924) RCA
Born in Montreal to a prominent family of textile merchants, Morrice spent most of his life abroad, much of it in Paris. He had gone there to enrol in the Academie Julian, the best-known of the private art schools that lured dozens of young Canadian artists to cross the ocean with the promise of technical proficiency and stylistic sophistication. Soon Morrice was studying with the Barbizon painter Henri Harpignies and looking intently at the pictures of the cutting-edge Nabis members. Affable and gregarious, Morrice was well liked in Paris among the local and emigre vanguard, notably his friends the great Henri Matisse and the influential American painter Robert Henri. He did well, showing in the most prestigious exhibitions of new art, including the Salons, and selling to discerning European collections of the highest rank. If he is remembered mostly in Canada today, it may be because Canadian collectors repatriated most of his pictures after his death, leaving Europeans with little to go on. He had been careful to maintain a reputation at home, showing here regularly and returning frequently for Christmas, which would explain why most of his Canadian pictures are winter scenes. Young Canadian artists held him in considerable esteem during his lifetime for his fearless modernism and his success in Europe. A stylistically hybrid artist, Morrice combined a lush and often dusky Post-Impressionist tone with nonchalant brushwork of a plumb assuredness, softening the blunt structures of his Fauvist friends. What results are paintings as complicated as they are straightforward and often redolent with suppressed emotion. Morrice tends to smallish pictures that draw you in, only to surprise you by their resolute diffidence. Irresistible and remote, his pictures ask for intimacy but keep their distance, like nostalgia, like longing. Morrice ran with a fast crowd of glittering cosmopolitans. Alcoholism got the better of him by the end of his fifties; his health ultimately failed while in North Africa where he had painted with Matisse and where he died at fifty-eight.
Source: National Gallery of Canada
