Philip Henry Howard Surrey
(1910 - 1990) RCA, CAS, Order of Canada
Previously Sold Works
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Unisex Shop
oil on canvas
signed lower left
24 x 32 ins ( 61 x 81.3 cms )
Auction Estimate: $50,000.00 - $60,000.00
Price Realized $48,000.00
Sale date: December 6th 2023
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Winter Street Scene
oil on canvas
signed to the left
18 x 24 ins ( 45.7 x 61 cms )
Auction Estimate: $10,000.00 - $15,000.00
Price Realized $14,950.00
Sale date: November 23rd 2017
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Sherbrooke Street West, West of Claremont
oil on board
signed lower left; titled and dated 1970 on the reverse
16 x 20 ins ( 40.6 x 50.8 cms )
Auction Estimate: $8,000.00 - $12,000.00
Price Realized $14,400.00
Sale date: June 15th 2022
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Three Women Threatened by Automobiles
oil on board
signed lower right
6 x 7.75 ins ( 15.2 x 19.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $7,000.00 - $9,000.00
Price Realized $11,210.00
Sale date: November 20th 2018
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Grosvenor Hill, Montreal
oil on board
signed lower right
24 x 18 ins ( 61 x 45.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $6,000.00 - $8,000.00
Price Realized $8,850.00
Sale date: May 29th 2018
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Figures on the Street
oil on board
signed lower right; the estate stamp on the reverse
12 x 16 ins ( 30.5 x 40.6 cms )
Auction Estimate: $8,000.00 - $10,000.00
Price Realized $6,000.00
Sale date: June 1st 2016
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Study for Place Ville Marie (2)
mixed media on paper
signed lower left
12 x 18 ins ( 30.5 x 45.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $3,000.00 - $4,000.00
Price Realized $3,540.00
Sale date: May 28th 2019
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Le Maxicoat
charcoal, watercolour and ink on paper
signed lower left
16 x 24 ins ( 40.6 x 61 cms )
Auction Estimate: $3,000.00 - $5,000.00
Price Realized $3,068.00
Sale date: November 20th 2018
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Three Girls Running
ink wash and pastel
signed on the reverse
8 x 11.75 ins ( 20.3 x 29.8 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $2,500.00 - $3,500.00
Price Realized $2,360.00
Sale date: September 24th 2020
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Evening, Atlanta Airport
coloured pastel on paper
signed, titled and dated “February 1976” in the lower margin; unframed
13 x 20 ins ( 33 x 50.8 cms )
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Le Theatre Canadien
mixed media on paper
9 x 11.5 ins ( 22.9 x 29.2 cms ) ( subject )
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Dans le train (Train Scene)
charcoal on paper
signed lower left
9 x 12 ins ( 22.9 x 30.5 cms ) ( sight )
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
Clouded Landscape
oil on board
signed lower left; Estate stamp on the reverse
12 x 16 ins ( 30.5 x 40.6 cms )
PHILIP HENRY HOWARD SURREY
The Letter
oil on board
signed upper right; signed and titled on the reverse
12 x 16 ins ( 30.5 x 40.6 cms )
Consignments
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Philip Surrey Biography
(1910 - 1990) RCA, CAS, Order of Canada
"Each individual is alone, cut off. Each wonders how others cope with life. A work of art is a particularly complex statement, valuable because packed with meaning... Like icebergs, four-fifths of our personalities lie below the surface; of the fifth that shows, only part can be expressed in conversation. The only effective outlet for all deeper feelings and thoughts is art." (Philip Surrey, c. 1949)
Philip Surrey, a founding member of the Contemporary Arts Society, was a figurative painter with an enduring interest in human subjects within urban nightscapes. For most of his career, Surrey used Montreal as his stage, arranging lighting and figures - most often pedestrians - in compositions that revealed both the gregarious nature and the solitude of humanity. A friend and student of Frederick Varley, Surrey was also closely tied to many of the most important Montreal artists and writers of the 1930s and 1940s.
Philip Surrey began his art training in Winnipeg at age sixteen, when he took an apprenticeship at Brigdens commercial art firm. There, he met Fritz Brandtner. In the evenings, he took classes at the Winnipeg School of Art under LeMoine FitzGerald and George Overton. It was at this time that he started painting the streets and people of Winnipeg after dark, by the light of streetlamps and restaurants. He moved to Vancouver in 1929 and took a job as a commercial artist at Cleland-Kent Engraving. In night classes at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, he studied with Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald. Surrey left Vancouver in 1936 and spent three months at New York's Art Students League, studying under Frank Vincent Dumond. The following year, he settled in Montreal and found work at the Standard newspaper. He continued to paint in evenings and on weekends and became immersed in the art scene, rekindling his friendship with Brandtner and befriending John Lyman, Goodridge Roberts, Jori Smith and Jean Palardy.
Philip Surrey was awarded the Centennial Medal (1967). He held an honorary doctorate form Concordia University (1981), and was a member of the Order of Canada (1982).
