Winnipeg’s Mayberry gallery entrusted with respected artist’s Canadian works

WINNIPEG -- A treasure trove of previously unseen paintings by renowned Canadian landscape and figurative artist Robert Lougheed has been repatriated to Canada and, for the first time, will be available to Canadian collectors.

Numbering 54 works which depict rural life in Ontario and Quebec in the 1940s and ‘50s, as well as western Canadian works painted in the 1970s, the collection is the largest body of Lougheed paintings ever to be exhibited in Canada.

Entrusted to Winnipeg’s Mayberry Fine Art gallery by the late artist’s widow Cordelia, Lougheed’s oils present a unique opportunity for lovers of Canadiana art and the nostalgic way of life it documents. Already, two-thirds of the paintings have been snapped up by collectors, well above the usual pre-exhibit sales volume.

“It’s unusual for a large number of paintings to be held in a celebrated artist’s estate and  for such works to become available for initial sale so many years after they were painted,” said gallery owner Bill Mayberry, who celebrated a win over at least three U.S. galleries interested in acquiring the collection. 

“Lougheed had never offered the paintings for sale during his lifetime,” he added. “They were his notes, his inspiration for design and composition of his later works. They embodied his experiences in Canada.”

Entitled “A Painter’s Legacy”, the exhibition will open at Mayberry Fine Art on Dec. 7 and continue to Dec. 20. The works, priced from $3,500 to $26,000, can also be viewed on-line at www.mayberryfineart.com.

Robert Elmer Lougheed (1910-1982) was born in Massey, Ont., and grew up on the family farm northwest of Toronto in Grand Valley. There, he honed his innate talent. Known as the painter’s painter, he became one of North America’s most influential artists after settling in Connecticut as a young man. He scheduled annual painting expeditions throughout North America and, in 1970,  relocated to Sante Fe, New Mexico, where he lived until his death. Still, Lougheed never relinquished his Canadian citizenship and, throughout the 1970s, shared his expertise with emerging painters at annual retreats in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley. His wish was that his Canadian paintings would some day find their way back home.

At 19, Lougheed began a commercial art career as an illustrator at the Toronto Star and later worked for the Star Weekly. His commercial work coexisted with his artistic pursuits for 30 years with his illustrations appearing in the Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, Colliers and  Reader’s Digest, for which he illustrated 95 covers. For 20 years, he spent two months annually painting horses for National Geographic in New Mexico.

Lougheed painted directly from nature and lived by his personal creed -- the best information is always in front of you. His style has been described as “impressionistic realism”. Lougheed considered his painting to be play rather than work, often comparing his pursuit to “being paid to eat ice cream.”

Gallery co-owner Shaun Mayberry noted, “When we first saw Lougheed’s Canadian paintings, we realized these works represent Canadian art in many ways. He was a chronicler of the times, the lifestyle, the rural landscape, the outdoors. He internalized much of what is great about Canadian art.

“Lougheed’s dedication was such that he would work outdoors in extreme winter temperatures in Ontario and Quebec, adding poppy oil to his paints to keep them from freezing,” he added.

Lougheed studied briefly at the Ontario College of Art. At 25, he moved to New York where he studied for three years at the Art Students League under Frank Vincent DuMond, who also mentored American legend Norman Rockwell and master Canadian painter David Milne. While serving in the Canadian army in his early 30s, Lougheed enrolled at Ecole-des-beaux-arts in Montreal. Over the years, he won numerous awards and was revered for his western-themed paintings depicting life in the American Southwest.

Lougheed’s paintings are found in many private and museum collections in the United States and in the collections of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.

Mayberry Fine Art, located in a 100-year-old heritage building in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District, represents contemporary Canadian artists such as Winnipeg’s Wanda Koop and Don Proch, Surrey’s Robert Genn, Calgary’s Bill Brownridge, Ottawa’s Rose-Aimee Belanger, and Montreal’s Elene Gamache. Among its historical Canadian works are paintings by Emily Carr, Cornelius Kreighoff and members of the Group of Seven.  Visit www.mayberryfineart.com to learn more.