Citadel Gallery Auctions’ online auction went out with a bang on Sunday night by setting a new auction record. The auction saw Saint John artist Miller Gore Brittain’s oil painting Figures on the Beach (1964), sold for $330,000.
In the last few years, appraiser Liz Isaac and Citadel Gallery Auctions’ Mario Brideau have worked with the estate of Brittain’s daughter, Jennifer, who possessed a large collection of her father’s work.
Isaac, who is an antiques appraiser, says she and Brideau estimated the painting at $50,000 to $70,000 but had hoped it would do better because it was an important piece.
Mario Brideau and Liz Isaac with Figures on the Beach (1964) (Image: submitted)
“It was well-documented, it’s been in two books and been a lot of smaller pamphlets from different shows,” says Brideau. “The subject matter plays a big part also. It was very attractive to look at, you have the figures on the beach, the colours, the size – it was just a very impressive painting at that stage of his life,” she said.
“The provenance was phenomenal on it; it came from the Brittain estate, it hadn’t been sold before, it’s a piece out of the 60s, but it was a more of a joyous piece,” Isaac adds.
With Covid-19 limiting people to their homes, online auctions have drawn in more people and become a new entertainment form of sorts. Such a record-breaking sum and the recognition that comes will continue to increase awareness of Brittain and increase the value of his work.
“It was astounding, we were both couldn’t believe it, said Brideau. “He [Miller Brittain] deserves that and to be recognized as a very serious and important Canadian artist.”
This story was originally published on Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
