2017 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 85149 / 306  •  View Catalog  •   • 

85
Sydney Laurence (1865 – 1940)
Clawing Off a Lee Shore
oil on canvas
18 × 24 inches
signed lower left

VERSO
Label, Braarud Fine Art, La Conner, WA

Kesler E. Woodward wrote, “But it was left to Sydney Laurence to define visually the notion of a land so big that it dwarfs human activity and accomplishment. He produced that image not by eliminating human traces, but by juxtaposing them with the landscape in such a way that the hegemony of the land was made clear. That predominance of the land over man had been lost in the American West by Laurence’s time, and in Alaska it was already under siege. But by giving us that powerful image of humans in an earlier, more subordinate relationship to the mountains, the sea, the cold, and the northern lights, he has allowed a few more generations to feel the magic of the frontier.”

PROVENANCE
The Artist
Carl C. Block, Peoria, IL
Patricia Block Mara, Palos Verdes, CA, by descent
Private Collection, OR

85

Sydney Laurence

1865 – 1940

Clawing Off a Lee Shore
oil on canvas
18 × 24 inches
signed lower left
Sold at Auction: $71,400
Condition ReportSurface condition is very good. Painting has been lined. Several faint hairline cracks to left and right of ship. Several hairline cracks in sky above ship. Multiple specks of inpainting in upper-right quadrant of sky. Small spot of inpainting in lower-left corner of painting.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.