Bric-a-brac lucky

A painting bought for $5 at a Northland flea market is expected to sell for more than $2, at an auction to be held at Aesthete Gallery in Hamilton on 22 November. The unsigned oil painting has been attributed to Canadian Lawren Harris, whose works fetched upwards of $7 million in combined sales. “Harris was a widely travelled person with a lot of social connections, it doesn’t surprise me one bit,” president of Sotheby’s Canada says David Silcox said. “Lawren frequently gave his paintings away as wedding gifts, at least that was the case with a Harris painting we found in the States a year ago; perhaps that’s also the case with this.” Silcox believes the painting is indeed an original Harris, and that it was probably painted sometime around 1915 in Algonquin Park. “Lawren Harris has had more paintings sell for over $1 million than any other artist in Canada,” Silcox said, “and this is a nice little painting, indeed.”