SALE OF DIONNE QUINTUPLETS PAINTING TO HELP SURVIVING SISTERS

MONTREAL • The late American illustrator Gil Elvgren was known for creating sexy pinups that adorned army barracks and gas stations everywhere.

But his first big break in 1937, fresh out of art school, was a commission to paint far more innocent models — the three-year-old Dionne quintuplets.

Now the large oil painting, titled Five Little Sweethearts, is to be auctioned off in Toronto on Wednesday, with all proceeds to benefit surviving quints Cécile and Annette Dionne, 82.

Elvgren, who died in 1980, painted the work for a 1939 calendar featuring the quints — who became international celebrities after they were born in a log cabin near North Bay, Ont., on May 28, 1934.

The anonymous owner donated the family heirloom to raise funds for the sisters after reading a Postmedia report last month that Cécile Dionne is penniless, 18 years after the Ontario government awarded $4 million to three surviving quints.

“Your recent article on the current state of the surviving quints was particularly moving,” the donor wrote.

In the Dionnes’ first interview since 1998, Cécile said that four years ago, she discovered the approximately $750,000 she had received from Ontario was gone.

She said she had entrusted management of her money to her son, Bertrand Langlois, 55, who disappeared at that time and has not contacted her since. The Gazette has been unable to find Langlois.

Andrea Zeifman, one of the principals at A.H. Wilkens auction house in Toronto, said she hopes the sale of the painting will brighten the lives of the aging sisters.

“Our company is donating 100 per cent of any of the commissions that we would be taking in straight to them as well,” she said.

“To be able to have such an iconic work come to the market, I think that’s a really positive thing,” she said, expressing the hope that the proceeds will help ease Cécile Dionne’s current difficulties.

“Works by Gil Elvgren very rarely do come to the market and I’ve not seen one in Canada come to the market at auction,” Zeifman added.

She said the auction house has set a conservative target of $5,000 to $7,000 for the painting but hopes to exceed that amount.

YOUR ARTICLE ON THE QUINTS WAS PARTICULARLY MOVING.