Maud Lewis letters on auction block in New Hamburg
Two years after a painting by revered folk artist Maud Lewis set a world record by selling for $350,000, Canada’s love affair with the Nova Scotia painter, who died a half century ago, continues this Saturday with the sale of personal letters she wrote to an Ontario artist who became her friend and supporter.
“Basically, this is an historical document,” says Ethan Miller, co-owner of the New Hamburg-based Miller & Miller Auctions, of the correspondence between Lewis and the late John Kinnear that lasted until her death at 67 in 1970.
“Until now Maud’s private life has been a virtual mystery. There’s virtually no written correspondence known from Maud to anyone. John Kinnear was one of her sole confidantes.”
Crippled by severe arthritis, living in a one-room house with no electricity or running water, the tiny artist with the stooped posture was a case study in triumph over adversity as her whimsical paintings of rural Maritime life — sold roadside for $2 a pop — caught fire after a 1965 CBC doc brought her to national attention.
“That’s why these letters are so important,” says Miller, who obtained them from Kinnear’s daughter, Sheila Kinnear.
“Most of the people that recall visiting her tiny home in the 1960s to purchase paintings are now in their 80s.
“They recall her hunched posture, her humble demeanour, her gentle nature.
“But these letters help us understand her daily struggles after they left.”
John Kinnear learned of Lewis’s hardships, and the homespun charm of her paintings, like everyone else, in the media.
A Second World War vet and former prisoner-of-war who fought the Nazis, he knew about pain and hardship, says his daughter.
“He just felt compassion for her,” says Sheila Kinnear, who accompanied her dad on those long ago treks to a London, Ont., art store to buy Lewis supplies. “He said ‘She’s kind of a sweetheart. She needs help because what she’s painting on won’t last. It’ll just fall off.’ ”
So he sent her paints, brushes and Masonite boards, primed with gesso (primer) by then teenaged Sheila.
“It wasn’t just one, but many boxes of supplies,” she says.
“My dad was always very altruistic and generous with other people and honestly cared about Maud Lewis. He loved her. Not just her work, but the person she was.”
The letters, written by Lewis between 1966-67, had been stored away by the elder Kinnear, who died in 2003, and forgotten.
“Toward the end of my father’s life he was at my home, in my care,” recalls Sheila, noting her dad and Lewis never met in person.
“And one evening I had his trunk here and he said ‘Let’s open it’ and we found all the letters.”
If you scan the neatly scripted contents, there are no grand revelations, no jarring insights.
This is strictly workaday stuff, with Lewis writing about a trailer she hopes to paint in once the snow melts, her need for more art supplies and concerns about not having enough time to paint since the CBC profile thrust her (reluctantly) into the spotlight and resulted in 300 pesky fan letters.
This, however, isn’t the point. “Of course you want to read about some divine secret or something that shocks the world,” points out Miller. “But the reality is that she was writing about her daily struggles as an artist trying to basically make a go of it.”
“People are intrigued by Maud Lewis. The fact we’re given this rare lens into who she was behind the scenes is what’s gonna drive interest.”
For the shy, diminutive painter often compared to American folk artist Grandma Moses, that’s as good as it gets.
“The social history of a splash of coffee from Maud Lewis’s table only adds value,” says Miller.
“What you’re seeing there is probably more enticing to collectors than had they been perfectly preserved in hermetically sealed envelopes.
With an estimated selling price of $4,000 to $6,000, and bidding that starts at $25, the six-letter batch is cheap by Lewis standards, but if the past is a guide, once bidding starts, things can easily spiral out of control.
“We sold a harbour scene painted handwritten letter written by Maud to a family member that sold for $16,000,” says Miller of past auction prices.
There was another letter from Lewis to Kinnear that sold at the same time “Black Truck” netted its record-breaking haul of $70,000.
But given that another letter to Kinnear went for $4,000 in a preceding sale, Miller attributes the five-digit figure to hype around the precedent-setting painting.
“It’s all about supply and demand,” he says.
“At that point it was one of the first letters to ever be released on the market that we’re aware of, so that made a big difference.”
“At the end of the day, it’s exciting to see the interest in this folk artist. She’s ours. She’s Canadian.”
Lewis’s handwritten letters come up for bid at Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. on Saturday at 9 a.m. The auction will be online only. For information, go to shorturl.at/euzIL.