Lot 16
CHRISTOPHER PRATT, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto/Vancouver
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
Christopher Pratt, Personal Reflections of a Life in Art, Key Porter Books, Toronto, 1995, page 9, and page 170 for a closely related work in graphite entitled Dark Reservoir from 1989, in the collection of Ned Pratt (the artist’s son), reproduced.
Note:
Christopher Pratt’s (b.1935) works are composed quite classically, with two thirds or more of his composition often devoted to what lies above the horizon line. There are many examples throughout the decades leading up to Soldier’s Pond that evidence this: Bay, 1972, Lake Ontario, 1972, Labrador Current, 1973, Break Water, 1976, Railway, 1978, Above Montreal, 1979, Night Trestle, 1983, Stationary High, 1986 and others. In 1994, however, Pratt suffered a flood which did more damage to works in his studio than a fire two years prior. It is interesting, if perhaps coincidental, that the ratio of sky to water is flipped in Soldier’s Pond of that same year, and water is given the greater compositional weight.