BACK ROOM: Maud Lewis (1903 – 1970)

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Courtesy Lando Gallery, Edmonton

"Untitled - Birds with Apple Blossoms"

Maud Lewis, "Untitled - Birds with Apple Blossoms," circa 1968, oil on paper board, 12” x 12”.

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Courtesy Lando Gallery, Edmonton

"Untitled – Oxen"

Maud Lewis, "Untitled – Oxen," circa 1968, oil on paper board, 12” x 14”.

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BACK ROOM

Maud Lewis (1903 – 1970)

By Portia Priegert

A cheery springtime spirit radiates from Maud Lewis’ painting of three birds amid the apple blossoms. It’s crudely painted, for sure – the birds’ caps sit on their heads like helmets – but, then, technical finesse is not really the point of folk art. It’s more about sentiment and nostalgia, perhaps for a specific place, like rural Nova Scotia, where Lewis sold paintings to both locals and passing tourists; but often just a vague yearning for some simpler past, whether real or imagined.

Whatever the reason, Lewis’ paintings have climbed dramatically in value over the years. A large piece fetched some $20,000 at a Toronto auction in 2009, but most of her works are small, and worth about half that amount, says Brent Luebke, an owner of Edmonton’s Lando Gallery. He’s handling a recent consignment of two Lewis paintings – the birds and a second piece showing an oxen team fitted with a red yoke and yellow bells. He says Lewis, if she were alive today, would be shocked at their value, particuarly because her work, like much folk art, is rarely singular. “She’d probably think people were crazy that they would be willing to spend so much money on a piece of art. But, at the same time, she’d probably be quite pleased, as most artists are. They’ve created them so people would buy them and enjoy them.”

The provenance of the pieces is almost as interesting as the life story of Lewis, who painted in her tiny home with whatever supplies were at hand, her smile chipper despite hands ravaged by rheumatoid arthritis. Luebke says two women approached him after finding the paintings in a trunk following their mother’s death. For the older sister, they brought back memories of a family trip to a lighthouse on the Bay of Fundy around 1968. After stopping en route at Lewis’ place, their mother decided to help the artist even though she didn’t like the work, buying the paintings for $5 each, then the cost of a nice dinner out. When she returned home, she promptly stowed them away.

As Lewis’ work has grown in popularity, so too have the number of forgeries. In this case, the type of paint and substrate, along with Lewis’ trademark style and bright colours, helped convince Luebke the work was legitimate. He says one giveaway with forgeries is that the technique is too refined. “That simplicity often is where people screw it up,” he says. “When I’ve seen fakes of her work, they make them too fancy and they make them too good.”