Two paintings of the same stretch of Lake Superior shoreline painted by Group of Seven painters will be reunited at auction this fall in Toronto.

Artists A. Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris painted the works on side-by-side easels in 1922.

A. Y. Jackson set up his easel beside Lawren Harris to create Autumn: Lake Superior. Harris's and Jackson's paintings are being sold together at auction this November.
(Ritchies/Sotheby's)

Both show a piece of the Lake Superior coastline, fronted by rock and trees, somewhere between the Ontario communities of Marathon and Rossport.

Jackson's Autumn: Lake Superior is smaller — 21.5 by 26.6 centimetres compared to 26.6 cm by 34.9 cm for Harris' Lake Superior Sketch XCIX, which was a study for a larger work now in the Art Gallery of Ontario's collection.

The scenes are remarkably similar, but putting the paintings side by side highlights the unique characteristics of each painter, said David Silcox of Sotheby's in Toronto.

Lawren Harris' Lake Superior Sketch is larger and is likely to sell for a higher price, $200,000 or more.
(Ritchies/Sotheby's)

"Jackson picks away at small details, but Harris loads the brush with paint and uses large brushstrokes," he said.

The Group of Seven, who often took trips into the wilderness together, sometimes painted similar scenes, but rarely identical ones.

"It's rare that artists paint the same thing," Silcox said. "It happens more often that a small sketch and a painting done from it remain together."

Harris painting valued at $200,000 to $250,000

Harris paintings traditionally sell for more than works by Jackson and this lot is no exception.

Harris's Lake Superior Sketch is valued at $200,000 to $250,000 and Jackson's Autumn: Lake Superior at $50,000 to $70,000.

They are to be sold at auction by Sotheby's and Ritchies on Nov. 20 in Toronto.

In the years since 1922, the paintings have made very different journeys.

Jackson gave his to a friend, Montreal painter Anne Savage, who owned it until her death, when it passed to her descendants.

The Harris oil sketch has changed hands several times through private collections and dealers, and was recently sold through the Art Emporium in Vancouver.

Won't necessarily be sold to same buyer

The two lots are being sold one after another, but Silcox said they won't necessarily be sold into the same hands.

There are several other Group of Seven works in the same auction lot, which marks the peak of the art auction season in Canada.

One of the A. Y. Jackson works, Indian Houses, Fort Resolution was painted in 1928 in the Great Slave Lake area while he was travelling there with his friend and painting partner, Sir Frederick Banting.

A painting by the famous doctor and discoverer of insulin is also in the lot.

There is a large collection of works by Alex Colville, including 16 of his prints and At Grand Pré, a large painting projected to sell for $150,000 to $200,000.

David Milne, Cornelius Krieghoff and Emily Carr are among the other artists whose work will be part of the auction.