Lot Details
Lot 137
Art Nouveau Upholstered Fruitwood Sofa
Reputedly from the Van Horne Mansion in Montreal, attributed to Edward Colonna, circa 1890
Height 36 inches, height of seat 17 inches, width 6 feet 1 inch, depth 31 inches.
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915) was a financier and President of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1889, he purchased an historic Italianate three-story gray-stone mansion that was situated in Montreal's Golden Square Mile, at the corner of Sherbrooke Street West and Stanley Street. The mansion had been built twenty years earlier by John Hamilton, President of the Merchant's Bank of Montreal. Van Horne hired an architectural firm to enlarge the house to fifty-two rooms, under the direction of Bruce Price, whose New York firm had previously performed work for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The firm hired Edward Colonna, a renowned artist, architect and designer, who had previously worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany and was one of Europe's leading advocates and designers working in the Art Nouveau style, to carry out the necessary major alterations and additions. Colonna renovated the interior spaces, including fireplaces, ceilings and walls, all in the new modern style, making it the first Art Nouveau designed interior in Canada.
Van Horne was a passionate art collector. He owned works by Rembrandt, Hals, Murillo, Velazquez, El Greco, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Constable, Turner and Renoir. Important artworks from his collection are now in the collection of the Montreal Museum of FIne Art.
In 1973, under the cloak of darkness and sanctioned by Montreal's then-mayor, Jean Drapeau, the Van Horne Mansion was demolished. Prior to its demolition, there was a great public outcry that the house should be preserved for cultural reasons. Mayor Drapeau, however, declared the history of the mansion was Anglo-Canadian and not French Canadian and therefore it was not a part of Quebec's cultural heritage. Its destruction changed the history of heritage preservation in Montreal. The mansion had remained in the Van Horne family until its demolition.
A window panel designed by Edward Colonna from the redecorated salon of the Van Horne Mansion, circa 1890, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, December 17, 2004, American Renaissance: Including an Important Private Collection of Greene & Greene, lot 366.
C
Additional Notes & Condition Report
Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact and Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. Please contact the specialist department to request further information or additional images that may be available.
No condition report? Click here to request one.