From joke gift to fine-art auction: forgotten Tom Thomson sketch could fetch $175K
The small oil on canvas sketch by the Group of Seven forefather goes up for auction next month in Toronto
Glenna Gardiner didn't think much of the painting she inherited from her father years ago.
Even though he always claimed it was by Group of Seven forefather Tom Thomson, Gardiner never believed it for a second, mostly because her dad was a big jokester.
"I always said, 'Yeah, right dad, this isn't a Tom Thomson, we don't have something famous in our house.'"
The small canvas depicting whitecaps on a lake sat in a pile in Gardiner's Edmonton basement for years.
But longtime friend Marit Main found the work more intriguing. On multiple occasions she encouraged Gardiner to have it assessed.
But Gardiner never did, choosing instead to pack it up and mail it to Main for her 70th birthday as a bit of a joke.
Verified in Vancouver
Main followed through on her hunch last year and contacted the Heffel Fine Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Within two hours of sending a photo of the painting, she got a call back asking her to bring the painting in as soon as possible.
"I was going to ship it down but they preferred that I bring it down, so I went down," said Main from her home in Vernon, B.C.
Sure enough, experts at Heffel were able to verify the 18-by-25 centimetre work as an oil on canvas on board sketch done by Thomson in 1913, likely in study for the much larger painting Lake in Algonquin Park, which is owned by the National Gallery of Canada.
The estimated value of the sketch has been set between $125,000 and $175,000.
Painting gifted back
"Disbelief!" said Gardiner, describing the moment she got the news.
"My dad was vindicated... and was likely enjoying the joke."
Main then did what any good friend would do and gifted the painting back to Gardiner.
"It's hers. It's been in her family for more than 80 years," she said.
As a thank-you, Gardiner is now planning to take Main on a Mediterranean cruise, where glasses will be raised to Tom Thomson and to Gardiner's father.
"I think her dad would just totally love this story," said Main. "He would feel so happy about the way everything has happened."
The sketch goes to auction in Toronto next month.
With files from Deborah Goble.