Late Paintings - 1923-1936
The Lane
Oil on canvas
81.3 x 101.6 cm
Signed 1929
This piece is currently for sale at Meibohm Fine Arts in East Aurora, NY.
$7500
Forest Interior with Figure in Pond
Oil on board
22.9 x 17.8 cm
Signed
Collection of Kim Bullock
The Path
Oil on board
30.5 x 25.5 cm
Signed lower right
Private Collection
This painting was featured on page 117 of the book Head, Heart and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters by Marie Via and Marjorie Searl. (Published by the University of Rochester Press in 1994).
Figures in the Woods
Watercolor on paper
23 x 18 cm
Signed 1936
Collection of Fred and Deborah Downes
Photo by Deborah Downes
Carl Ahrens died in February 1936, so this is one of his last paintings. The final months of his life were spent of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital, where he would have had no access to scenes like this.
The Feeding Ground
Oil on canvas
89 x 99 cm
Signed 1930
Private Collection
Photo by Sandu Sindile
This painting was originally in the collection of Carl's friend, John Noble Mackendrick of Galt, Ontario. It passed down for a couple of generations in that family before it was sold. It is now in a private collection.
Near Doon
Oil on canvas
51 x 38 cm
Signed c. 1925
Collection of rych mills
Photo by Sandu Sindile
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A Gift for Prime Minister Mackenzie King
Summer
Oil on canvas
40.5 x 30.5 cm
Signed 1934
This painting was given as a gift to William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was then the prime minister of Canada, as a thank you for securing Ahrens and his wife passage to England, something they would not have been able to afford otherwise.
A black and white photograph of this painting has been passed down through several generations of Ahrens' descendants. In the photo, the painting is clearly dated 1932. By 1935 Ahrens was very ill, far too weak to paint anything this large, and he must have changed the date to 1934 and re-framed it before sending it on to King.
Were this painting to be cleaned, the four and the dark patch over it would likely come off to reveal the two beneath because the date was changed after the painting had been varnished.
Kim Bullock is fairly certain she has the original frame for this painting. This title and an exhibition sticker are on the back. Ahrens would have reused it on a painting of the same size.
