The auction house Heffel celebrates 30 years with an anniversary auction on November 19, 2025, in Toronto, also online in the Digital Saleroom, bringing together four significant sessions.
What is the schedule for the Toronto sale?
Heffel Fine Art Auction House celebrates 30 years of live auctions with a fall sale in Toronto on November 19, 2025, accompanied by remote participation through the Digital Saleroom.
The event unites four sessions that express breadth and expertise: “A Legacy Through Art: The Hudson’s Bay Company Collection”; “The Lillian Mayland McKimm Collection”; “Canadian, Impressionist & Modern Art”; “Post-War & Contemporary Art”.
Additionally, Robert Heffel, Vice-President of Heffel Fine Art Auction House, notes: “This fall offers a rare opportunity to engage with works that span generations, genres, and history”.
“As the house celebrates 30 years of auctions, we are delighted to present iconic masterpieces and connect them with passionate collectors who will carry their stories forward.”
What makes the anniversary auction on November 19, 2025, unique?
“A Legacy Through Art” brings together 27 works linked to the oldest North American company still in operation, featuring a large painting by Sir Winston Churchill and a masterpiece by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith.
“The Lillian Mayland McKimm Collection” offers Canadian paintings collected over decades, with works by E.J. Hughes, Lawren Harris, and Emily Carr.
That said, the sessions “Canadian, Impressionist & Modern Art” and “Post-War & Contemporary Art” complete the evening with key works from the 20th and 21st centuries, benefiting the art market.
Which works stand out in the four sessions
Sir Winston Churchill, Marrakech (c. 1935) — Estimate CA$400,000–600,000
Statesman, wartime prime minister, and Nobel laureate, Churchill painted for over five decades, often en plein air during moments away from public life.
Introduced to painting in 1915, he created about 500 works, drawn to the light of the Mediterranean and North Africa. In Morocco, visited in the 1930s and after the war, he described Marrakech as “the most lovely spot in the world”.
In Marrakech (c. 1935), towering palms, dazzling walls, and cloaked figures emerge in quick, compact strokes. The light becomes order, like a reflective pause of the painter. Insights on Winston Churchill as a painter.
Lawren S. Harris, Lake Superior Sunrise (ca. 1925) — Estimate CA$500,000–700,000
Co-founder of the Group of Seven, Harris sought a spiritual modernism that reduced the Canadian landscape to essential masses and light.
From early urban views, he moved to the North — Algoma, Lake Superior, then the Rockies — for a simplified universal form. The expeditions to Superior in the 1920s fixed flat rock, radiant water, and sculptural contours.
Lake Superior Sunrise (c. 1925) condenses that program: a dark island cuts luminous waters under almost hieroglyphic clouds. However, the sober palette favors structure over description. See also Lawren S. Harris.
A.Y. Jackson, A Quebec Village (Winter, Saint-Fidèle) (1930) — Estimate CA$600,000–800,000
Tireless traveler of the Group of Seven, Jackson narrated communities forged by climate and work.
After World War I, he explored Quebec, the Prairies, and the Arctic, favoring villages where architecture and topography converse. His outreach and teaching made him a national figure.
In the 1930 painting, barns, houses, and a steeple become a choreography of roofs and snow. Blue-violet shadows, ochre walls, and a red sled animate the scene, with rounded brushstrokes conveying the breath of winter.
Jean Paul Riopelle, Sans titre (1949) — Estimate $300,000–500,000. Signatory of the Refus global (1948) and a bridge between Canadian Automatism and post-war Parisian abstraction, he arrived in France in 1947, entering the circle of Galerie Maeght. In 1949, he developed mosaic surfaces, with bright color and palette knife strokes that harness the gesture. Further references on Jean Paul Riopelle.
Tom Thomson, Hillside on Big Cauchon Lake (1915) — Estimate CA$500,000–700,000. Self-taught and forged in Algonquin Park, between 1912 and 1917, he produced hundreds of small oil panels with thick impastos, decisive contours, and compressed spaces. The 1915 canvas opposes birches to a dark ridge; ochre grasses flow under a pale sky, with paint material rendering the climate tactile.
What are the main titles, dates, and estimates
| Artist | Work | Date | Estimate |
| Sir Winston Churchill | Marrakech | c. 1935 | CA$400,000–600,000 |
| Lawren S. Harris | Lake Superior Sunrise (Lake Superior Sketch XXIII) | ca. 1925 | CA$500,000–700,000 |
| A.Y. Jackson | A Quebec Village (Winter, Saint-Fidèle) | 1930 | CA$600,000–800,000 |
| Jean Paul Riopelle | Sans titre | 1949 | $300,000–500,000 |
| Tom Thomson | Hillside on Big Cauchon Lake | 1915 | CA$500,000–700,000 |
Where to find details and how to participate in the Heffel auction
The Heffel auction will take place in Toronto on the evening of November 19, 2025, with bids in the room and through the Digital Saleroom. Additionally, catalogs, conditions, and registration are available on the official website of the auction house.
Overall, the anniversary auction weaves together works that span a century of Canadian and international art, offering a coherent and ambitious selection to collectors.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
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