Untitled (Black Truck) (ca. 1967) // Oil on Masonite
photo by Jon Dunford
From the article ‘A Maud Lewis Painting Once Traded for Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Fetches a Sizzling 10 Times Its Estimate at Auction’ by Dorian Batycka
The Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis never sold a work for more than $10 during her lifetime. But on May 14 at an Ontario auction, one of her paintings fetched C$350,000 ($272,000), more than ten times its high estimate—thanks, in part, to its colorful backstory.
The sale, at Miller and Miller, of the work known as Black Truck (1967)—an oil on Masonite awash in yellows and greens, depicting a man in a red hat driving along a country road—has set a new high mark for a painter who, despite having grown up in poverty, has surged in popularity in recent years.