Previews underway in Toronto as 27 works from Hudson’s Bay’s historic art collection set to be auctioned off

The public is getting a look at several pieces of art formerly owned by the Hudson Bay Company that will go up for auction next week. Janice Golding has more.

Heffel Fine Art Auction House, in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood, will have some busy days ahead as it readies to accept telephone, online, and live bids on 27 pieces from the Hudson’s Bay Company’s extensive art collection.

On Tuesday, it showed off some of the marquee works from the historic company’s 4,400-item collection that are set to be sold.

Previews of those fine art pieces have been held in cities across the country, with Toronto’s starting today.

• IN PICTURES: Famous art from The Hudson’s Bay Company collection up for auction

“The Hudson’s Bay commissioned well-known Canadian artists to paint historical scenes for their calendar and they would keep the original calendar painting. And so, these are these are some of the Canadian artists that they chose in the calendar paintings,” Robert Heffel, the company’s vice-president, told CTV News Toronto.

His brother David Heffel, who serves as the auction’s house’s president, called the collection “fabulous.”

“It documents the history of Canada, the development of Hudson’s Bay. … It’s a walk through Canadian art history and a walk through Canadian history.”

Among the favourites being auctioned off is a piece titled, Lights of a City Street,” a picture of Toronto in the 1890s by Canadian artist Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith.

“The artist has put himself in to the painting. This is the artist,” Robert Heffel said while discussing the piece.

“These are the newspaper sellers. This is the artist’s son.”

Art lover Christopher Varley says he’s old enough to remember the “big Bell-Smith” piece, sharing that he saw it often when he visited Arcadia Court on the eighth floor of the former Simpson Tower at Bay and Queen streets.

“Every everyone in my age saw the painting, so that’s the one I’m really excited about seeing,” he said.

The piece garnering the most attention, however, is one of a series former U.K Prime Minister Winston Churchill painted of Marrakech, Marocco.

Art lovers were already stopping the auction house on Tuesday to check out the works.

”It’s like going to a beautiful gallery, only it’s all very edited and curated and it’s absolutely stunning,” said one woman named Mary Lou.

David Heffel said he and his team are looking forward to next Wednesday.

“This is how a modern day of fine art auction works. It’s the merger between the traditional to the innovative. And this is the technology that pilots Heffel Auction,” he said.

“We’ll have our pen and our gavel in our left and we’ll be looking for bids in the audience and on our devices here. It’s a lot of fun.”

Proceeds from the auction will help HBC’s creditors recover some of the nearly $1 billion they’re owed.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Janice Golding