Harbour at Stockholm

This is an original watercolor by the Canadian architect and artist Hugh Douglas "Bungje" Robertson (1900-1996). Its title is Harbour at Stockholm. It is signed and dated 1972.

Robertson was born in Hamilton ON and attended the School of Architecture at Montreal's McGill University, graduating in 1925. He was formed in drawing by his friend, the French-Canadian artist Edmond Dyonnet but, in painting, was mainly self-taught.

As an architect, he was in partnership with Lester Birley Husband, off and on, until 1953--this was interrupted by periods working as a draftsman and architectural designer in Miami, Montreal, and New York. During World War II, he worked as an Assistant Architect in the Naval Services Branch of the Royal Canadian Navy in Ottawa. In 1957, he retired from architecture to paint full-time. He traveled extensively in Europe and the West Indies painting in oil but, mostly, in watercolor. Robertson was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Canadian Academy. He exhibited in Ottawa, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. His watercolor Clouds Over the Gaspe Hills was selected for the Diamond Jubilee Collection presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1986, and is now part of the Royal Collection.

Provenance: Robertson sketched Harbour at Stockholm in Stockholm in 1970 or 1971. He then traveled to the Bahamas, where he finished the painting. It was sold to an American collector who was living in the Grenadines; when the latter moved back the US in 1977, he gave it to me. I removed it from the frame and brought it back to Canada; it has since been stored.

Watercolor on cardboard, 16" x 12", unframed.

Condition: There are some spots on the lower part of the painting, all shown in the photos. A conservator can easily repair them.