The man with an eye for art
How Optometrist Marty Osler started his remarkable collection
Dr. Marty Osler’s 60 year collection of Canadiana & Folk Art will be offered in an exclusive auction at Miller & Miller on April 17, 2021.
Hey! Did you hear the one about the famous Toronto optometrist who became a legendary folk art collector? Or was it the folk art collector who became the well-known optometrist? And did you know that after a thorough eye exam the patient might be invited into the doctor's back office to ogle his expansive art collection?
Welcome to the wonderful world of Dr. Martin Osler, O.D.
At Miller & Miller’s April 17, 2021 exclusive auction, Canadiana & Folk Art - The Marty Osler Collection, the hidden fruits of Dr. Martin Osler’s 60 years of collecting will be revealed to collectors.
Now in his 81st year, the collector-optometrist explains why. “My house is full, my office is full and my two sons have what they want. I figured it would be good to give others a chance to have some of my collection.”
Marty’s son Mark laughs at the comments. “What the Millers are selling is maybe 20 percent of Marty’s lifetime of collecting.”
And what a collection it is.
“Marty collected things just because he liked them, not because he thought they were valuable,” says Mark. Marty’s ‘things’ are a phantasmagoria of treasures which includes carvings, burl bowls, trade signs, First Nations beadwork, steel toys, a rare Maud Lewis painting and works by artists William Loney and Chief James Beaver.
Marty’s appreciation of art started when he was a youngster during Sunday afternoon outings with his grandfather, Toronto amateur artist Peter Osler.
“My father taught me that when I was looking at a piece of art to cup my fingers together and look at it like through a tunnel. So I could focus on just that one piece. So I could see what the artist was saying about it without me being distracted by what was all around it.”
By his teenage years, Marty had started to attend antique shows and sales, discovering what he liked and wanted to own himself. “Folk art spoke to me, it excited me,” he reveals. “And buying a piece wasn’t just a purchase, it was an experience.”
Later on he found that practising as an busy optometrist paid the bills and gave him some time to travel the continent searching for treasures.
In the 1970s, he opened Les Galeries Bigue-Osler in Toronto. The Davenport Avenue shop specialized in French-Canadian and indigenous art, such as Lise Lajoie, Gisele Comtois and Arthur Shilling. The gallery closed in the 1990s but that didn’t damper Marty’s love of collecting.
Marty at the opening night party for his shop ‘Les Galeries Bigue-Osler’ in Toronto.
“Anything he liked that spoke to him would make its way home,” chuckles Mark, “decoys, fly fishing lures, paintings, carvings, rugs, steel toys, outsider art…”
But what excited the collector-optometrist was not only the thrill of the hunt, but the interaction with customers and fellow dealers who he came to know at art and antique shows across the country. “Dad just loved going to these shows and meeting up with friends he knew over the years,” offers Mark. “It was just part of who he was.”
One of these friends was auction advisor Peter Baker who has curated and catalogued the April 17th Miller & Miller sale.
Baker says the treasures bidders will see at the auction are “things that haven’t seen the light of day for 30 years and many of museum quality”.
Over 20 ‘book’ pieces spanning Canada’s geographic regions will be up for auction. Baker highlights a few: an allegorical walking stick from North Bay, a dated crooked knife from Nova Scotia, a harvest table from Toronto and an exceptionally-carved Quebec box.
Allegorical walking stick from North Bay
Dated crooked knife from Nova Scotia
Harvest table from Toronto
He adds that a “personal favourite” is a very early canoe cup. “It is classic folk art, a utilitarian object adorned with minimalist yet meaningful decoration and, for my taste, one of the best I have seen.”
One of the drawing cards at the sale will be an early Maud Lewis work. There is also a 21-inch (53 cm) diameter burl bowl, exquisite First Nations beadwork and Northwest Coast objects.
By Nancy Silcox
Nancy Silcox, of New Hamburg, is a former teacher and university counsellor. She has written 14 books, most of them historical biographies.
Sale Title: Canadiana & Folk Art | The Marty Osler Collection
Sale Date: April 17, 2021
Online Bidding Opens: March 29, 2021
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