The Hudson’s Bay Company’s art collection was filled with classic Canadian imagery, much of it commissioned for HBC calendars.

Adventurers shoot the Fraser River rapids in a birchbark canoe. Fur traders in white HBC coats and moccasins tramp through the snow with their dog teams. The HBC’s York boats arrive at Norway House, an important 19th century trading depot north of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba.

But the most valuable artwork in its collection, monetarily speaking, is a 1935 painting of Marrakesh, Morocco.

Why? Because it was painted by Sir Winston Churchill, one of the towering political figures of the 20th century.

Churchill’s Marrakech will go up for sale Nov. 19 in Toronto, when the Heffel gallery will sell the HBC’s art collection as part of its fall auction .

Churchill was o

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