When the entire fine art collection of the bankrupt Hudson’s Bay Company goes under the auctioneer’s gavel on Wednesday, it will include major works worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It includes paintings Canadians will recognize from HBC calendars and advertisements, grand scenes of pioneering explorations of the rugged Canadian landscape to the far north and west, including a painting of an HBC branded birchbark canoe descending rapids on the Fraser River, a portrait of Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson painted two years after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar, and various historical scenes of the iconic HBC multi-coloured stripes keeping people warm out in the wilderness.

But one small painting stands out among them, not primarily for its artistic quality, and not for its subj

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