Algoma

Roberts Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Ontario Heffel Fine Art, auction, Toronto, May 2, 2002, lot 8 as “Algonquin #2” Private Collection, Toronto

Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrove, Lawren Harris, Toronto, 1969, page 45, reproduced page 40 as “Algonquin” (1912) Joan Murray and Robert Fulford, The Beginning of Vision / The Drawings of Lawren Harris, Toronto/Vancouver, 1982, page 29 The Paintings of Lawren Harris Compiled by Mrs. Gordon Mills July- Dec. 1936, Algoma Sketches (typescript, Library and Archives of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)

Lawren Harris first travelled to Algoma with Dr. James MacCallum, patron of Tom Thomson and co-financier of the Studio Building, in May 1918. Enchanted by what he encountered, Harris returned in the fall with fellow artists J.E.H. MacDonald and Frank Johnston. The various members of the future Group of Seven would return to Algoma over the next three years. Harris recounts that they “found Algoma a rugged, wild land packed with an amazing variety of subjects.... It was a veritable paradise for the creative adventure in paint.” The discovery of the Algoma territory came at a critical time for Harris; it would be a place for the artist to renew his practice following the deaths of Tom Thomson and of his brother who was killed in the war and Harris’ subsequent medical discharge from the army. This intricate pencil sketch of an island on a lake is remarkably bold, the crisp shadows and silhouettes creating a veritable vision of the dramatic northern landscape. Joan Murray writes that, in this region, “...[Harris] saw a new kind of landscape – breathtakingly monumental, profoundly impressive to his spirit. His art, as a result, changed fundamentally.” Rare for Harris, the subject was one he returned to on multiple occasions, the stylized island appearing in several works across a multitude of media beginning with the oil sketch “Algoma (Algoma Sketch 48)” of 1919-20 (Consignor Canadian Fine Art, 31 May 2016, lot 36) and the canvas “Island, MacCallum Lake” of 1921 (Vancouver Art Gallery). He subsequently reworked the composition in the 1924 canvas “Northern Island, Northern Painting XXV” of 1924 (Joyner Fine Art, Toronto, 28- 29 November 1989, lot 109) and in “Northern Island” of 1924 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield). An additional canvas, “Island, Northern Painting XXI” was catalogued by Doris Mills as unfinished and the billowing clouds of our drawing are closest to this last work. The subject clearly retained the artist’s interest as a canvas titled “Island in Algoma” of 1960-61 was included in Harris’ 1963 Retrospective Exhibition. This work was previously misidentified as depicting a scene in Algonquin from 1912. We extend our thanks to Charles Hill, Canadian art historian, former Curator of Canadian Art with the National Gallery of Canada and author of “The Group of Seven - Art for a Nation”, for his assistance in researching this artwork.