J.D. Turner, Alberta
Canadian Art Galleries, Calgary
By descent to the present Private Collection, Alberta
This intricate oil sketch was painted during Beatty and A.Y. Jackson’s 1914 trip out west; while the two were commissioned to paint the construction camps of the Canadian Northern Railway through the Rocky Mountains. It was the pair’s first trip to Western Canada; they were particularly struck by the mountain landscape in contrast to familiar Ontario scenery. Beatty beautifully depicts Lake Edith during the changing of the leaves, just prior to their return home in the fall of 1914.
Very few artworks from this noteworthy trip remain by either Beatty or Jackson. “Lake Edith, Jasper Park” (as well as the following lot by Jackson, also of Jasper) was originally purchased by J.D. Turner, the owner of Calgary’s Canadian Art Galleries between 1945 and 1965. Turner was a painter himself and a friend of A.Y Jackson. He was the first to exhibit the work of the Group of Seven in Alberta, selling and renting the work of the celebrated artists to local collectors in Western Canada.
This oil painting demonstrates Beatty’s development toward a lighter, more decorative palette found in his post-war paintings. He travelled throughout Europe between 1906 and 1909, where he temporarily adopted the dark and moody colour scheme of traditional French and Dutch schools. Returning to Toronto after his travels, Canadian subjects, first and foremost, were the goal of Beatty’s practice as a way of making a patriotic statement. A forerunner to the Group of Seven, Beatty demonstrates in this 1914 oil sketch the nationalist pride he took in painting a uniquely Canadian landscape.
