signed lower right; signed and titled on the reverse
12 × 15 in (30.5 × 38.1 cm)
Auction Estimate:$20,000 - $30,000
Sale date:November 19, 2019
Price Realized
$21,240
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature
Ted Herriot, Sunday Morning with Cass: Conversations with A.J. Casson, Mississauga, Ontario, 1993, page 247
The hamlet of Combermere is located along the banks of the Madawaska River, an area that A.J. Casson often visited to paint the picturesque surroundings. “Autumn Woodland, Combermere”, exemplifies the influence of the Group of Seven, with the compositional screen of trees, close vantage point and contrasting use of light and shade. The painting employs these Group characteristics, while also maintaining Casson’s quintessential controlled palette and original handling of the bright autumnal colours.
“Autumn Woodland” was painted two years after Casson retired from Sampson-Matthews to devote himself full-time to his art. This decision proved fruitful, as Casson held his first one-man show at Roberts Gallery in 1959 and by the mid-60s his shows were consistently selling out. As Ted Herriot shared of the artist in Sunday Morning with Cass, “although he modestly accorded serendipity with being a factor prevalent in much of his success, it was, in fact, as much due to his unwavering determination and abundance of energy. Throughout his life he was one ‘those who make things happen’ much more so than of ‘those who watch things happen.’”
