Summer Idyll by Walter Joseph Phillips

Provenance:
Private Collection, New Brunswick

Literature:
Nancy Green, Kate Rutherford and Toni Tomlinson, “Walter J. Phillips”, Portland, Oregon, 2013, illustrated page 28
Maria Tippett and Douglas Cole, “Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips on Canadian Nature and Art”, Winnipeg, 1982, page 30, illustrated on the dust jacket and page 31
Roger Boulet, “The Tranquility and the Turbulence”, Toronto, 1981, illustrated page 71
Roger Boulet, “Walter J. Phillips: The Complete Graphic Works”, Toronto, 1981, illustrated page 239

Walter Joseph Phillips is revered as one of Canada’s most accomplished printmakers, with artworks rich in masterful technique, graceful design and harmonious balance. The formation of a colour woodcut is a long process. The first step is to create a sketch in the field, then produce a watercolour in the studio and then, design the woodblock, which involves carving the blocks and preparing the paper. “Summer Idyll” is the largest woodcut ever executed by Phillips - eighteen woodblocks were utilized in its creation. Dissatisfied with the first run of this subject, Phillips went on to destroy it.

In the summer of 1925, the Phillips family visited Lake Muskoka in Ontario for three weeks and vacationed in a cottage on Big Island. Phillips and his wife, Gladys, had six children and the artist often had the children pose for him as models in outdoor locations. The natural beauty of Big Island inspired Phillips. As the artist shared, “The weather was glorious, the air was soft, the sandy shores inciting. My young family disported itself in the water and along the shore all day long. Here was an exceptional opportunity. I made sketches of the children...They made splendid willing models.” Upon his return to Winnipeg after this holiday, Phillips created woodcuts from these summer sketches. “Summer Idyll”, recognized as one of his most accomplished woodcuts, depicts an incandescent scene of happiness as his daughter reaches her arms towards the butterflies flying by. The charm of this work is in the detail, from the gentle ripple of the water, to the soft lichen on the rocks, to the lush grass. “Summer Idyll” evokes the innocence of childhood and is executed with an exquisite technique that only Phillips could accomplish.

In 1926, The Graphic Arts Club of Toronto awarded “Summer Idyll” a bronze medal for the best colour woodcut, welcome recognition and appreciation for the artist’s great skill in this medium.