La Cloche, 1936

Estate of the artist Private Collection, Ontario

Megan Bice, “Light and Shadow, The Work of Franklin Carmichael”, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, pages 48 and 85 Joan Murray, “Rocks: Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, and the Group of Seven”, Toronto, page 17

By 1932, Franklin Carmichael had abandoned commercial art permanently and took on a teaching position at the Ontario College of Art. Following the Group of Seven’s disbandment in 1933, the artist was one of the founders of the Canadian Group of Painters, which several members of the Group of Seven would later join. The 1930s were a highly productive decade for Carmichael, as he honed his use of form and colour, and intensified his strategy of perspective. His fondness for the La Cloche Mountain of Ontario led him to build a log cabin on Grace Lake in 1934–35. His new residence gave Carmichael the opportunity to depict his surroundings at all times of day. The artist’s landscapes from this period, such as “La Cloche”, are elegant pictures composed of strong, linear rhythms that flow through the hills and shorelines. The oil painting shows a view from a high vantage point, highlighting Carmichael’s skilled use of perspective. An uneven terrain of grey rocks dominate the foreground, which slope downward toward a calm lake. The viewer’s eye is then directed upward again, through emerald green trees and up another rocky mountain set beneath a glowing blue sky in the distance.