Near Métis, Quebec by Lawren Stewart Harris
Lawren Harris
Near Métis, Quebec
oil on panel
signed lower right; signed and titled on the reverse
10.5 x 13.75 ins ( 26.7 x 34.9 cms )
Auction Estimate: $90,000.00 - $120,000.00
Price Realized $114,000.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2021
Private Collection
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
Private Collection, Toronto
Jeremy Adamson, “Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes, 1906-1930”, Toronto, 1978, page 118
“A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
Paul Duval, “Lawren Harris: Where the Universe Sings”, Toronto, 2011, page 26
Hartland W. Price, “Lawren Harris du Groupe des Sept : sur les traces d’un tableau”, Magazine Gaspésie, 55(2), 2018, pages 37–39.
From 1910 to 1918, Harris painted the buildings and streets of Toronto. In 1913, an exhibition of modern Scandinavian painting at the Albright Gallery in Buffalo had a profound effect upon him, due to its bold expression of the raw northern landscape. After this, the artist began to broaden his subject matter to include the landscape that surrounded the urban and suburban houses. The early 1920s, arguably the most important years of Harris’ career, brought much critical success and changes to his artistic output. He became the driving force behind the Group of Seven. A.Y. Jackson claimed: “Without Harris there would have been no Group of Seven. He provided the stimulus; it was he who encouraged us always to take the bolder course, to find new trails.” By 1918 Lawren Harris had travelled to the Algoma region in the company of MacDonald and Johnston. In 1920 they held their famous inaugural exhibition at the Art Museum of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario). Harris wrote “The group of seven artists whose pictures are here exhibited have for several years held a like vision concerning art in Canada. They are all imbued with the idea that an art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people...”
“Near Métis, Quebec” was painted circa 1921, during this key period in Harris’ life as a groundbreaking artist. The lush green setting of this charming oil on panel features two buildings with red roofs surrounded by fir trees, a grassy lawn and a wooded hill in the background. It was only a year later that the painter began to exclude any houses from his compositions, as he turned his interest toward the barren landscapes of the North Shore of Lake Superior. Jeremy Adamson writes that “In 1922 the artist exhibited eleven urban subjects in a variety of exhibitions but the following year the number was reduced to only
two works. ... It was not until 1925-26 that Harris returned to the theme of houses, creating a series of disparate works that bear a closer relationship to the pictorial issues of the landscapes painted during that period than the city scenes of 1918-23.”
The regional county municipality of La Mitis, where villages such as Grand-Métis and Métis-sur-mer are found, is situated in the Bas- Saint-Laurent Region of Quebec on the Gaspé Peninsula. The names “Métis” and “Mitis” are said to come from a Mi’kmaq word meaning “meeting place”, which refers to the area’s location, where the Saint- Lawrence River meets the Mitis River. The region is historically known as a destination for upper-class cottage-goers across Ontario and anglophone Quebec. It is thus fitting that Lawren Harris was aware of Métis and vacationed there during his life. “Near Métis, Quebec” presents a rare subject for Harris, as there is very little documentation of Harris’ time spent in the area. It is remarkable to learn that during a highly active period for the artist, while taking sketching trips to Lake Superior and exhibiting in Toronto following the formation of the Group of Seven, Harris found the time to travel 1,200 kilometers east to vacation in the Gaspé.
In a letter from Harris to a then-popular Métis hotel, Hôtel Boule Rock, dating from March 6, 1922, it is written: “Dear Sir, My family consists of my wife and self, two children and nurse. We desire to spend the summer at Métis. Have you any houses for rent or do you know of any close enough to the Boule Rock so that we can get our meals there. Will you kindly give me what information you can with prices[?] Some years ago we spent the summer in Mrs. Godfrey’s house. Yours truly, Lawren Harris.”
There is also evidence of the artist’s presence in the area even earlier: in the archives of “The Globe and Mail”, dated June 22, 1915, “The Social Events” section mentions that Lawren Harris is in Métis. Furthermore, in the 1978 exhibition catalogue for the AGO’s show entitled, “Lawren S. Harris: Urban Scenes and Wilderness Landscapes 1906-1930”, Jeremy Adamson, states “Harris’ Métis Beach oil studies [...] depict small cottages and houses set against the green background of the river shore.” While Adamson likely implies that there were numerous studies created, they appear to be virtually unknown to the public. “Near Métis, Quebec” is a rare and important painting in Lawren Harris’ body of work. It offers a glimpse into the little-known vacations in Quebec that the artist took with his young family during some of the prime years of his career.
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Lawren Stewart Harris
(1885 - 1970) Group of Seven, Canadian Group of Painters
Lawren Harris was born in Brantford, Ontario and at the age of 19 went to Berlin for academic training. His first two years included study in pencil, charcoal and watercolours. He took instruction in the studio mornings, out-of-doors sketching in the slums of Berlin afternoons, and sketching figures in the studio evenings in watercolour and drawing media. His last two years were spent in the study of portraits and figures in oils. Two of his teachers were Mr. Wille and Mr. Schlabitz. Schlabitz accompanied him in the summer on a walking tour of the Austrian Tyrol where Harris did some sketching. After his study in Germany Harris travelled in Palestine and Arabia with Norman Duncan where he did illustrations. He then visited lumber camps in Minnesota where he made illustrations for Harper’s magazine.
By 1910 Harris was back in Toronto where he saw everything with fresh eyes. His work had more vigour and sensitivity to colour and form. His first studio was located over Giles grocery store, north of Bloor and Yonge Streets. His attraction for the poorer areas of town gained him the reputation of socialist painter. His “house portraits” brought a storm of criticism against him. In Toronto the Arts and Letters Club had been formed only two years before Harris’ return and it was not long before he was an active member. It was at the Arts and Letters Club that Harris first saw the attractive sketches of J.E.H. MacDonald in 1911. Harris and MacDonald became good friends and shared an appreciation of the arts in depth. They visited Buffalo together in January of 1913 to see the exhibition of Scandinavian art which had been reviewed in art magazines. This exhibition made a deep impression on both artists. Harris took sketching trips with MacDonald in 1912 at Mattawa and Timiskaming and in 1913 they went to the Laurentians. Harris met other artists at the Arts and Letters Club. Many of them like MacDonald were working for the Grip Engraving Company as commercial artists.
In 1914 Harris and Dr. James MacCallum conceived the idea of building a studio building which could accommodate Canadian artists of ability who could devote their full attentions to painting, free from the pressures of commercialism. Many Canadian artists were drifting south to the U.S. and it was Harris’ and MacCallum’s hope that such a plan would prevent the loss of all of Canada’s most talented painters. Harris was well off through his connection with Massey-Harris (his grandfather was a founder of the firm) and so was Dr. MacCallum. They realized their plan and the Studio Building was erected on Severn Street in Toronto.
Harris became the driving force behind the Group of Seven. A.Y. Jackson claimed: "Without Harris there would have been no Group of Seven. He provided the stimulus; it was he who encouraged us always to take the bolder course, to find new trails." By 1918 Lawren Harris had travelled to the Algoma region in the company of MacDonald and Johnston. In 1920 they held an exhibition at the Art Museum of Toronto (Art Gallery of Ontario). Harris wrote “The group of seven artists whose pictures are here exhibited have for several years held a like vision concerning art in Canada. They are all imbued with the idea that an art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people…” Harris made his first trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior in 1921.
His search for a deeper spiritual meaning eventually took him to the stark landscapes of the far north. By the late 1920s the artist's work strove to capture the spiritual essence of the bold landforms of the Rockies and the Arctic. Throughout the ensuing decade Harris continued to simplify and abstract his landscapes until his subjects became non-representational. Lawren Harris worked as a member of the Transcendental Group of Painters in Santa Fe, New Mexico for two years, returning to Canada in 1940 and settling in Vancouver for the remainder of his lifetime.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979