Arthur Leggett Fine Art & Antiques, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature
Charles Beale, “Manly MacDonald: Interpreter of Old Ontario”, Napanee, 2010, page 58
Manly Macdonald was a master of composition, taking great pains in each of his works to develop the canvas. A 1944 article from the Windsor Star described his process thus: “Macdonald insists that the composition is the most important element in successful painting, and takes a long time to plan his canvas. But once his composition is successfully outlined, he applies colour with an almost incredible speed, sometimes completing a whole canvas in a single sitting.” This combination of an academic approach to composition with an impressionist’s approach to applying paint rapidly with all the spontaneity that comes from it, reveals a polar tension in his work between modern and traditional styles that is distinctively present across his oeuvre.
In “The Postman, Shannonville”, Macdonald creates a sense of serenity through balance and unity. Every line leads our eye to the centre of the work, to the postman and his horse-drawn carriage. While Shannonville, the town depicted here, no longer exists, the careful composition combined with the energetic brushwork transport the viewer back in time to a younger rural Ontario.
