Through the Clearing, circa 1870

Antique market, Provincetown, Massachusetts David Burnett, Toronto, Summer 1981 Christopher Varley, Toronto, 1984 Rembrandt Art Gallery, Toronto Acquired by the present Private Collection, August 1984

“Collector’s Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; travelling to Musée du Québec, Quebec City; Vancouver Art Gallery; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, 14 May 1988–7 May 1989, no. 11 “Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven”, Vancouver Art Gallery; travelling to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Art Gallery of Hamilton, 29 October 2015‒5 September 2016

Dennis Reid, “Collector’s Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Toronto, 1988, no. 11, reproduced page 23 Ian Thom, et al., “Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven”, Vancouver/London, 2015, reproduced page 32

The landscapes of Aaron Allan Edson were influenced by the teachings of the American artist Robert Duncanson and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s propensity for detailed compositions, which he absorbed while studying in England in the 1860s. While his works are rooted in the direct observation of nature, they primarily highlight his concern with the play of reflected light and atmospheric effects. Like many other young landscapists of his generation, Edson was driven to “go to nature in all singleness of heart [...] rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing,” as John Ruskin suggested in “Modern Painters”, published between 1843 and 1860. Unlike Otto Jacobi and Adolphe Vogt whose works celebrated the monumental views of the Canadian landscape, Edson favoured more intimate representations, where the stillness of nature took precedence. “Through the Clearing” demonstrates the artist’s subtle use of a muted palette to depict fall scenery in a realistic manner. In the foreground, the undergrowth has been rendered in rich textures and warm shades of jade, burnt orange and russet, reminiscent of Duncanson’s style. Despite towering fir and leafy trees framing the edge of the canvas, Edson draws our attention instead to an open vista overlooking the water and the distant mountains stretching along the horizon. Here the Canadian wilderness appears more restrained and serene, offering viewers a small glimpse of the vast expanse of land that defines this country. As a founding member of the Society of Canadian Artists, Edson exhibited in their first show in 1868. By the 1870s, he had successfully established himself as one of Canada’s most prominent landscape artists.