Sumach and Sun Glow, Georgian Bay, 1944

Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal Private Collection, Toronto

“Little Pictures Exhibition, 73rd Annual Exhibition”, Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto, January 1945

Arthur’s Lismer’s “Sumach and Sun Glow” of 1944 illustrates the transient effects of autumn sunlight as it falls over a sumach bush. Lismer employs varying painting techniques wherein the heavy impasto of the rock formation is juxtaposed with fine lines etched into the bush, emphasizing the delicacy of the sumach and its intertwining foliage. The artist’s colour palette is filled with light, unifying the composition with hues of vibrant greens, reds, yellows and orange contrasting with warm greys and browns. With effective brushstrokes, Lismer captures the radiance of the red sumach and the warm autumnal glow of the Georgian Bay hillside. Arthur Lismer was an exceptional painter and a visionary art educator. During the 1940s, Lismer began his teaching appointment at the Art Association of Montreal (now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). According to Angela Nairne Grigor, Montreal was at the forefront of developments in Canadian Art and Lismer was alive to the possibilities which Montreal presented. Lismer pioneered new progressive ideas in art education through his work with children and founded The Montreal Children’s Art Centre, one of North America’s most innovative children’s art programs. Lismer believed that art was for everyone, not for the privileged few, and was influential to generations of Canadian artists who studied under his tutelage.