Wedding Gift of Arthur Lismer to a Private Collection, Montreal, 1955
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto
Literature
Lois Darroch, “Bright Land: A Warm Look at Arthur Lismer”, Toronto, 1981, page 104
Dennis Reid, “Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer”, Toronto, 1985, page 46
A founding member of the Group of Seven, Arthur Lismer’s “Georgian Bay Landscape” captures the vital undergrowth of the forest floor. Surrounded by dense foliage, the twisting roots of the iconic trees of Georgian Bay reach for the depths of the earth beneath it. Author Lois Darroch wrote, “Lismer said his Group friends stepped right over the foreground of their paintings as if it did not exist. He was beginning to enjoy making clarity out of the confusion of twisting roots and random growth, for in the foreground, right at his feet, was where life began.” Lismer’s signature “sgraffito” technique is evident wherein the point–end of the brush is used to incise animated lines into the surface, imbuing it with the feverish vitality that animated the Georgian Bay landscape.
Lismer travelled to Georgian Bay regularly throughout his career, creating an extensive body of work that speaks to the admiration he felt for the landscape and its topography. The artist’s written observations tell us that it was the raw and natural beauty of Georgian Bay that provided the ultimate inspiration for his paintings. Author Dennis Reid describes the paintings Lismer produced in Georgian Bay as both vital and exciting, exhibiting “the outrageous hedonism of their sensuous materiality.”
