Blue and Gold (Blue and Gold-Temagami Forest or Harmony in Blue & Gold) by George Agnew Reid

Provenance:
Collection of the Artist
Collection of The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1943

Exhibited:
"Canadian Painting Exhibition of Selected Artists", National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, November 1935, no. 92 as "Harmony in Blue and Gold"
"Works by Senior Painters in Canada", Art Gallery of Toronto, January 1937, no.63 as "Harmony in Blue and Gold"
"Fifty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy", Art Association of Montreal, December 1937, no. 184
"Stored Secrets: The Vault on View", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 11 September-27 November 1994
"A River Runs Through It: Impressions of Canada's Waterways", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 30 June-23 August 1996
"Canadian Mosaic: Selections from the WAG's 20th Century Canadian Collection", The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 21 August 2004-6 March 2005
10th Anniversary Art Exhibition, Gallery in the Park, Winnipeg, 7 June 2018-15 July 2018

Literature:
'Review of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy', "Montreal Gazette", Montreal, 1937
Muriel Miller‒Miner, "G.A. Reid Canadian Artist, Toronto", 1946, pages 162-163, listed page 206

In 1928, the year in which "Blue and Gold" was painted, George A. Reid was given a year’s leave of absence at full salary by the Council of the Ontario College of Art in recognition of his steadfast service to the cause of art education. Reid and his second wife, Mary Wrinch, went on a summer sketching trip that year. They spent a month in Port Hope and then set out on the Ferguson Highway to Temagami in search of inspiration. This artistic period marks Reid’s foray into landscape painting, when he took a sojourn from recording social history, and instead fully embraced depicting lakes, rivers, countryside and scenes of serenity.

Muriel Miller-Miner records the fine detail and compositional aptitude of this painting in "G.A. Reid Canadian Artist", stating, “Rhythmically spaced black spruces rise in front of a steel-blue lake; yellow woods beyond are touched by flaming sunrays.” Miller-Miner continues, “During this period Reid was painting quiet scenes of lake-studded stretches of forest and barren rock tableland, flaming northern sunsets and expanses of blue sky and metallic water, raging torrents and foaming spray. The rugged grandeur of the north, he depicted from Algoma to Temagami and from Abiti to Lake Nipigon.” The power and atmospheric expression of "Blue and Gold" marks it as a superb example of Reid’s masterly hand.

This artwork is being sold to benefit the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq in establishing an endowment fund to support more diverse representation in the permanent collection, beginning with contemporary Canadian art. Cowley Abbott is pleased to donate our selling commission to the fund as part of the sale.