Blue Bay, 1952

Picture Loan Society, Toronto, circa 1953 Douglas Duncan, Toronto Acquired by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1961

"Watercolours by David Milne", Picture Loan Society, Toronto, 28 February-13 March 1953, no. 13 "David Milne (1882-1953)", National Exhibition Centre, Swift Current, Saskatoon, 18 June-18 July 1981 "Historical Canadian Works from the Collection", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 31 May-18 October 1986 "David Milne", Winnipeg Art Gallery; travelling to Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon; Thunder Bay Art Gallery, 8 January 1998-28 May 2000

David P. Silcox, "Painting Place: The Life and Work of David B. Milne", Toronto, 1996, reproduced page 367 "The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1912-1962: An Introduction to the History, the Activities and Collection", Winnipeg, 1962, page 28 "David Milne (1882-1953)", Swift Current, Saskatoon, 1981, unpaginated, reproduced Amber Nasrulla, 'Baptiste Lake: Big Rocks, Big Fish, A Big-Name Artist-and Bancroft Right Next Door', "Cottage Life", Vol 10.1, March 1997, reproduced page 85 David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, "David B. Milne: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 2: 1929-1953", Toronto, 1998, listed and reproduced page 974, no. 503.36

Throughout his life, David Milne was frequently on the move, restlessly seeking out new painting places. This tendency continued into the final decade of his life. Milne first scouted out Baptiste Lake in the fall of 1947, travelling by rail from his home in Uxbridge to the strikingly picturesque area eight miles west of Bancroft, Ontario. On a later trip, the artist purchased a lot by the lake for $10 from the Department of Lands and Forests. In 1949, Milne built a cabin on the site which would act as his studio for the next three years. A keen observer of nature, Milne had an extraordinary ability to capture details in his surroundings with a radical economy of means. Art historian David Silcox noted; “Unlike other painters of the Canadian landscape, Milne was attuned to the subtler qualities of temperature, humidity, wind and light… Milne seems to have taken his measure of the landscape by the feeling of it on his skin, by the height, formation, colour and character of clouds, and by the effect of sunlight on the whole vista.” “Blue Bay” depicts the lake from a high vantage point, with cabins, docks and boats dotting the shores. In his late period, Milne often dampened the paper before applying watercolour paints, creating a delicate, soft-focus effect. Rapid, energetic lines help to define the scene. With direct and deliberate wide swaths of blue, Milne efficiently depicts sunlight on open water. Rather than complete his watercolours en plein air, Milne often sketched quickly from observation in pencil, working up his impressions in paints in the following days or even months later. Noted in the artist’s diary, “Blue Bay” was painted in February but wonderfully celebrates the brilliant hues of autumn.