Untitled (Broken Tree in Landscape), 1931

Collection of The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1956 (Acquired by The Women's Committee of the Winnipeg Art Gallery)

Paintings by the Canadian Group of Painters, Annual Art Exhibit, Heinz Art Salon, Heinz Ocean Pier, Atlantic City, N.J., Summer 1933, no. 19 as Dead Tree An Exhibition of Paintings by the Canadian Group of Painters, Art Gallery of Toronto, 3 November–early December, 1933, no. 19 as Dead Tree "Exhibition of Paintings by Canadian Group of Painters", Art Association of Montreal, 1-21 January 1934, no. 16 as "Dead Tree" "Memorial Room for LeMoine FitzGerald 1890-1956", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 30 March 1957, no. 4 as "Broken Tree in Landscape" "FitzGerald-Memorial Exhibition", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 23 February–23 March 1958, no. 66 "FitzGerald 1890-1956", Brush and Palette Club, Portage la Prairie, October 1958, no. 4 "The First Ten Years of the Women’s Committee/An Enthusiastic Venture", Winnipeg Art Gallery, 16 April–12 May 1961, no. 13 "Canadian Painting in the Thirties", National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1975, no. 44 "Works of Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and David Brown Milne", Southern Art Gallery, Lethbridge, 1977 "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: The Development of an Artist", Winnipeg Art Gallery; travelling to National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary, 28 July 1978–1 December 1979, no. 25 "FitzGerald in Context", Gallery One One One, University of Manitoba, 11 October–9 November 2007 "A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters", Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston; travelling to The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, 16 March 2013–21 September 2014, no. 14 "Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald", McMichael Canadian Art Collection; travelling to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, 12 October–7 September 2020

"The Winnipeg Art Gallery 1912-1962: An Introduction to the History, the Activities, and Collection", Winnipeg, 1962, page 31 Frank Bagnall, 'Canadian Artists’ Show', "Saturday Night 48", 21 October 1933, no. 50 L.L. FitzGerald to Bertram Brooker, 19 February 1937 Paul Duval, "High Realism in Canada", Toronto, 1974, page 38 Charles C. Hill, "Canadian Painting in the Thirties", Ottawa, 1975, page 71, reproduced page 81 Ann Davis, 'Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: A North American Artist', in "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: The Development of an Artist", Winnipeg, 1978, reproduced page 47 Lund Humphries, "The True North: Canadian Landscape Painting 1896- 1939", London, 1991, reproduced page 94 "Art Talks Tours Videos Brochure", Winnipeg Art Gallery, November- December 1998, reproduced "Winnipeg Art Gallery Pocket Exhibition Schedule", Fall/Winter 1998/1999, reproduced "The Volunteer Committee 50th Anniversary Project", Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, 1998, reproduced page 4 Linda Jansma, 'Highlights from the Exhibitions 1933-1938', in "A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters", Kingston, 2013, page 41, reproduced page 40 Michael Parke-Taylor, "Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald: Life & Work", Art Canada Institute [online publication], 2019, reproduced page 70 Sarah Milroy, Ian A.C. Dejardin and Michael Parke-Taylor, "Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald", Kleinburg, 2020, reproduced page 53

Winnipeg artist Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald sensed a “definite connection” to the Ontario-based Group of Seven although his aims differed significantly. He did not seek sublime views of Canada's vast wilderness as source material for his work nor did he buy into the Group’s aggressive brand of Canadian nationalism. His was a subtle approach to Canadian consciousness communicated by depicting the Winnipeg prairie and urban surroundings that he loved. With a sequence of exceptional paintings, including "Pritchard’s Fence", circa 1928 (Art Gallery of Ontario), "Poplar Woods (Poplars)", 1929 (Winnipeg Art Gallery), and "Doc Snyder’s House", 1931 (National Gallery of Canada), FitzGerald achieved artistic maturity in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In May 1932, Arthur Lismer, acting on behalf of the Group of Seven, invited FitzGerald to become an official member. He was pleased to accept this recognition as the only Western Canadian artist to join their ranks. However, his direct association with them was short-lived. The Group disbanded by early 1933 and formed The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP), a larger exhibiting society consisting of the up-and-coming generation of Canadian modernists. FitzGerald was a founding member. The first opportunity for the CGP to exhibit came during the summer of 1933 at the Heinz Art Salon located on the Heinz Ocean Pier, Atlantic City. Realizing that this would offer an international stage to showcase contemporary Canadian art south of the border, the participating artists chose those paintings which best represented their work. FitzGerald selected three outstanding small pictures that he had never exhibited: "At Silver Heights", 1931 (Art Gallery of Ontario), "Apples, Still Life", 1933 (Private Collection), and "Untitled (Broken Tree in Landscape)", originally titled "Dead Tree". An American reviewer of the CGP exhibition, Frank Bagnall, singled out "Untitled (Broken Tree in Landscape)": “FitzGerald’s Dead Tree has a purity of form akin to the work of Georgia O’Keefe [sic].” Furthermore, FitzGerald’s painting evokes a similar kind of mystical wonder and beauty as that found in O’Keeffe’s visionary landscapes. FitzGerald’s special relationship with nature is well documented in his writings. “The seeing of a tree, a cloud, an earth form always gives me a greater feeling of life than the human body. I really sense the life in the former, and only occasionally in the latter. I rarely feel so free in social intercourse with humans as I always feel with trees.” The tree featured in "Untitled (Broken Tree in Landscape)" is almost split in two, its upper trunk twisted and stripped of bark as if to reveal underlying muscle tissue and its splintered base evoking the legs of a human being. In keeping with his belief that nature is animated by a vital, living force, FitzGerald invests the seemingly dead tree with a life of its own. He adds a mystical element with a focused beam of light that illuminates a verdant valley bounded by a blue, curved, and shimmering aura. This painting conveys enigmatic and dream-like qualities (“surreal” as some observers have noted) that contribute to its originality making it one of the artist’s most accomplished pictures from the height of his career. Michael Parke-Taylor is a Canadian art historian, curator, and author of "Bertram Brooker: When We Awake!" (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2024) and editor of "Some Magnetic Force: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald Writings" (Concordia University Press, 2023). 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.