Coronet Mountain, Brazeau Glacier, 1924, circa 1924

Collection of the Artist Bess Harris, Vancouver Laing Galleries, Toronto Jennings D. Young, Toronto, circa 1966 Kenneth R. Thomson, Toronto Private Collection A.K. Prakash & Associates, Toronto Masters Gallery, Calgary, 2020 Private Collection

"The Jennings Young Collection", Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, 20 September–15 October 1967, no. 21 as "Brazeau Glacier and Coronet Mountain", 11 x 14 ins, circa 1925 "Small Landscapes by the Group of Seven From the Collection of Mr. Jennings Young", McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton, 23 February–16 March 1986, no. 7 as "Brazeau Glacier", 10 5/8 x 10 1⁄2 ins, [sic] 1925-1926 "Lawren Harris: Works from Private Collections", Masters Gallery, Calgary, 22 October-1 November 2016

A.Y. Jackson, 'Artists in the Mountains', "The Canadian Forum", (January 1925), pages 112-114 Lisa Christensen, "A Hiker’s Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris", Calgary, 2000, pages 50-54, 132-133 notes 43-62, 128-129, 132, notes 43-44

In the summer of 1924 Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson travelled to Jasper Park and painted at Maligne Lake and in the Tonquin Valley. This was Harris’ first expedition to the Rockies and he was enthralled, initiating his lifelong fascination with the mountains. In January 1925 Jackson described their experiences in the pages of "The Canadian Forum". “We camped at the south end of Maligne Lake on a wide delta of gravel which Coronation Creek is hurling out into the lake. ...[U]p a valley we could see the great Brazeau icefields, and, ... we climbed above timber ... and looked across great rolling pastures to the glaciers that almost cover Mount Henry McLeod and Coronet Peak.” In her important book, "A Hiker’s Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris", Lisa Christensen illustrated two Harris oil sketches depicting the region between Coronet Glacier and Mount Henry MacLeod: "South End of Maligne Lake" in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and "Coronet Glacier Near Maligne Lake" (Private Collection) (see lot 124). Harris had originally identified three sketches of Coronet Glacier, painted on 10 1⁄2 x 13 3⁄4 inch panels, for inclusion in his 1948 exhibition: 8. "Coronet Glacier, Jasper"; 9. "Coronet Mountain & Glacier"; and 10. "Coronet Glacier". The oil sketch presented here, "Coronet Mountain, Brazeau Glacier", was number nine on that list (as marked on the verso) and is one of the five sketches Harris painted in one day, as he again inscribed on the back of this sketch and on the back of the McMichael sketch. "Coronet Mountain, Brazeau Glacier" is key to the understanding of the evolution of two canvases by Harris depicting the Brazeau Icefields: the unlocated canvas, "Mountain Glacier, Mountain Painting VIII", as well as "Brazeau Snow Field, Mountain Painting XII", the latter shown in the January 1925 exhibition of the Group of Seven and also offered in this sale. In the McMichael sketch, the open foreground allows an expansive view of the valley, painted in rich browns and dark greens, and of the glacier and two mountain peaks. The snow on the upper peaks is bordered by blue shadows, and yellow-edged clouds animate the blue sky. In "Coronet Mountain, Brazeau Glacier", Harris has zoomed in on the glacier. A dramatic diagonal dark brown and green ridge defines the right foreground leading to the rich green rocks lower left. The broadly painted avalanche of snow and ice is framed by a single peak at the right, the shadows painted with a fluid brush in mauve-blues and blue- greens, with greenish-brown snow-covered rocks at the left. Heavy sculpted grey and white clouds move across the sky. Both sketches include the harp-like pattern of snow on the central rocks. "Coronet Mountain, Brazeau Glacier" served as the source for an unlocated canvas titled "Mountain Glacier, Mountain Painting VIII", measuring 48 x 60 inches and known only from a drawing by Hans Jensen in Doris Mills’ 1936 inventory of the unsold paintings Harris left in Toronto when he moved to Dartmouth, New Hampshire in 1934. The snow- capped rock forms at the left and sweep of snow and ice around the central rocks closely follow the design of this oil sketch, though he included the twin peaks depicted in the McMichael sketch. The clouds appear to retain the solid density and patterning of the clouds in the sketch offered here. The year 1924 marked a turning point in Lawren Harris’ career. He discovered subject matter that would obsess him for decades and, the following year, possibly to accommodate the scale of his new subject matter, he began to paint on larger panels that were approximately 12 x 15 inches. We extend our thanks to Charles Hill, Canadian art historian, former Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada and author of "The Group of Seven‒Art for a Nation", for his assistance in researching this artwork and for contributing the preceding essay.