Entrance, Quidi Vidi: Newfoundland Sketch II, 1921 by Lawren Stewart Harris
Lawren Harris
Entrance, Quidi Vidi: Newfoundland Sketch II, 1921
oil on beaver board
signed lower right; signed and titled on the reverse, dated 1921 on a label on the reverse, with a cross in a circle in black ink on the reverse
10.75 x 13.75 in ( 27.3 x 34.9 cm )
Auction Estimate: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00
Price Realized $108,000.00
Sale date: November 27th 2024
Collection of the Artist
Private Collection
Christie’s, auction, Montreal, 24 October 1974, lot 95
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection
"Small Pictures Exhibition by Members of the Ontario Society of Artists", Art Gallery of Toronto, 20 October 1923, no. 59 as "Newfoundland Sketch II" at $60
"Lawren Harris Paintings 1910-1948", Art Gallery of Toronto, October- November 1948, no. 117 as "Entrance to Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland" (Collection of the Artist)
"Lawren Harris Retrospective Exhibition of His Painting, 1910-1948",
Vancouver Art Gallery, 1-20 March 1948, possibly one of the sketches nos. 71-90
"The Paintings of Lawren Harris Compiled by Mrs. Gordon Mills July-December 1936", Miscellaneous Sketches Group 5, no. 32 as "Newfoundland Sketch"
In the early spring of 1921, Harris travelled to Halifax, his interest possibly stimulated by conversations with Arthur Lismer who taught in Halifax from 1916 to 1919 and by the paintings of A.Y. Jackson who painted in and around Halifax from February to April 1919. From this trip came two exceptional canvases, "Black Court, Halifax" (National Gallery of Canada) and "Elevator Court, Halifax" (Art Gallery of Ontario) depicting frame tenement buildings on Barrington Street east of Cornwallis Street. Interestingly no oil sketches or drawings of Halifax by Harris have been identified and no canvases appear to have resulted from his Newfoundland sketches.
Harris didn’t travel far in Newfoundland as all his paintings depict the village and port of Quidi Vidi, within walking distance and north of Signal Hill in Saint John’s. His sketches focus on the houses and fishing stages around the harbour or the undulating landscapes of the nearby hills. The most dramatic sketches focus on the Gut or entrance to Quidi Vidi Harbour as in this work here. The cliffs are crowned by green grass as in the more distanced view depicted in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection sketch, "Newfoundland Coast" (1968.16.2). In "Newfoundland Coast" (sold at Sotheby’s Ritchies’s, Toronto, 31 May 2004, lot 86) the foreground rocks play a greater role as they do in "Entrance to Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland" (sold at Heffel Fine Art Auction House, 27 May 2015, lot 116) in which Harris cropped the top of the cliff.
In "Entrance, Quidi Vidi: Newfoundland Sketch II" each of the boulders on the top of the cliff and the curving vertical form centre right take on an abstract quality, one further enhanced in the later canvas "Entrance to Coldwell Harbour". The rich colouring and emphatic brushwork of this oil sketch define it as a precursor of one of Harris’ most famous body of work, his Lake Superior canvases, and a major work among his understudied Newfoundland paintings.
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 contributing the preceding essay.
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Lawren Stewart Harris
(1885 - 1970) Group of Seven, Canadian Group of Painters
Lawren Harris was born in Brantford, Ontario and at the age of 19 went to Berlin for academic training. His first two years included study in pencil, charcoal and watercolours. He took instruction in the studio mornings, out-of-doors sketching in the slums of Berlin afternoons, and sketching figures in the studio evenings in watercolour and drawing media. His last two years were spent in the study of portraits and figures in oils. Two of his teachers were Mr. Wille and Mr. Schlabitz. Schlabitz accompanied him in the summer on a walking tour of the Austrian Tyrol where Harris did some sketching. After his study in Germany Harris travelled in Palestine and Arabia with Norman Duncan where he did illustrations. He then visited lumber camps in Minnesota where he made illustrations for Harper’s magazine.
By 1910 Harris was back in Toronto where he saw everything with fresh eyes. His work had more vigour and sensitivity to colour and form. His first studio was located over Giles grocery store, north of Bloor and Yonge Streets. His attraction for the poorer areas of town gained him the reputation of socialist painter. His “house portraits” brought a storm of criticism against him. In Toronto the Arts and Letters Club had been formed only two years before Harris’ return and it was not long before he was an active member. It was at the Arts and Letters Club that Harris first saw the attractive sketches of J.E.H. MacDonald in 1911. Harris and MacDonald became good friends and shared an appreciation of the arts in depth. They visited Buffalo together in January of 1913 to see the exhibition of Scandinavian art which had been reviewed in art magazines. This exhibition made a deep impression on both artists. Harris took sketching trips with MacDonald in 1912 at Mattawa and Timiskaming and in 1913 they went to the Laurentians. Harris met other artists at the Arts and Letters Club. Many of them like MacDonald were working for the Grip Engraving Company as commercial artists.
In 1914 Harris and Dr. James MacCallum conceived the idea of building a studio building which could accommodate Canadian artists of ability who could devote their full attentions to painting, free from the pressures of commercialism. Many Canadian artists were drifting south to the U.S. and it was Harris’ and MacCallum’s hope that such a plan would prevent the loss of all of Canada’s most talented painters. Harris was well off through his connection with Massey-Harris (his grandfather was a founder of the firm) and so was Dr. MacCallum. They realized their plan and the Studio Building was erected on Severn Street in Toronto.
Harris became the driving force behind the Group of Seven. A.Y. Jackson claimed: "Without Harris there would have been no Group of Seven. He provided the stimulus; it was he who encouraged us always to take the bolder course, to find new trails." By 1918 Lawren Harris had travelled to the Algoma region in the company of MacDonald and Johnston. In 1920 they held an exhibition at the Art Museum of Toronto (Art Gallery of Ontario). Harris wrote “The group of seven artists whose pictures are here exhibited have for several years held a like vision concerning art in Canada. They are all imbued with the idea that an art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people…” Harris made his first trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior in 1921.
His search for a deeper spiritual meaning eventually took him to the stark landscapes of the far north. By the late 1920s the artist's work strove to capture the spiritual essence of the bold landforms of the Rockies and the Arctic. Throughout the ensuing decade Harris continued to simplify and abstract his landscapes until his subjects became non-representational. Lawren Harris worked as a member of the Transcendental Group of Painters in Santa Fe, New Mexico for two years, returning to Canada in 1940 and settling in Vancouver for the remainder of his lifetime.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
