Gold and Grey

Private Collection, Victoria, British Columbia

The viewer looks through the bush in the foreground to ice and snow, a narrow section of free-flowing water and in the distance, more snow. There even is snow piled on the distant blue hills. It`s a grey day but holds the promise of spring in the lightening sky. Franz Johnston loved painting the spring break-up of lakes and rivers. It was a view he studied often and he had seen the composition used in this straight-forward way by Tom Thomson, his friend from his days at Grip Limited in Toronto, and the Group of Seven of which he was a member in 1920. As the spring progressed, he doubtless came back to the same place to record the site but now under more favourable weather conditions, perhaps on a bright day and with the water flowing more freely. He may have painted the sketch in the Longlac District of Ontario, now amalgamated with other townships and districts to form an area called Greenstone, Ontario. He painted a sketch there titled “Advancing Spring - Melting Shows in Late March in the Longlac District” (1937), sold at Waddington`s Auction in May 2017. It too is oil on board and of the same size. In it, he recorded the banks of snow, blue where they sloped down to the river. As a result of his trip, Johnston seems to have gone back to the studio and created the major canvas “Advancing Spring”, sold on two occasions by Joyner/Waddington`s (2009 and again in 2112), utilizing the carefully delineated bushes from “Gold and Grey”, especially in the foreground, and the steep banks of snow from the second sketch. He seems to have had his former membership in the Group of Seven on his mind because on the back of “Gold and Grey” he wrote “Franz Johnston, A.R.C.A., O.S.A., F.G.S.A.”. The last abbreviation stands for “Former Group of Seven Artist”. He wrote the same inscription on the back of the second sketch he painted in March in the Longlac District. “Gold and Grey” has its own quiet charm as an indication of Franz Johnston`s visit to what was for him a handsome new painting area. That he rose to its beauty is seen in his major painting on the subject. But even as he sketched, he must have realized its potential. There are many gaps in the history of Franz Johnston, as enunciated by art historians. “Gold and Grey” helps to fill one of these gaps and it fills it with style. A Johnston sketch of such quality only appears rarely on the market. We extend our thanks to Joan Murray, Canadian art historian and author for contributing the preceding essay.