Old Orchard, 1940

In 1939, the Toronto artist and co-founder of the Group of Seven and Canadian Group of Painters, Franklin Carmichael, created a small oil sketch of an old orchard, now held in the National Gallery of Canada collection. Then, in 1940, he developed it into the larger studio painting, "Old Orchard". The painting was first shown in the "68th Annual Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists" in 1940 under the title "Old Orchard", and in 1947 as "Apple Orchard". The subject was a view just outside Carmichael’s home, studio and gardens in Lansing, now a densified North York, Toronto neighbourhood. It was in 1919, that Frank and his wife Ada Carmichael purchased this property. Carmichael’s friend, A.J. Casson was a regular visitor there and described Lansing then as “a scattered rural community,” accessible by rail, and then a short walk along “a rickety old boardwalk.” A photograph taken by Carmichael of the orchard confirms that there was a specific tree that interested him, the one in the left foreground with its short right-leaning trunk which divides into two heavy limbs just a short way up from the base. The painting’s alternate title, "Apple Orchard", probably assigned posthumously by his wife, is helpful in confirming the specific variety of trees integral to this painting. Although there are several other important trees, that one plays a crucial role in the composition. An old tree—depicted alive in the photograph and dead in the painting—it is one with stories to tell of its many harvests, cropped limbs from breakage under bounty, pruning, and age. Its skeletal and organic angular forms provide a strong design structure that governs the overall effectiveness of this painting, setting clear boundaries between the foreground and the far distant valley beyond. For Megan Bice, curator of Carmichael’s 1990 retrospective exhibition, "Old Orchard" is “a powerful, twisted outgrowth of its more domesticated, cultivated predecessor.” It may seem odd that it took so long for Carmichael to paint this setting, some twenty-one years after the Carmichaels had moved to Lansing. But, unlike many others in the Group of Seven, Carmichael never aspired to traverse Canada’s vast geography. Rather, he preferred a sustained commitment to specific places so he could nuance their interpretation. Often, he took years to develop a concept and design for a major painting. In a 1938 radio broadcast while serving as President of the Ontario Society of Artists, Carmichael explained his reasons for considering the familiar: “Pictures are painted in response to the necessity of the artist to express in paint his personal interest in the life and surroundings in which he lives. Whether the outcome is practical in the material sense, or practical in the higher interpretation of that much abused word, seems to be of small moment. It is creative work, and as such, finds a response in a growing realization that the Arts contribute to our capacity to enter into enjoyment of the needs of the spirit, as well as the more tangible and material needs of our every-day life.” That "Old Orchard" is a painting mostly about trees should not be surprising for Carmichael had long been interested in depicting specific varieties including maple, oak, white pine, jack pine, elm, and wild cherry. He also detailed forests in close-up shallow compositions, such as "A Silvery Tangle", 1921 (Art Gallery of Ontario) and "The Glade", 1922 (Art Museum, University of Toronto). Trees were for Carmichael one of many ways to consider the cycles of life and beauty of nature’s offerings in both their natural and cultivated environments. "Old Orchard" was the only painting Carmichael made of his Lansing property. He was never one for self-portraiture, despite his skills in figuration. But this scene from his studio window can be see as a form of self-portraiture, that of his immediate surroundings and perhaps as close as Carmichael ever wished to approach the genre. He excluded any reference to his architectural spaces; the outbuildings beyond would have been those of the neighbours. Afterwards, Carmichael developed "Old Orchard" as a wood-engraved print. His print practice had been a burgeoning one in the later 1930s during which time he sharpened his command of wood engraving, a relief process working against the wood grain to yield exceptionally fine detail. A related ink drawing in the National Gallery of Canada collection is probably the study for it since it is almost the same size of three known "Old Orchard" print proofs held in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the National Gallery of Canada. By the time he made this image, Carmichael was exceptionally proficient in the use of both black and white line engraving in the same image— that is where both black and white lines remain in the finished image, the white lines being essentially a relief print in reverse. During his lifetime, Carmichael found very few collectors for his work. He would have been very pleased that his former employer, Herbert Laurence Rous, purchased "Old Orchard" soon after its completion. In 1909, Rous partnered with Frederick J. Mann to purchase the Imrie Printing Company Limited at 72 York Street, Toronto. Under the name Rous and Mann, the firm soon began printing and publishing. Carmichael was introduced to the firm when Albert Robson was hired away from Grip Engraving Company and recruited Carmichael to begin working there in October 1912. He remained for a year before leaving for study in Antwerp in the fall of 1913. Carmichael returned to a war-torn economy in September 1914 and was not rehired full-time by Rous and Mann until January 1916. Soon after that though, he became chief designer and held that position until 1922 when he was then recruited by competitor, Sampson Matthews Ltd. "Old Orchard" is one of Carmichael’s few easel paintings of the 1940s. Shortly after his untimely death from a fatal heart attack on October 24, 1945 at age fifty-five, Rous and Mann expedited a reproduction of "Old Orchard" for their 1946 calendar, probably as a memorial gesture. We extend our thanks to Catharine Mastin, PhD, art historian, curator, and Adjunct Member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Art History at York University for contributing the preceding essay. Catharine curated the exhibition "Franklin Carmichael: Portrait of a Spiritualist", organized by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, which toured Canada between 1999 and 2001.