signed lower right; signed, titled and inscribed with a cross in a circle on the reverse
10.5 × 13.75 in (26.7 × 34.9 cm)
(including Buyer's Premium)
Kaspar Gallery, Toronto
Beam Canada Inc. (Canadian Club) through acquisition by Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd., Walkerville/Windsor
Windsor Collects: 150 Years of Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Windsor, 19 July-28 September 1997, no. 38
Windsor Collects: 150 Years of Canadian Art, Windsor, 1997, no. 38, listed as a loan of Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd. (an Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine Company)
Algoma District became one of the foundational landscapes for the Group of Seven, where they developed the style that would define Canadian art. Algoma offered exactly what the Group was searching for: untamed wilderness that felt uniquely Canadian—rocky hills, windswept pines, lakes, and dramatic seasonal changes. The Algoma Central Railway gave them access deep into the wilderness where they could camp and paint on-site. Artists moved away from academic and European traditions to paint more modern and colourful landscapes that felt distinctly Canadian.
From the streets of Toronto to the Laurentian hills, to Algoma and the north shore of Lake Superior, from the Rocky Mountains to the Arctic, Lawren Harris constantly explored the varying aspects of Canada’s many landscapes, seeking out new forms reflective of a burgeoning Canadian identity. Harris frequently returned to the same sites, reinterpreting similar subjects in new pictorial languages.
Lawren Harris first painted in Algoma in the spring of 1918, when he travelled on the Algoma Central Railway from Sault Ste. Marie with Dr. James MacCallum, Tom Thomson’s patron and fellow sponsor of the construction of the Studio Building in Toronto. Enchanted by what he saw, he returned there with J.E.H. MacDonald and Frank Johnston that fall to paint the same locations. Inviting MacDonald to join them Harris wrote, “I hanker after fall colouring.” In September 1919, Harris returned to Algoma once again with Johnston, MacDonald and A.Y. Jackson, in preparation for the inaugural Group of Seven show in spring 1920.
Only a few of Harris’ Algoma sketches are dated and the locations of his subjects are rarely identified. Rocky cliffs, beaver dams and beaver-drowned swamps, panoramic views across rolling hills and innumerable lakes and dead trees populate Harris’ Algoma sketches. The central character of this oil sketch is the striking red maple tree hovering above the shoreline and reflecting in the lake. The landscape is animated by crisp, saturated colour; vivid red and orange foliage contrast with the deep green forest and bright blue sky, applied in confident, clearly defined brushstrokes.
Cowley Abbott is honoured to be offering the Canadian Club Brand Centre art collection, reflecting an important part of Windsor’s and Canada’s history.
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