Currently
Provenance
Lawren Harris
G. Blair Laing, Toronto
Ken Thomson, Toronto
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private collection, Calgary
Georgian Bay held significant importance for Arthur Lismer as a painting location, tracing back to his initial encounter in 1913 during a two-week stay at Dr. James MacCallum’s cottage, a patron of the Group of Seven. Over the years Lismer made regular trips back, with his focus shifting in the 1930s to capturing wind-swept pines clinging to formidable rock formations, exemplified by his 1938 canvas “Bright Land” housed in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. His artistic style evolved into a bold and textured portrayal, emphasizing strong form. Lismer depicted tree trunks, branches, and roots contorted by the fierce northern winds, yet radiating vitality, conveying a profound will to endure.
Provenance
Kastel Gallery, Montreal
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private collection, Toronto
Lismer’s best Georgian Bay work conveys the life force that permeates in every facet of flora and fauna, earth and water. Lismer’s feeling for growth lent a drama and a vitality to whatever he drew or painted. Storm or stillness, sun or shadow, rock or tree, every animate or inanimate thing vibrated for him. Lismer revisited Georgian Bay throughout his career, producing a significant collection of artwork that vividly conveys his deep admiration and wonder for the region. His written reflections reveal his fascination with Georgian Bay’s unspoiled, natural beauty and its dynamic interplay with the elements, serving as a constant wellspring of inspiration for his artistic endeavors.
Provenance
Acquired from the Banting estate
Private collection, Toronto
Exhibited
Frederick Banting: Paintings, Drawings and Memorabilia, Nov. 1-30, 2008,
The Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture, Alliston, Ontario.
Illustrated on back cover of the exhibition catalogue.
Following in the footsteps of his friend and sketching companion A.Y. Jackson, Banting journeyed across Canada to pursue his passion for painting. From the Canadian Arctic to the shores of the St. Lawrence River, and from the colorful houses of Cobalt, Ontario, to the Rocky Mountains near Jasper, Banting captured the beauty of the country through his art. Despite his fame in the medical field for co-discovering insulin, Banting had planned to retire on his fiftieth birthday to focus solely on painting. Banting found solace in the anonymity and solitude of landscape painting, yet tragically, he never fulfilled his dream of becoming a full-time artist, as he passed away in a plane crash at the age of 49.
Provenance
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal
Private collection, Ontario
Randolph Hewton studied under William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal and in 1903 received the Wood Scholarship, enabling him to pursue further education in Paris at the Academie Julian. There, he forged a lasting friendship and artistic collaboration with A.Y. Jackson. Their bond extended beyond art, as they both served in World War I, with Hewton earning the Military Cross for gallantry. Notably in 1920 Hewton was invited to exhibit in the first Group of Seven show at the Art Gallery of Toronto. On a number of occasions Hewton was invited on sketches trips with Dr. Frederick Banting and Jackson. Amidst his artistic endeavors, Hewton balanced leadership roles in industry, leaving a legacy not only as a painter but also as a transformative figure in the business world.
An exhibition of Hewton’s work took place at the Walter Klinkhoff Galleries in 1961 with A.Y. Jackson writting the foreword to the catalogue. The Art Gallery of Hamilton held an exhibition of his work in 1947. Hewton is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada; The Quebec Provincial Museum; The Art Gallery of Ontario and many private collections. He was a member of the Art Club, Montreal, The Royal Canadian Academy (R.C.A. 1934) and the Canadian Group of Painters (founding member).
Provenance:
Galerie Dominion, Montreal
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private collection, Vancouver
Private collection, Ontario
Exhibited:
A Passion for Art: Works from Private Collections,
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Dec. 3 – Jan. 29, 1995.
Naomi Jackson Groves writes in A.Y.’s Canada; “Some of A.Y.’s most
distinguished canvases come from here in the heart of French Canada.
The South Shore, which A.Y. considered his favourite place to work.
A fifty mile stretch from Cacouna down to Bic. Many delightful names
made familiar through A.Y.’s work – St. Fabien, St. Simon, Tobin – fit
into this relatively small region.”
Provenance
Mr. Charles Matthews, owner of Sampson-Matthews, Toronto
Ingram Gallery, Toronto
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private collection
The village of Cacouna was old, settled country near the St. Lawrence River, with farms running back from the highway, long and narrow and all the houses close together. Cacouna was a very picturesque place, piled up with snow, with a fine old parish church in the middle of town. Jackson’s 1921 sketching trip was his first visit to the area, and he took a lively interest in the late winter life around the little Lower St. Lawrence community. Throughout Jackson’s long career he often recounted how this fifty-mile stretch between Cacouna and Bic was his favourite place to work. He was never happier than when he was sketching on the south bank of the St. Lawrence.
Some of AY’s most distinguished paintings come from this region of Quebec, including “Winter Road, Quebec”, 1921 (C. S. Band Collection), “A Quebec Village”, 1921 (National Gallery of Canada), “A Village on the Gulf”, I921 (F. T. Jenkins Collection), all from the Cacouna area. These paintings are well known to Canadians having been used as dust jackets for two books illustrated by Jackson: his autobiography titled, A Painter’s Country, which uses “Road to St. Simon” (1940), and Henry Beston’s book The St. Lawrence, which uses a version of the National Gallery’s “Quebec Village”.
This excerpt references various sources including Naomi Jackson Groves’ A.Y.’s Canada, Drawings by A.Y. Jackson (Clarke, Irwin & Co. Toronto, 1968).
Carmichael estate inventory #OS-G-27
Provenance
Estate of the artist
By descent, private collection, Ontario
It was in 1920, around the time that this sketch was painted, that Franklin Carmichael became one of the founding members of Group of Seven. This oil sketch is a classic example of his painting during the late teens and early twenties. Informed by the loose brushwork of Impressionism, and a palette strong in hue, Carmichael observes the onset of fall in a pageantry of autumn colours. The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson were each engaged by the fall season and for them it was essential to use colour. They explained the matter succinctly in their 1921 and 1922 catalogue statements: “It is as impossible to depict the autumn pageantry of our northern woods with a lead pencil.” Pictures they explained “must speak for themselves…the painter must rely on paint not on adjectives.” From sketches like this one, Carmichael developed his important canvases of autumn, such as the Art Gallery of Ontario’s “Autumn Hillside”, 1920 and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s “Autumn, Orillia”, 1924. This sketch is painted at the same location as Bolton Hills c.1922 in McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist
Private collection, Ontario
Terry Isaac is a world-renowned wildlife artist. Isaac was raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where his passion for wildlife first took root. Initially drawn to animation and cartooning, Terry’s artistic journey evolved after attending art college. While initially interested in children’s book illustration, he rediscovered his childhood fascination with wildlife. Since the mid-1980s, Terry has dedicated himself to creating realistic wildlife art, emphasizing meticulous detail and evocative lighting.
Throughout his illustrious career, Terry has been honored as the “Artist of the Year” at numerous prestigious art shows and expos. He has also excelled in over a dozen stamp and print competitions, contributed to Audubon Society handbooks, and played a lead role in developing characters for Walt Disney productions. His work is prominently displayed in permanent collections such as the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and the Bennington Center for The Arts, as well as in esteemed collections such as American Airlines and the First National Bank of South Africa. The secondary market for Isaac’s paintings remains quite strong with original works selling at leading international auction houses, further cementing his status as a leading figure in wildlife art.
Provenance
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private collection, Calgary
Abstract painter Fernand Leduc has been a major figure in Quebec’s contemporary art scene for the past 50 years. In the 1940s, he played a major role in the formation of the group of dissident artists known as the Automatistes, which included such well-known artists as Jean Paul Riopelle, Paul-Émile Borduas and Françoise Sullivan.
In the mid-1950s, dividing his time between Montreal and Paris, he became the president and founding member of the Association des artistes non-figuratifs of Montreal. In more recent years, he focused on creating abstract landscapes, creating works featuring luminous fields of colour. After spending a good part of his life in France and Italy, he returned to Montreal in 2006.
His commitment to art was also evident in his writing and teaching. In 1988, he was awarded the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas, Quebec’s highest honour in the visual arts. He is the winner of the 2007 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Provenance
Heffel auction, May 2007, lot #76
Private collection
Emily Carr in Saint-Efflam, June-August 1911
In May, Carr took a short break for one last vacation with her sister, this time to Rouen, before Alice returned home to Victoria. In June, Bridget and Harry Gibbs moved their base and Emily went with them, to the tiny village of Saint-Efflam on the Brittany coast, a congregation of houses and hotels on a wide, sandy beach. This would be her home for the next three months. She describes a typical day in her new setting: The Gibbs had an apartment I was at the little hotel. My board was 5 francs per day. It was off season. The new environment set me off on a new tack.
I was in the fields at 8 in the morning, worked till twelve noon when a great 8 course meal was served in the hotel. Goodness how those French people ate…. I did a stretch between 3 and five o’clock lay on the moss and looked up at the treetops for an hour ate supper and did an evening sketch getting home at dark. Mr. Gibb came to the woods or fields & gave me a lesson in the afternoon. He also came to the hotel twice a week and criticized the work I had done between lessons. He took a great interest in my work and was a splendid & inspiring critic.
Carr loved her routine at Saint-Efflam. She explored by foot, carrying an easel, art board, and paints. Every day she climbed the hill behind her hotel, crossed the railway track, and found rolling hills, cultivated fields, stone cottages, and peasants engaged in their daily work. She was surrounded by splendid subject-matter in every direction, as well as curious locals with whom she (and her parrot) engaged, albeit without knowledge of Breton or French. Carr was proud of the relationships she forged with local women and children. Despite not speaking the language, her happy demeanour and respect for their lives and lifestyles communicated trust and she was given entrée into cottages and permitted to paint their modest holdings. At almost forty years of age, Carr revelled in her independence and in the warm summer days that enabled long hours of sketching.