Lawren Stewart Harris
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 - 1970
Canadian
Country North of Lake Superior, Algoma Sketches LIII
oil on board
on verso signed twice, titled, dated October 1921 and inscribed with the artist’s symbol and in graphite with the Doris Mills inventory #2/53
10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, British Columbia
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 28, 2014, lot 147
Private Collection, British Columbia
LITERATURE
Doris Mills, L.S. Harris Inventory, 1936, listed as Group 2 (2/53), Algoma Sketches, location noted as the Studio Building
Country North of Lake Superior is a stirring example of Lawren Harris’s ability to depict the boundlessly varied Canadian landscape, effectively translating into paint the essence of a brisk autumn day in this rugged locale through carefully considered design and skilfully executed brush-strokes. In this densely arranged composition, we find Harris simplifying forms and clarifying patterns to capture the spirit of what would have been a chaotic and busy setting, revealing the underlying beauty that he hoped audiences would relate to and celebrate.
Sketches such as this one manifest the new artistic approaches Harris and his fellow members of the Group of Seven were fascinated with developing to convey the spirit of the country. The foreword to the catalogue for the spring 1922 Group exhibition begins: “New material demands new methods and new methods fling a challenge to old conventions. It is as impossible to depict the autumn pageantry of our northern woods with a lead pencil as it is to bind our young art with the conventions and methods of other climates and other ages. The thought of today cannot be expressed by the language of yesterday.”[1]
For Harris, this endeavor meant developing his own stylistic language to portray the complexity of forms he encountered but also pushing forward into new territory, and finding subjects that could be appreciated as uniquely Canadian. In 1921, after visiting and painting in Algoma for the fourth autumn in a row, Harris decided to venture even farther north to see what potential might be found on the north shore of Lake Superior. Accompanied by A.Y. Jackson, he took the Algoma Central Railway from Sand Lake, where the two had been sketching, to its intersection at Franz with the Canadian Pacific tracks and ventured west to Rossport, a fishing town on the shore of the great lake.
This visit represented a turning point for Harris, his first engagement with the region that would catalyze the development of, and come to be closely associated with, his most revered and well-known period of landscape painting. Harris later reflected on his and Jackson’s enthusiasm for the area, writing, “We found new and inspiring subjects, both in the hills along the shores of the great lake and inland in the high country with its rugged scenery, rocky streams and innumerable lakes.”[2]
Harris’s paintings from this first visit to Lake Superior focused on the town of Rossport itself as well as forested areas found amongst the rocky slopes and dramatic topography north of the town. Recent forest fires in the area would provide Harris with ample and important subject matter in the years to come; in Country North of Lake Superior, several pale and slender skeletal remains of trees amid the fall colour hint at this future direction.
When Harris left Toronto in 1934, fellow artist Doris Mills inventoried his works left behind, a job that in many cases included assigning titles and categorizing them. As Mills was working without Harris’s direct input on many works, occasionally there would be confusion about the subjects, particularly when they captured moments of evolution, such as we find here. While Mills categorized this work as an Algoma piece, Harris’s own writing on the label, done afterwards, clarifies that the work was instead painted on the north shore of Lake Superior. The October 1921 date affirms that this was one of the first works done on the North Shore, capturing the start of a new and critically important phase for the artist.
We thank Alec Blair, Director/Lead Researcher, Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, for contributing the above essay.
1. Group of 7: Exhibition of Paintings; May 5 – May 29, 1922 (Art Gallery of Toronto, 1922), 2.
2. Lawren Harris, “The Group of Seven in Canadian History,” Report of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association 27, no. 1 (1948): 34. Listen Stop
Estimate: $100,000 - $125,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.
ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 - 1970
Canadian
Country North of Lake Superior, Algoma Sketches LIII
oil on board
on verso signed twice, titled, dated October 1921 and inscribed with the artist’s symbol and in graphite with the Doris Mills inventory #2/53
10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in, 26.7 x 34.3 cm
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, British Columbia
Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 28, 2014, lot 147
Private Collection, British Columbia
LITERATURE
Doris Mills, L.S. Harris Inventory, 1936, listed as Group 2 (2/53), Algoma Sketches, location noted as the Studio Building
Country North of Lake Superior is a stirring example of Lawren Harris’s ability to depict the boundlessly varied Canadian landscape, effectively translating into paint the essence of a brisk autumn day in this rugged locale through carefully considered design and skilfully executed brush-strokes. In this densely arranged composition, we find Harris simplifying forms and clarifying patterns to capture the spirit of what would have been a chaotic and busy setting, revealing the underlying beauty that he hoped audiences would relate to and celebrate.
Sketches such as this one manifest the new artistic approaches Harris and his fellow members of the Group of Seven were fascinated with developing to convey the spirit of the country. The foreword to the catalogue for the spring 1922 Group exhibition begins: “New material demands new methods and new methods fling a challenge to old conventions. It is as impossible to depict the autumn pageantry of our northern woods with a lead pencil as it is to bind our young art with the conventions and methods of other climates and other ages. The thought of today cannot be expressed by the language of yesterday.”[1]
For Harris, this endeavor meant developing his own stylistic language to portray the complexity of forms he encountered but also pushing forward into new territory, and finding subjects that could be appreciated as uniquely Canadian. In 1921, after visiting and painting in Algoma for the fourth autumn in a row, Harris decided to venture even farther north to see what potential might be found on the north shore of Lake Superior. Accompanied by A.Y. Jackson, he took the Algoma Central Railway from Sand Lake, where the two had been sketching, to its intersection at Franz with the Canadian Pacific tracks and ventured west to Rossport, a fishing town on the shore of the great lake.
This visit represented a turning point for Harris, his first engagement with the region that would catalyze the development of, and come to be closely associated with, his most revered and well-known period of landscape painting. Harris later reflected on his and Jackson’s enthusiasm for the area, writing, “We found new and inspiring subjects, both in the hills along the shores of the great lake and inland in the high country with its rugged scenery, rocky streams and innumerable lakes.”[2]
Harris’s paintings from this first visit to Lake Superior focused on the town of Rossport itself as well as forested areas found amongst the rocky slopes and dramatic topography north of the town. Recent forest fires in the area would provide Harris with ample and important subject matter in the years to come; in Country North of Lake Superior, several pale and slender skeletal remains of trees amid the fall colour hint at this future direction.
When Harris left Toronto in 1934, fellow artist Doris Mills inventoried his works left behind, a job that in many cases included assigning titles and categorizing them. As Mills was working without Harris’s direct input on many works, occasionally there would be confusion about the subjects, particularly when they captured moments of evolution, such as we find here. While Mills categorized this work as an Algoma piece, Harris’s own writing on the label, done afterwards, clarifies that the work was instead painted on the north shore of Lake Superior. The October 1921 date affirms that this was one of the first works done on the North Shore, capturing the start of a new and critically important phase for the artist.
We thank Alec Blair, Director/Lead Researcher, Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, for contributing the above essay.
1. Group of 7: Exhibition of Paintings; May 5 – May 29, 1922 (Art Gallery of Toronto, 1922), 2.
2. Lawren Harris, “The Group of Seven in Canadian History,” Report of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association 27, no. 1 (1948): 34. Listen Stop
Estimate: $100,000 - $125,000 CAD
All prices are in Canadian Dollars
Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.
