Thomas John (Tom) Thomson
OSA
1877 - 1917
Canadian
Early Winter Frost
oil on board, 1914
stamped with the estate stamp and on verso titled faintly and titled “Early Winter, Canoe Lake” on the gallery label, inscribed “1st class” by Lawren Harris / “H” / “Coffee/ood” and stamped with the estate stamp
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, sister of the Artist, Annan and Owen Sound
Ralph Thomson, Seattle and Burien, Washington
By descent to John Gardner Thomson, Seattle, Washington
By descent within the family to a Private Collection, Renton, Washington
Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary
An Important Canadian Collection
Tom Thomson’s beautiful Early Winter Frost is one of the few sketches by Thomson that received the highest praise of Lawren Harris after Thomson’s death, when Harris reviewed all of Thomson’s work that the artist had stored in the Studio Building and which remained with the family. On the back of this oil Harris wrote “1st class,” praise which he gave only rarely.[1]
Like others among Harris’s list of favourites, the work delighted him because of its colour and its composition. The subtle pinks, purples and greyed blues of the sky shading towards a confident blue grey where sky joins the land, the dark grey and brown of the contrasting land and water by the shoreline in the background, the arresting colour of the icy water of the lake, the indications of patches of frost on the narrow band of brown and greyish foreground—all result in a powerful, almost stark work that comes alive from the single tree trunk audaciously stationed among the rocks and undergrowth like a sentinel. Indeed, we might think it stands in for Thomson himself taking a last look at the scene he loved so well before the snow came in the year in which he discovered himself as a painter, finally able to express the eloquent vision of nature he knew was within him.
A.Y. Jackson, Thomson’s friend and fellow artist who was with him that fall, puts Thomson’s new ability well when he said that Thomson found his way through “transposing, eliminating, designing, experimenting, finding happy colour motives … revelling in paint…”[2]
The question remains: How did Thomson achieve his ability? He was a man with little training except for his skill in design and commercial art and the suggestions of painting friends such as Jackson, who had that summer and fall joined him in Algonquin Park. How was he able to find magic in Canadian nature and express it in radiant colour and mysterious but often joyous mood? The best of his work, as here, has a rapturous quality that conveys the way Thomson used light in his radically simplified scenes to obtain a ravishing yet understated effect.
Early Winter Frost was owned by Thomson’s younger brother, Ralph, who, like his brothers, had gone to Seattle to find work. He settled there and married in 1906 but when Thomson died, his family did not forget him but gave him this work as his share of his brother’s art. Unlike many other works gifted by John Thomson to the family, it does not come from the final spring of Thomson’s life, the works acquired by the family when he died. Likely, Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, who was in charge of the estate, selected it for Ralph. It is too good a work to try and sell: it belonged, she would have thought, with the family.
Ralph left the painting to his son John Gardner Thomson, also living in Seattle, Washington, and the painting remained in the Thomson family until it was sold to an important Canadian collection. Few other works so praised by Lawren Harris have come on the market or will ever do so. It is therefore in its own way unique on the contemporary Canadian art scene.
We thank Joan Murray, former curator of Canadian art and chief curator (1972) at the Art Gallery of Ontario, for contributing the above essay. Murray helped to bring the paintings of Tom Thomson to world attention through a series of exhibitions and seven books, including a biography (the most recent is A Treasury of Tom Thomson). Murray is the author of the Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné.
This work is included in the Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné, researched and written by Murray, as catalogue #1914.88: https://www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=262.
1. See also Joan Murray, A Treasury of Tom Thomson (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), 149. I have recorded fewer than 20 works marked by him “first class” or “1st class” or “Save for Lawren Harris,” and he changed his mind on one, Blueberry Bushes, October. Almost all of these works are in public or private collections.
2. A.Y. Jackson, foreword to Catalogue of Paintings by the Late Tom Thomson (The Arts Club, 1919), n.p. Quoted in Charles C. Hill, “Tom Thomson: Painter,” in Tom Thomson, ed. Dennis Reid and Charles C. Hill (Douglas & McIntyre, 2002), 127. Listen Stop
Estimate: $900,000 - $1,200,000 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.
OSA
1877 - 1917
Canadian
Early Winter Frost
oil on board, 1914
stamped with the estate stamp and on verso titled faintly and titled “Early Winter, Canoe Lake” on the gallery label, inscribed “1st class” by Lawren Harris / “H” / “Coffee/ood” and stamped with the estate stamp
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm
Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave
PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, sister of the Artist, Annan and Owen Sound
Ralph Thomson, Seattle and Burien, Washington
By descent to John Gardner Thomson, Seattle, Washington
By descent within the family to a Private Collection, Renton, Washington
Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary
An Important Canadian Collection
Tom Thomson’s beautiful Early Winter Frost is one of the few sketches by Thomson that received the highest praise of Lawren Harris after Thomson’s death, when Harris reviewed all of Thomson’s work that the artist had stored in the Studio Building and which remained with the family. On the back of this oil Harris wrote “1st class,” praise which he gave only rarely.[1]
Like others among Harris’s list of favourites, the work delighted him because of its colour and its composition. The subtle pinks, purples and greyed blues of the sky shading towards a confident blue grey where sky joins the land, the dark grey and brown of the contrasting land and water by the shoreline in the background, the arresting colour of the icy water of the lake, the indications of patches of frost on the narrow band of brown and greyish foreground—all result in a powerful, almost stark work that comes alive from the single tree trunk audaciously stationed among the rocks and undergrowth like a sentinel. Indeed, we might think it stands in for Thomson himself taking a last look at the scene he loved so well before the snow came in the year in which he discovered himself as a painter, finally able to express the eloquent vision of nature he knew was within him.
A.Y. Jackson, Thomson’s friend and fellow artist who was with him that fall, puts Thomson’s new ability well when he said that Thomson found his way through “transposing, eliminating, designing, experimenting, finding happy colour motives … revelling in paint…”[2]
The question remains: How did Thomson achieve his ability? He was a man with little training except for his skill in design and commercial art and the suggestions of painting friends such as Jackson, who had that summer and fall joined him in Algonquin Park. How was he able to find magic in Canadian nature and express it in radiant colour and mysterious but often joyous mood? The best of his work, as here, has a rapturous quality that conveys the way Thomson used light in his radically simplified scenes to obtain a ravishing yet understated effect.
Early Winter Frost was owned by Thomson’s younger brother, Ralph, who, like his brothers, had gone to Seattle to find work. He settled there and married in 1906 but when Thomson died, his family did not forget him but gave him this work as his share of his brother’s art. Unlike many other works gifted by John Thomson to the family, it does not come from the final spring of Thomson’s life, the works acquired by the family when he died. Likely, Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, who was in charge of the estate, selected it for Ralph. It is too good a work to try and sell: it belonged, she would have thought, with the family.
Ralph left the painting to his son John Gardner Thomson, also living in Seattle, Washington, and the painting remained in the Thomson family until it was sold to an important Canadian collection. Few other works so praised by Lawren Harris have come on the market or will ever do so. It is therefore in its own way unique on the contemporary Canadian art scene.
We thank Joan Murray, former curator of Canadian art and chief curator (1972) at the Art Gallery of Ontario, for contributing the above essay. Murray helped to bring the paintings of Tom Thomson to world attention through a series of exhibitions and seven books, including a biography (the most recent is A Treasury of Tom Thomson). Murray is the author of the Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné.
This work is included in the Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné, researched and written by Murray, as catalogue #1914.88: https://www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=262.
1. See also Joan Murray, A Treasury of Tom Thomson (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011), 149. I have recorded fewer than 20 works marked by him “first class” or “1st class” or “Save for Lawren Harris,” and he changed his mind on one, Blueberry Bushes, October. Almost all of these works are in public or private collections.
2. A.Y. Jackson, foreword to Catalogue of Paintings by the Late Tom Thomson (The Arts Club, 1919), n.p. Quoted in Charles C. Hill, “Tom Thomson: Painter,” in Tom Thomson, ed. Dennis Reid and Charles C. Hill (Douglas & McIntyre, 2002), 127. Listen Stop
Estimate: $900,000 - $1,200,000 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.
