Arthur Lismer 1885 - 1969

Private Collection, Toronto

Roger Boulet, The Canadian Earth, Landscape Painting by the Group of Seven, Toronto, 1982, p. 145

This work has been viewed under UV and it is in excellent condition. There has been a minor repair of paint loss in the upper left portion of the sky.There are small minor paint losses in the upper portion of the tree. There is some craquellure along the upper stretcher bar and minor craquellure overall which is slightly more pronounced in some areas. We would like to thank "In Restauro Conservart Inc." for examing this painting and their original notes are available upon request to Sotheby's.
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Georgian Bay was a favorite destination for all of the artists of the Group of Seven at one time or another because of both what it had to offer in visual splendour and Dr. MacCallum's patronage and hospitality. For Lismer, it became the equivalent of what Algoma was to MacDonald or the villages on the Saint Lawrence were to Jackson. Here, Lismer found infinite variety in the rugged landscape dotted with peaceful lagoons, hidden bays and thousands of islands, some nothing more than bare rocks populated by weather-beaten, wind-blown pines.

The iconography of the single tree was granted heroic status in the canon of Canadian art with Tom Thomson's West Wind. The motif of a solitary pine against sky and water became one of the great Canadian images and it frequently appears in the works of Tom Thomson and other members of the Group. Most notably, both Lismer and Varley sat at opposite ends of Dr. McCallum's island in 1920 and further explored the subject with spectacular results - Lismer's A September Gale and Varley's Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay.

On a return trip to Georgian Bay three years later, Lismer has selected a calmer day for this painting. The turbulence has given way and what remains is a brilliant and expressive canvas built of pink, blue and mauve. Tension is at a minimum and there is a lyrical quality to the solid trees that grow from the granite rock of the Canadian shield. In McGregor Bay, Georgian Bay, Lismer has extolled the solitary wilderness experience as a metaphor of the freedom of the human spirit.

As Boulet notes, it was in Georgian Bay "that Lismer evolved his free flowing calligraphic technique and richly textured style. He loved to paint the complex patterns of undergrowth and twisted pines that covered the region's rocky island and shoreline".