Sold for: $79,250

PROVENANCE
a) A.Y. Jackson:
A gift from the Artist to Maurice Hall Haycock
A gift from Maurice Hall Haycock to his wife Katherine "Kay" Haycock
Estate of Maurice Hall Haycock
By descent to the present Private Collection, Newfoundland and Labrador

b) Maurice Hall Haycock:
Estate of the Artist
By descent to the present Private Collection, Newfoundland and Labrador

LITERATURE
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, page 152
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 222
Maurice Haycock, On Site with Maurice Haycock, Artist of the Arctic, 2007, page 13

Details:

a) A.Y. Jackson:

signed and on verso titled and inscribed "Sketch painted August 1950" / "To Kay - With best wishes for a happy birthday - love Maury, May 3, 1955" / To Kay - May 3, 1955 Maurice"

b) Maurice Haycock:

signed and dated 1955 and on verso titled and dated on the tacking edge and inscribed "From sketch NWT-50-26, August 27, 1950" / "No. 30-C-766.H URN/[RN + C" / "NWT-55-202" and "sketch 1950 with AYJ"

Group of Seven painter A.Y. Jackson met geologist Maurice Haycock on his 1927 trip to the Arctic when the SS Beothic, which Jackson was traveling on for a sketching trip, picked up Haycock at Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, after he had spent a year in the district on a government survey. As Haycock related, “The Arctic experience and the chance meeting with A.Y. Jackson would shape the direction of my life.” Haycock then began painting in the early 1930s. The two artists formed a long-lasting friendship and often went on sketching trips together, such as to Yellowknife, Labrador, Schefferville, Quebec and the Gatineau country north of Ottawa.

In August 1950, Jackson went north to Port Radium, on the shore of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, planning to meet up with Haycock. Jackson wrote in his autobiography: “Haycock had work to do at Port Radium, so I timed myself to get there when his work was completed. I had always wanted to get into the Barren Lands, and Mr. Bennett had promised he would get me there. There were three of us in the party, Haycock, myself and Bob Jenkins, a permanent employee, who came along to hunt and explore.”

They flew in, and as Jackson related, “On the map we had picked out a nameless lake that looked like a perfect spot and proved even better than we visualized. There was a sand beach on the corner we hoped to land on. We put up our tents, one to sleep in and the other for supplies…The pilot left us saying, ‘I will be back in a week, boys.’ It was near the end of August and chilly…Snow flurries swept over the hills known as the Teshierpi Mountains which protected us from the north….It was an exciting country; with its moss and lichen and small plants turning red and orange, it looked like a rich tapestry; and big boulders were strewn everywhere. We could nearly always find one to crouch behind as protection from the east wind when we were sketching.”

They ate caribou shot by Jenkins and although wildlife was scarce, they saw a wolverine and wolf tracks close to their tent. In splendid isolation, they painted all week until they were picked up by the plane on August 28.

These two canvases, derived from oil sketches done on this trip, are stunning views of the Teshierpi Mountains, with dramatic skies and the “nameless lake.” The two artists painted similar views of this bold landscape with its bare hills and low vegetation punctuated by the big boulders typical of the area. As Jackson humorously reported in a diary entry dated August 23, 1950, “We have been painting boulders. There are millions of them, all shapes and sizes; it gives one a great deal of work.” Both canvases show striking similarities in style, and Jackson’s influence on Haycock can clearly be seen in his brushwork and colour palette. Teshierpi Mountain and Lake Unknown, Teshierpi Mountains are outstanding examples of both artists’ work.

The original oil sketch on which Jackson’s Lake Unknown, Tesherpia Mountains was based was acquired in the early 1950s by Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd., and subsequently donated to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. Jackson gave the canvas developed from the sketch to Haycock.

Jackson loved the Barren Lands, and he later stated, “Every chance I get I go by plane up into the tundra, into the Barren Lands….I’m perfectly happy to be put down with my pack up among these rivers and lakes, perhaps two or three hundred miles from the nearest human being."

All prices are in Canadian Dollars