Lot # 142

Lawren Stewart Harris
1885 - 1970

Corner Store
oil on board

10 5/8 x 13 5/8 in   27 x 34.6 cm

Provenance:
A gift from the Artist to Mrs. Elton Johnson (née Chanty Mitchell)
By descent to her daughter Penny Jolliffe
Sold sale of Canadian Art, Sotheby's, Toronto, November 10, 1981, lot 105
An Important Private Estate, Toronto

In 1904 Lawren Harris traveled to Berlin to begin his studio training in art. He had a year of schooling already under his belt, having attended University College, University of Toronto. Berlin would be his base for the next four years, and it was there, along with the experiences he had through travel in Europe and the Middle East, that he was exposed to contemporary thought, writing and avant-garde art. He took up the practice of painting street scenes near his studio accommodations in Berlin. He honed his ability to depict spatial relations and perspective, and became a keen observer of light and atmosphere. Upon his return to Canada in 1908, Harris continued to paint urban scenes in Toronto, depicting tree-lined streets and factories bellowing steam, images of a prosperous, conservative city. He continued to travel to view important exhibitions, the influence of which pushed his methods forward with new ideas and techniques, and he was an active member of the Arts and Letters Club, which supported his interests and encouraged his work.
World War I began in August of 1914 and Harris, by then married, enlisted in 1916. The war years were difficult for him, and when he began painting again, he did not look at the streets of Toronto in the same way. Instead of elm-lined sidewalks, he chose to paint the working-class areas of the city. Boarding houses and mills, backyards with laundry strung to dry, store fronts and flooded streets became his focus. He often painted in winter, when the streets were coloured by melting snow and heavily cloaked people trudged about their business.
This depiction of a corner store is a fine example of this new type of urban work. An unevenly plastered building sits in sunlight with tree-limb shadows dancing on the peeling plaster. The influence of Post-Impressionism can be seen in the attention Harris has given to the brilliant light that falls on the store and the broadness of his brushwork. Areas of unpainted support show through between these broad brush-strokes of colour, which serve to further emphasize the effect of the peeling plaster and uneven paint on the building. The profound difference, though, is that the urban paintings after the spring of 1918 contain a palpable human empathy that had not been there before. A brown-cloaked woman is about to enter the store – she is just on the threshold of the doorstep – while another in a skirt with an apron looks into the window, despite it being devoid of any goods that we can see. As is often the case in Harris’s works from this time, none of the figures in the painting face us; we cannot connect with them through their eyes. We are – as Harris was – outside observers, not a part of the scene, and this is where Harris’s social comments lie. His ideas of equality and of the fairness of life were utterly shaken by the war, and his own position of wealth and opportunity stood out in contrast to that of the people that he now chose to paint. Because of this, Harris’s paintings of the working-class streets of Toronto after the war are filled with empathy. He saw past the living conditions to paint a vibrant life. Beautiful, celebratory, joyous, these works are powerful expressions of a new understanding in the mind of one of Canada’s most important painters.
Lawren Harris gave this work to Mrs. Johnson, who was a member of the Heliconian Club. Her husband, Mr. Elton Johnson, was a founding member of the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, and the couple were friends with many artists of the time.


Estimation: 150,000 $ ~ 200,000 $
Sold for: 315,900.00 $