Sold for: $52,650

PROVENANCE
By descent to a present Private Collection, Montreal
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 28, 2013, lot 106

LITERATURE
Lisa Christensen, The Lake O’Hara Art of J.E.H. MacDonald and Hiker’s Guide, 2003, page 55

During his stays at Lake O’Hara, J.E.H. MacDonald painted in all kinds of weather. In 1925 alone, he recorded rain, hail, frost and finally heavy snows in the period from August 28 to September 9, but referred to this time as glorious. “Another grand John Muir Day,” he wrote, referring to the Scottish-American founder of the Sierra Club, “one when John would have ranged the heights with his soul in rapture.” He observes the colour of water under a sunless sky, noting the effect when the wind stopped and left the surface still. In this intimate view of Lake O’Hara, we find MacDonald has painted from beneath a massive pine tree, looking roughly southeast towards the spit of rocks that lies between the present-day Sargent’s Point area and the rest of the lake. The mountains themselves, so often the focus in his sketches, are hidden in an inky-blue veil. The touches of light blue and green that line the edges of the spit and dot the shoreline in the distance are probably snow. This Group period sketch is utterly peaceful and still, a moment full of vivid mountain colour and the ethereal beauty of weather.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars