Sold for: $32,175

PROVENANCE
Acquired from the Artist by Robert and Signe McMichael, Kleinburg, Ontario, October 1956
Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Berton, Ontario
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Dennis Reid, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1985, reproduced page 84

EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, September 27 - November 24, 1985, traveling in 1985 - 1986 to the Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Edmonton Art Gallery, catalogue #51

Arthur Lismer’s first trip to Vancouver Island was in 1951 when he went west for the close of his cross-Canada retrospective exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The West Coast made such a positive impression that he returned for 16 summers, exploring Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. During this first summer, he stayed at Wickaninnish Bay at Long Beach, and at Galiano and Pender Islands. Lismer found the stately old-growth trees lit by shafts of sunlight compelling.

Produced in this first summer, Forest Green Wall relates directly to the style developed previously in his powerful Georgian Bay works in its use of incised lines and stylized evergreen boughs, as well as his compositional interest in life on the forest floor. Light floods a small clearing, illuminating the dark forest and backlighting ferns, skunk cabbage and salal exploding from the earth in a lush and wildly tangled still life. Bright splashes of yellow, orange and blue add further notes of vitality to this rich coastal image.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars