Sold for: $304,200

PROVENANCE
Laing Galleries, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto, acquired from the above circa 1960s
By descent to the present Private Collection, South Carolina

LITERATURE
Paul Duval, Lawren Harris: Where the Universe Sings, 2011, pages 202 and 206

In Lawren Harris’s artistic journeys, and more specifically in the journeys of his soul, we can see that he found a sense of something spiritual in old buildings in the poorest neighbourhoods of Toronto and in other seemingly simple subjects. After his devastating experiences in World War I, he was searching for meaning and personal peace. His discovery of Algoma on the famous boxcar trips happened when this search for a spiritual “other” was on the brink of becoming a central focus in his work. Algoma’s beauty, the camaraderie of his fellow artists, and the communion with nature that became succour for his battered soul allowed this spiritual “other” to become visible and present in his work.

Of particular interest in this sketch is the distant horizon line, which actually forms a very small part of the work. If we examine the Algoma works carefully, we can see that Harris’s interest in a distant sky is repeatedly explored. The important panels Algoma Sketch CXIX, circa 1919 (collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario) and Tamarack Swamp, Algoma, 1922 (collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery) both give painterly credence to this small, distant sky. Further, the canvas Algoma Hill, 1920 (collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario) depicts a buttress of rock in the near ground, beyond which Harris paints an expanse of sky that holds our interest in a compelling manner. Harris’s continued attention to the “presence of the distance” in his works and his continued interest in this “beyond” is quite profound. While he has concentrated his painterly attention on the beautiful autumn colours of the eastern Canadian woods in Herbert Lake, Algoma - with the fresh, bright yellows, limey greens and dashes of hot orange - this riotous tapestry of colour is equally balanced, in its presence and in its commanding of our attention, with the tiny chunk of empty sky in the upper right corner of the work. There is much more to this little bit of sky than the white of distant clouds. When Harris found Lake Superior, this sky would level out, flatten and fill his works. In the Rockies, it would be filled with rays of light and billowing clouds, atmospheric effects and gleams of something transcendent, where halos of glowing, soft colour emanated upward from the mountains themselves.

After his initial visit to Algoma with Dr. James MacCallum in May of 1918, which was not a painting trip, Harris’s enthusiasm for the area was unquenchable. He eagerly sought out other artists to join him on future trips to this newly discovered northland. His close friend J.E.H. MacDonald was then recovering from a five-month illness following a stroke. Nevertheless, Harris urged MacDonald to join him and Frank Johnston on a sketching trip to Algoma the following September. “You will forget entirely to give your health or state of mind even a passing thought,” he assured his friend, “just give up to drinking gorgeousness with your eyes, sweet woody sounds with your ears and crisp, clean air with your lungs.” Harris made a total of seven sketching trips to Algoma; he was enraptured by the area’s beauty and, above all, its spiritual power, stating, “with this increase of conviction and the unalloyed joy of finding the expressive possibilities of the new regions, the power of the painting grew. Each lake and mountain, river and district was discovered to have a living presence different from all the others, each one demanding a fresh perception and an expression peculiar to itself. Moreover, the whole north, over and above its differences in character and changing moods, was found to be a source of spiritual flow, remote, pristine, replenishing and inspiring.”

All prices are in Canadian Dollars