PROVENANCE
Laing Galleries, Toronto
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montréal
Warwick Gallery Ltd., Vancouver
Une important succession privée, Toronto
Beaux-arts canadiens, Maison de vente aux enchères Heffel, 17 mai 2012, lot 107
Acquis du susmentionné par une collection privée, Toronto
Collection privée, Calgary

Aside from the deeply felt grandeur of this on-site oil sketch by Franklin Carmichael, one other feature which is immediately notable is that it is signed by the artist. At the time this work was produced, there were few galleries that showcased Canadian art, and the primary means of exhibition was through artists’ societies like the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists. When additional factors such as the Great Depression and World War II are factored in, it’s easy to presume that even for established artists like Carmichael, many works produced remained unexhibited, and therefore, unsigned, at the time of his early passing in 1945.

As titled on verso, the subject of this work is the La Cloche region of Ontario. Carmichael first visited this part of the Canada in the mid-1920s, and it would soon become a lifelong muse. He was especially attracted to the unique topography there due to the strong visual predominance of white, as vast expanses of crystalline quartzite reflect sunlight and sparkle against the darker colours of forest and trees. Here, the rolling grey clouds echo the grey hills, grey tree trunks and grey foreground rocks, all of which are tied together by the grey negative spaces between tree limb and forest, in the hollows between rocks and patches of grass, along the furrows and clefts in the hills, as well as in the sky. This unity of colour and space gives the work a lively, all-over patterned feeling that balances well with the palette of the work. Carmichael was so inspired by La Cloche’s sense of immensity that he would build a cabin on the shores of Cranberry Lake, permitting him an even more intimate relationship with this land’s distinctive drama. Carmichael died suddenly at the age of 55, thus mature works such as this are rare.

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