CSPWC G7 OSA RCA
1890 - 1945
Canadian
Farm Buildings on a Hill
watercolour on paper
on verso titled and dated circa 1924 on the Roberts Gallery label
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, 21.6 x 26.7 cm
Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000 CAD
Sold for: $20,000
Preview at:
PROVENANCE
Estate of the Artist
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
LITERATURE
Megan Bice, Light and Shadow: The Works of Franklin Carmichael, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1990, reproduced page 37
“Drawing is the artist’s most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.”
-- Edgar Degas
An understanding of the Group of Seven’s relationship to work on paper is essential to an understanding of them as artists. Their skills as draughtsmen are the foundations of their paintings, and are the structures on which their compositions are able to express their truth and authenticity. Additionally, Franklin Carmichael, A.J. Casson, and Frederick Varley were master watercolourists, with Varley being one of the most exquisite portraitists of the era, founded in his finesse with conte. L.L. FitzGerald’s distinctively sensitive drawings are unique in Canadian art, and A.Y. Jackson, known for his loose and gestural use of paint, was praised by his peers for his ability to distill the essence of a scene with an on the spot pencil sketch. A full appreciation of the Group of Seven is incomplete without engaging with how they expressed themselves on paper, whether it be a preparatory sketch or complete finished drawing.
This fresh and delicate work by Franklin Carmichael is from a period of the artist’s career when he began to reconnect with watercolour. This would be a lifelong connection, with the medium becoming as essential to his voice as oil paint. Works in this 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 inch size, rare for Carmichael, date from this same period of circa 1924, when he sketched in the Ottawa River Valley near Mattawa. Carmichael’s belief in the expressive qualities of watercolour was so central to his work that six years later he insisted that watercolours be given a room of their own in the 1930 Group of Seven exhibition.
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