Sold for: $31,250

PROVENANCE
Masters Gallery, Calgary
The Art Emporium, Vancouver
Private Collection, Toronto
By descent to the present Private Estate, Toronto

LITERATURE
Kate Helwig and Alison Douglas, J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist’s Materials and Techniques, 2023, page 106

“Art is the ordering of the material in harmony with the spirit”

J.E.H MacDonald, 1930

Although the work of J.E.H. MacDonald is most synonymous with the locales of Algoma and Jasper, the painting place he most often returned to was Thornhill, Ontario. Early examples predate his 1911 introduction to Lawren Harris and go on to populate the rest of his career. MacDonald moved there in 1913 having acquired a Victorian-era farmhouse the year before. Named Four Elms for its towering trees, its garden was the inspiration for his irreplaceable Tangled Garden works, and its surrounding fields provided the idyllic, pastoral vistas depicted here. In the subtle blaze of the sun’s final rays and the atmospheric effects of the sky, this on-site sketch recalls McDonald’s encounters with John Constable and J.M.W. Turner during his time in England some 25 year before. So key was McDonald’s gentle yet inspirational influence on his fellow Group of Seven members, that following his passing in late 1932, they felt it right they should disband, bringing to a close one of Canadian art’s foundational modern movements.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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