Sold for: $21,060

PROVENANCE
D.M. Ferms-Collier, Toronto
Private Collection, Whitehorse

LITERATURE
Dennis Reid, Canadian Jungle: The Later Work of Arthur Lismer, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1985, page 51, a similar canvas entitled Forest Giant, Vancouver Island reproduced page 55

Arthur Lismer brought techniques and interests developed during the time he worked at Georgian Bay to his 1950s and 1960s British Columbia coast painting trips, which began after his attention was drawn west when his cross-Canada retrospective exhibition was closing at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1951. Paint was bold and textural, often incised with animated lines created by the tip of his brush, and trees and the jumble of life at the forest floor were his main subjects. Old growth giants such as these were often depicted by Lismer in his West Coast works, and he lit this vibrant forest interior with bold splashes and strokes of yellow, orange, flesh and mauve. In paintings such as this, one can feel the presence of Emily Carr, who Lismer had first met on her visit east in 1927. On his summer trips west, Lismer visited her in Victoria, once even sketching with her below Beacon Hill Park. In Tree Study, Lismer celebrates a forest full of life, yet venerable through the passage of time.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars