Description
TOM THOMSON WINTER MORNING, oil on panel; with the estate stamp recto and verso, numerous inscriptions by various hands (including Thomson) on the reverse 8 1/2 ins x 10 1/2 ins; 21.3 cms x 26.3 cms Provenance: Estate of the artist. Elizabeth Thomson Harkness (sister of the artist), Annan and Owen Sound, Ontario. Robert Alexander Laidlaw, Toronto. Libby's Art Gallery, Toronto. Private Collection, Ontario. Exhibited: R.A. and W.L. Laidlaw Sketches on Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Oct.-No., 1949, no.42. Private Collectors' Choice in Canadian Art Sponsored by the Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian National Exhibition Art Gallery, Toronto, August, 1959. Literature: Dennis Reid (ed.), Tom Thomson, 1877-1917, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2002, page 276, no.121, colour plate, for a related subject (collection National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). Note: Painted spring, 1915. This work will be included in Joan Murray's forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the artist's work. TOM THOMSON WINTER MORNING Thomson arrived in Algonquin Park in the middle of March 1915, eager to paint snow subjects. The previous fall he had been joined in the Park by A.Y. Jackson, Fred Varley and his wife, Maud, and Arthur Lismer and his wife and daughter, Esther and Marjorie Lismer. Together with the artists of this group he had experienced the excitement of working with people who shared a strong belief in creating an art movement that would be new - and Canadian. Thomson's desire to experiment and enthusiasm are clear from the variety of approaches he used in his sketches of the fall of 1914, which range from roughly textured, more sombre works to ones painted with brighter colour and dotted with touches of the reds, oranges and yellows of the fall. As became his practice later, that autumn he used ground colour then added additional colour, drawing in branches on top to enliven the sketch. Jackson wrote that Thomson was "no longer handicapped by literal representation," but using his training in design, learned from commercial art, and finding happy colour motives. At the end of the season, when Thomson's friends had left for Toronto, he stayed on. His sketch Winter (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg) supplies proof of the inspiration he had found working with this lively band of individuals. During the winter, back in the studio in Toronto, Thomson used the sketch, along with his study of the work of his mentor J.E.H. MacDonald of the same period, to create In Algonquin Park (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg), one of his early but extremely important canvases. That winter of 1914-1915, Thomson continued to create major works. In paintings such as Pine Island, Georgian Bay and Northern River he used an intricate surface design incorporating the tracery of branches of the trees to add to the effect. Likely his interest in such decorative motifs was a response to the news both Harris and MacDonald carried back from a show they had seen in Buffalo at the Albright Gallery in January 1913 of Scandinavian art. MacDonald marked his copy of the catalogue which Thomson would have seen (today MacDonald's catalogue is in the library of the McMichael Collection). From such a source and articles in the Studio magazine on Scandinavian art, Thomson would have understood the increasingly decorative bent in the work of both of his friends - one which often involved the use of a screen of foreground elements arranged across the surface of the canvas. In the spring of 1915, back in Algonquin Park, Thomson was glad to find the snow in the woods about two or three feet deep, as he wrote his friend and patron Dr. J.M. MacCallum on the 22nd of April (National Gallery of Canada Archives, MacCallum Papers). Thomson would have painted this sketch before April 28 of that year, since he left that day with a fishing party from Pittsburgh (entry for 28 April, Mark Robinson diary, Trent University Archives, Peterborough). The sketch shows the heavy snow on the ground and trees in an enclosed space which Thomson opened up at the top by adding touches of yellow to suggest the light of early morning. In the body of the scene, Thomson used blues and greys to create a sense of an intricate, structured world. He used dark blue, ultramarine, only rarely but to great effect in picking out details (it was the most expensive of the colours). Elsewhere, he used browns and black to establish the verticals of tree trunks and pockets of shadow. However, to maintain a feeling of lively informality in the work, he left space open around the branches of the trees, revealing the wood of the support. Thomson was the person who titled and signed the work on the back - his handwriting appears. He may have planned to use the painting as a guide to future work since he returned to the subject later. His friend Lawren Harris, recognizing its importance, wrote on it, "Not for Sale," to reserve it for himself or his friends. Winter Morning was once owned by Toronto financier and industrialist Robert Alexander Laidlaw (1886-1976) as part of a group purchased by Laidlaw and his brother, W.C. Laidlaw. Essay by JOAN MURRAY VERSO LEGEND A. in graphite, "Winter Morning / Tom Thomson" (in square) [the artist's handwriting] B. c., estate stamp C. u.c., in graphite, "Spring 1915 JM" [Dr. J.M. MacCallum's handwriting] D. u.r., in graphite, "Not for Sale" (underlined) [Lawren Harris's handwriting] E. u.r., in red, "42" (circled) F. u.r., in graphite, "#9" G. c.r., inscribed indistinctly in red, "Laidlaw"? H. l.r., in graphite, "No. 152 Mrs. Harkness" I. l.r., in graphite, "#7" J. l.l., in graphite "1" (circled) K. c.l., in graphite "WCL" L. c.l., in red, "14" M. u.l., in graphite, "#3" (circled) N. u.l., in graphite, "16" O. u.l., in ink, "A.M." P. u.c.l., in green ink?, "33"
