PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Private Collection
Canadian Art, Joyner Fine Art, November 22, 1988, lot 78
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal
Private Collection, Vancouver

A.J. Casson formally joined the Group of Seven in 1926. He was 10 years the junior of Franklin Carmichael, the youngest of the original Group. Casson had painted with these artists since the early 1920s, but a significantly longer career lay before him than many of his illustrious friends: Casson exhibited well into the 1980s, experiencing admiration, renown and well-deserved success for decades.

Although the works Casson produced while a member of the Group are key, his mid-career works, such as Morning Haze, are some of the artist’s most distinctive. Into them Casson poured all his experiences as an artist, the influences of his eminent contemporaries and, very importantly, the refined skills of his parallel career as a commercial artist. With a deep respect for the focus, efficiency and impact his long employment at many of Canada’s premier commercial art firms imparted to his painting, Casson synthesized these often separate worlds of creativity, producing some of Canada’s most iconic images in the process.

Morning Haze includes multiple facets at which Casson excelled. The beautifully graphic handling of form, stylized but deeply authentic, and the gracefully controlled palette—both elements informed by his time in commercial art—nimbly move the viewer’s eyes around the lower half of the image and off into the distance. The mists emerging from the far shore trees, the angular planes of haze, and subtle yet impactful lighting effects produce a striking and palpable sense of atmosphere. An elegant contrast between the diffuse qualities of the background and the solidity of the foreground engenders an undeniable sense of place. As with Casson’s finest work, a harmonious natural resonance permeates the scene, made all the more moving by the profound sense of calm emanating from the sheltering cove.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars