Inventory # AOL1019-E18023-002

PROVENANCE
Sold sale of Canadian Fine Art, Joyner / Waddington's, November 24, 2009, lot 142
Private Collection, Ontario

This work presents a classic depiction of Casson’s preferred sketching weather of a stormy day. When asked about how sketching trips had gone, Casson would sometimes answer, “Terrible – it was sunny every day!” Along with the skillful depiction of the currents of the lake and the tightly modulated palette of the far shore, the geometric clouds are typical of the artist. They are subtly given more structure via the draughtsmanship showing through the paint. One of the most notable elements of this painting, however, might be its date. Painted in 1980, this places it near the end of Casson’s career; but because of the high standards he set for himself and his art, there was no drop-off in quality. Paintings such as this have a strength equal to works painted decades earlier. In this image Casson depicts Peninsula Lake, located just east of Algonquin Park, one of the most important sketching locales for the artists of the Group of Seven.

Praise and acceptance for the Group of Seven is so widespread today, that it can be difficult to understand the startling newness of their work in their time. Future Group members paths began to cross as commercial artists and graphic designers in Toronto in the early 1900s. Sheffielders Arthur Lismer and Frederick Varley were employed as such, as were Canadian-born Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael, all colleagues for a time. Each seeking their own distinctive voice, they found guidance in the example of J.E.H. MacDonald, the senior artist among them. His pioneering exhibition of small oil sketches of High Park in 1911 led Lawren Harris to seek an introduction. From here, what would become the Group began to take shape. In 1913, Harris and MacDonald were fortified by an exhibition in Buffalo of contemporary landscape painters from Scandinavia. In that same year, they were joined by A.Y. Jackson from Montreal. Soon each of them began to find their own means to express the vibrant resonance of the land around them. Their first exhibition together was in May 1920, whose centennial we celebrate this year. In 1926 A.J. Casson was invited to become one of the Group after Johnston’s departure, and in later years, Edwin Holgate and L.L. FitzGerald joined them. The Group exhibited together until the passing of MacDonald in 1932, with their individual and varied careers extending far beyond.

Their radical presence in the early 20th Century stemmed from the fact that few in the European tradition had sought to express the qualities of the Canadian landscape before, many deeming it unworthy of the search. The Group not only sought to express it, but sought new forms through which it could most authentically be expressed. The people who live in relation to these landscapes today understand the necessity of what this search unearthed, and the value of an intimate understanding of our place on earth. It reveals a fundamental truth of existence: where we are from makes us who we are. No Canadian artists have expressed so powerfully or so personally this facet of our identity.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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