Bulletin 9-10 (V:1-2), 1967

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Georgian Bay and the Development  
of the September Gale Theme in 
Arthur Lismer's Painting, 1912-21

by Barry Lord, Associate Fellow, Dept. of Communications Conestoga College, Kitchener

Pages  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6 

Notes

1 NGC acc. No. 3360.

2 J. B. McLeish, September Gale (Toronto: J. M. Dent Sons, 1955). p. 12.

3 In conversation with the author.

4 McLeish, op. cit., pp. 13-14.

5 ibid., p. 15; cf. Donald W. Buchanan, The Growth of Canadian Painting (London and Toronto: Collins, 1950), p.36.

6 McLeish, op. cit., pp. 40-41.

7. NGC acc. No. 6540. The painting exhibited as catalogue No. 28 in the exhibition The Collection of Ml and Mrs Charles S. Band, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), 1963, said to be signed and dated on the back .'Arthur Lismer 1912.' is in tact not so dated. Its title is not Ontario Northern Lake as published (catalogue, p. 17) but Ontario Mountain Lake, and it would appear from the style to be at least ten and quite possibly twenty years later in date.

8 NGC acc. No. 3708; for reference to the tree motif, cf. Dr R. H. Hubbard, The Development of Canadian Art (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1963), p. 91.

9 NGC acc. No. 3004.

10 NGC acc. No. 1519.

11 In conversation with the author; on the importance of the Canadian scene, cf. F. B. Housser, A Canadian Art Movement, (Toronto: Macmillan, 1926), pp. 31, 46-47, 177-78.

12 Oil on canvas, ca. 20 x 24 ins., signed and dated lower left "A Lismer / 13"; probably exhibited as The Clearing, Ontario Society of Artists, 1913; cf. Housser, op. cit., p. 63.

13 op. cit., pp. 29-30; regarding the site of September Gale, cf. Dr C. F. Comfort, "Georgian Bay Legacy," Canadian Art, VIII (Spring 1951), 108.

14. NGC acc. No. 4298.

15. Collection Mrs David R. Stratford, Vancouver.

16. NGC acc. No. 6403.

17. Perhaps the earliest appearance of the silhouette horizon of trees and islands is in Lismer's illustration to Marjorie L. C. Pickthall's poem "island Song" in Toronto Saturday Night, Christmas Number, 1911, p. 38. I am indebted to Sybille Pantazzi, Librarian of the Art Gallery of Ontario, for drawing my attention to this and other early illustrations.

18 39 1/2 x 44 1/2 ins., NGC acc. No. 1155; an example of the importance mistakenly attributed to this painting is to be found in Dr R. H. Hubbard, op. cit., p. 95.

19 NGC acc. No. 6520.

20 NGC acc. No. 940.

21 AGO acc. No. 50147.

22 AGO acc. No. 52113.

23 NBM acc. No. 25887; oil on canvas 20 1/8 x 24 1/8 ins., signed and dated lower right "A Lismer / 14"; reproduced in Catalogue of Pictures and Sculpture given by Canadian Artists in Aid of the Patriotic Fund, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, December30, 1914-1915, exhibited in Toronto, Winnipeg, Halifax, Saint John, Ouebec, Montreal, Ottawa, London and Hamilton (no pagination), as #25; purchased from that exhibition by H. A. Powell, Saint John, N.B.; Gift to the Museum by Mrs H. A. Powell and Miss Pauline Powell, Saint John, 1936.

24 AGO acc. No. 50/50.

25 NGC acc. No. 1369.

26 NGC acc. No. 4733; signed and dated lower left "A Lismer / 17'.

27 Another which may probably be dated about 1917 -19, judging from a photograph, is Little Seaboat, an oil-on- panel sketch, 8% x 11% ins., in coll. City of Sheffield Art Galeries, signed lower right "A Lismer", presented by Mrs Wilson Hague, 1962. Its steep, almost vertical viewpoint is the only notable characteristic for our theme; its style is the impasto of his Halifax period.

28 NGC acc. No. 4756.

29 NGC acc. No. 4753.

30 Collection Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N. B.; cf. 
J. E. H. MacDonald, R. C. A., 1873-1932, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), 1965, #19, p. 25.

31 MMF acc. No. 1123.

32 MMF acc. No. 1124.

33 NGC Canadian War Memorials Collection acc. No. C-363.

34 NGC Canadian War Memorials Collection acc. No. 358.

35 AGO acc. No. 1334.

36 Collection the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, Batterwood House, Canton, Ontario.

37 AGO acc. Nos. 2547, 5046.

38 Oil on panel 12 x 16 ins.; signed lower right "A Lismer", n. d.

39 Nancy E: Robertson, Introduction, J. E. H. MacDonald 
R. C. A., 1873-1932, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), 1965, p. 11.

40 NGC acc. No. 1814.

41 NGC acc. No. 4582.

42 op. cit., p. 72.

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