PROVENANCE
Gifted by the Artist to a Private Collection, Toronto, Christmas 1926
Dr. John Palmer, Toronto
Linchrist Gallery of Fine Art Inc., Toronto
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto

LITERATURE
Banting as an Artist, 1971, titled Midnight Sun, Yukon Territories, catalogue #16, unpaginated

EXHIBITED
Academy of Medicine, Toronto, Banting as an Artist, October 21-30, 1971

Although the world is more familiar with Dr. Frederick Banting as co-discoverer of insulin, Banting also painted, and 1926, the year this work was produced, was part of an exciting period for Banting and his art. In January of 1925 he had one of his first public showings of his paintings in an exhibition at University of Toronto’s Hart House arranged by faculty and students. In April of the same year, Lawren Harris nominated Dr. Banting for membership in Toronto’s famed Arts & Letters Club, with his nomination seconded by Barker Fairley. Banting had been introduced to Harris by mutual acquaintance Dr. James MacCallum, friend and patron of the Group of Seven. Already a Nobel Prize winning scientist, Banting was now at the epicentre of art and culture in English Canada as well.

In July of 1927, Banting journeyed with A.Y. Jackson to the far north on the S.S. Beothic. This would be Jackson’s first visit to the arctic, but Banting had a brief, tantalizing glimpse of the north the year before on a brief journey to the Yukon. It was there he painted Midnight Sun, Yukon, and it is one of the few known examples from that trip to be offered at auction.

This work was once owned by Dr. John Palmer of Toronto, who loaned it to the 1971 exhibition Banting as an Artist. No doubt inspired by Banting, Dr. Palmer dedicated his life to medical science while also being an accomplished painter himself.

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