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LOT 124

ALC BCSFA CGP FCA G7 OSA RPS TPG
1885 - 1970
Canadian

Lake Edith, Jasper
oil on board, 1924
signed and on verso signed, titled and inscribed with the artist's symbol and "Not For Sale"
10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in, 27 x 34.9 cm

Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000 CAD

Sold for: $289,250

Preview at: Heffel Toronto – 13 Hazelton Ave

PROVENANCE
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, stock #6428
Private Collection, Vancouver
By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver


Lake Edith, Jasper is an early mountain sketch by Lawren Harris, painted in 1924 on his first trip to the Rocky Mountains. Harris began this trip at the Jasper Park Lodge and his initial sketches were done nearby, with Lake Edith being an easily accessible location to explore before heading out with fellow Group of Seven artist A.Y. Jackson into the more remote areas of the Tonquin Valley and Maligne Lake. As the 1924 visit was the only mountain trip when he painted on boards measuring 10 ½x 13 ¾ inches (subsequent years he used slightly larger, 12 x 15 supports), we can easily identify the vast array of works that he produced on this trip.

The new-found subjects he encountered obviously had a considerable impact, as he was prolific that year, completing more than 50 oil sketches of Jasper’s magnificent landscapes. Harris sometimes sketched up to five panels in a single day. According to Jackson, Harris did not waste any time after arriving: “Lawren has the walls all covered with sketches already,”[1] he wrote to a friend shortly after they arrived in the park, even before heading out from the lodge on their wilder explorations.

By 1924, lakeside scenes were very familiar subjects for Harris. Along with other members of the Group, he had spent the better part of the preceding decade going on sketching trips in Ontario, painting in Algoma, on the north shore of Lake Superior, in Algonquin Park and at Lake Simcoe. In the Rockies, however, this classic subject was presented in a whole new context. Here, the work’s namesake, Lake Edith, occupies only a narrow sliver at the bottom of the composition, the brilliant, deep teal green of its water only barely depicted. Instead, the attention here is entirely upwards, drawing us over the forested lower hills to the peaks, stark and mysterious with their angular forms. In such a setting, it is easy for the picturesque lake to fade into the periphery and the focus to shift to the awe-inspiring realms of the higher altitudes. The painting draws us to them, reflecting the intensity and excitement Harris must have felt sitting by the lake, mesmerized by their otherworldly presence looming over the scene.

Lake Edith, Jasper depicts the mountains of the Colin Range to the northeast of the Jasper townsite. These limestone peaks—one glowing in the sunlight, the others darker in the shadow of passing clouds—are unnamed summits along the ridge to the southeast of Grisette Mountain. When one looks at a contemporary photograph of the same scene (figure 1), the basic elements remain constant, yet it fails to capture the underlying truth that Harris’s work captured here. As he later wrote, “If we view a great mountain soaring into the sky, it may excite us, evoke an uplifted feeling within us. There is an interplay of something we see outside of us with our inner response. The artist takes that response and its feelings and shapes it on canvas with paint so that when finished it contains the experience.”[2]

Indeed, Harris has succeeded in this here. The work is calm but contains a sense of foreboding, characteristic of many moments among the mountains, a feeling that is an integral part of our fascination with them. Depicted here is a fidelity to the awe we experience in looking up at their towering grandness, transcending the objective reality you would try to capture in a photograph. Even from the placid and welcoming shores of Lake Edith in summer, these aggressive peaks bestow a drama on the scene, a reminder of a realm beyond the comfortable or the human, and a beckoning towards further exploration.

We thank Alec Blair, Director/Lead Researcher, Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, for contributing the above essay.

1. Jackson to Norah Thomson DePencier, July 22, 1924, DePencier fonds, National Gallery of Canada; as quoted in Lisa Christensen, A Hiker’s Guide to the Rocky Mountain Art of Lawren Harris (Calgary: Fifth House Books, 2000), 42.

2. Quoted in Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrove, eds., Lawren Harris (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969), 76.


Estimate: $200,000 - $300,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.