Sold for: $40,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Ontario

LITERATURE
Exhibition of the Group of Seven, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1926, "Ten Sketches" listed #133 - 142, page 5
Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven, 1970, page 158

EXHIBITED
Art Gallery of Toronto, Exhibition of the Group of Seven, May 8 - 31, 1926, catalogue #141

Although he was listed in the 1926 Group of Seven exhibition catalogue as an “Invited Contributor,” later that same year, A.J. Casson would formally become a member of the Group. Casson, who turned 28 during this show, had already been painting with Group members since the early 1920s, after becoming Franklin Carmichael’s apprentice at the commercial art firm Rous & Mann Ltd. in 1919. Due to Frank Johnston’s departure from Toronto for Winnipeg in 1921, only six official Group members were listed in the 1926 catalogue. Casson was such a clear choice to fill Johnston’s vacancy that when he accepted Carmichael’s invitation to become a member, Carmichael responded, “Well, you are one.”

Casson’s oil sketches from this exhibition are listed collectively in the catalogue as “Ten Sketches,” numbered 133 to 142. Fortunately, the artist’s handwritten price list titles them individually, with The Credit at Norval being the first of two works listed as “Not for Sale.” This elegant and bucolic artwork hung in illustrious company, for the exhibition featured masterworks such as J.E.H. MacDonald’s Mist Fantasy and Lawren Harris’s iconic Mountain Forms, sold by Heffel in 2016.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars