Sold for: $77,000

PROVENANCE
Peter Ohler Fine Arts Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Megan Bice and Mary Carmichael Mastin, Light and Shadow: The Work of Franklin Carmichael, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1990, page 43, the 1937 large oil entitled Green Valley reproduced page 62

This exceptional oil sketch is from Franklin Carmichael’s iconic La Cloche period; it formed the basis for his large and stunning 1937 oil Green Valley, which was exhibited in a McMichael Canadian Art Collection traveling show from 1990 to 1991. From his first visit to the area in 1924, Carmichael was so captivated by the La Cloche Mountains of northern Ontario that he acquired land and built a cabin there to facilitate his sketching. Among the special qualities of La Cloche was the light, which Carmichael said “bounced around so very dramatically.” This was due to the geological composition of the rock formations—that of white and pink quartzite, which reflects light. In Sombre Valley, La Cloche Hills, Carmichael’s viewpoint from the area’s distinctive rocky ledges moves upward through a velvety green valley to dark green and purple mountains. The sinuous lines of bare tree trunks smoothly pull the viewer’s eye up from the dense foliage to the sky. In his works of the 1930s, such as our striking Sombre Valley, Carmichael’s vision of this wilderness is fully realized, encompassing the strength of its land formations and its distinctive atmosphere.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars