Thomas (Tom) John Thomson 1877 - 1917

Laing Fine Art Galleries, Toronto

Private Collection, Ottawa

This oil on canvas laid down on cardboard is in excellent condition. The canvas has lifted slightly from the cardboard to the left of centre of the painting due to a flaw in gluing. There is a minute pinhole in the top edge, towards the centre of the board. We wish to thank "In Restauro Conservart Inc." for examining this work and their original notes are available upon request from Sotheby's.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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One of the exciting periods in Thomson's life was when he made the miraculous transition from being a competent but undistinguished commercial artist to being a painter with an uncanny ability to paint works of exceptional grace and power.  This transformation began, tentatively, in about 1911, but was marked in 1912, when he first went to Algonquin Park, the area with which he was subsequently and irrevocably associated.

This sharp career turn for a man who was already thirty-five years old was momentous.  It was also much noticed, and not only by his colleagues at Grip Limited, which he left after his Algonquin trip, but also by the artists at Rous and Mann, where he landed next and where he met J.E.H. MacDonald.  And later that year, and perhaps into early 1913, he painted A Northern Lake, which was snapped up by the Ontario Government, in a moment of exceptional foresight, for $250.  Thomson was on his way. 

This perfect little sketch of 1912, perhaps from the late summer when he canoed along the Spanish River through the Mississagi Forest Reserve, is a clear marker of a shift that Thomson's life was taking.  It holds in embryo almost everything that was to follow: the low point of view (from his canoe) that sets the foreground, the articulated strip of forest, with its varied trees and shoreline, and the remarkable sky with its subtle colours and streaks of blue.  The brushwork in this painting is incredibly deft; the hatched strokes that depict the fast water, the broad and full strokes that make the sky such a marvel, and the fussy attention that marks every minute detail of the trees and the forest floor.  This painting is like the opening chapter of a book that turns out to be one that you can't put down.