David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953

Sold by the artist to Alice and Vincent Massey, Toronto, 1934

Laing Galleries, Toronto, 1958

Collection of C. Stewart, Toronto, 1958

Framing Gallery, Toronto, c. 1970

Private Collection, Toronto

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume II, 302.24, p. 499, illustrated 

This work is in excellent condition with no apparent issues under UV.
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During the three immensely productive years that Milne spent among the Caledon Hills northwest of Toronto in Palgrave, Ontario, he tackled the business of painting in two quite different creative processes.

In one frame of mind, he took time and great care to work out in the greatest detail a subject that he was interested in. Pencil sketches, repainting a great deal, reconsidering every section and each point of emphasis, and pondering each in depth was necessary in the process. This was a way he had tried, he thought rather unsuccessfully, in the Adirondacks, and felt an impulse to try again. One problem with it was that it used up a lot of precious pigment, his financial situation was precarious at best, and another was that it did not consistently produce better paintings.

The other method was simply relying on momentary inspiration, as he had also done so often and so successfully in the past. Using this approach, he looked intently for a subject to suggest itself as he meandered among the farms and forests around Palgrave, When a subject pleased him, he slowly and carefully thought his way around it and then, with a burst of energetic work, polished the painting off in the course of a morning or an afternoon. In this method, he was acknowledging that the work was basically finished after the initial effort. He might edit a few accidental details that evening, but at that point the painting either lived or died.

This charming, bright, and cheerful painting of a section of bush among the hills is a product of one of those moments of keen vision and of brilliant, easy execution that come together from time to time in an artist's life. For Milne, who allocated his energy wisely and whose intellectual capacity was high, these moments happened more frequently than for many others. All the ideas needed, the technique required, the emotion to feel and transcribe the sense of light and the variety of forms, were gathered together in one great push to make this delightful canvas one fine summer day.