David Brown Milne 1882 - 1953

Douglas Duncan at the Picture Loan Society, Toronto

Gift to Mrs. Victor Lange, Princeton, New Jersey

Collection of the late Victor Lange, Indio, California

David Milne, Hart House, University of Toronto, 1936 - 37

David Milne Jr. and David P. Silcox, David B. Milne Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume I, 207.47, p. 416, illustrated

This work is in very good condition with no apparent issues under UV.
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Milne worked at this subject in oil during the early days of 1926 and he also used it for colour drypoints that he made in 1927 and 1929. There is a possibility that he repainted it after the drypoints were done and even that he did it three years later in Weston, Ontario, when he was repainting other Adirondack subjects. However, we do know that he did two versions of this subject, and that he did four or five repaintings of the second version, of which this is the only one extant.

The subject is Milne's view from the high North Elba plateau looking east toward the McIntyre group of mountains. He wrestled with the structure and the details for well over a week, and wrote a long painting note to record his progress and to describe the changes that he was making to achieve the end result that he was searching for. His description at the end of the note for January 12th quite likely pertains to this painting:

On looking over the notes, the three requirements [1. To unite the two halves  2. To see more clearly what is now more or less jumped at  3. To still keep the emphasis where it is – that is on the mountain-cloud band, rather than on the contours which I didn't see at first] have been pretty well met, foreground joined to the rest of the picture very successfully, the detail is seen much more clearly, and the emphasis is still on the mountain shape group.

The five years of Milne's residence in the Adirondacks was one of the least productive periods of his long career, since he was distracted by building an elaborate cottage by himself and finding occasional work to keep food on the table. Yet during this time some of his most striking paintings emerged: Painting Place I and II, Corner of the House, Outlet of the Pond, Roofs Glenmore Hotel, Clouds Below the Mountain Tops, Sparkle of Glass, and Across the Lake.

North Elba II is an exceptional painting. Its subtlety and careful arrangement is artfully disguised by what seems to be a casual and spontaneous application of pigment, but in fact it is a composition meticulously thought through over a long period of time, and this shows in the absolute poise and confidence that emanate from it.