Frederick Horsman Varley 1881 - 1969

Peter Varley, Varley, Toronto, 1983, p. 112 for a related sketch from the same period entitled Coast Mountain, Form (National Gallery of Canada)

Varley loved the mountains from the moment he arrived in Vancouver in 1926. His attachment to them for the grandeur they displayed and the inspiration they gave him show in every painting he ever did with mountains as a subject.  Like Harris, MacDonald, and Lismer, he found a spiritual force here that gave him a power that few other things could.

This fine sketch is no exception. In the space of less than 170 square inches, Varley manages to convey all he wants us to know and feel about his subject. From the bumpy foreground, which sets the stage for the landscape and its rugged humps of stone in the middle ground, to the lively sky with its scudding clouds, and with the gnarled stumps of trees up close and the spindly firs in the middle distance, Varley is always the master of his subject, knowing exactly what he wants to include and what to leave out. While appearing to be effusive with detail and bravura handling of the pigment, he is actually exceptionally economical.