titled & dated on label verso
inscribed verso with notations and the names of a number of individuals for whom canvases were produced from this sketch.
Provenance: Former collection of Burton Taylor (B.T.) Richardson, Winnipeg, MB – Richardson was a journalist and attaché to John Diefenbaker, and author of “Canada and Mr. Diefenbaker” (1962), published the year that the Prime Minister abandoned his “Northern Vision”.
A. Y. Jackson would travel to the Arctic several times in his life; for the first time in 1927, in the company of Dr. F. G. Banting, aboard the S.S. Beothic; and for the final time in 1965, at the age of 83. The land held a fascination for him. In particular, the Coppermine was an area of legend. Jackson had heard the tale of the 1900 Camsell-Bell geological expedition crossing overland to the Coppermine. Trapped by a storm, separated from their men, low on provisions and fearful of the local population, the trip was nearly disastrous. In 1950 Jackson would first realize his desire to “get into the Barren Lands” this area north-east of Great Bear Lake. His group picked out their sketching ground from aboard an Eldorado Mines plane. Upon landing, they pitched their tents and their pilot left them for a week to camp, forage, and sketch.
Jackson writes in “A Painter’s Country” (pp. 183-184):
“It was the end of August and chilly;…Snow flurries swept over the hills known as the Teshierpi Mountains which protected us from the north. From these hills we could see the Dismal Lakes in the distance. A prospector told me that never were lakes so appropriately named. It was exciting country; with its moss and lichen and small plants turning red and orange, it looked like a rich tapestry; and big boulders were strewn about everywhere….The Barren Lands country was so fascinating that I returned there the following year.”
