SANDY BEACH AND POOL

oil on wood panel

12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)

Price Realized:

$ 16800 CAD.

INCLUDES BUYER’S PREMIUM

Notes:

signed and dated ’55 lower right; inscribed “- Van Isl – / 55” verso

Provenance: Laing Galleries, Toronto ON (label verso)

In the summer of 1951, when he was 65 years old, Arthur Lismer embarked on his first sketching trip to Long Beach, located on the Pacific Rim of Vancouver Island. By then, Lismer was a senior and celebrated artist – the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Toronto had staged a major retrospective of his career in 1950. After a condensed selection of the retrospective travelled (at the behest of Lawren Harris) to numerous galleries in Vancouver and Victoria, Lismer reached out to colleagues on Vancouver Island to inquire about booking a summer trip: He had painted Georgian Bay, the fishing villages of Nova Scotia, and even South Africa, but he had not yet tackled the Canadian West Coast. In July, Lismer and his wife, Esther, travelled first to Galiano Island, then to Wickaninnish Bay, Long Beach . Here, they rented a cabin, to which they would return nearly every summer until 1968 – the year before Lismer’s death.

In June 1955, the 70-year-old Lismer retired from his position at McGill University, and shortly thereafter left for Long Beach with Esther. They stayed for six weeks, during which time Lismer painted “Sandy Beach and Pool”. In an article for Canadian Art in 1956, Robert Ayre wrote about Lismer’s summer sketches at Wickaninnish: “There are twelve miles of beach, and behind it, the virgin forest, where nothing happens, no lumbering … You could get lost in the dense tropical growth of the cedar swamps, he says, if it wasn’t for the roar of the sea to guide you.” Close to the cabin where the Lismers stayed, there is a small cove that became affectionately known as “Lismer Bay”.

During these summers, late in his life, Lismer painted the mighty Pacific and the old-growth forests that surrounded and inspired him; he did so with an intimacy and connection that sets these paintings apart from those of his earlier “Group” style. This body of work is integral to understanding Lismer’s complete evolution as an artist.