2025 June | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed lower left; signed and titled verso

Provenance: Galerie Clarence Gagnon, Montreal QC (certificate verso); Kaspar Gallery, Toronto ON; Canadian Art Clinic, Identification Forms (No. 146), Mr. G. R. Lang, Toronto ON (label verso)

Notes:

signed lower left; signed verso; inscribed verso “O.S.A. / Little Picture Show / Title: Go Home Bay / Price: $40.00”

Exhibited: Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario Society of Artists: Little Pictures by Members of the Ontario Society of Artists, November 1931, cat. no. 202

It was in the early fall of 1913, after a summer of exploring and painting the splendours of Georgian Bay, that A.Y. Jackson received a surprise visit from Dr. James MacCallum. He had approached Jackson’s camp on the beach of Portage Island in his motorboat and, when they were introduced, Jackson recognized MacCallum as a friend of his colleague, Lawren Harris. MacCallum asked Jackson to show him some paintings (which impressed the patron), and then to show him his living quarters: an old, draughty bathing shack (much less impressive).

Finding that Jackson was planning to stay in the area until October, MacCallum offered the artist an opportunity to continue his stay in more comfortable quarters at his cottage, just north of Portage Island, at Go Home Bay. Jackson accepted, and when he mentioned that he might head to the United States for the winter, MacCallum made him another proposition, in an effort to keep Canadian artists in Canada: “If I would take a studio in the building he and Harris were having erected, he would guarantee my expenses for a year. Of course, I accepted.”

Go Home Bay provided Jackson with many opportunities to camp, fish, and most importantly sketch. “Padding around the islands and exploring intricate channels and bays that cut into the mainland provided me with much material”, he wrote. Often, MacCallum and his family would join Jackson on these expeditions in their own canoes. The area was replete with inspiring scenery in all seasons, and though the climate could be harsh, with rough winds, rocky shores, and stormy nights, Jackson loved it: “Go Home Bay and the outer islands are filled for me with happy memories of good friends and of efforts, more or less successful, that I made to portray its ever-varying moods.”

In 1931, when Jackson included this panel in the O.S.A.’s Little Pictures Show, he was a well established exhibitor of the Group and on the precipice of a new phase of his career: the Group of Seven would hold their final exhibition together that same year, and would formally disband in 1933. Jackson would go on to become a signature member of the newly formed Canadian Group of Painters, and his distinguished career would extend for years beyond the Group. His commitment to capturing the Canadian landscape was unfaltering, and Jackson would return to Go Home Bay for years to come, making his last trip in 1967.

In this work, from a spot amongst the rocks, on a shore within Go Home Bay, Jackson captures the natural debris and the incoming tide, as the pines — now synonymous with the Group and Tom Thomson — are swept by the wind against a cloudy sky.

Reference:
1. A.Y. Jackson, “A Painter’s Country”, 1958, pp. 30, 91

Notes:

signed lower left; titled on the gallery label verso

Provenance: Agghazy Gallery, Calgary AB

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signed lower right

Notes:

monogrammed lower right; titled on the labels verso

Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary AB (label verso); Edlinton’s Limited Fine Art Dealers and Frame Makers, Montreal QC (sticker verso). Given as a gift by Cullen to Mr. and Mrs. James Beattie (Chambly QC) in 1934 as a wedding gift. The Beatties were neighbours of Cullen.

Exhibited: The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff AB): “Exquisite Passage”, June 20 – August 27, 1993 (label verso).

Notes:

Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary AB; former collection of Bill and Nancy Schwarz, Cambridge ON; Continental Galleries, Montreal QC

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Certified verso by Lucile Rodier Gagnon, wife of the artist (Paris, 1946; no. 196).

Clarence Gagnon was born in a small village in Rural Quebec and began his formal art education under William Brymner at the Montreal Association of Art. Like many Canadian artists of his time, Gagnon travelled to Paris in 1904 to continue his studies. Here, he attended the Académie Julien and became immersed in the artistic community, gaining recognition for his work at the St. Louis Art Exhibition, and at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Francais. While in Paris, Gagnon painted with James Wilson Morrice and became influenced by his plein-air sketching techniques. Upon his return to Quebec in 1908, he settled in Baie-St-Paul along the St. Lawrence River, though he would go on to spend much of his life living and working in France. It is in the Laurentians where he produced most of his plein-air sketches. Where his Group of Seven contemporaries are best known for their bold, rugged depictions of the Canadian wilderness, Gagnon is recognized for gentle and idyllic scenes that reflect his affection for his homeland.

Notes:

signed lower right

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signed lower left; artist’s studio label verso

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signed, titled and dated verso; estate stamped (Inv. #129)

Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary AB (label verso)

Isabel McLaughlin studied at the Ontario College of Art (under Arthur Lismer and Yvonne McKague Housser), as well as at the Art Students League of New York and at the Scandinavian Academy (Paris). She held her first solo show in 1933 at the Art Gallery of Toronto, the same year she became one of the founding members of the Canadian Group of Painters. She exhibited regularly with the group, and in 1939 became its first female president.