AY Jackson on Lawren Harris

I did not meet Lawren Harris in Toronto, so he came to Berlin (Kitchener) to meet me. He was I found, a young man, well educated, widely travelled and well to do; his grandfather had been one of the founders of the Massey Harris Company.

To Lawren Harris, art was almost a mission. He believed that a counry that ignored the arts, left no record of itself, worth preserving. He deplored our neglect of the artist in Canada, and believed that we, a young, vigorous people who had pioneered in so many ways should put the same spirit of adventure into our cultivation of the arts. With MacDonald, Lismer, Varley and others whose acquaintance he had recently made, he believed that art in Canada should assume a more aggressive role and he had exalted ideas about the place of the artist in the community. After the apathy of Montreal, it was exciting to meet such a man.



After looking back all these years, I can think of no one who has so consistently devoted himself to increasing the public's interest in the arts and upholding the ideals of the artists in Canada.

Source: Autobiography of AY Jackson, 1958. Clark Irwin & Co., Ltd. Toronto. pg. 24.

Heffel Art Auction: Today in Vancouver. Lawren Harris and Bill Reid Works on the Block.

Lawren Harris. Bylot Island 1
Anticipated price: $1.5m - $2.5 m.


Bill Reid: Killer Whale estimated value, $600,000 - $800,000

Please click here to be taken to the Heffel.Com

The Beaver Hall Group

Lawren P Harris: Monster Forms, 1953.

It not uncommon for like minded artists to group together and draw support from one another on their artistic journey's. While the Group of Seven was advancing its style from its Toronto base, Montreal also had its Beaver Hall Group.

For that matter, Lawren Harris and AY Jackson were cross over artists, who migrated from Montreal to Toronto. The online Cybermuse site, reports that AY Jackson continued to maintain Montreal links after moving to Ontario, through ongoing letters and communication.

The Montreal group were originally students of William Brymner. It was a non structured association of artists who shared studio space in Beaver Hall Square.
It was formed in 1920 and while it had a lifespan of a year and a half its members maintained their relationships through the next two decades.

Included in the group were, Anne Savage, Sarah Robinson, Edwin Holgate, Prudence Heward,Lilias Newton,and Lawren P. Harris.

Its important to clear up any confusion which may arise about Lawren Harris. Lawren P. Harris, is the son of the noteable Group of Seven artist, Lawren S. Harris.

Click here and you will be taken to the Cybermuse reference for this entry.

Don't miss the click on related images tab. It will open for you a page of some of the surprising works of the Beaver Hall group. Click here.

Lawren Harris's Old Stump, Lake Superior sells for 3.5 Million

Winner of Canada's Second Most Costly Painting Award

Thursday's CBC news reported that Lawren Harris's, Old Stump of Lake Superior, sold for $3.5 million dollars, making it the second highest selling picture in Canadian history. Interestingly, the picture was a sketch for his painting 'North Shore of Lake Superior.'

Harris's painting St. Patrick's Street Toronto recently sold for $2.8 million, and his 'Winter in the Northern Woods' sold for $1.4 million, in 2004. Prior to that, his painting 'Baffin Island', sold for $2.5 million, in 2001 making it, at that time, the most costly of the Group of Seven paintings.

The big dollar total for Harris's works cashes in at $11.2 million dollars.

And, now for the million dollar question.

"Who painted Canada's most expensive painting and how much did it sell for?"

Well, you can check the answer to that question in the Yahoo article linked below.

Click here to see the CBC's story on the sale.

To read the article on the North Shore sale, in Yahoo click here.

Dr. Salem Bland, by Lawren Harris

It is unusual to find a portrait painting by Group of Seven member, Lawren Harris.   This painting of Dr. Salem Bland is, however one such painting, which has been found online.

This is a picture with few compromises. The flat background, the black clergical gown, the contrasting white clergical collar, the steel grey-white hair the severely sculptured beard and the strong, squared jaw give Dr. Bland a rather doctrinal, black and white view of life.

Bland's face lacks any trace of a smile. His features from his eyes down are drawn and tight and his beard is precisely trimmed.

I find myself looking at the backlighting behind Bland, and wondering if I don't see subdued suggestions of a halo effect?

But there is more. Harris's genius in this is in his ability to turn Bland into a man we can empathize with. Dr. Bland looks at the world with tremendous compassion and gentleness. His eyes are questioning and they suggest that he has been weeping or is at least, near to tears from the matter of human sin and suffering.

Dr. Bland, has a high intellectual forehead and cerebral dome, which phrenologists say befits a man of great intellect.

The statements made by this painting, are perhaps best seen by looking at Lawren Harris's theological viewpoint. Dr. Salem Bland, suggests that Harris is presenting a theosophistic statement against the doctrinal position of conservative, protestant, Christianity, for Harris was a Theosophist.

I won't expand upon this for I don't wish to use the blog as a forum for religious points of view, so you may wish to learn more about Theosophism on Wikipedia.

But, viewed in this context, Harris is following the footsteps of a legion of artists who have gone before him and who have used their art as a vehicle for making religious statements.

Wikipedia provides a good insight into the life of Dr. Bland. He was a foremost believer in the social gospel and his life was marked by many valued contributrions to humanity and to the ministry. Dr. Bland served in the Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, and United Church of Canada, after church union.

As producer of the Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada, I wish to thank Mr. Jonathan Cameron for the comments he sent 'The Portrait'. I took Mr.Cameron's advice and found an excellent article on Dr. Bland.
All things considered, I decided that this entry required some rewriting to set the matter about Dr. Bland straight for the record. And, I extend my apologies to family members who were related to Dr. Bland.

 If you click on the Wikipedia link you will learn more about his contributions and life in the ministsry.  Please click here.

A tribute to Lawren Harris in Song and Picture

Emily Carr's Reaction to Lawren Harris's Critiquing

Lawren Harris North Shore Lake Superior: L Harris

December 24. 1940
Lawren and Bess came in today. Lawren pulled out a lot of canvases but his crits were not illuminating, although they were full of admiration and appreciation. He seemed to pick on some small unimportant detail and never to discuss the subject from its basic angle. Trivialities. I observed that he turned back to former canvases often with epithets like "swell," "grand," "beautiful", and the latter canvases he was perhaps more silent over. I wonder if the work is weakening and petering out. Perhaps so, I feel that the angle is slightly different. Perhaps the former was more vigorous, more disciplined, but I think the latter is more thoughful. I know its less static. Perhaps the static was more in line with his present abstract viewpoint. He was enthusiastic enough and complimentary - but not enlightening. Praise half as warm many years ago would have made me take off into the sky with delight. Now I distrust criticism. It seems to be of so little worth. People that know little talk much. And folk that know, halt, wondering, self conscious about their words. Perhaps the best thing I got out of this visit was a calm looking with impartial eyes at what Lawren pulled out of my racks, things that I had almost forgotten that stirred my newer and older thoughts together in my mind and made me try to amalgamate them.

source: p. 434. Hundred and Thousands - the Journals of Emily Carr

publisher: Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, Toronto, Berkley.

Painting: National Gallery of Canada