Tom Thomson's "View Over a Lake" 1916

 

Tom Thomson spent his last full summer working as a fire ranger out of Achray on Grand Lake in Algonquin Park. Tom would produce some plein air master pieces in between doing his day job. 

Grand Lake and the Out-Side-In, Tom Painted the Jack Pine
sketch and others during the last summer of 1916

Tom’s art career lasted barely five years during which time he completed about 400 plein air paintings. These “sketches” breathe a life and vitality that is often lost in the larger works.  Most of these small panels were unsigned and untitled. Tom also did about 50 larger works and these he did autograph and probably had a role in naming. 

View over a Lake, Autumn, 1916, oil on wood
21.5 x 26.7 cm (8.5 x 10.5 inches), Purchased 1918
National Art Gallery of Canada

After Tom died on July 8th, 1917, the effort of archiving and establishing the catalogue raisonné of these sketches became the job of his friend Lawren Harris and Tom’s patron Dr. James MacCullum. They faced huge challenges with inventing distinctive names for panels that Tom Thomson didn’t even take the time to sign. I can almost hear the resigned, sigh of exhaustion when they attempted to uniquely name yet another mix of clouds. A “view over a lake” is a generic stretch for an observation of weather that clearly says a very lot more. 

The Out-Side-In was Edward Godin's cabin at Achray.
Tom Thomson even painted the "Out-Side-In" sign for
his friend to hang on the porch.  Godin shared his
cabin with Tom during that last summer of 1916. 

Bob and Diana McElroy have already done considerable research into this painting. They ascertained that “this scene was painted from right in front of the Out-Side-In. The pink areas on the far hill are patches of bare granite. These areas are now largely obscured by the current tree cover but are quite findable if you choose to climb the hill.”

When I was on Meteorologist Orientation Course 33 back in 1976, we were never allowed to give the answer of “large scale dynamic” in response to any weather question. If there was cloud or weather, it was always assumed that there was ascent in the atmosphere and to say that was not worth marks in any exam. 

The same applies to the name “View over a Lake” that was selected by Harris and/or MacCallum for this plein air painting. Describing that skyscape as simply another vista over a body of water is similar to describing clouds as large scale dynamic lift. Tom’s motivation was certainly the clouds and the sunrise colours on the far shore of Grand Lake but there is so much more to understand. I will try to use as many graphics as possible to save on words but still convey the meteorology of that sunrise. I hope you persevere and read on. 

The solution to understanding this painting is to establish where Tom was looking within the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model (see Dancing with the Weather). This is the same approach I always employ with clouds in the free atmosphere. I described that method in Tom Thomson's "Sunset" 1915. 

The first thing I do in this regard is to select my Coriolis Hand (your right hand in the Northern Hemisphere) and try to line up my fingers with the likely direction of the wind. I often try the opposing wind direction to figure out which interpretation fits most of the puzzle pieces into the meteorological picture. It is best to always keep an open mind. You can learn more that way. I applied this technique to “View over a Lake” and came up with the following diagnosis. 

Imagine the westerly jet stream blowing out of the panel… the extreme right side of the painting is the cyclonic companion where there are no holes in the thicker cloud cover. The left side must be the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt and notice that the clouds are more scattered. There is a convenient line in Tom’s sky where I placed the axis of the westerly jet stream pointing toward the col in the deformation zone. I included Tom’s position as a blue circle in the graphic. 

As confirmation, I aligned my Coriolis fingers along the elongated wisps of cirrus (the blue arrows) and found my right thumb pointing downward. This is also consistent with the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. 

This east to west cross-section through the approaching
warm conveyor belt has the cirrus deformation zone
already to the east of Tom's position with him sketching
the altostratus deformation zone as it approaches.  

I then noticed a darker and greyer band of cloud lower on the horizon – about a third of the way up from the bottom of the panel. Artists are well aware of the rule of thirds for compositional effect. This thick cloud would be the leading edge of the altostratus cloud comprising the warm conveyor belt. I call that line the altostratus deformation zone. 

Notice also that Tom included some gravity waves in the leading edge. Those wind waves are identified with the wavy light blue line. The amplitude of the waves increase to the left away from the col of the deformation zone. These wave clouds conform nicely to the deformation zone conceptual model. The wave pattern in these clouds would be drifting to the left further away from the col while Tom painted. 

Satellite view looking down on the warm conveyor belt. Tom
sketch the wind waves rippling southward from the col.

Notice also that Tom included some gravity waves in the leading edge. Those wind waves are identified with the wavy light blue line. The amplitude of the waves increase to the left away from the col of the deformation zone. These wave clouds conform nicely to the deformation zone conceptual model. The wave pattern in these clouds would be drifting to the left further away from the col while Tom painted. 

From these observations we can be certain of Tom’s vantage within the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model of the approaching storm but what about the light?

The clouds are front lit and uniformly bright throughout their flanks exposed to the sun and Tom’s gaze. The sun would be shining on Tom’s back and it would feel delicious. The quartz rocks were bright, colourful and clearly not in shadow. The direct light from the sun would pass through a long expanse of atmosphere. Rayleigh scattering would deflect the shorter blue wavelengths out of that direct beam. The sunrise light would be rich in the longer wavelength red hues and would set those rocks on fire for Tom to paint. Tom loved those early morning and evening colours of sunlight. 

Those colours were not the autumn foliage of deciduous trees. There are no autumn colours in this landscape so to call this fall would be a stretch and is certainly in error. 

Tom’s window of opportunity to record this sunrise light would be brief. The cirrostratus deformation zone had already passed overhead and east of Achray. The rising sun would soon be blocked by that layer of clouds. In this situation, the period of “golden light” at sunrise might only last a few minutes. The accompanying graphic explains those concepts. 

The cirrostratus deformation zone has already passed east of the Outside In. The sun had just risen in the east but not far enough that the direct beam was blocked by the cirrostratus cloud. There is at most only about 30 minutes within this sunrise window before the pink light of dawn would be lost. Tom had to paint fast. The above graphic displays the isentropic surfaces of the warm conveyor belt - but it is not distorted nearly enough to reveal the actual, thin nature of the atmosphere which is comparable in scale to the skin of an apple. The wedge of clear skies that allow the sunrise light to illuminate the far shore of Grand Lake is really thin indeed. 

But wait, there is more… The waves on Grand Lake also provide a clue as to how fast the weather system was approaching. There was considerable wave action for a sunrise. This means that although the skies were clear for most of the night before the cirrostratus arrived, a radiational inversion that would block the winds from the free atmosphere from reaching the ground, did not develop. The storm was approaching quickly. I explain these concepts in a blog about the importance of the cold conveyor belt. 

The bulk of the weather was headed north of the Out-Side-In with the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. The fast moving weather would not last long when it did arrive in just a few hours. The altostratus was on the horizon and any nimbostratus with rain could not be far behind. Tom would then just have to wait for the cold front and possible summer convection.

So taking a closer look at a “View Over A Lake” tells the full story (notice that I removed the word "Autumn"). Tom got up with the sun and took the time before heading out to be a forest fighter to knock off a quick thirty minute weather observation of the sunrise and approaching summer warm frontal storm. Earning a salary can get in the way of making art. The warm frontal rain would arrive by mid morning but be spotty in nature and not last very long. Then it would get warmer and muggy with gusty southwest winds. There is no way to predict how far to the west the cold front was. That depends on the size of the warm sector of the storm and that is highly variable depending on how far away the low and centre of the storm was in relation to Achray. 

The isobaric pressure pattern and the conveyor belt conceptual model
views of the same weather system. How long it takes for the system
to pass you by depends on the cross-section and the storm motion.

Tom Painted what he saw. The clues to the nature of the moment were clearly hidden in his brushwork. The challenge has been to not read too deeply into those bold strokes .. just the facts. Some of this science I discovered from observing the atmospheric ocean during my 36 years with Environment Canada. Some is based on the work of others like Bob and Diana McElroy. I am indebted. We all stand on the shoulders of others in one way or another so that we can see better and perhaps further. The goal is to learn and understand and appreciate nature. 

A “View Over A Lake” is a not so simple. That scarlet sunrise shimmers with science. Tom’s art does speak for itself but I am here to help those who may not be meteorologists. I feel that it is important to understand a bit deeper why Tom painted what he did – to better complete the catalogue raisonné. (A comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist - described in such a way that they may be reliably identified by third parties.)

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil the Forecaster Chadwick

PS: Give yourself another Gold Star if you read all of this... thank you!

PSS: For the Blog Version of my Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné, Google Search Naturally Curious "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now" or follow this link “http://philtheforecaster.blogspot.com/2022/10/tom-thomson-was-weatherman-summary-as.html”