Tom Thomson's "Path Behind Mowat Lodge" 1917

 

Where is the weather in this sketch with the sky barely visible and the horizon near the top of the panel? There is still an important story to tell including some science. Please read on. 

Path Behind Mowat Lodge, Spring 1917,
21.4 cm X 26.8 cm, 10.5 in X 8.4 in, oil on wood,
Tom's Paint Box size,
The Thomson Collection at the
Art Gallery of Ontario, AGOID.69219

Tom Thomson felt that this was his best panel of the spring of 1917 - his last spring. I would highly recommend the Journal by the same name, "Tom Thomson's Last Spring" if you wish to better understand the man and the period of time that created such iconic, Canadian art. The works of Roy MacGregor must also fill your library as few if anyone has direct knowledge of Algonquin, Huntsville, the Trainors and Tom. 

If you have a question ask someone who knows. This history would have been lost if it had not been recorded by Roy and others. Some of the facts were clearly missed during the first hurried, haphazard and botched investigation back in 1917. Let’s set some of the records straight at least about his art. My focus must remain on the science and weather but the social and personal characteristics of those war years are also essential to understand the art. 

There are precious few images of Daphne Crombie.
Tom did paint Daphne strolling with Annie Fraser.

Daphne Crombie played an important role in this painting and that should be understood before I can get to the weather. Ronald Pittaway interviewed Daphne on Friday, January 14th, 1977. The complete interview can be found here. Daphne was born about 1890 so would have been 87 years young at the time of that interview. Important portions of that interview follow.

Daphne said: "I really could write a book about it if I had somebody to do it, and somebody who knew all the names of the people around.... (Tom) was a rather moody, quiet chap, and rather withdrawn. When I was with him, he'd talk away because we were pals. He evidently admired me because he gave me the painting of the year."

"He also said that he wanted me to take the painting I liked best. I told him to choose it, because he was the expert. I asked Tom why his shadows were so blue. He said tomorrow morning you go out at about 11 and go up the pathway, and just notice them. When I would go out and the sun was coming down straight, the shadows weren’t really as blue as Tom made them, but when I came back a little while later, there was quite a difference in the shade of the shadows. I told you. At that time, they were terribly criticized and it was said that these paintings were alright to hang in the kitchen."

Ron: What painting did he give you?

Daphne: Up here, there is a copy of it. He went and said that this painting was of the pathway that you and your husband used to go over to the other lake. I consider it the best of the year.

Ron: Did he have a name for it?

Daphne: No, no name for it. […]"

That remarkable and quite priceless interview tells another side of the story of  "Path Behind Mowat Lodge". The young bride (Daphne was about 27 years old in 1917) walked that path with her ailing husband Lt. Robert Crombie, a war veteran who was recovering from tuberculosis. The suggested treatment was the fresh air and healing environment of Mowat and there, she encountered Tom Thomson. Tom was evidently very smitten.. again. 

My friend Roy MacGregor was approached in the early summer of 1977 by Daphne's son, David. Roy was told that Daphne "had some information on Tom Thomson that she wished to share before her time ran out". Roy spent a pleasant few hours at the apartment with Daphne and her son. The terrific article was the banner story in "The Canadian" published October 15, 1977. That story needs to be re-read as I have done several times and forgotten more than once. Roy confided from his 1977 meeting with Daphne and recalled in 2023 that his "sense of Daphne was that she was sweet, petite and incredibly lovely, even into her 80-90s. Tom would have been beyond smitten." Oh my is all I can say... And now for the weather... 

In a letter from Ottelyn Addison to Dr. R.H. Hubbard, 15 April 1969,
Addison writes that Daphne Crombie particularly asked
Thomson to sign the work. He used a nail to incise his signature.
I typically use a toothpick in the wet oils but a nail will suffice. 

Dihydrogen monoxide is a miraculous molecule that enables life on this little blue rock we call home. H2O is water and its various forms make for some interesting science and painting. The banks of snow along that trail behind Mowat Lodge are just the start of that science story. 

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman.
Tom was looking northwesterly along the path with the
southerly shadows angled across his view. Apparently,
the time was around 11 am on that sunny, spring morning. 

The southward-facing slopes adjacent to the trail were largely devoid of snow while thick snow trampled down by footsteps and along the shadowed, north-facing slopes persisted.  The Solar Constant of the sun's radiation reaching the top of the atmosphere is about 1380 watts per square meter (W/m2).  Surfaces oriented toward the sun receive more of that energy compared to those that are held oblique to the radiation. The shade from the bare trees and coniferous forest also impedes any solar radiation from reaching the snow on the south side of the trail

The shadows of those trees angled away from Tom as he painted with the sun feeling warm on his left shoulder. If one sketches those vectors, Tom was looking pretty much toward the northwest while he painted.

The high sun angles of midday bring out the darkest blue shadow.
The pale blue on the horizon is as Tom recorded behind the trees
of the Mowat forest.

The science of snowpacks is really much more complex than you might suspect. For further reading, I suggest a COMET Module on Mountain Meteorology here. The snow was not going to melt on the dry, sunny day when Tom painted. Only a fraction of a millimetre will sublimate per hour on a dry day. Rain is much more efficient at removing a snowpack. 

Snow does not melt on a dry, sunny day when the daily maximum
sublimation rate varies only between 0.1 and 0.27 mm h−1. 

The heat of vapourization to transform snow into a vapour is a big number, 540 cal/g. That energy needs to come from somewhere on a warm and sunny day and it is taken from the snowpack which cools considerably. The snowpack refrigerates the adjacent air creating a stable layer that is soon saturated thus inhibiting any further sublimation. The snow just does not melt even if people are getting tired of seeing it by late spring. 

Rain (or any liquid for that matter) falling on snow is very different. The water is cooled within the snowpack. If this water is cooled sufficiently that it freezes within the snowpack, the heat of fusion is released (about 80 cal/g). If enough water falls into the snowpack, the temperature of the snowpack rises to near zero degrees Celsius due to the release of this heat energy. The snow starts to melt into water. With melting, the heat of fusion required for the change of phase must be reclaimed from the environment and the temperature of the snowpack stalls at the freezing/melting temperature until the snow is gone. 

Tom's "Path Behind Mowat Lodge" in his 1914
purchase of the basic artist pochade box

Tom was certainly just enjoying the colours of the snow and the shadows. He loved to paint snow as anyone can observe by studying his portfolio. I doubt if thoughts of sublimation or melting on a sunny day crossed his mind. 

Tom had this panel in his paint box which he had purchased only five years before (when he was 34). The oils on the panel were dragged by the wooden guides that held the sketch in place for safe transport. This smearing of the paint could have occurred either when he placed the finished panel into the box for transport or removed it when he got back to Mowat Lodge. The smearing of the oils is most obvious at the bottom of the painting beneath his signature. 

Tom was probably sitting with his paint box open on his lap while he painted this scene so it is likely that the smearing of the oils occurred back at the Lodge. In the image to the left, I am only guessing which way the panel might have been held in his paint box. I only have a fifty percent chance of being correct. 

If I had to guess, Tom probably painted using the technique of his friend and artistic mentor. AY Jackson would typically sit with the pochade box open on his lap as per the following image. It would have been wonderful to accompany these artists in painting the nature of Canada.

Alexander Young Jackson Plein Air Painting
(October 3, 1882 – April 5, 1974)

I paint while standing using a very simple field easel. I pace back and forth and from side to side holding my palette in my left hand. The canvas is mounted on a larger panel that fits into my travel box so I never smear the oils or get paint on my hands. It would have been so much fun painting with Tom... If you paint what you see, the pigments will be true even if you might not know or care about the science there in.. 

There is always a story behind the creation of art but they are rarely told. Artists did not even sign their paintings until the Renaissance starting around 1300. Titles of individual paintings did not follow until the 1800s. The stories behind the paintings are still largely untold but I feel that they can contribute much to the art by revealing the motivation of the artist. This is my incentive for "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman". Thank you for reading. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

PSS: Thank you to my friend Roy MacGregor for taking a careful look at this post. The contributions of Roy, my Thomson friend and many others contribute positively to ensuring that the Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné is as accurate as possible. 

Tom Thomson's "Northern Lights"

Tom Thomson and the five Aurora Borealis paintings all
called "Northern Lights".

The banner above illustrates that once again Tom enjoyed painting looking northerly although the blinding sun was not an issue in these situations. Tom observed and recorded “solar storms” as well as the weather. Solar flares on the sun are required to create the “aurora borealis” or northern nights that Tom witnessed. 

PowerPoint Slide form "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman"

Astronomy expert and columnist Ivan Semeniuk did some investigation into the painting completed in April 1917 on display at the National Gallery of Canada (upper right in the above banner and above in the PowerPoint slide). He identified the stars as belonging to the constellation Cassiopeia, the big “W” in the night sky. Using this information, he identified the location where Tom must have stood while he completed the painting. Ivan called his effort “astronomical sleuthing”. I refer to the “forensic meteorology"  that I employ in these blogs as "Creative Scene Investigation". The abbreviation is simply "CSI" which is humorously similar to several, popular television programs. 

The following version of "Northern Lights" was on the flip side of Tom Thomson's "Smoke Lake - Summer 1915". There were some stars in the sky that night. I am no astronomer but Cassiopeia was also a likely candidate to explain those stabs of starlight. Instead, I wish to focus on the interesting science of northern lights.  

Northern Lights (1915.70), gift of the artist to Thoreau MacDonald. 
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1968.21)

"Northern Lights" was a staple of the Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman presentation. I used the spring of 1917 painting but the 1915 version of "Northern Lights" would have worked just fine as well. The science of auroras is especially intriguing and my presentation might go down one of several rabbit holes depending on the interests of the audience. It was a fun painting to discuss. What follows is my recollection of what I often talked about... 

Space weather is every bit as important as atmospheric weather and becoming more so.  The Space Weather Prediction Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in Boulder Colorado and not far from COMET where I worked for the last decade of my meteorological career. The COMET class would go for a tour every year. If you are interested in the activity of the sun, coronal mass ejections or auroras, I suggest you visit the Space Weather Link and even sign up for Space Weather Alerts. 

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman

The northern lights or auroras all begin with the solar wind, the continual stream of protons and electrons (collection of ionized particles referred to as plasma) from the corona of the sun. Auroras occur when the charged particles collide with gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere. In order to return to their normal relaxed state, the energized molecules release that energy as light. The excited molecules in the atmosphere emit the absorbed energy back as specific colours depending upon the difference in the excited and relaxed energy levels of the molecules involved. Billions if not trillions of flashes of light flow with the stream of charged particles from the sun. The auroras appear to dance in the sky.

Historically, the Vikings saw aurora as the bridge between earth and the gods’ heavenly home of Asgard. In Danish legends, the aurora is the result of swans that flew too far north and got trapped in ice. The shimmering lights resulted from the swans trying to free themselves from the frozen lakes by flapping their wings. Inuit described auroras as heavenly football games played by their ancestors using a walrus head as a ball. Siberians thought that the aurora was a flame kept burning by the fish god to help those who fished at night. 

The northern light legends might be very interesting but sadly, are not true. The Sun is essentially a fusion bomb. The intense gravity of the sun creates extreme heat and pressure which ignites nuclear fusion through which protons fuse together to form helium atoms. This nuclear reaction releases unimaginable amounts of energy equivalent to about 10 billion hydrogen bombs per second as predicted by Einstein's famous equation relating energy to mass: "E=mc2".

The Earth's magnetic field is generated by electric currents resulting from the convection currents of a mixture of molten iron and nickel in the outer core. The geomagnetic field extends from the Earth's interior out into space... the final frontier.

The following graphic is not nearly to any scale but depicts the ingredients required to create the northern lights.  

The sun emits the energy equivalent of 2 billion times
the energy  of the most powerful nuclear device, ignited
on Earth, the Tsar Bomba every second.
The geomagnetic field around the Earth protects
 life from the radiation. 

The solar wind is the outward expansion of plasma (ionized gas of protons and electrons) from the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona. This plasma is continually heated to the point that the Sun's gravity cannot contain it. The plasma follows the Sun's magnetic field lines that extend radially outward.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an enormous expulsion of plasma along the magnetic fields emanating from the Sun. These eruptions are referred to as “solar flares”. Spectacular auroras result when a CME slams into the Earth causing geomagnetic storms within the earth’s magnetic field which is referred to as the magnetosphere.

Sunspot Image from NASA

Dark areas on the sun's surface are regions of intense solar magnetic fields that produce volcano-like solar flares and CMEs. It takes roughly two weeks for the resulting solar winds to reach the Earth. Sunspots increase and decrease through an average cycle of 11 years. This Solar Cycle had been observed since 1600 and the science has improved through the centuries. It is interesting to note that the years 1915 through 1917 when Tom Thomson was painting his northern lights observations were marked by an increase in sunspot activity and solar flares.

The Eleven Year Solar Cycle

As I prepared this Blog, I received a Space Weather Alert. The "coronal hole" is where the sun's magnetic fields open up and allow solar wind to escape. The sunspot is dark in this ultraviolet image because the glowing-hot gas normally contained there is missing. The accompanying image of the current intense sunspot and the associated solar wind arrived with the forecast that the plasma "should reach our planet later this week, potentially igniting a display of equinox auroras at high latitudes." 

Sunspot March 20th, 2023

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman
See  Ivan Semeniuk 

The aurora shimmering bands of green, red, purple, pink, blue, yellow… arise from the excitement of molecules 100 km high by the charged particles from the sun. Green is the most common resulting from oxygen molecules at around 100 km. Occasionally, the lower edge of an aurora will have a pink fringe, which is produced by nitrogen molecules at altitudes of around 100 km. Collisions with oxygen atoms higher in the atmosphere between 300 and 400 km will produce rare red auroras. An excellent analogy is that of a TV screen where electrons (from the red, blue and green electron guns) are shot at the fluorescent screen where the energized molecules respond by emitting light energy which constructs the picture we see on the TV.  In the case of auroras, it is a “plasma television”.

The "plasma TV" version of the northern lights even has sound. But how does a process occurring in the near vacuum of the magnetosphere produce sound at the Earth's surface?  How can one hear the northern lights originating from hundreds of kilometres away when I can't hear my wife from the next room? There are multiple explanations for these electromagnetic noises. 

Some investigators felt that the “swishing noises” of the aurora were the result of a leaky optic nerve within the observer's brain. Tiny electrical signals from the nerves in the eyes leak into the area of the brain responsible for processing sounds and might be interpreted as sound.  If you close your eyes, the “sounds of the aurora” should go away. Hmmm. 

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman

More recently, the sounds of the northern lights have been linked to the strong, shallow thermal inversions that are created on those clear, calm and very cold nights typically associated with auroras or at least the ones that people stay up late at night to watch. An electrical potential difference develops across the intense inversion. A spark ensues when the potential difference exceeds the insulating limits of the inversion. The spark heats an air channel that expands and then contracts rapidly, creating an audible sound. The swishing sound only needs to travel a hundred metres or less to your ear... versus 200 kilometres from the vacuum of the magnetosphere. This is my preferred explanation but there are admittedly others and many rabbit holes which are intriguing to investigate. 

Aurora Viewed from Space with the Plasma of  the Solar
Wind Directed along the Magnet Fields of the Earth

The mesmerizing beauty of the northern lights can be beyond compare. It is not surprising that people monitor the Space Weather Alerts for predictions of strong and colourful geomagnetic storms and auroras in order to spend the night outside, awake and probably very cold in front of the shimmering curtains of dancing colours. Northern lights are intriguing both from space and from the ground. Tom Thomson was compelled to take his paint box outside on those frigid nights to make a record of the beauty that he witnessed. 

Tom Thomson's View from the ground up...
Tom observed the most common green auroras
resulting from oxygen molecules at around 100 km.

It is tempting to investigate the many branches of science that start with those fiery lights in the night sky. Following those many interests down multiple rabbit holes would fill several books let alone a blog. The result would be an explanation of the natural world revealing the facts that we live a safe distance from a fusion reactor, within a natural paradise on a spinning globe with a molten nickel-iron outer core while shielded from exorbitant radiation by a magnetic field...  Let's not go there .. yet. 

The interviewer questioning Ivan Semeniuk about his “astronomical sleuthing” asked "but so what?"

Mr. Semeniuk responded politely: "That is a good question. It doesn't make the painting any more beautiful, that's for sure. It doesn't increase our appreciation of the art, but it does say something about Thomson's commitment to representing a real place in time. He wasn't just making this stuff up. He was responding to the environment, including transient things like the northern lights. He was excited by them and he really rendered them truly."

Ivan Semeniuk exactly echoed my most sincere sentiments, but I also wish to emphasize the importance of science and knowledge. As an entitled society, we do not tend to appreciate or preserve what we do not understand. The message within the  "Big Yellow Taxi" written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970 is even more valid now fifty years later. 

"Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot."

Perhaps society is awakening to the importance of the natural world. Is it too late? Previous extinction events were caused by natural phenomena. The sixth mass extinction is primarily driven by human activities including the unsustainable use of land, water, air and energy. Simultaneously, the accumulated impacts of the Industrial Age since 1850 are fuelling anthropogenic climate change. The science is clear and it is vital that the electorate becomes informed to ensure that the elected politicians follow through and provide real leadership.  

Knowledge is the key and perhaps that can start with art and simply observing and appreciating the beauty of the northern lights and asking: why? That's what Tom Thomson was doing... Tom took the time to slow down, toss pebbles in the pond, and watch and learn from nature. Try to do the same before it is too late. With knowledge comes appreciation and preservation must naturally follow. 

By the way, the dating of this version of "Northern Lights" as 1915 is very suspect (see "Tom Thomson's "Smoke Lake" - Summer"). This work probably was painted in the early spring of 1916 while Tom was waiting to start employment as a fire ranger at Achray on Grand Lake. Tom was supposed to be working and not painting so he probably had only a minimum amount of art supplies in his possession in 1916. However, a true artist grabs whatever he has when the inspiration hits. That includes painting on both sides of a panel. 

Joan Murray relates the story of how "Northern Lights" and "Smoke Lake" were split in her book "A Treasury Of Tom Thomson". On page 62 Joan writes: "W. Donald Patterson, who purchased the painting in 1934 or 1935, showed it to Robert McMichael in 1967. McMichael asked if he could have the work split and keep the second - any side, which was marked with a big "X" through it, for the gallery. He explained it could be a centennial gift from Mr. Patterson and his wife, and Northern Lights would still belong to them. They agreed.

Eduard Zukowski, who worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario, split the panel and cleaned the surfaces of both sides. He also removed the "X" from Smoke Lake. In 2006 the heirs of the Patterson estate were uncertain whether their sketch was by Thomson., so they brought Northern Lights to the author (Joan Murray), who was then interim executive director of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. When they were assured about the authenticity of their work and shown the other half, they placed it at auction, where the present owner purchased it."

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson's "Smoke Lake" - Summer 1915

The simple truth is that Tom Thomson's friends were running out of names for his weather observations. There is a lot of repetition in Tom's catalogue raisonné. "Sunset" and "Smoke Lake" were very popular names. Both were considered to apply to this sketch although there is very serious doubt whether the painting was done at Smoke Lake at all or even in 1915. The name does not even hint at the actual motivation for Tom to record this scene. Please read on... 

Smoke Lake Summer 1915
Oil on split panel marouglaged to plywood
8 7/16 x 10 9/16 in. (21.5 x 26.9 cm) 
 (Thomson's Sketch Box size)

This is another of Thomson's double-sided panels. The panel was split by Eduard Zukowski at the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1967 or 1968. The conjoined paintings are now separate with "Smoke Lake" residing at McMichael, and "Northern Lights" with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Daydreaming (Portrait of Thoreau MacDonald)
oil on panel, a pencil sketch of a boy on the reverse,
inscribed on the reverse “Drawing and oil by Tom Thomson,
looks about 1913-14, Thoreau MacDonald”; circa 1914
7.5 x 11.5 ins ( 19.1 x 29.2 cms )

Thomson gave that panel to Thoreau MacDonald  (1901-1989), the son of his artist friend James Edward Hervey MacDonald  (1873–1932). Thoreau would visit Tom whenever he had a chance and hang out at The Shack. Tom probably gave the painting to the young Thoreau on one of those visits. Thoreau would have been 15 years old in the winter of 1916-17. Tom did not bother to sign this sketch for Thoreau and since it was already in Thoreau's possession when Tom passed, there was no need for the TT Estate Stamp and the damage to the oils that would have caused. Tom typically gifted his sketches to friends who admired his work. 

My interest in "Smoke Lake Summer 1915" is strictly meteorological. The low horizon denotes it as another skyscape and a weather observation by Tom. The cloud formations reveal many of the features that I have been emphasizing and attempting to teach since the 1980s. Sometimes repetition is the key to explaining science. Anyway, I am going to give it a try, coupled with art appreciation. The following graphic should save a lot of words.

Tom was looking westward with just a couple of fingers (less than 30 minutes) until the sun slipped below the horizon. The width of a finger on your outstretched hand represents about fifteen minutes of movement of the sun at sunrise or sunset. The nearly overcast sky was filled with opaque cirrostratus. Some backlit fragments of cirrus were so thin that they were bright white in their entirety with no indication of darkness and light attenuation in the centres. The cloud was certainly associated with the warm conveyor belt of an approaching weather system. 

Vector addition of the Speed of the Weather System to the 
Speed of the Cold Conveyor Belt (CCB) for a Weak System
Moving Quickly with the Jet Stream in the Earth Frame
of  Reference. This adds the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model
winds in the atmospheric frame of reference to the system speed
as measured relative to the earth frame of reference.  

The surface winds were the result of the cold conveyor belt. The "gentle breeze" did not produce significant white caps at least in the lee of the shore. The Beaufort Wind Scale estimates this wind at 7 to 10 knots which is barely enough to keep the biting bugs at bay.  Tom was certainly not painting from his canoe but was standing securely on shore in order to include the precise cloud details displayed in the oils. The wind would have pushed an unanchored canoe into shore. The choppy wave action (caused by waves reflected back from the shore) along the windward shore would have made the handling of the plein air box and brushes a real challenge from a canoe as well. The waves as painted would have required a significant fetch in order to achieve the amplitude as sketched. From a shoreline vantage, these waves could only have been produced by a long southwest-to-west fetch. Our knowledge of the behaviour of the cold conveyor belt (CCB) reveals that the associated weather system was either fairly weak or moving eastward very quickly or both (see "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard").

The cirrostratus that Tom observed was shaped by the atmospheric swells that originated with the strong winds of the jet stream core some distance to the southwest. The lifted condensation level of the air mass was such that only the troughs of the wind waves that were embedded on the swells, reached down into the drier and unsaturated air. The accompanying graphic attempts to describe this under "Lifted Condensation Level Option 4". My animator friends at COMET  could turn these words into a slider bar that could visually raise and lower the lifted condensation level (LCL) throughout the superimposed gravity wave circulations while displaying what the resultant cloud patterns would look like. Animation can also be the key to learning. 

Tom was probably intrigued by what he was observing and thought it to be peculiar. The location of the lifted condensation level within the gravity waves can change the skies from overcast to one which just a few, thin gravity wave clouds where only the wind wave crests aligned with the swell crests. The winds are the same regardless of the location of the moisture that we require to visualize them. I find this very interesting as well which is why I made the graphic. 

Lifted Condensation Level Option 4 allows blue skies only where the
 troughs of the wind waves also superimpose on the troughs of the swells.  

Overview of the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model
including typical wind waves of the
Cyclonic Companion (small red lines) and the
Anticyclonic Companion (small blue lines)

The final bit of meteorology requires solving which of the warm conveyor companion flows  Tom was observing. If I had been painting with Tom, the answer would have been obvious by observing the drift of the wind waves. Wind waves must progress with the wind (with respect to the earth reference frame) like waves on a lake. If the wind waves were drifting in the direction of the red arrow in the graphic that analyzes Tom's weather observation, my Coriolis fingers would be curled pointing westward toward the setting sun with my thumb pointing upward. Tom would have been painting the cloudy skies of the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt.  

If the wind waves were drifting in the direction of the blue arrow in the graphic, my Coriolis fingers would be curled pointing eastward with my thumb pointing down meaning that the anticyclonic companion was overhead.  

Graphic Repeated as there is a lot of
meteorology to be found in Tom's painting.

The increased amount of cloudiness that is associated with the ascending air in the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt is the clincher. In addition, the long brush strokes highlighted in the above graphic as Langmuir Streaks are more characteristic of the cyclonic companion which includes increased instability in the ascending airmass - a requirement for Langmuir Streaks. 

There are other important questions that arise and need to be addressed! Is this Smoke Lake at all? Was it really painted in 1915? Science can verify this as a sunset although I did not highlight those aspects. All of Tom's artist friends were very busy with the war, work or families so they would be largely unaware of where and what he painted. A few years later after the end of World War One, these same friends would be tasked with authenticating, naming and timing this work that Tom neither signed nor dated. Tom also left precious few comments about his work. Looking after Tom's estate and legacy was a huge job. 

My friends the McElroys come to the rescue again. They suggest that this painting, "Smoke Lake Summer 1915"  was actually completed in 1916 a short stroll from the Out-Side-In on Grand Lake where Tom was staying while he worked as a fire ranger. Tom would not have had his full painting kit with him. After all, Tom was supposed to be working and not painting. It would also have been likely that he was strapped for panels and decided to use both sides of the few that he had with him. 

Consider the following comparison of the landforms and you be the judge. I know that my landscapes often take artistic liberties with the terrain - far more than Tom appears to entertain. In addition, the brushwork displayed in "Smoke Lake" is much more reminiscent and consistent with Thomson's other 1916 work as already discussed in posts like "Tom Thomson's Islands Canoe Lake, 1916". Given the terrain and the location of the setting sun, the McElroys even dated this sketch to Tuesday, August 15th, 1916, give or take. 

This view across Grand Lake is just a five-minute stroll from the 
Out-Side-In at Achray. Tom would have been familiar with this
 landscape possibly staying at the Rangers Cabin on
that point of land in May 1916. Locals apparently remembered
that Tom Thomson stayed in that Ranger Cabin after his spring
fishing trip. Ed Godin, Tom's fellow Fire Ranger
wrote that Tom moved into the Outside Inn on June 1st, 1916.
 The Friends of Algonquin Park have a photo of the cabin
that occupied that location in 1916. See the McElroy Investigations at
 "Grand Lake - Tom Thomson Sketching Locations"

The painting passed from Thoreau MacDonald to J.S. Lawson of Toronto in the early 1930s and then to Donald Patterson of Toronto. 

Joan Murray relates the story of how "Northern Lights" and "Smoke Lake" were split in her book "A Treasury Of Tom Thomson". On page 62 Joan writes: "W. Donald Patterson, who purchased the painting in 1934 or 1935, showed it to Robert McMichael in 1967. McMichael asked if he could have the work split and keep the second - any side, which was marked with a big "X" through it, for the gallery. He explained it could be a centennial gift from Mr. Patterson and his wife, and Northern Lights would still belong to them. They agreed."

Eduard Zukowski at the Art Gallery of Ontario, split the panel and cleaned the surfaces of both sides. Eduard also removed the "X" from Smoke Lake. Apparently, Tom was unhappy with how his painting was going so he flipped his brush around and scratched a big "X" through it. Tom had done similar gashes before, most notably on "Wildflowers" from the summer 1915. 

And that is the story of how "Smoke Lake" came to reside at the McMichael. 

The catalogue raisonné really needs to be a living document incorporating new facts as they are discovered and correlating the art in time and space consistent with the documented travels of the artist. This panel is misidentified in both time and space. The catalogue raisonné also does not include the motivation behind the artist to create the work. Citizen scientists like the McElroys have a tremendous amount to offer to the art world with their investigations. 

The lesson learned is that if you really want to understand Tom Thomson and create an accurate catalogue raisonné, you are going to need boots on the ground and paddles in the water. Oh yes, you had better have an open mind to accept the facts as well. Just sayin'.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson's "Landscape with Snow" - Autumn 1916

There is an interesting story behind this painting that Tom never named... and there is still much to learn.

Tom Tomson - Painted on both sides of a sketch box panel,
"Rising Mist – Heavy Skies" Oil on wood panel (beveled edge) in middle above; 
"Landscape with Snow, Fall 1916", verso  Alternate titles: "Spring Landscape with Snow" to the right above;
10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in (Thomson's Sketch Box size); catalogue raisonne 1916.162

Artists can only improve by pushing paint around - trying to learn and get better.  Practice can indeed make perfect. Artists do not normally have unlimited resources so sometimes you use both sides of a panel. That is exactly what Tom Thomson did in 1916 nearing the height of his artistic creativity. 

In "Tom Thomson's Islands Canoe Lake, 1916", we established that Tom was at Basin Depot on Wednesday, October 4th, 1916 to mail a letter to his patron Dr. James MacCallum. Tom had hoped to be laid off from his fire ranger job at Achray on Grand Lake very soon and wanted some company when painting the Algonquin autumn colours at their peak. It is likely Tom observed "Rising Mist - Heavy Skies" between October 4th, 1916 and early November when he returned to Toronto. The outbreak of cold air required to generate the Arctic sea fog might have even been in the wake of the autumn storm foretold in "Islands Canoe Lake, 1916". 

 Later in October of 1916, the snow was falling and Tom needed a panel to paint on so he recorded “(Spring) Landscape with Snow” on the flip side of  "Rising Mist - Heavy Skies". Tom neither signed nor named either of these sketches and there was no "verso" for the conjoined paintings on which to scribble any information. The titles even changed with time as various experts weighed in on the unknown.

To briefly recap "Tom Thomson's “Rising Mist - Heavy Skies” Autumn 1916", I described Tom's weather observation of Arctic Sea Smoke. Sea smoke occurs in the wake of a low-pressure area when cold Arctic air is drawn southward over the still-warm waters found in more southern climes. The front-lit rising convective vortices require only 5 degrees Celsius of temperature difference between the water and the air. The air temperature over the water is coldest at sunrise under clear skies after a night of cooling and draining of the chilled air down the river valleys to the lake surface.  The convective billows become more vigorous as the temperature difference increases and stratus clouds often shroud the landscape when the moisture from the lake reaches the cap of the radiational inversion accompanying the night of strong cooling.  The following animation from the COMET program is for "dust devils" but the convective heating from below process is identical for "steam devils". Animation is often the key that unlocks the door to understanding. Seeing can be believing. 

With this explained, the opportunity has arrived to address the flip side of the artistic panel and “(Spring) Landscape with Snow”. 

"Landscape with Snow,  Fall 1916"
Alternate titles: "Spring Landscape with Snow"
10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in (Thomson's Sketch Box size)
(catalogue raisonne 1916.162)

Without some clue on the panel, the date of the work is always a guessing game as indicated by the conflicting seasons in the proposed titles. Indeed, which side of the panel was painted on first? No one can really know for certain. Oils can take anywhere between a day to a few weeks to dry enough to handle without wearing the oils. There would probably be a delay of a couple of weeks between painting the second side. Given the typical evolution of the weather, one might guess that the "snow" arrived after the cold outbreak of the Arctic sea smoke of “Rising Mist - Heavy Skies” Autumn 1916" making "Landscape with Snow" the second effort.  

Thankfully there is much less guesswork when it comes to the meteorology of the painting. 

• The landscape with a high horizon is calm. 
• The lake surface could be ice-covered or perhaps there is still some open water with no wave action. 
• Frontlit patches of stable altostratus (the cloud is more opaque than cirrostratus) could be associated with a warm conveyor belt or perhaps just an open wave in the atmospheric frame of reference (see "Empathetic Meteorology" for an explanation of open-wave troughs in the atmospheric frame of reference), 
• Cloud colours suggest timing is either just after sunrise or before sunset,
• The viewing angle depends upon the timing of the painting ... northwest (early morning) or northeast (late afternoon),
• The cold conveyor belt (if it is a conveyor belt system) could be negated by the speed of the system approach - the calm before the storm as described in "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard".
• There is still a lot of guesswork here but it is best to admit the many possibilities.

The most plausible story is that of a warm conveyor belt with a low-pressure area approaching but the cloud could also be simply just an open-wave causing ascent. Not every painting needs to be a dramatic storm!

My Thomson friend comments: 

"I still can't help but feel the scene is spring rather than fall, with the ice half off the lake and a late fall of rather wet snow.  It's probably mostly due to the sky colour - that beautiful turquoise says mild spring day to me rather than chilly autumn.  But that's just a feeling - no scientific analysis involved."

My Thomson friend could very well be correct thus favouring the alternate title "Spring Landscape with Snow" over the conflicting "Landscape with Snow,  Fall 1916".  The implication would be that "Spring Landscape with Snow" would have been painted on the panel first early in 1916 before Tom signed on as a fire ranger at Achray. Both options work and we will never know. 

As mentioned previously with this work, Joan Murray deemed the panel "a clumsy forgery" painted in the 1950s despite A.J. Casson vouching for its authenticity. Blair Laing, Toronto's prominent dealer of art to the Canadian Establishment agreed with Ms. Murray but did not reveal any reasons for his own disavowal. "There's nobody special whose opinion on Thomson I'd value more than my own." Now you might understand why I just deal with the science and facts. 

This panel was the first Thomson to undergo a detailed physical and chemical analysis in late 1989 using the full arsenal of science. The Canadian Conservation Institute concluded the panel was almost certainly a Thomson. 

Were these conjoined paintings ever split apart? Neither my Thomson friend or myself could find any evidence that this panel was ever split, so presumably both sides ("Rising Mist – Heavy Skies" and  "Landscape with Snow, Fall 1916" are still together in a private collection. Another double-sided panel from 1915 was indeed split apart in 2006. The divided panel provided "Smoke Lake" which hangs at McMichael, and "Northern Lights" which can be found at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).  

 William Cruikshank,
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 1894
(1848/9 – 1922)

Upon Tom's death in 1917, this panel became the property of Tom's eldest sister, Elizabeth Thomson Harkness of Annan and later Owen Sound. The panel was soon purchased by Mrs. John Lewis Severn Scadding who was advised by her art teacher William Cruikshank, to buy a work by Thomson.  In 1906 or 1907, Tom Thomson reportedly took private lessons from Cruikshank at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Cruikshank would have been Thomson's only art instructor. Otherwise, Tom was self-taught while painting with his artist friends and future founders of the Group of Seven. The investigation of the validity of these interactions makes for an interesting read but that is another story. 

Mrs. John Lewis Severn Scadding moved from Toronto to Lowell, Massachusetts. The painting was transferred by descent to Margaret S. (Peggy) Thompson (née Scadding) and Barbara Scadding and then on to David Mitchell of Toronto all by descent.  In 1989 the painting eventually left the family for the Beckett Gallery in Hamilton, Ontario, and then to the 6-10 June sale in 1989 at Waddington's Toronto when lot 1163 was sold to a private collection. The painting changed hands again on 26 May 2010 in the Vancouver Heffel Auction and lot 176 was sold to another private collection. Sadly, much more is known about the travels of the panel than its creation. 

The portrait composition would only slide sideways into Tom's plein air paint box. Placing the painting in the box would only really be vital for transporting the finished work. Several artists including my friend Lawrence Nickle of Burk's Falls (1931-2014), simply hold the panel while painting. Oils would find their way to Lawrence's hands, the truck doors and many other places. Lawrence's white truck was his mobile studio. (see "Lawrence Nickle - A Painter of Canada!") A close examination of Tom's work would likely reveal some fingerprints as well. 

The catalogue raisonné really needs to be a living document incorporating new facts as they are discovered and correlating them all in time and space. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date.