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 (Tom) was a rather moody, quiet chap, and rather withdrawn.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.