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.