Tom Thomson's "Spring Flood" 1917

With "Spring Flood", Tom was letting his hair down and his brush go wild en plein air! As my Thomson friend observed, " It must have been a great day out in the breeze, feeling spring advancing, watching the amazing clouds moving across the sky and hearing the rush of meltwater down the creek.  A feast for the senses." And therein lies all of the justification that one needs to take your brushes and paints outside. 

Spring Flood
Alternate titles: No title; Spring Spring 1917
Oil on wood panel 8 3/8 x 10 9/16 in. (21.2 x 26.8 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size 

The yellow circle on my water-stained copy of the
Canoe Lake Map is the suspect area for this painting.

The exact location of this view would be helpful but that is beyond my expertise. I suspect it is depicting the low ground bordering Potter Creek where it enters into the north end of Canoe Lake and is joined by the outflow from Joe Creek. Trees line the edge of Potter Creek which was overflowing and racing down the channel to carve into the rotting ice on Canoe Lake as described in "Tom Thomson's "Cold Spring in Algonquin Park" 1917". The shrubs on the far shore of Potter Creek were coming alive with colour and the warmth of spring. This vista would have been a very short stroll from Mowat Lodge. I am certain that some Thomson experts would know the answers to this question and I welcome any and all suggestions. Regardless, I will focus on the weather as this is a fine example of Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) as well. 

Sometimes CSI is best applied by simply jotting down the obvious clues and then assembling the pieces of the puzzle even before you have a clear idea of the final picture. That is the case for this riot of fun, colours and energy. Tom was clearly energized and I would not want to detract from that excitement with too much science. 

So what can we see?

• Long and energetic brush strokes commensurate with the strong, spring updrafts and wind. I highlighted a few of those bold strokes that were inches in length until his brush ran out of oil.
• Vigorous, convective updrafts are very unlikely in the morning. This is an afternoon weather observation after a significant period of daytime heating.
• Updrafts curl from right to left. Friction reduces the wind speed near the ground. The wind increases above the treetops. The resultant wind shear reveals the wind direction to be from right to left.
• Patches of blue mean that the sky was not overcast above the turbulent cumulus fractus cloud pieces within the planetary boundary layer. 
• Strong orange hues are characteristic of a late afternoon sun when Rayleigh scattering depletes the blue out of the spectrum.
• The trees and hills were front-lit and full of colour. The sun was on Tom's back in the late afternoon. 
• The turbulent cloud elements were front-lit and quite bright in their central masses. 
• Tom was looking easterly.
• The wind was southerly and gusty as the convective clouds were chaotic and torn apart into shreds.
• The title talks about flooding which correlates with melting snowpack, warmer temperatures and perhaps a warm rainfall event preceding the painting session. Warm rain is extremely effective at melting the snowpack and could have occurred with the warm front that preceded the warm sector that Tom was painting within. 

The CSI picture is that of a late afternoon view looking easterly in the warm sector of a wet, windy, convective and very unstable weather system. The warm, afternoon sun was on Tom's back and there were no biting bugs in the air. This would have been a wonderful plein air experience. The gold star places Tom at a  potential location for this weather observation within the conveyor belt conceptual model. 

Spring Flood as it would have appeared                         

in Tom Thomson's pochade box.

                          

Inscription verso (back of the painting): 

• u.l., in graphite, R.A.L. / reserved / Lawren Harris / for R.L.;
• u.r., in graphite, RALaidlaw;
• u.r., in red pencil, Laidlaw;
• u.r., in red pencil, 40 (circled);
• l.r., in graphite, No 40 Mrs Harkness
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1966.15.23)

The inscriptions on the back of these panels make a lot more sense if you read them a line at a time. My Thomson friend pointed that fact out and sleuthed from the exhibition history of  "Spring Flood" that it was exhibited as number 40 with "No title" in the October–November 1949 display entitled "Sketches on Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto" at the Art Gallery of Toronto. 

 The story behind the provenance is also revealing. When Lawren Harris was sorting through the stack of panels with MacDonald in the spring of 1918 (as described in "Tom Thomson's Spring 1917"), he had an eye open for those that might go to prominent art enthusiasts. "R.A.L" was Robert A. Laidlaw. The Laidlaw brothers, Robert and Walter were wealthy financiers and industrialist friends of Lawren. The brothers followed that good advice and purchased at least 25 of Thomson's paintings. Those paintings have since been dispersed to various galleries and collectors. 

It also makes sense to read the provenance a line at a time: 

• Estate of the artist
• Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Annan and Owen Sound
• W.C. and R.A. Laidlaw, Toronto, 1922
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, (1966.15.23). Gift of R.A. Laidlaw, Toronto, 1965

It would have been a tremendous amount of effort to compile this information before the age of computers and the internet. There would have been years of effort to track down and note these details which would have appeared to be trifling and inconsequential at the time. These facts are important parts of the story of Tom Thomson and his art and much of that effort is certainly attributable to the work of Joan Murray. The following from Google aptly describes Joan: "Canadian art historian, writer and curator who is an advocate for Canadian art and curators." Joan was certainly a champion for Tom Thomson. 

As the provenance states, Robert Laidlaw did purchase the untitled painting from Tom's eldest sister in 1922. Robert gifted this gem to the McMichael in 1965 where I eventually met up with it and enjoyed it nose to nose. And that's the end of that story...

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.