Tom Thomson's Spring in Algonquin Park, 1917

Widely quoted art curators estimate that Thomson created 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. Tom did not routinely sign, name or keep records of his art so those numbers are only estimates. No one really knows! 

In a Taylor Statten interview with Tom's friend and Algonquin Park Ranger Mark Robinson in October 1956, Mark relayed a memory of a conversation that he had with Tom in May 1917: Tom said:

“You know, I have something unique in art that no other artist has ever attempted, I have a record of the weather for 62 days, rain or shine, or snow, dark or bright, I have a record of the day in a sketch. I’d like to hang them around the walls of your cabin here.” 

About only half of the 62 panels have been documented. Tom was known to burn paintings that he did not like. Mark Robinson also enjoyed embellishing his Tom Thomson stories in his later years but they were based on truthful interactions. 

The exact number of Thomson originals will never be known. There are certainly many forgeries in the art world, including many purporting to be original Thomson works. The lack of accounting and Tom's penchant for giving panels to anyone who admired his art facilitates the sudden appearance of a "new and undiscovered Thomson". The potential of a Thomson forgery can be very lucrative for the criminal. The art market fluctuates but the price of a Thomson original is certainly in the millions of dollar range. 

"Spring in Algonquin Park, 1917" was one of those 62 paintings from the last spring. Harris and MacDonald would have made a record of it in the spring of 1918 when they were going through the stack of Thomson panels left in the Studio Building. It must have been a daunting task to document and name that pile of paintings!  Here is the Creative Scene Investigation story of that particular work. 

Spring in Algonquin Park Spring 1917
Oil on wood panel 8 3/8 x 10 1/2 in. (21.2 x 26.7 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size 

Creative Scene Investigation typically starts with location and viewing angle in an attempt to establish the time of day or vice versa. The geography of "Spring in Algonquin Park Spring 1917" is readily recognizable. Tom did not need to go very far at Canoe Lake to find inspiration. This view is from the southern tip of Hayhurst Point. Tom's favourite campsite was just up the slope to the north of this location. The islands included in Tom's painting are characteristic of Canoe Lake and are easily identifiable. Tom was looking southerly toward the sun although the clouds shielded his eyes from any glare and harmful ultra-violet of the light. 

Was Tom using his campsite on those chilly nights of April 1917? 

The yellow star indicates the painting location while the 
yellow arrows enclose the view included on the panel.

If Tom was staying in and enjoying the relative comforts of Mowat Lodge, he would have needed to cross the dodgy ice of the north basin of Canoe Lake where the ice was also in competition with the spring outflows from Potter and Joe Creeks. Such a crossing although possible, would have been very dangerous. 

The prevailing southerly winds that funnel up the length of Canoe Lake had pushed the ice floes onshore and probably jammed the north basin of the lake. Tom included large chunks of ice still bobbing in the open water. Travelling conditions would have been tricky with a canoe and treacherous on foot across the ice. 

The meteorology of the painting is that of a warm conveyor belt. The backlit altostratus cloud was the darkest in the middle. The high concentration of ice crystals makes the central portion of the cloud most opaque even though Mie scattering from large particles does scatter most of the energy in a forward direction, in this case toward the observer. The fringes of backlit clouds are always brighter with fewer particles on the thinner edge of the cloud effectively scattering light forward.  

The yellow star and associated arrows locate Tom's position
relative to the conveyor belt conceptual model. The red,
orange and yellow flows rise along the constant energy 
surfaces which slope upward toward the north. The red
line of the surface warm front was well south of Tom's
viewing location. 

A large mass of altostratus cloud such as Tom observed can only exist for a good meteorological reason. The atmosphere was gently rising over a large area. Anyone with a barometer would also have measured the pressure falling at the surface. A spring weather system was approaching. 

The air was certainly rising due to a southerly flow of heat and moisture riding the upslope of the constant energy surfaces in the atmosphere. The edges of the cloud in the painting stretch west to east as one would expect of the associated approaching deformation zone. Unfortunately, there are no apparent gravity waves from which one could glean more details of cloud-level winds. The cloud Tom painted fits nicely into the conveyor belt conceptual model of mid-latitude weather systems. 

Sometimes, it is what you don't see that can reveal the most in Creative Scene Investigation. There were no low clouds included in this painting! Clouds within the planetary boundary level also rely on lift, moisture and heat to develop. Recent rainfalls and strong winds can raise surface air parcels to saturation through turbulent mixing. Daytime heating can warm the surface which heats adjacent air parcels. These packets of air then rise buoyantly to the convective condensation level of the air mass to form cumulus clouds. Neither process was evident which tells a lot. 

In this case, I suspect that in addition to the altostratus cloud pictured, there was also a layer of a higher cirrostratus cloud. Even a cirrostratus cloud can block the spring sun enough so that the cumulus convective process could not get initiated. Daytime heating also takes time to act so that could further point to a painting effort taking place in the morning. 

The yellow star locates Tom's position with respect to the 
deformation zone shadow - the dashed green double-headed
arrow. The region shaded in cool blue hues is void of daytime
heating-induced cumulus clouds. A line of cumulus often
reveals a convergence line of the warm side of the 
deformation zone shadow. 

The accompanying graphic explains the concept of the "deformation zone shadow". Cumulus clouds tend to not develop in the region shaded by the cloud of the approaching warm conveyor belt. Turbulent stratocumulus can still develop if the winds of the cold conveyor belt are sufficient to lift surface moisture to saturation. In addition, a subtle temperature gradient can develop across the "shadow" of the deformation zone with cooler surfaces in the shade and warmer surfaces on the sunny side. The result can be cooling and warming of the respective zones of overlying air which can lead to a convergence line. The convergent flow promotes a line of cumulus paralleling and on the sunny side of the deformation zone shadow. 

The subtle meteorology of the deformation zone shadow is heavily influenced by the characteristics and heat capacity of the different surfaces. The results in the real world will never be as ideal as the movie playing in my night shift mind but I still try to connect the dots of cumulus to make sense of it all. 

After becoming aware of this interesting meteorology, I watch for it with the approach of every warm conveyor belt and the associated deformation zone shadow. I often notice a zone of turbulence as the deformation zone shadow passes my location. Once within the shadow of the warm conveyor belt cloud, the momentary turbulence is lost and the characteristics of the cold conveyor belt resume. Whether the turbulence is the result of the meso-temperature gradient and thermal wind or the pressure gradient force (PGF) between the meso-high and meso-low is an interesting question that requires investigation. The subtleties are complicated further by the complexities of the real-world terrain. 

I always was interested in this subtle meteorology and how the environment reacts to differential heating. By the way, you will not find this in any textbook but I digress...

The above graphic also suggests that Tom was looking at the anticyclonic companion of the approaching warm conveyor belt since the cloud was altostratus versus altocumulus. 

Low clouds are useful clues to gauge the properties of the cold conveyor belt even if they were not present. "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard" is a summary of those techniques that can estimate the relative speed and intensity of an approaching weather system. In this case, the cold conveyor belt was not sufficient to generate turbulent stratocumulus. This implies that the approaching weather system was of rather ordinary intensity and speed across the landscape. 

Tom carefully blocked in the larger trees of his composition and then painted the clouds in between those forms. For the smaller branches, he simply dragged the darker brush strokes through and on top of the thick oils. There are no rules in art, and the artist is free to apply the paint in any way they deem fit!

The takeaway message here is that the characteristics of the clouds were important to Tom and he took great efforts to paint them as he saw them. 

I know this is a lot to read into the clouds that are partially hidden by a screen of birches but Tom Thomson painted what he saw. He did not make the weather up and was faithful to the details in a broad-brush kind of way. Understanding and interpreting those details can lead to some interesting insights and that is simply where I come in. 

Inscription verso: 

u.r.q., label, Toronto January 28 - 1928 This is one of Tom's pictures which was given to me by Father today at Owen Sound. It was one of the pictures taken by Father from Mowatt [sic] Lodge, Algonquin Park, in 1917 when Tom died, and it was painted in the spring of 1917. I asked Dr. McCallum of Toronto over the phone today whether it would be possible to have Tom's seal affixed to this sketch. He suggested writing the above to establish its authenticity G.W. Thomson 15 / 3 / 47 Above copied from original back cover McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1980.5).

George Thomson (Tom's brother - born February 10, 1868, Claremont, Pickering, Died: 1965) was the "Father"  identified in the Inscription written by his son George W.[sic]  Thomson in 1928. George Junior wished to have the Estate Stamp applied to the panel to authenticate it as a Tom Thomson original. Perhaps forgeries were becoming an issue even then. Tom Thomson forgeries were certainly rampant in the 1950s.

My Thomson friend pointed me in the direction of the back story of Tom's oldest brother. George Thomson had a business partnership with Frank McLaren and they operated the Acme Business College (1892-1906). George married Frank's daughter, Margaret Euphemia McLaren on March 28th, 1893. George was three years younger than Margaret. They had a son, George McLaren Thomson on February 1st, 1894, but unfortunately, Margaret passed away just six months later.  George would remarry in 1914 to Jean Telford. George Senior would move to Owen Sound in 1934 and later pass away in 1965 at nearby Leith at the age of 97. George was out sketching with his brother Fraser at Lion's Head and Barrow Bay on the Bruce Peninsula halfway between Owen Sound and Tobermory the day before he died. George Senior was buried near his brother Tom's gravesite.

George McLaren Thomson had at least 2 sons with Lilias Henry. They lived in Washington, United States in 1900 and Calgary,  Alberta in 1926. George Junior died on 18 September 1972, at the age of 78, and was buried in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. 

Spring in Algonquin Park Spring 1917 as it would        
have appeared in Thomson's Paint Box

It is unclear how Junior George McLaren (his mother's maiden name) Thomson developed a middle initial of "W" instead of "M".  They are certainly the same people in spite of this small discrepancy. Sorry, but I do not have a solution except for upside-down dyslexia and an error in transcription. I am just the weatherman...

Provenance 

• Estate of the artist 
• George Thomson, New Haven, Connecticut and Owen Sound 
• George W. Thomson, Brantford and Sudbury, 1972, by descent 
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1980.5). Purchased 1980

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.