Tom Thomson's Winter Thaw Spring 1917

I have never included this painting in "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman". But there is a very interesting story behind this small scrap of wood just shy of 5 by 7 inches in dimensions. Perhaps Tom was running out of panels that last spring but why he would employ this tiny piece of wood is still in question. The marvel is that Thomson included so much within the size of a postcard. The back story is interesting and the meteorology reinforces what has been revealed in other works. Review and repetition can be beneficial and you just might be amazed.

Tom neither named nor signed his 62 paintings from the last six frenetic weeks of creativity. Only 35 of these plein air efforts are included in the official, authenticated works of 1917. When his friends attempted to organize and title those paintings, they picked what looked to be the obvious subject and added another element and perhaps the season to try to differentiate a particular painting from another. The words "snow", "spring", "winter", "woods" and "thaw" were used repeatedly in this valiant effort. This painting used three of those words. 

It must have been a real challenge to sort through Tom's panels. The names "Birches Spring" and "Northern Lights" were both used twice for different paintings among the 35 plein air works from April and May up at Mowat Lodge. I supplement the name of my paintings with a chronological number thus side-stepping this issue - and I have even mistakenly used the same title more than once. The number of each painting is always unique though. 

Winter Thaw
Spring 1917
 Oil on wood panel 4 15/16 x 6 7/8 in.
(12.5 x 17.5 cm) At nearly 5x7 inches
this panel is much smaller than Tom's normal
Paint Box Size 8.5 by 10.5 inches

It is often challenging to reconcile the 1917 painting locations with the maps and geography of the day. The forests have recovered and grown back over the last century making the scenes often unrecognizable within the current geography. Sometimes an approximate location might be estimated from another painting. Thankfully, I focus on science and await the expert opinions of others who might know for certain. For the time being, I only wish to suggest plausible guesses. I was not there standing beside Thomson although wouldn't that have been fun!

As has been established, Tom did not travel far from Mowat Lodge that last spring making this task of finding the painting location a bit easier. The ice was not safe to walk across given the currents from Potter and Joe Creeks. There was not enough water to paddle in.

The north basin of Canoe Lake was still ice covered. Some patches of darker ground that sloped toward the south were clear of snow. The marsh in the middle right looked to have cattails that had been beaten about by the winter winds. 

I suspect that Tom just walked to the lakeshore directly in front of Mowat Lodge. Tom was a morning person and the conditions were perfect for a plein air outing. There would have been no biting bugs as well. 

The late winter sky might be simply dismissed. The grey clouds looked like everyday meteorology but even in this tiny panel, Thomson strove to depict exactly what he saw. Tom was looking at the advancing deck of cloud but even then he carefully alternated bands of brighter white with pale sky colours. To understand what Tom was observing requires a graphic - even a clunky one I can construct. Looking up through a cloud layer versus looking at an approaching cloud deck are very different perspectives of the same story. 

These regular bands were swells in the altostratus layer of the warm conveyor belt.  The whiter bands of cloud correspond to areas of thicker concentrations of cloud droplets in areas of ascent. The bands in between are tinted by pale shades of blue and green - the sky colours breaking through lower concentrations of cloud droplets within areas of descent.

Gravity waves viewed from a distance merge into undiscernible bands. The wave crests can be better resolved as the viewing angle becomes more vertical.

The following graphic dates from around 2008 when I proposed the "Radar Palette of Remote Sensing Meteorology" to be published by COMET. It was intended as a companion to the "Satellite Palette" most of which was published although in smaller sections under different names. I felt that remote sensing was the best and safest way to analyze and diagnose weather - especially severe and dangerous conditions. This graphic from my proposal actually summarizes the meteorological situation that Tom observed that winter/spring day. The Radar Palette never got published but some portions have been distributed within the meteorological community - particularly the sections of Doppler Radar. 

The light was not bright enough to cast significant shadows. Overcast cirrostratus was probably clouding the sky. Morning would be as good a guess as any without obvious shadows to employ as a sundial. Morning illumination would also be more likely to provide the necessary front-lighting required to brighten those atmospheric swells. 

The following graphic summarizes what might be gleaned from a tiny image the size of a postcard. The genius of Tom Thomson is revealed by his ability to accomplish so much in so little a space.

These observations place Tom on the northwestern shore of the north basin of Canoe Lake a couple of hundred yards east of Mowat Lodge. Tom was under the leading edge of the warm conveyor belt of a weather system - the yellow star in the following graphic. He was looking southerly at swells in the altostratus layer of the stable anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. Tom did not observe any wind gravity waves embedded in the cloud patterns so the col of the deformation zone was probably just to his west. The warm front and possible virga were still some distance away to the southwest. 

The yellow star within the oval was the probable location of Tom Thomson in the context of the
Mid-Latitude Synoptic Scale Weather System. 

As suggested by the title, the ice and snow were melting. Rain is an effective way to eliminate snow cover and ice. Water percolates through the snow and upon freezing, releases the heat of fusion into the snowpack much like a Trojan Horse. The precipitation anticipated with the approaching weather system could have been in the form of rain and thus hasten the thaw mentioned in the title. 

This painting does not bear the "TT-1917" estate stamp and among several others (perhaps up to 35), went directly into the possession of Tom's father John upon his passing in the summer of 1917. Of the paintings that went into his father's possession, each of Tom's siblings received ten works. This particular painting went to Tom's sister Minnie (1875-1960) as part of her share. A July 22, 1917 letter from Margaret to Minnie Thomson is well worth reading and puts the story of Tom Thomson into perspective. 

 "Winter Thaw" as it might have appeared in Tom Thomson's
Paint Box. It is uncertain how the postcard-sized painting
was held in the box while he painted. There are indications
that the painting was slid into carrying slots on the short side.
Perhaps Tom built a box to hold 7-inch wide panels...
I have constructed several such devices...

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• John Thomson (Tom's Father)
• Minnie Thomson (Mrs. William) Henry, Saskatoon 
• George M. Thomson, Brantford, 1956 
• Ian M. Thomson, by descent 
• Private collection, Ontario, early 1970s 
• Joyner Toronto, November 20, 2007, lot 23 
• Private Collection, Toronto 

In November 2007, "Winter Thaw" was sold for $1,463,500 Canadian dollars. For artists who price their art by surface area (for simplicity), that amounts to $6690.29 per square centimetre or $43, 163.05 per square inch. 

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 Early Spring, Canoe Lake Spring 1917

This painting was never included in "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman". The weather in the painting was just too subtle. The time has arrived to change that deficiency and to reveal the truth about this plein air work. The Creative Scene Investigation may surprise you. 

Early Spring, Canoe Lake Spring 1917
Oil on wood 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (21.6 x 21.6 cm)
A rare square painting with one dimension matching his
paint box size.

As mentioned in earlier posts in this series, Tom Thomson did not stray far from Mowat Lodge during that last spring of frenzied creation. The location of this painting was about a mile north of Mowat Lodge along the road to Canoe Lake Station. Tom set up his paint box on the east side of the road just north of where it turned along Potter Creek. Tom was on a bit of a ridge looking southward. The forest had been cut down and from that vantage, Tom had a clear view toward the south and Canoe Lake.

Tom included a lot of features from the north basin of Canoe Lake and the community of Mowat as it existed in 1917. A single horizontal brush stroke suggests the roof of Mowat Lodge. The extensive chip yard from the Gilmour logging operations was devoid of features except for a blanket of snow. 

    The 1.5 mile wagon trip to Canoe Lake Station that Shannon    
Fraser made frequently to pick up perspective guests for
Mowat Lodge. 

The shadows of the naked trees in the foreground stretch from right to left. The hilly knoll even cast a shadow. With the location well established, the shadows are the sundial which reveals that the time of this plein air outing was mid-afternoon on a sunny day. Tom's friend Shannon Fraser might have even dropped him off on his way to Canoe Lake Station. There would have been ample time for Tom to complete this work while Shannon waited for the train. Tom and his simple painting gear might have enjoyed a free ride back to the Lodge in the wagon on the return trip. Tom perhaps even gifted this sketch to Shannon on the way back to Mowat Lodge. He was apt to do that with anyone expressing appreciation for his art. However it happened, Shannon Fraser did end up with this painting in his possession after Tom died. More on that story later.

But this painting was more about the weather even though the sky only occupied the top quarter of the small panel. Bold strokes with loads of paint were several inches long as they snaked wildly across the sky. It was sunny but a wall of weather occupied the horizon to the south and extended above the limits of his tiny panel. A deformation zone was certainly the boundary between the blue sky overhead and the clouds to the south. The weather situation was the leading edge of the warm conveyor melt of another vigorous spring storm. Tom had painted many such situations before but this one was different. 

The surface winds were controlled by the cold conveyor belt and Tom did not paint any clues to either the direction or speed of the surface wind. There were no low clouds to be seen. The surface wind could have even been calm as they are unconnected from the obvious violence above the warm frontal surface. 

The chaotic waves of cloud brushed in by those heavily laden and wavy brush strokes were very unlike the orderly gravity waves that Tom had observed in the past. These were "asperitas" clouds. 

I had observed and painted similar clouds several times. Asperitas clouds are typically associated with a warm frontal surface that is convulsing violently with strong winds. The stable layer of cloud looks like someone taking the blanket of the warm frontal surface and shaking the blazes out of it along with all of the moisture it holds.

Asperitas is a cloud formation first popularized and proposed as a type of cloud in 2009 by Gavin Pretor-Pinney of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Asperitas was officially added to the International Cloud Atlas as a supplementary feature in March 2017 and it is the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 - before I was even born! 

Warm-frontal Asperitas Clouds.
The character of the cloud tops is both out of sight and out of reach. 
Asperitas requires a stable layer in the atmosphere and wind shear. 
 A stable layer is when the air actually warms with height which is inverted from the typical atmospheric temperature profile where the air must cool thermodynamically with height. This leads to meteorologists referring to the stable layer as an "inversion" since the atmospheric profile is inverted from the norm. The greatest stability is created with warm air aloft over a cold surface layer. 

The waters of the Great Lakes and  Algonquin are cold in spring after a winter of cooling and snow and ice. Warm spring air approaching from the Gulf of Mexico also provides moisture for the clouds. The stable layer is also a warm frontal inversion in this situation. This warm air is also referred to as a warm conveyor belt. The tortured and twisted clouds are actually within the warm conveyor belt and we are looking at the bottom of the warm frontal surface. The wavelength of the cloud pattern varies directly with the wind speed - faster winds make bigger waves.

The winds that Tom was observing in the clouds were possibly being drawn into the approaching low-pressure area in the same direction as Tom's brush strokes. The winds above the warm frontal surface could have also been westerly and downstream from the deformation zone col. 

There are indeed two possible locations for Tom's weather observation separated by the col of the deformation zone that was leading the warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. The considerable cloud and wind suggest that the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt was the more likely candidate close to number 2 in the above graphic. The lack of thick, higher cloud preceding this wall of turbulent altostratus is unusual but a pattern I witness a few times every year. Tom was attracted to the wall of turbulent cloud approaching from the south. There was still ample sun which was required to cast strong shadows. The bank of cloud might have even been front-lit in the late afternoon.

A warming wind creates characteristic wind shear that encourages cyclonic swirls that rotate counter-clockwise. These cyclonic swirls encourage updrafts and what goes up must also come down. Backward-S shaped deformation zones (see "Cloud Edge Shapes - The "Backward S" Deformation Zone") link the cyclonic swirls. Cyclonic swirls also predominate within the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt further suggesting location 2 as the likely candidate. 

The moisture is spun in this wind shear like yarn. The clouds react in the interesting variations of shapes, colours and tones, making asperitas so darn exciting. If you are lucky enough to be under a layer of asperitas, take your Coriolis hand and those cloud patterns will make sense in terms of both updrafts and downdrafts. 

           "Early Spring, Canoe Lake Spring 1917"              
            as it would have appeared             
in Tom Thomson's Paint Box 


      

 Inscription recto: 

• l.r., TOM THOMSON. 1917. AUTHENTICATED AND SIGNED BY J.E.H. MACDONALD A.R.C.A. 1924 [or Aug. '21? (words or date indistinct)] 

Inscription verso: 

• in graphite, c., sketch of a bird with notations by Thomson, metal blue / orange / Brown, Old ivory; 
• J.S. Fraser / Mowat Lodge / Canoe Lake / Mowat P.O. Ont; u.c., label, in red pencil and below in graphite, T.37 / Geo Chubb Private collection, Toronto 

Provenance:

• J. Shannon Fraser, Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park 
• George W. Chubb, Algonquin Park and Toronto 
• Estate of George W. Chubb 
• Waddington's Toronto, 17 May 1967, lot 50
• Laing Galleries, Toronto 
• Private collection, London, Ontario, 1968 
• Heffel Auction, 26 November 2009, lot 223 
• Private collection, Toronto 

George W. Chubb with his trademark cigar.

George W. Chubb was the long-time business manager for Taylor Statten Camps. In 1912, while on a family vacation, Taylor saw Canoe Lake and had a dream. He might have even met Tom Thomson as their times at Canoe Lake overlapped. Taylor started Camp Ahmek for boys in 1921 on the northeastern shore of Canoe Lake. It was the first Canadian-owned private camp in Algonquin Park. Taylor opened an overnight camp for girls in 1924 to be run by his wife Ethel Statten. It was named “Wapomeo”, after the Ojibway term for birds of sunshine and laughter. Cubby acquired the painting from Shannon Fraser but the exact details are unknown. But I can guess..

Shannon might have acquired the painting at the Art Show at Mowat Lodge.  Tom planned to display over 60 sketches (perhaps the exact number was 62) from that last spring after dinner on Thursday, May 24th  for the Victoria Day Holiday. About 25 to 30 people were expected. Guests from Mowat Lodge (notably Daphne Crombie), the Hotel Algonquin, neighbours, guides, Park Ranger Mark Robinson and his patron Dr. MacCallum were there.  It would have been wonderful if anyone had snapped a picture of two of the event.

Of the 62 paintings that Ranger Mark Robinson recalled Tom Thomson mentioning from that last spring, only 35 appear in the authenticated catalogue of plein air works from 1917. I find it interesting that 35 plus 27, adds up to 62. And 27 is a number between 25 and 30, the number of expected guests attending the Mowat Lodge Art Show. Hmmm. The paintings selected by Daphne Crombie and perhaps Shannon Fraser were accounted for reducing the number of other unaccounted paintings to perhaps 25. 

I would imagine that every one of the 25 to 30 guests selected a free Tom Thomson painting from the selection of 62 or so on display. Free is not too much to pay. That would have still left 35 paintings for Tom's estate when he died just 45 days later on July 8th. As Daphne Crombie related to Ronald Pittaway on Friday, January 14th, 1977: " At that time, they (Tom Thomson and his artist friends who would form the Group of Seven) were terribly criticized and it was said that these paintings were alright to hang in the kitchen."

And who does not have a kitchen with available wall space to hang a Tom Thomson? The math all adds up. There might be some very lucky guests who attended the Art Show at Mowat Lodge still to be identified. 

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 Early Spring 1917

This painting looks very similar to "April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917" and possibly for a very good reason. It could have been painted earlier on the very same day. The colours on Tom's palette were also similar. The following Creative Scene Investigation explains why this might be the case.

 

Early Spring
Alternate title: Spring Ice and Birches Spring 1917
Oil on wood panel 8 1/2 x 10 9/16 in. (21.6 x 26.9 cm)
Tom Thomson's Paint Box Size

Location is very important in CSI. The clues to deduce the place where "Early Spring 1917" was painted are very subtle. I propose that Tom walked just a couple of hundred yards from Mowat Lodge to the Canoe Lake waterfront. He painted looking east-southeastward toward his favourite but probably inaccessible campsite on Hayhurst Point. A quick look at the distant shoreline does not reveal anything significant. But a closer examination divulges enough clues.  Everyday experience and observation of variations in the hues of distant objects tend to lose their significance becoming lost in their familiarity. 

The following graphic labels Hayhurst Point (HP) on both the top-down geographical view and the painting "Early Spring 1917". Note that to the right of HP in the painting, the hues are subdued and more white. The water edge is also raised but just by a smidgen! To the left of HP, the chroma of the shoreline vegetation is more saturated and the edge of the water is just a bit lower. I propose that this is exactly what one would witness standing on the western shore of Canoe Lake just north of the Trainor Cottage. All of this is easily ignored as people witness these phenomena every day and tend not to see the obvious details in paintings. 

The following graphic describes the other important facts that can be gleaned from Tom's brushwork. 

Solar Zenith Explained - The Solar Altitude Angle of April 1st at Mowat Lodge is 50 degrees. 

The illumination of a scene does not typically fit into the binary front-lit or back-lit extremes but is somewhere in between. I imagine a flat plane perpendicular to a rod which is the altitude angle pointing toward the sun. I place this imaginary, three-dimensional object in my mind's eye and position the plane so that it separates the light and dark. The arrow must point toward the source of the light. My COMET friends could turn this imagined object into a visualization that could be interactively manipulated in three-dimensions to replicate the lighting that one was observing. I do not have the tools to do that so my clunky PowerPoint graphic much suffice.

The following graphic emphasizes the main differences between front-lit and back-lit illumination of clouds. It does gloss over the observation of top-lit clouds which must display darker bases as a result of the optical depth of the thick clouds. The description of the imaginary, three-dimensional flat plane and rod above is more applicable to all possibilities of illumination. This simple approach is almost as informative though. If you know any two of the sun's position, time of day or direction to north, you can easily deduce the third. The front-lit image on the left of the graphic below illustrates the situation that Tom was painting near midday on that spring day - except the wind in my image was northerly. 

This painting could have been completed at midday on the same day as Tom observed "April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917". The weather and ice conditions were compatible with a weather observation made later in the day from Lowery Dickson's Point. 

                    Midday illumination to the left              Late afternoon sunlight and angle to the right

      

The midday convection was more vigorous so vector addition of the updrafts with the same horizontal wind speed would yield a slightly more upright slope to the windward side of those cumuli.  The weaker updrafts recorded in the late afternoon would be more sloped with the southerly winds. There is a dramatic difference in the amount of snow on the ground but that might be explained by just the orientation of the terrain to the sun. The snow was not going to melt (sublimate) on a dry spring day. Perhaps more importantly, Lowery would have also had a selection of beverages and Tom quite enjoyed "happy hour". It all makes perfect sense. 

"Early Spring 1917" as it would have appeared              
in Tom Thomson's Paint Box

Inscription verso: 

• u.m., in turquoise blue ink, As a brother of Tom Thomson and knowing his (w)ork well I have no hesitation in certifying that this sketch is his work. July 21, 1958 Geo Thomson; 
• c., below inscription, in graphite, Early Spring / X / l (circled) / Tom Thomson; 
• l.r., in black marker, Property of NORMAN D. HARKNESS; 
• u.r., on masking tape, 76-14; 
• l.l., label, Early Spring. By Tom Thomson. Not for Sale; 
• label FROM THEO. ERBAYN BOOKSTORE Established 1879 SALISBURY, N.C. Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Annan and Owen Sound 
• Norman D. Harkness, Salisbury, N.C., by descent 
• Laing Galleries, Toronto 
• Private collection, Toronto 
• Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario 

The ice in the north basin of Canoe Lake did not look safe enough to cross to his favourite campsite on Hayhurst Point. Canoe Lake is 50 to 65 feet deep east of Mowat Lodge and going through the ice would certainly be life-threatening. 

My friend Roy MacGregor published an article in the Globe and Mail on October 1st, 2010 telling about "A break in the mysterious case of Tom Thomson, Canada's Van Gogh". It is a fascinating read! Roy had interviewed Jimmy Stringer, fondly remembered as the 'mayor' of Canoe Lake in Huntsville in the late winter of 1973. As Roy wrote: "The truth's still not told, laddie," Jimmy kept repeating as he sat on the edge of a rumpled bed in the $9 room he had taken at the Empire Hotel in Huntsville, Ont."

Jimmy had lived most of his 72 years at Canoe Lake and was "absolute that Thomson's body had not been exhumed." Tom was still in Mowat Cemetery.  Jimmy was planning on telling Roy the details of that portion of the Thomson story in the next few days. As Roy relates in the article:  Jimmy "collected his groceries and headed back to Canoe Lake by taxi. He would walk the rest of the way in over the ice to the ramshackle home near the mouth of Potter Creek that he shared with his bachelor brother".

Jimmy never made it across the Canoe Lake ice, fell through and drowned. Jimmy never finished telling Roy his version of the truth of the Thomson story.  And yes, Jimmy Stringer's home was previously Lowery Dickson's place and he probably tried to walk on ice similar to that which Tom painted in "Early Spring 1917".

Life is so very fragile. All that might be left are memories to share with those who care. The more you look, the more of those tales there are to tell. 

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 April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917

Tom Thomson was painting up a storm in that last spring of 1917. World War One was still raging in Europe but the fears of German saboteurs and Zeppelins even touched Algonquin Park (see "Tom Thomson's Clouds (The Zeppelins)". Tom's artist friends had dispersed with the war, work and families. Tom was unsupervised and forging his own artistic path within the relative sanctuary of Canoe Lake. Mowat Lodge and a very small circle of friends were his only touchstones. 

April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917
Oil on wood panel 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.5 x 26.6 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size

"April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917" is another of his paint box plein air works created in that frenzy of solitary creativity. It might look like just a copse of birch trees near a lake but the Creative Scene Investigation of this work was actually quite interesting. Surprisingly, the location and direction of Tom's view can be accurately sleuthed more than a century after the fact. The initial clues are in the accurately reproduced landforms. Note the diminishing intensity of the hues as those hills get ever more distant - Mie scattering. 

Tom did not venture far from Mowat Lodge in that final spring. There was too much ice to paddle the lake but not enough to walk on given the strong currents. The features recorded in his painting were readily comparable to the nearby geography. But there is more. Sometimes another painting from a nearby location can collaborate even more details in the first. 

Indeed, Tom was painting beside Lowery Dickson's Cabin! He might have even been visiting his friend Lowery as he painted... perhaps even a shot of something to facilitate the flow of the oils.  

The details of the colours, shadows and cumulus clouds as described in the above graphic further assist us in timing this observation. 

The following graphic assembles all of the CSI puzzle pieces. Tom was painting in the late afternoon beside Lowery Dickson's Cabin looking toward the northeast at the open water where Potter and Joe Creeks merge. A southerly wind added milder air to supplement the warmth felt on his back. The April temperatures were warm enough that his oils were in no danger of freezing. The snow was crunchy and not melting in the dry air mass. There were no biting bugs. The plein air conditions were perfect. 

This panel illustrates that Thomson painted exactly what he saw.. even including distractions that might not contribute to the composition… but perhaps adds some mystery. One might wonder why Tom included the large shadow that entered the lower left of his panel. The object casting that shadow was not included in the painting but I attributed it to Lowery Dickson's Shack. I am certain that the shadow was there in real life so Tom brushed it in. Perhaps there was an elephant watching him paint... One will never know. It is another mystery. 

Art historians often try to pigeonhole Thomson into the existing art movements of that day. The Impressionists of the late 1800s were giving way to Fauvism, Expressionism, Futurism, and Cubism in the first couple of decades of the Twentieth Century during Tom's explosive period of creativity. Art was being pushed toward the abstract in a world full of new science (Einstein's Relativity), music, ideas and war. Tom was certainly aware of  Art Nouveau from his work at the Grip. A.Y. Jackson and his friends who would form the Group of Seven in May 1920 were big into the impressionist movement but they were not on the scene in 1916 and 1917. Tom was on his own in the wilderness and perhaps his art was simply "naturally wild". 

Representative Art for the Major Art Movements 1900 to 1920
with Tom Thomson's Art in the Central Location in the Graphic

I do not believe Tom was a peg to be shoved into some branded, artistic slot. I find it more constructive to just examine what Thomson was doing as if he was in a vacuum. With the start of World War One and the departure of his artist friends and their influence, Tom was essentially alone in his Algonquin Park sanctuary with his canoe, tent and fishing rod. Tom was not following any movement. Tom was painting for the sheer joy of creation and perhaps making enough cash to scrape by and survive. 

During the brilliant last three years of his life, Tom was on his own, reclusive art adventure and blazing his own trail. You cannot go anywhere new if you are following someone else. Tom was charting his own wilderness adventure all by himself. 

Perhaps the question that really needs to be asked is: Did Tom Thomson go somewhere new with his art? Time is the test of all things and something of which a living artist has only a limited supply. Perhaps a century later, the answer has to be "yes" given that we still respect and remember him for the wild and exuberant style that he created especially in those last three years of his short life.

This is just my opinion of course. I remain focussed on the science but sometimes I just have to propose a personal observation. I am very sympathetic to Tom as I have been forging my own path as an artist since 1967. My sole goal is to continue to learn and get better - at both life and art. That is a very personal dream that allows me to remain sequestered like a hermit within my Singleton Sanctuary - surrounded by nature.  But I digress...

The weather forecast for the next day was going to be warmer and stormier. That's a good thing as Tom loved to observe and paint the weather. That same forecast also applied to his life. 

The probable sequence of weather events across Algonquin Park following 
"April in Algonquin Park Spring 1917". The jet stream was still a very strong
current of air back then directing a continuous parade of weather events
across the landscape. 

April in Algonquin Park as it would have appeared
in Tom Thomson's Paint Box in the spring of 1917

Inscription verso: 

• in ink, Donated by Geo. Thomson to the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery. March 16, 1964; 
• in graphite, painted by Tom Thomson 1917 / April in Algonquin Park / Owned by Geo. Thomson Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound (967.121) 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist;
• George Thomson, New Haven, Connecticut and Owen Sound;
• Gift of George Thomson to the Grey County Historical and Art Society, 1964;
• Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound (967.121).;
• Transferred to the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, 1967

 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 Early Spring 1917

I have never included this painting in "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman". The Creative Scene Investigation was completed but I felt that the clues were too subtle and tenuous to provide a convincing conclusion. I believe that the preferred solution is correct but I can be pretty gullible. The painting is included here solely because it was completed in his last spring of 1917 and I am running out of authenticated panels to discuss. Tom's friend and Algonquin Park Ranger Mark Robinson remarked in October 1956 that 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.” 

The number of known authenticated panels painted in 1917 is about fifty and this is one of them.

Early Spring
Alternate title: Early Snow, Spring 1917
Oil on wood panel 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (20.9 x 26.7 cm)
Tom's paint box size

Creative Scene Investigation in this example places considerable importance on every aspect of the painting. The meteorology and science are very subtle but much may be inferred about the nature-scape. Tom painted what he witnessed! The truth and accuracy of his observations can be revealed by examining the details. Note that the alternate suggested title " Early Snow, Spring 1917" is clearly not suitable for a weather observation painted in early April when Tom arrived at Mowat Lodge.

David Thompson described as the
"greatest practical land geographer
that the world has produced".
Thompson was well respected
by all. His story makes for
wonderful reading. 

Location is important. The northern shores of Canoe Lake was renowned for the large stands of white paper birch. More important were the cedars to be found on the shoreline and which Tom also painted. The birch trees and cedars provided the essential building materials for canoes. In 1837, surveyor Alexander Murray built a canoe on the shore and named the water "Canoe Lake".  Fur trader, surveyor, and cartographer David Thompson (1770-1857) known to some native people as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer" would build canoes nearby and also call the water "Canoe Lake". Murray's name has been retained for the northern body of water and Thompson's lake, immediately to the south, has been renamed "South Tea Lake". 

The snow was still deep even on the exposed, south-facing slopes of Canoe Lake. The waterways were quite likely still choked with ice and Tom was staying at Mowat Lodge. My guess is that Tom did not travel far to make this particular observation. Note that the hues in the composition are not skewed to either those of sunrise or sunset. Also, remark that the shadows that snake up the slop are quite long, so this was not painted at solar noon. 

As an aside, that snow mentioned in the alternate title, was not likely to melt on the dry, sunny and mild day. The science of this observation may be found in "Tom Thomson's "Path Behind Mowat Lodge" 1917" but the key graphic is also included below. 

Now back to the paint in question ...there are essentially three clues to consider: 

• the orientation of the elongated birch tree shadows;
• the orientation of the distant ice-lined shore perpendicular to Tom's direction of view; and
• the band of grey cloud stroked in between the birch branches. 

If this was mid-morning, the following graphic summarizes the application of Creative Scene Investigation. Let's call this Option 1. 

If this was mid-afternoon, another graphic for Option 2 is required to shed some light on the possible options. 

Both of the above options can satisfy the geographical constraints summarized on the following map of the north end of Canoe Lake. 

From a meteorological perspective, one option is better than the other. The orientation of the cloud bands for Option 1 follows. 

The above graphic for the mid-morning Option 1 would have Tom looking at the stratiform cirrus cloud trailing south-eastward along the anticyclonic confluent asymptote of the warm conveyor belt. Tom would have been under sunny skies but could have been either north or south of the associated warm front. 

The graphic below for the mid-afternoon Option 2 would have Tom looking south-eastward further along the anticyclonic confluent asymptote where there is less likely to be any cloud at all due to the subsidence associated with the ridge of high pressure. In addition, Tom would be more likely to be under the cloud of the warm conveyor belt - the probably of strong shadows as he observed would be lower. 

Creative Scene Investigation favours Option 1 as the solution. The clues are subtle even minuscule or tenuous. Regardless, it was some interesting detective work. 

There was no description of the back of this panel to be found. I would be very interested to see what it looked like. 

Provenance:

-Estate of the artist; 

-Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Annan and Owen Sound;

-Margaret Thomson Tweedale, Toronto;

-McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1974.9.5). Gift of Margaret Thomson Tweedale, 1974 

As with several other paintings from 1917, this one went to Tom's older sister "Lizzie", Elisabeth (Elizabeth) Harkness (abt. 1870 - 1934) and thence to her younger sister Margaret Thomson Tweedale (1884-1979). Margaret was the ninth of ten children born to John and Margaret Thomson. She was a teacher for 15 years before marrying William Tweedale. 

Margaret remained fiercely protective of her brother’s reputation. The creative siblings were brought even closer after his death. The oldest son George (abt. 1868 - 1965) started spring and fall painting expeditions which Margaret joined in on. She preferred to paint landscapes and "she created a small body of charming works". Margaret gifted this painting to the McMichael five years before she passed at the age of 95 years young.

The Thomson Family Children 1887

Canadian society owes much to the Thomson family...

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.