Tom Thomson's Sunset Spring 1916

The Creative Scene investigation of this plein air work was a challenge. The question is often asked: "How does one differentiate between a sunrise and a sunset sky?" I rely on the cloud type, their illumination and the wind direction (as revealed by the clouds) for starters. Sometimes the cloud structure can be the solution by placing the painting within the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model. There are even some astronomical applications but those are typically not available when working with paintings. "Sunset Spring 1916" is an excellent example of the application of these principles. 

This painting was never included in the "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" presentations. The clues within the brushstrokes were just too ambiguous. I could not even easily convince myself (and I can be pretty gullible) about the proper diagnosis. I certainly did not wish to mislead or confuse any audience members. Credibility is hard to foster and easily lost.

Including "Sunset Spring 1916" in this blog is certainly OK though. I feel responsible for giving every plein-air painting by Tom Thomson the same fair treatment. Mistakes might be made but I will try to keep them small and forgivable. 

Tom Thomson had made a stop in Huntsville at the home of Winifred Trainor in mid-March 1916. Tom was on his way to Mowat Lodge in Algonquin. He would stay at Canoe Lake until mid-April when he would be visited by Lawren Harris, Lawren's cousin Chester Harris and his patron Dr. James MacCallum. Tom might have painted "Sunset Spring 1916" after his visit with Winnie but before his guests arrived. Tom could have also completed this panel while travelling with his friends. Tom would head to Achray on Grand Lake later in May to work the summer as a Forest Ranger - there was precious little time to paint after that.  

Sunset Spring 1916
 Oil on wood panel 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.6 x 26.7 cm) 
Tom Thomson's Paint Box Size 

The colours are somewhat muted in this painting. An examination of the clouds immediately concludes that this must be a front-lit scene. The greens of the spring grasses were relatively bright. The clouds were bright in their central masses and perhaps slightly darker on their edges - consistent with being front-lit. The altocumulus clouds on the distant horizon were darker in keeping with the shadow of the Earth. The Belt of Venus also helps to explain the pink tint of the turbulent cumulus fractus which were the largest clouds in the sky.

But what is the rather bright, circular glow just right of the centre of the painting above the horizon? Is that the sun as suggested by the title?  And in which direction is Tom looking anyway? Might this view even be of a sunrise? There is a problem here...

We could solve this dilemma if we knew the direction of view and whether this was a sunrise or sunset. It would help to know the terrain as well which would reveal the direction of view. I had to go back to first principles looking for a solution. If only Tom had jotted down a clue...

There are four distinct options for this painting:

1. Looking East at  Sunset,  Front-lit, southerly wind, Belt of Venus;
2. Looking West at Sunset,  Back-lit,  northerly wind;
3. Looking West at Sunrise, Front-lit, northerly wind, Belt of Venus; and 
4. Looking East at  Sunrise,  Back-lit,  southerly wind.

The Belt of Venus Explained

The front-lit options explain the colours and the illumination of the clouds best but do not shed any light on the central glow above the horizon. The Belt of Venus even helps to explain the pink tint displayed in the clouds. 

The back-lit options explain the central glow above the horizon but there is a lot of hand-waving and conjecture required to justify that the clouds (which should be optically thick) were bright and not dark in their central masses. The Belt of Venus is not an available option for any back-lit illumination. 

The turbulent cumulus fractus-type cloud is most likely at sunset after a day of heating, instability and wind. Turbulent cumulus clouds are unlikely at sunrise unless the winds are northerly and cold air advection keeps the winds blowing all night as in Option 3 above. 

Cumulus clouds in the morning would need to be associated with a weather system in order to be present. The altocumulus clouds are evidence that this was a possibility. The altocumulus reveals that large-scale dynamic lift was acting in the atmosphere. I could even make an argument that the mid-level cloud had a deformation zone structure to it on the distant horizon. But those patches of cloud could be either coming or going so the deformation zone pattern would be inconclusive anyway.

The water surface was calm which is a common event at sunrise after a night of stabilization and radiational cooling. Calm waters are also possible at sunset if the planetary boundary level had started to develop with the setting of the sun. The calm water is not a definitive clue in this situation.

I considered creating a spreadsheet and assigning points for the attributes that are explained and lesser values for those that require more hand-waving. But that would not be an objective solution either - just a subjective option with numbers assigned. I decided to attempt to diagnose each option one at a time to determine the most likely solution. 

1. Looking East at  Sunset,  Front-lit, southerly wind, Belt of Venus

2. Looking West at Sunset,  Back-lit,  northerly wind

3. Looking West at Sunrise, Front-lit, northerly wind, Belt of Venus

4. Looking East at  Sunrise,  Back-lit,  southerly wind

Option 1 explains the most visual facts in the painting which is not a coincidence (it was always my number one choice). The only stumbling block is the central glow and I can adjust for that weakness by noting Tom's penchant for painting sunsets and some mild hand-waving. It also agrees with the original sunset estimate by whoever named this painting and who obviously knew Tom. Perhaps Lawren Harris was even with Tom at the time!

The bright clouds within that yellow circle cast an aura which might be responsible for that area "glowing". Those front-lit bright clouds were illuminated by the direct beams of the sun that tracked above the level of the low cloud. Those low clouds were left in the relative dark and the pink zone of the Belt of Venus. The mid-clouds were higher and were bathed in yellow-tinted light direct from the sun. 

In addition, the contrast between the bright altocumulus and the overlapping more subdued cumulus fractus, makes them appear even brighter. If you look closely, the sky colour within that yellow circle is not really much brighter than the surrounding sky at the same elevation above the horizon. The apparent bright glow within the yellow circle might be more of an optical illusion and one that artists regularly deliberately employ.

The following graphic may assist further. I applied the second option to Tom's sunset painting. There are some other hints included (for free) on how to use your hand and fingers to measure the motion of the sun in terms of time or angles. The angles and scales are greatly exaggerated for illustration purposes. Remember that the Earth's atmosphere is comparable in scale to the skin of an apple. 

My Thomson friend offered another very plausible suggestion. The glow could even be from the full moon rising above the eastern horizon as the sun set in the west. The light reflected from the face of the moon would pass through a long atmospheric path. The light illuminating the atmosphere and forward scattered (Mie) to the artist's eyes would be tinted toward the yellow hues. The full moon would be located behind the cloud in the lower portion of the yellow circle. Please take another look at  "CSI 1. Looking East at Sunset" and you might now notice a faint full moon included in that graphic. 

Brilliant suggestion my friend! I believe this completes the Creative Scene Investigation of this masterwork which is not much larger than a postcard. How much science could Tom paint on a panel? Lots! 

Tom under the Anticyclonic Companion of a
 weak and fast-moving weather system

In summary, the preferred solution is that Tom was looking easterly at sunset at a front-lit landscape. The cloud colours were augmented by the pinks of the Belt of Venus. A full moon rising early in the evening also explains the subtle, mysterious glow. The winds were southerly and Tom was near the warm front of a weather system. The conveyor belt conceptual model suggests that Tom was looking at the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. The leading edge of such systems is shaped by a double anticyclonic deformation zone and patchy cloud on the trailing flank of the departing ridge of high pressure. Any significant weather and certainly the associated cold front were still to the west. The cloud cover over the western horizon was not enough to significantly restrict the illumination of Tom's view to the east implying that this was a rather weather event.

My Thomson friend also suggested that the location of this view closely matches one from a favourite campsite on Whitson Lake which is a widening of the Petawawa River.  The "North Branch Ranger Cabin" once occupied that campsite and a trail also ran through the location. The cabin was still there in the 1940s when they planned to string a telephone line from the Achray Deputy's Headquarters on Grand Lake. The cabin was probably standing in 1916 and would have provided a convenient location for Tom to paint.

The bright greens in Tom's painting suggest that the art was completed in early summer when the vegetation was lush. Tom would have started his Forest Ranger job and been travelling the area with his coworker Ed Godin from their base at Achray. The details of their trips from the early summer of 1916 are unknown although they did canoe through the area in that autumn.

Feature 1 in the above comparison around the Petawa Hills is Louie Creek.

The similarities between the view, painting and terrain are convincing and support the conclusion that the view was front-lit looking easterly at sunset. Tom was looking across the Petawa Hills with Louie Creek draining into Whitson Lake at the lower left of the painting. 

There is one last piece of evidence that needs to be considered. Let's consider another sunset from the same spring of 1916 for comparison and see how Tom handled the colours. Tom would have been using the same palette and quite likely an identical slate of oil paints for each work. 

In spite of being painted at possibly the same time, these two sunset paintings are very different. Tom was simply looking in different directions. Tom painted what he saw. 

There is a huge difference between looking away from the sun and into the light at sunset.

The view looking westerly from the Whitson Lake campsite is also quite convincing in its similarities to the terrain Tom painted looking into the light of the sunset. Those details are included in the next graphic.

The Algonquin forest has grown back from those days of logging and extensive fires. The details of the terrain that Thomson painted are now cloaked. The similarities presented almost allow us to look over Tom's shoulder as he painted, inspired by the beauty of the weather and nature. Of course, we will never know for certain...

Finally, J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris met in the Studio Building in the spring of 1918. Tom's paintings from the Shack had been stacked in the Studio Building. Harris and MacDonald planned to sort through Tom's art, make comments on the back and distribute what they felt were the best examples of his genius.  Both of these paintings were in that stack of panels and both display the "TT Estate Stamp". 

Patron Dr. James MacCallum funded the Thomson Estate Stamp which was designed by MacDonald

One of these friends identified this as a sunset painting (among many with very similar names) and that is worth a few extra points. I suspect they thought that Tom was looking into the sunset instead of away. Perhaps it was even Lawren who chose the name and might have been with Tom for these sunsets when they were painting together in late April of 1916. As my Thomson friend points out, "Lawren Harris received his commission at Camp Borden on May 5th, 1916, so presumably had returned to Toronto around the beginning of May, thus suggesting the time of the fishing trip was probably in the second half of April."

      "Sunset Spring 1916" as it would have appeared       
in Tom's Paint Box

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp Inscription verso: 
• c.?, estate stamp; in graphite, 27 
• Private Collection, Vancouver Island 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• Ralph Thomson, Seattle as no. 2 of three sketches described in Martin Baldwin's list of 7 May 1937 as belonging to Henry Thomson, Seattle and as "Sunset, yellow green sky, clouds, blue green hills, lake in front," 
• Ruth Wilkins, Renton, Washington, by descent, 1970 
• Private Collection, Vancouver Island 

Apparently, this is one of ten paintings that Tom's younger brother Ralph (1880-1934) acquired as part of the estate. As noted earlier, of the paintings that went into his father's possession, each of Tom's siblings received ten works. 

The Thomson Brothers with Tom Harkness, Brother-in-Law. 
Thomas “Tom” J. Harkness was the husband
of Tom's eldest sister, Elizabeth.

The Creative Scene Investigation conclusion after all of this is that Tom Thomson painted "Sunset Spring 1916" from near the North Branch Ranger Cabin on Whitson Lake looking east-northeasterly (away from the blinding light) at sunset in early summer probably in the company of his coworker Ed Godin (not Lawren Harris and friends). Tom's creativity was on fire and after completing this panel, he simply turned to look westerly and observed "Spring Sunset, Algonquin Park, 1916".

This was indeed a very challenging Creative Scene Investigation to complete but the findings are satisfactory.  I described all of the possibilities in order to be complete. It is rare to find the best solution without some stumbling around and help from knowledgeable Thomson friends!  

Thomson really did accurately paint what he saw. Any deficiency is simply in my ability to convincingly explain what he witnessed. 

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: Should you wish to have Creative Scene Investigation applied to one of Thomson's works that I have not yet included in this Blog, please let me know. It may already be completed but not yet posted. In any event, I will move your request to the top of the list. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!