Tom Thomson's Algonquin Park, Spring 1916

 TT-127- Tom Thomson's Algonquin Park, Spring 1916 - Very Preliminary Draft

Creative Scene Investigation is often made possible with the knowledge of exactly where the painting was completed. Typical unknowns like the direction of view, season and time of day might be easily deduced knowing the location. An accurate knowledge of Tom's movements in time and space helps greatly as well. Without this information, there are otherwise just too many unknown variables within the equation making an accurate solution and a better understanding of the motivation of Thomson quite impossible!

Maps By Jeff  is a terrific resource for anyone wishing to enjoy the wonders of Algonquin

The story behind  "Algonquin Park, Spring" begins in mid-April 1916. Tom Thomson was on a fishing trip with friends Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and Dr. MacCallum on the Cauchon Lakes. Cauchon Lake (upper left) is upstream from Little Cedar Lake (lower right) in the above map of the area by Jeff. 

Algonquin Park, Spring 1916
Oil on composite wood-pulp board 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.6 x 26.7 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size, 1916.67

"Algonquin Park, Spring" might have been completed when everyone was enjoying their time away from the big smoke of Toronto. It could have also been painted when just Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris were making their way down to Brent and the railway station. The train connections from Brent would take Lawren via Toronto to report to Camp Borden. Harris is recorded as receiving his commission in the militia on May 5, 1916. The train from Brent goes right through Achray on Grand Lake. Thomson was due to start his summer of fire ranger duty at Achray around May 1st. 

This is where paddles in the water and boots on the ground become an essential part of Creative Scene Investigation (CSI). My Thomson friends might have located the island that Tom painted in Little Cedar Lake. The painting location would have been a comfortable place to sit on the edge of the train track that runs along the eastern shore of that lake. The viewing angle would have looked southwesterly across a narrow section of Little Cedar Lake. The following graphic links some of the shapes in Tom's 1916 painting with the landforms of almost a century later. Trees will grow and die but rocks stay pretty much unchanged. 

Nine unique, rocky shapes can be matched more or less between the painting and the current terrain. The orientation of the forested slope (the green dashed lines above the forest) in the painting and behind the island a century later are identical but that line is far from unique and not included as proof. Tom was noted for painting almost exactly what he saw so the similarities between the sketch and the island should not be surprising. I am convinced that the island on Little Cedar Lake is the correct match but there is more to be discovered through Creative Scene Investigation. 

 

The illumination of the island is the next important clue. Was this a sunrise or a sunset painting? The reddish colour of the lighting indicates that Rayleigh scattering had removed the blue spectrum out of the direct beam from the sun. The light was passing through a long atmospheric path for Rayleigh to have such a significant impact. 

The solution requires knowledge of the location of the island and the timing of the painting. Both of these are approximately established and allow the following diagnosis as described within the graphic. The timing of sunrise and sunset and the azimuth angle to the sun can be calculated if we know the latitude and longitude and the approximate date. 

From the orientation and angle analysis, Tom might have been exaggerating the extent of the sunset catching the western flanks of the white pines... but maybe not if our approximations are off by just a bit. Of course, the painting would take perhaps thirty minutes to complete and the lighting can change a lot in those last seconds before twilight. 

And now for the weather! I consulted with my colleague Johnny Met and these are his observations based on a lifetime of experience as a weather observer. 

"Hi Phil. The first time I looked at the painting, I thought it was just a white background. I switched over to my laptop on a bigger screen with better resolution. The background of the blue sky is now visible. It looks like the artist painted the sky blue and switched to white  and painted streaks lightly, which to me signifies overrunning cirrus cloud and is meant to be just the background. The lonely island is the main picture of the painting. It seems to me the island has been around for hundreds of years.  There are  many life cycles of trees growing up and then dying. The setting sun is behind the scene which makes the other side so sharp. Johnny Met."

Years of experience are required to see the subtleties of the sky that Johnny Met observed. Recall that backlit cirrus is translucent to sunlight - never dark in the centre as with more opaque cloud types. The darker purples and bold brush strokes on Thomson's sky are consistent with the presence of ice crystals distributing the incident light in a forward direction (Mie scattering) toward the artist. 

"Cirrostratus coming at us" should be the phrase that pops into your mind when cirrus is observed in a sunset sky. Refer to "The Main Veil of the Weather Dance - The Warm Conveyor Belt" among other posts in "The Art and Science of Phil the Forecaster". A warm conveyor belt associated with a springtime mid-latitude synoptic scale weather system was on the way. It could have even been a cold-low type system which is typical for spring in Algonquin. Cold lows can bring at least a couple of days of chilly, wet and very unsettled weather - just as they did in 2024.  

The warm conveyor belt typically approaches from the southwest over Algonquin Park. Lines of cirrus would parallel that flow. The science of these cirrus lines can be described using Langmuir Streaks (see "Langmuir Streaks – Take the time to Observe and Learn from Nature"). If the top of the warm conveyor belt was stable which is typical at the top of the atmosphere (the tropopause), gravity wave cirrus bands (see "Lines in the Sky and the Meaning of Life") would develop perpendicular to that flow. Tom might have let the subtle cirrus lines in the sunset sky determine the direction of his brush strokes. I have highlighted just a few of those strokes... there are many more. 

Tom was apparently quite pleased with his sunset weather observation. He uncharacteristically signed the painting in the lower right. It is difficult to discern what means he used to carefully achieve the small letters so accurately on that small panel. Was it a fine brush or perhaps a lead pencil he used? Was the paint still wet when he did so? 

My Thomson friend observes:

"Looking at his brushwork in many sketches, it appears he mostly used only one size of brush or two at most.  A thin brush with just enough paint on it, turned sideways, could have done the lettering.  I'm sure he didn't carry along anything he didn't need."

A microscopic examination of the original signature would provide answers to those questions. 

Regardless, "Algonquin Park, Spring 1916" was included in the tall stack of panels moved from Thomson's Shack to the Studio Building in the spring of 1918. Lawren Harris and J.E.H MacDonald had assumed the gargantuan task of trying to organize Thomson's work of the past five years. They applied the estate stamp above and to the right of Tom's signature as faintly revealed in the above graphic. 

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp; 
• l.r., TOM THOMSON

There are more details to be found on the back of this panel. Some of these numbers are unintelligible without any explanation included. There is probably no mystery about the numbers though. Some might just be annotations from an exhibition when the work was on loan.  Acquisition numbers from galleries are included as well. Some text designate which ones MacCallum or someone else wanted as the panels were being sorted in the spring of 1918. For example, "RAL" refers to wealthy businessman Robert Laidlaw whom Lawren Harris had encouraged to purchase Thomson’s paintings. "J+H" certainly meant something to someone but is too cryptic for me to decipher!

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• in graphite, 1916 Algonquin Park / J. MacCallum; 
• RAL; 
• in red, 19; 
• in graphite, J+ H; 
• grey paint stuck to the back; 
• on the stretcher, in graphite, 10 Algonquin Park MacCallum
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (857)

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist
• Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto
• Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (857). Gift from the Reuben and Kate Leonard Canadian Fund, 1927

Apparently, Dr. MacCallum was determined to have this painting within his collection of Thomson's art regardless of what Robert Laidlaw wished. See the Thomson paintings that were once within the Laidlaw Collection here.  The good doctor apparently sold "Algonquin Park, Spring 1916" to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1927 which is where I recall seeing it during one of my many visits. 

Many interesting stories can be discovered with boots on the ground, open minds and good science. History can be rediscovered and brought to life.  I continue to learn from the Thomson experts who have become my friends over the years!

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.