The painting "
Aura Lee Lake, Spring" begins in mid-April with the story of Tom Thomson on a fishing trip with friends. Tom was joined by Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and Dr. MacCallum on the Cauchon Lakes for some creative time away from the big smoke of Toronto.
They fished and painted for a couple of weeks. MacCallum and Chester Harris most likely returned to the city directly by train. There is some evidence suggesting that Thomson and Lawren Harris paddled down to Brent before travelling by train from there to their respective destinations. Thomson was due to start his summer of fire ranger duty at Achray on Grand Lake around May 1st. Harris had to report to Camp Borden, where he is recorded as receiving his commission in the militia on May 5, 1916. On 12 June, he was appointed to the 10th Royal Grenadiers as a lieutenant.
This Thomson sketch could have been done on an outing from their camp on Little Cauchon Lake or during a pause in the paddle down to Brent. In 1916 what was known as Aura Lee (or Lea) Lake is now known as Laurel Lake. What was called Laurel (or Laurie) Lake in 1916 is now known as Aura Lee Lake. It is easy to get confused but the following graphic detailing the name swap with actual maps should assist.
The first map below of Algonquin National Park in 1893 was only meant to be an approximation of the waterways. The overlay in pale blue is the current lake system from "Maps by Jeff".
The next Lands and Forests map from 1921 does a better job of recognizing the broader expanse of water. The two separate lakes were yet to be resolved and were known collectively as Aura Lee Lake as it was known in Thomson's days.
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| The yellow arrow links Pincushion Island on both the old and new maps. |
Map technology has improved greatly in the last century as demonstrated by the progressively more accurate and detailed maps below. Thomson would have loved using the "
Map by Jeff" to plan his fishing trips. Jeff's maps are available at "
https://mapsbyjeff.com/pages/algonquin". Although potentially confusing, the above steps needed to be taken to correctly identify Thomson's painting locations. Otherwise, the Thomson experts would have been looking at the wrong lake.
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| The campsite in the middle of Laurel Lk identifies Pincushion Island |
One reason for completing a Creative Scene Investigation of this painting is because the location was mentioned in previous posts. In the Catalogue entry for "
Yellow Sunset" 1916 (1916.37) currently at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4684), the Inscription verso states
: another sketch, possibly of Aura Lee Lake in spring; u.l., in black crayon, 74
The actual back (verso) of "Yellow Sunset" is depicted on the left side of the following graphic. The only inscriptions found on the painting "View from the Top of a Hill" are the "black crayon, 74" as mentioned and the National Gallery acquisition information in tiny letters on the bare wood on the right side of the panel.
The idea that "View from the Top of a Hill" was "another sketch, possibly of Aura Lee Lake in spring" is only found in the "Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné, Researched and written by Joan Murray". The comment is not written on the back (verso) of "Yellow Sunset".
The Creative Scene Investigation "Tom Thomson's View from the Top of a Hill 1916" conclusively proved that the painting was done on the "big hill" overlooking Grand Lake, Stratton Lake and Johnston Lake. There was also a lot of interesting science and history to discover from both sides of that panel.
There is no listing for "
View from the Top of a Hill" in the official Tom Thomson
Catalogue Raisonné. It is included solely as the back (
verso) of "
Yellow Sunset" with a link to
an "Additional" image of "
View from the Top of the Hill". A search of the Catalogue Raisonné for "
View from the Top of a Hill" yields no results although it can be found on the website of the
National Gallery of Canada.
Together on a single wooden panel, the two paintings included in the above graphic comprise a wonderful story of natural history and art. For the complete story, the titles of each link to the respective Creative Scene Investigations.
The art historians apparently thought that "
View from the Top of the Hill"was just
"another sketch, possibly of Aura Lee Lake in spring". It also appears that they deemed "
View from the Top of the Hill" not to be worthy of inclusion in the official Tom Thomson
Catalogue Raisonné.
The author and contributors to "
Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" wished to correct some errors and set the official record straight with regards to "
View from the Top of the Hill". This painting found on the back of "
Yellow Sunset" should not have been dismissed. This also explains why "
Tom Thomson's Aura Lee Lake, Spring 1916" is the subject of this Creative Scene Investigation.
The Thomson experts come to the rescue again. Thomson did paint at Aura Lee Lake in the spring of 1916 and the panel is on record to prove it.
"Aura Lee Lake (now known as Laurel Lake) is the next lake downstream from Little Cauchon. The season appears to be spring, so this sketch probably was done during the April fishing trip to the Cauchon Lakes. The location could have been accessed by either paddling or walking (with a bit of rugged bushwhacking) from Little Cauchon. The area had obviously been clearcut, so getting to the spot would not have been impossible. Or, Thomson and Harris could have paused there on their way to Brent at the end of the fishing trip.
In either case, Harris could have been with Tom. There are another couple of paintings by Harris that are dated 1916 and at least one has Algonquin in the title. Since he returned to Toronto after the fishing trip and took up duties at Borden, I don't think it's likely he returned to the Park again that year (or ever), so anything of that sort from him in 1916 is almost certainly from the fishing trip. Of course, as usual, we will never know for sure."
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Aura Lee Lake
Alternate title: Spring Aura Lea Lake Spring 1916
Oil on wood panel 8 7/16 x 10 1/2 in. (21.4 x 26.7 cm),
Tom's Paint Box Size,
Catalogue 1916.55 |
Lawren Harris could well have been painting with Thomson when Tom painted “Aura Lee Lake”. The graphic below contains three Harris paintings from Algonquin and probably that April fishing trip.
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| Note that there is a Laurie Lake near Thunder Bay but not in Algoma. |
Like Thomson, Lawren Harris also painted what he saw. Maybe the small unnamed island in Laurel Lake (below left in the photo), is the island that Harris painted in "Island in the Lake, Algonquin Park, 1916". That small island is labelled as "Harris Island" in the following graphics.
My Thomson friends have located the painting site for Tom Thomson's Aura Lee Lake as identified in the following graphic. The features on the topographical map are identified in Thomson's painting. Features were typically stretched vertically to better fill the small panel - something that Thomson routinely did.
The island on the right, labelled Laurel Island, was known as Pincushion Island, at least in the mid-1940s. The red four-point star locates a probable location for Harris's painting of "
Harris Island" but that is another story and I digress... again.
The forest had been clear-cut in the early 20th century. The trees are still recovering but now have grown enough to completely block the view from Thomson's painting location.
Clearcutting of forests dramatically changes the landscape. The trees may have recovered somewhat in Algonquin within the last century but a functioning habitat takes longer to be restored. Pictorial images of the impacts abound but again, that is another story. The accompanying image from British Columbia depicts the continuing logging of old-growth forests. Sadly, some of that biomass is being burnt just to produce electricity. The destroyed ecosystem will take thousands of years to replace.
Tom typically expanded the vertical in his paintings as a design technique in his plein air paintings. See "
View from the Top of the Hill" for another similar example.
I reached out to my colleague Johnny Met for his opinion on the sky. A lifetime of observing the weather is an important resource.
"It is an early morning sky, maybe a little after sunrise. The visibility is really sharp. The hills stand out as if there is a fresh brand of air maybe behind a retreating cold front. The sky looks wind-blown with lower cumulus fractus broken up by the wind, moving them across the picture from the northwest. A middle altocumulus layer and a higher cirrus layer that is white with blue sky seen through it. The surface wind is developing with small ripples on the lake blowing away from the artist indicating a westerly surface wind. I imagine the day will be a windy, chilly day with broken stratocumulus and small intervals of sunshine."
Tom was looking east-northeast. The westerly low-level winds increased with speed and veered to the northwest at cloud level. The multiple layers of cloud and the strong winds are characteristic of a cold low weather system which are most common in the spring of the year. Cyclonic rotation extends through a deep layer of the atmosphere. Cold lows move slowly, especially in the cold trough which is a favoured weather pattern over eastern Canada. The science behind the cold trough and atmospheric circulations are described in more detail in "
The Jet Stream - The Bind that Ties" as well as many other posts. Bands of thicker clouds and showery weather rotate around cold lows like spokes on a wheel. Cold lows make for challenging forecasts. As the name implies, they generally produce unpleasant painting conditions for the plein air artist.
The following water vapour image of the above cold low system but a couple of days later is a good proxy for the weather Tom observed. The clouds shaped by the northerly winds over Aura Lee Lake on that spring day would be very similar to the view from the ground under the exiting cold low in April 2024. It also provides an excellent illustration of the weather that Tom painted in "View from the Top of a Hill 1916" with the cold low exiting on that eastern horizon to be followed that evening by "Yellow Sunset" and the next system approaching from the west.
Thomas Wesley McLean [1881-1951] would acquire this painting, probably from Thomson himself. McLean (sometimes spelled MacLean) was instrumental behind the scenes to start Thomson on his painting career and to point him toward Algonquin Park.
As early as 1901 McLean was travelling in northern Ontario in his summers as a fire ranger or prospector. He took several trips with his friend
Neil McKechnie whose tragic end came in the rapids of the Mattagami River. During one of those summers, McLean discovered Algonquin Park. McLean told stories and showed sketches of his experiences to his fellow workers at Grip Limited.
Thomson's first trip to Algonquin was in May 1912. Thomson was 34 years old at the time and to quote John Denver's song (Denver was 27 years old in 1972 when he wrote "Rocky Mountain High" ),
"He was born in the summer of his 27th year
"Coming home to a place he'd never been before".
Harry B. Jackson's Letter to Blodwen Davies dated May 5, 1931 described Thomson's Algonquin trip.
"I am quite sure it was Tom's first visit to Algonquin Park. Tom MacLean a Toronto artist who was located with us at the Grip, gave us a letter of introduction to the elder Mr. Bartlett, who was supt. of the Park at that time:
MacLean (sic) told us of the beauty & fine fishing in that region & Tom & I thought we would try it. […]
Tom did get his painting outfit in the spring of 1912 & used it on our trip & afterwards with Broadhead; While we were together he did very little serious sketching, making a few notes, sky lines & color effects."
JEH MacDonald (1873–1932) was also an artist at Grip Limited and widely acknowledged as one of the country’s best designers. MacDonald was invited by his artist friends to design the cover for a booklet entitled "A Gathering of the Arts", which celebrated the initial meeting of those friends to discuss the formation of a club in 1908. A short while later he designed the first list of Club executives and an official crest "The Arts and Letters Club".
Tom McLean was also a Charter member of the Arts and Letters Club and invited Arthur Lismer to join. Lismer met Lawren Harris and AY Jackson at the Club. Dr. MacCallum was the president of the Arts and Letters Club from 1916 to 1918.
MacDonald introduced his coworker Tom Thomson to Dr. James MacCallum, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Toronto. MacCallum visited the Ontario Society of Artists exhibitions and was particularly interested in landscape paintings. Just over a year later, in the fall of 1913, MacCallum introduced Thomson to A.Y. Jackson.
Tom Thomson was never a member of "The Arts and Letters Club" but did show some of his art there.
Upon some investigation, Tom McLean was a vital thread between the personalities who would lead Thomson to Algonquin and his meteoric 5-year burst of creativity - even if he did not realize or appreciate it himself. Encounters can be serendipitous and McLean's involvement would lead to the "Algonquin School of Art" in 1914 and then to the Group of Seven in 1920. History can be created from the simplest of circumstances... but I digress...
Ben Jackson (1871–1952) another Thomson colleague and artist from Grip Limited wrote:
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Tom Thomson Rainy Day in Camp -
By H.B. Jackson at Tea Lake Dam,
Algonquin Park, May 1912 painted
on Tom's first trip to Algonquin |
"
Tom was never understood by lots of people, was very quiet, modest and, as a friend of mine spoke of him, a gentle soul. He cared nothing for social life, but with one or two companions on a sketching and fishing trip with his pipe and Hudson Bay tobacco going, he was a delightful companion. If a party or the boys got a little loud or rough Tom would get his sketching kit and wander off alone. At times he liked to be that way, wanted to be by himself commune [sic] with nature."
Tom would paint "Aura Lee Lake" and perhaps some of his finest works on just such a fishing trip with Lawren Harris in the spring of 1916. Some potential masterpieces probably did not survive the campfires during the evening perusal of their creations. That trip was probably the most that they ever painted together. Harris never returned to Algonquin Park after the death of his dear friend in 1917. Instead, Harris would finance the famous Box Car Trips for his artist friends to Algoma in 1918 and 1919. Algonquin would never be the same for this circle of friends without Thomson.
A.Y. Jackson remarked "After Thomson was drowned in 1917, we had not the heart to go back to Algonquin Park, so moved to Algoma and Lake Superior, and then to the Arctic, Yukon ..."
Chance encounters can shape a life. I believe the above words of his friend Ben Jackson come closest to describing the real Thomson as opposed to the modern myth that circulates the art world.
Inscription verso:
- l.r., half of estate stamp (M; u.l., in graphite, Reserved for / STUDIO BUILDING;
- u.l., in graphite, by Lawren Harris?, for Tom MacLean;
- u.r., brown bordered label (removed), (TT writing) Spring Aura Lee Lake / 11 (circled) Not for Sale (crossed out) McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1970.2)
Provenance:
- Tom MacLean. After his death it went to his daughter.
- R.A. Laidlaw, Toronto
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1970.2). Gift of R.A. Laidlaw, 1970
Remarks:
The corners of the sketch have nail or pin holes but they do not pierce through the sketch. Other sketches with the same feature include Burnt Country, Spring 1915 (1915.33), Dawn on Round Lake [Kawawaymog Lake], Fall 1915 (1915.115), and Algonquin Evening, Fall 1916 (1916.106)
My Thomson friend examined the pin holes on "Aura Lee Lake" and made the following observation:
"I had a look at the pinholes in the enlarged view. Interesting that their position varies from one corner to another. I wonder if Tom put in thumbtacks or something similar at one time to separate wet sketches in his paint box."
"The tacks used on the upper two holes dislodged some paint when removed. The arc on the lower right remains a bit of a mystery. The radius of that arc suggests a very large tack head or perhaps some paint was scraped away by a fingernail when the tack was removed? Once again, we will never really know..."
The musings of my Thomson friend are well-founded! Plein air artists tend to be creative souls and sometimes invent unusual fixes to challenges out of necessity.
A thumbtack placed in the corner of a sketch is a common plein air ploy to separate wet panels and canvases. That is something I have done countless times over my painting career. Special, double-pointed tacks are even made for this purpose. The economical, handyman plein air artist just glues two tacks together at almost no cost. An explanation of one of my plein air kits follows to illustrate how I transport very wet paintings. One would need to look very carefully at my plein air paintings as I fill the holes with paint after I have them back in the Studio.
As a weather aside, the cold low, layered cloud of "Aura Lee Lake" would naturally follow the severe thunderstorm observed in "Ragged Pine" by a few days. The southeastern flank of an approaching cold low is a favoured location for severe convection. Aura Lee Lake was just a short paddle downstream from the black spruce incorrectly identified as a "Ragged Pine". Of course, we will never know the facts for certain but science and weather do provide a reasonable linkage in both time and space.
A closer look at the historic photo from 1946 follows.
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
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