Tom Thomson's Early Spring in Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916

Location is typically vital if one wishes to really appreciate the motivation of the artist. Tom Thomson left behind no clues except for his brush strokes. Tracking the location of his paintings a century later is not for the faint of heart. The changing forest alters its character in far less time and often hides the more permanent rocky landforms. Even boots on the ground and paddles in the water might not be able to confidently locate THE place. Tom Thomson experts never stop trying though. 

Such is the case with "Early Spring in Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916". The title is specific only because Lawren Harris was with Tom when he created this work. Harris was also at least partly responsible for sorting through the stack of panels salvaged from Thomson's Shack. He and J.E.H MacDonald had taken on the challenge of trying to construct the original catalogue raisonné of Thomson's art in the spring of 1918. They had also planned to pull out the best work and use those panels to illustrate the genius of their friend. 

Early Spring in Cauchon Lake,
Alternate title: Algonquin Waterfall, Spring 1916,
Oil on wood, 8 3/8 x 10 1/2 in. (21.2 x 26.7 cm),
Tom's Paint Box size, 1916.57

My Thomson friends offer the following observations regarding the painting before delving into the search for the location:

"Some thoughts on the sketch itself.  If the sketch is indeed spring, it appears that there is still some rotten ice on the water between the foreground and the hill.  The white stuff on the hill could be interpreted as remnants of snow or maybe bits of ice from meltwater re-freezing.

 Spruce trees on the hill are plausible.  Budding hardwoods - maybe.  Some of the foreground verticals are red, like some of the bushes that like to grow next to the water.  It does appear that there are red something or others on the small saplings/bushes in the foreground - maple flowers maybe?  The red stems in the foreground could be dogwood which produce a rather striking shade of red in the spring and fluorish in such wet conditions.  

Almost impossible to tell.  It doesn't look as though the non-conifer vegetation is on the hill, just in the foreground."

I fully concur. Maple tree flowers are among the first to appear in the spring. Dogwood bushes are also colourful! The alternate title of "Algonquin Waterfall" possibly based on the slanted white stroke in the middle is quite misguided for many physical and scientific reasons... oh my...

I could not resist including the musings regarding the channel of open water in front of the cliff. If the cliff was facing southward, the sun heating the rocks would be sufficient to explain that open water. A northern exposure would require a current. Without a definitive painting location, one can't be certain. 

My Thomson friend continues:

"The really tricky bit is the background.  One could interpret it perhaps as a red sky, though it is awfully dark and monotone for that explanation.  Possibly the actual background was all dark vegetation, and he used the contrasting colour to give the hill some form.  The whole sketch is relatively dark, and a background of solid conifers would have made it much less interesting.  Perhaps he thought he would do something different with it later.  Perhaps he wasn't quite finished when he had to return to camp.  We can speculate, but, as usual, it remains a mystery.  Anyway, it is a striking work."

It was probably Harris who added the following to the back of this panel:

"Background is a high hill covered with budding hardwood & a few spruce."

The description of the background as a mainly deciduous forest in the spring is quite plausible. A sky which is that dark in tone and unusual in colour would be very scary indeed and unlikely even for the most severe spring supercellular thunderstorm. The illumination of the landscape is not strong suggesting that the sky was overcast. Cloudy skies and showery weather are typically associated with the cold low type systems that frequent Algonquin in spring. There was sufficient light to bring out the colours of the spring foliage but otherwise, the scene is dark and perhaps dreary. 

The takeaway message from the sketch requires:

• a location with a rocky cliff
• a rock face with at least a partial northerly exposure;
• a background of a high hill with a deciduous forest to the right of the rock face; and 
• a rocky shore to paint from. 

The Thomson experts whom I call friends, were indeed challenged to locate "Early Spring in Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916". They scoured the lake and discovered the following four possibilities. 

The location "A" match must accommodate Thomson's acknowledged penchant for expanding the compositional shapes in the vertical in order to best fill the tiny panels. More details follow in the accompanying graphic. 

Hillside "A" is angled southeast to northwest at an angle of 307 degrees. That rock face would only receive a few hours of solar radiation in the early morning given a late April sunrise azimuth of 74 degrees. The exposure of the rock face is toward the north-northeast at an angle of 37 degrees. 

The hillside of Location "B" has an easterly (85 to 90 degree) exposure to the morning sun. The sun rises shortly after 6 am in late April. Location "B" would be exposed to the morning sun for a longer period than location "A".

In all of the following graphics, the black arrow links to the white viewing arrow and depicts the angles for each of the four possible rocky cliffs. The small yellow star on the black arrowhead locates Tom's probable painting location. The associated red letter identifies the location of the respective rock face. 

The following map locates the possible painting locations A and B. Location A would have the rock face angled toward the west-northwest away from Thomson.  The forested western shore of Little Cauchon Lake would have been visible in the distance to the right of the rocky shore.   The shore in the B location is oriented more north-south and the distant forest would not have been visible from Tom's painting location.  Overall, this supports location A as the best guess (of these locations, anyway).  Certainly, A would receive the least sunlight and thus would retain some bits of snow and ice longer than at B.   The current in Little Cauchon flows west to east and perhaps there is a bit of an eddy into the bay at location A.

Locations "C" and "D" are just a short paddle downstream from "A" and "B" and are described below. 

The rock face in C faces directly west. The afternoon sun and the warmer temperatures during that part of the day would have been conducive to melting the snow and ice with that exposure. There would have been no distant forest visible to the right of the rock face.

 The rock face "D" displayed in the following graphic faces south. The snow and ice would be the first to melt away in such an exposed location. The northern forest shore of Laurel Lake would have been visible from that painting location. 

My Thomson friends feel that location "A" is the most convincing so far. A passionate Thomson expert is always on the hunt and these blogs are living documents as more details are discovered. 

Given these four possible locations, I agree with my Thomson friends and prefer site A for the following reasons:

• the rocky cliff faces toward the north-northeast and would only receive the early morning light
• the forest western shore of Little Cauchon Lake would have been visible from that painting location and would explain the reddish-brown background
• the rocky foreground in the photo is consistent with that in Tom's painting

As with almost everything associated with Tom Thomson, the lack of information and details left behind ensures that we will never know for certain. 

The estate stamp in the lower right of the painting did result in some paint eventually flaking off. 
The panels salvaged from The Shack and organized in the Studio building all display the stamp.

As mentioned previously, Harris was fishing with Thomson when this painting was completed. Harris added some details that he remembered from that experience on the back (verso) of the panel when he and MacDonald were sorting through Thomson's works in the Studio Building. Apparently, they felt that this plein air panel was "1st class". I recall seeing this painting up close and personal and quite concur with their evaluation. 

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• in graphite, Petawawa (crossed out) Cauchon Lake; 
• in graphite (Lawren Harris?) Early Spring. / Background is a high hill covered / with budding hardwood & a few spruce.; 
• in graphite, lst class; in ink, 
• Property of Harkness; in graphite, 100 M. Thomson
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1972.4)

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist
• Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Annan and Owen Sound
• Margaret Thomson Tweedale, Toronto
• Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Smith, Winnipeg
• Private collection, Toronto
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1972.4). Anonymous gift, 1972

This painting went to Thomson’s eldest sister upon his passing. Elizabeth's husband was Thomas “Tom” J. Harkness who was appointed by the Thomson family to look after the affairs of Tom’s estate. T. J. and Elizabeth lived in Annan, Ontario, just east of Owen Sound. From Elizabeth, aka "Mrs. Harkness", the painting went to Tom's youngest sister Margaret and then into private collections before being anonymously gifted to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection where I first saw it - nose to nose. 

Remember that all Creative Scene Investigations are century-old "cold cases". There will always be more facts and truths to discover with continuing research. The files remain open for them all… but the case of "Early Spring in Cauchon Lake, Spring 1916" is more open than most. Perhaps the exact rocky cliff with the high hill behind has yet to be identified. 

Further investigation will require more boots on the ground and paddles in the water not to mention open minds and good science. History can be rediscovered and brought to life if we only try.

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.