Tom Thomson's Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake, Algonquin Park, Spring 1916

"Red Pines" is another one of those masterpieces from the spring fishing excursion of 1916. 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 in late April. MacCallum and Chester Harris most likely returned to the city directly by train.  There is evidence suggesting that Thomson and Harris paddled down to Brent before taking the train 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. 

Given the painting locations, the group must have access to at least one canoe. Tom and Lawren had paddled together in 1914 so they were used to each other. The pair might have headed out with their paint boxes. Chester and Dr. MacCallum would have concentrated on angling for meals as neither painted. Without a second canoe, they would have had to fish from shore. 

"Red Pines" might have been completed with just Lawren as company. Of course, we will never know for certain. 

Creative Scene Investigation applied to this little gem will provide some surprises. There are lots of puzzle pieces to assemble but my Thomson friends provide many of the required interlocking bits of information. Most importantly, my Thomson friends have located the exact painting spot where Tom recorded exactly what he witnessed: N46. 05311 W-78.661954. 

Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake, Algonquin Park
Alternate title: Red Rocks, Georgian Bay
Spring 1916
Oil on wood panel
10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (26.7 x 21.6 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size

"Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake" is strongly front-lit. As expected for a plein air artist, the bright sun was on Tom's back. Those last rays of sunlight would have felt delicious in late April! And there were no biting bugs! The joy of the moment shines through in his oils and brushwork. 

The direct beam from the sun would have had to pass through a very long trajectory of atmospheric molecules and particulates. The Earth's atmosphere is only about 10 kilometers thick so the sun was very low on the horizon to achieve these rich colours of red. Rayleigh scattering removes the shorter wavelengths of light from the beam. Only the long wavelengths of light would be left to illuminate the scene. Everything was bathed in orange and red light. The rocks and trees were radiant in the sunset light just before twilight. 

The fun and very old PowerPoint slide below was highly animated to demonstrate how Rayleigh scattering removed the blue light out of the direct beam from the sun. The photographer only sees the orange or red light from the sun. Those are the colours that illuminated Tom's pines on the April sunset. 

The pines catch the light and do not reveal even a sliver of shadow on either edge of the trees. The sun had to be directly behind Tom! With the time roughly established, the azimuth to the sun and thus Tom's angle of view can be readily established. For a sunrise at 5:15 local time, the azimuth to the sun is 71 degrees. This is a vital clue to search for the best match with the terrain for a sunrise painting session. The sun sets at 7:12 pm local time at an azimuth of 289 degrees in late April. These details are explained in the following graphic. 

The strong red colours suggest this was a sunset rather than a sunrise. A day of sunshine generates turbulent and convective mixing of the atmosphere which puts many more particulates into the air. The dust also scatters the shorter wavelengths from the sun's direct beam. 

Suspecting a sunset and a southeasterly view, my Thomson friends have already established the likely sunset painting location for "Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake".  "A" and "B" locate terrain features that Tom included in his painting. 

Although the Algonquin forest has recovered considerably in the last century, the rocks are mostly unchanged. The following graphic matches the larger shapes between "Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake" and the 2016 photograph. 

The water levels were similar between the two images. A logging dam at the outlet of Little Cauchon Lake would have kept the water levels higher in the Gilmore and Company era. That dam has long rotted away but the 2016 water levels are only slightly lower than depicted in the 1916 painting.

The rock labelled "H" in Thomson's painting is missing in action in 2016 even though the water levels are lower. What the "H"? Perhaps that rock was precarious and shifted into deeper water by the ice. Like most things Thomson, there are unknowns but perhaps that rock is just waiting to be located. 

And now for the weather... I consulted with my meteorological coworker Johnny Met:

"The sun has set, so it is twilight. The red cloud is high, probably cirrus and maybe altocumulus below, because the artist has painted the cloud rather thickly and has added dark patches indicating some altocumulus. This could have also been the Belt of Venus."

Johnny wasn't sure what was behind the screen of trees. 

"A red sky at night is a sailor's delight, indicating a good day tomorrow. The trees in front of the painting obscure the sky, so as a weather observer, I would walk around the trees to obtain a better view."

A sunset Belt of Venus is tricky to diagnose. If the pinkish hue in the "Civil Twilight" sky were clouds, they would have to be a retreating band of cirrus or cirrostratus hemmed in by a deformation zone. The upper edge of the cloud would be better defined than it is in Thomson's painting. Just when an observer would be trying to distinguish what was in that twilight, the eastern horizon would be getting into Nautical if not Astronomical Twilight. An observer would not be able to discern anything and then it would be "Night"! Perhaps stars would appear in the eastern night sky thus confirming the cloudy illusion of the Belt of Venus. However, even stars might poke through thin cirrostratus. 

The timing of the painting just after sunset was perfect for an observation of the Belt of Venus - within the "Civil Twilight" phase of the sky. The atmosphere had to be clear beyond the western horizon to allow the abundance of red light to illuminate the scene. The "Red Sky at Night "Sailor's Delight" poetic weather prophecy that Johnny Met mentioned is most appropriate. There was no synoptic scale weather system lurking on the western horizon. 

The edges separating the pink Belt of Venus from the blue twilight sky above and the shadow of the Earth below were both diffuse. Cloud edges of advancing or retreating weather systems tend to be rather sharp. 

Johnny and I are both unable to stroll behind the veil of pines in Tom's painting to get a better view of what he carefully brushed in between those tree trunks. I favour the Belt of Venus interpretation of that sunset sky but it is important to keep an open mind and present all the facts. 

The sunrise Belt of Venus often resembles a deformation zone of cirrostratus and altostratus on the western horizon - see the image below left. The misinterpretation of the colours in the sky only becomes apparent when the sun continues to rise out of Civil Twilight and the apparent cloud magically vanishes. 

Creative Scene Investigation has diagnosed three Belt of Venus paintings from Thomson's oeuvre. Perhaps there are more yet to discover! These are summarized in the following graphic. Few admirers of Thomson's art have likely realized Tom's intense interest in atmospheric phenomena. The hope is that these posts confirms Thomson's passion for the natural world!

Tom only had 15 minutes to lay in these colours. The brilliant red light on the rocks and the pines caught his eye from 150 metres away while he was probably sitting on the rocks.  The telescopic view from across the bay required Tom to zoom in on his subjects to fill his panel and complete the composition. Any details would be obscured at that distance. Tom was still particular about including exactly what he witnessed as the backdrop to his pine tree subjects. He did not make "stuff" up but painted what he saw and the things that inspired him. Even the smaller rocks like "H" were important to him. 

The summary of the Creative Scene Investigation on “Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake” follows in the graphic. 

The composition of “Red Pines, Little Cauchon Lake” also says a lot about Tom Thomson. 

Like most of Tom's plein air work, this painting was in the stack of panels salvaged from Thomson's Shack. Harris or MacDonald probably felt safe with the obvious "Red Pines" title. The alternate title of "Red Rocks" also misses the probable Belt of Venus. 

It is certain that at least Harris was with Thomson during this painting session. This is one brilliant panel that somehow did not catch the eye of  Dr. MacCallum who may have also been with Tom. This panel surprisingly did not end up in Dr. MacCallum's personal collection of Thomson's art.

Inscription recto: 

• l.l., estate stamp 

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• in graphite, Red Pines-Little Cauchon Lake / Mr. W.P. Mackenzie (crossed out) Algonquin Park 
• Private Collection, Calgary 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• W.P. Mckenzie 
• N.D. Young, Toronto, 
• by descent Linda Wilson, Toronto, 
• by descent Fannin Hall 
• collection, Vancouver 
• Private Collection, Calgary

Thank you for taking the time to read this...

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick, Tom Thomson Post TT-132

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson's Portage, Ragged Lake Spring 1915

"Portage, Ragged Lake Spring" was selected for Creative Scene Investigation due to its similarity with Tom Thomson's "Spring Break-up, 1916". The story of the painting can be found in the lines within the ice. Interesting science and natural history can be discovered in both of these paintings. 

Within an "oeuvre", the artist can go through distinct creative phases determined by the colours on their palette, how they handle the brush and even the subject matter they select. With these two paintings, the subject was the characteristics of ice in spring. Recall that an artist's oeuvre is their total body of work over a lifetime. "Oeuvre" can also refer to a single work of art. Thomson painted for less than five years and his "oeuvre" evolved rapidly during this brief flash of creativity.

Similarly, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) "oeuvre" only spans a decade. His work grew steadily brighter after 1886 when he went to Paris and lived with his brother Theo.  Vincent made new artist friends in the "City of Lights" including John Peter Russell, Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac and Paul Gauguin. The friends regularly wrote to each other and exchanged paintings and self-portraits. Vincent applied brighter colours with short brush strokes. He admired the work of his new friends but developed his own style which would become known as Post-Impressionism. 

Surprisingly, Tom Thomson (1877-1917) was still feeling his way artistically.  Although he greatly benefited from his friendship with his coworkers from The Grip, his work really soared after 1914 when World War One turned him into a solitary artist. Tom developed his own style in isolation surrounded by nature. It is not surprising that he is often called "Canada's Van Gogh".

Now back to the Creative Scene Investigation. The colours and handling of rotten and melting ice are similar between "Spring Break-up" and  "Portage, Ragged Lake Spring". One might suspect that they were done at the same time, notably in the spring of 1916  when Thomson had those particular colours on his palette and was painting similar subject matter. It would have been most helpful if Tom had left a few notes or had a brother like Theo Van Gogh. 

Portage, Ragged Lake
Spring 1915
Oil on wood 8 7/16 x 10 9/16 in. (21.5 x 26.8 cm) 
Tom's Paint Box Size
Catalogue 1915.08

The Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné dates "Portage, Ragged Lake Spring" from 1915 while the National Gallery suggests it was painted in 1917. The handling of the icy subject matter and colours suggest that 1916 is even a possibility. That assumes of course that "Spring Break-up" was indeed painted in 1916! Even expert art historians are unsure of when "Portage, Ragged Lake Spring" was painted. The following Creative Scene Investigation might offer some further insights. 

My Thomson friend observes: 

"I'd guess not 1916, since he probably wouldn't have had time for a canoe outing to Ragged Lake before heading to the Cauchon Lakes (assuming he was at Canoe Lake prior to the fishing trip).  Unless, perhaps, there was a road to that location - I'll have to check on that.  The colours do remind me of "Spring Break-up" but there is also one from 1917 called Winter Scene (catalogue raisonne 1917.07) which is also reminiscent of both.  We'll have to chew on that a bit."

As my Thomson friend asserts:

"Anyway, I have a tentative location for the painting."

My Thomson friend feels that the painting location was located at what is now a campsite at the south end of Smoke Lake looking eastward toward the start of the portage up to Ragged Lake. See Maps by Jeff for complete details. The yellow star in the following graphic suggests that the "view would have been east across the little point towards the far shore."

As depicted in the following graphic, the terrain does match well between the location my Thomson friend suggested and the entrance to the portage to Ragged Lake. 

Now for the weather. I consulted with my friend Johnny Met and he saw the following in the small sliver of sky at the top of the panel:

"The clue is looking eastwards. I think it is sunrise. I have seen lots of sunrises starting clear and then middle cloud forming quickly and then a few showers. One of the guys at the weather centre called it morning madness. In this case, Tom did a lot of painting in the foreground, looking like logs and trees." 

Johnny has a lifetime of experience observing the weather. He has seen it all before - many times over. The skies were certainly overcast with nil cloud structure to be discerned. The cloud type was altostratus. Looking eastward, the rising sun would have only been a dimly visible orb through that layer of cloud. A warm conveyor belt is a classic explanation for what Tom painted and Johnny observed. 

The following graphic places Thomson within the typical parade of weather systems. Altostratus (AS) is typical of the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. The air actually descends in that stable portion of the flow and precipitation is unlikely. The cloud transforms into altocumulus (AC) as the warm conveyor belt advances across the painting location. The cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt is more unstable with ascending air. Altocumulus castellanus (ACC) is common in this region of the weather system and can produce the showers that Johnny mentioned. Tom's position either north or south of the surface warm front (the red line with bumps) could even be determined if we could decipher the wind direction. For example, a southerly breeze would have placed him within the warm sector of the weather system and south of the warm front. 

As much as I love the weather, Thomson only devoted a small portion of cloudy skies to the panel. The weather was not his subject on that particular day. The ice patterns in the bay of the south end of Smoke Lake were the real source of inspiration for Thomson. Most people would not even see the interesting shapes that so intrigued Thomson. The real story behind "Portage, Ragged Lake" can be found in the ice. I doubt if he changed the orientation of those lines at all. Tom painted exactly what he saw which allows us to interpret the science behind his art. Please read on and let me explain. 

The story actually starts at the end of the last ice age 20,000 years ago. Glacial meltwater from what would become Ragged Lake carved the shapes that would evolve into the southern basin of Smoke Lake. The following graphic will save a lot of words. 

The same process that shaped the southern basin of Smoke Lake also sculpted the ice that Thomson observed. The following graphic will save some more words and hopefully still explain the science.

When I taught meteorology, I would try various approaches, graphics and analogies in an attempt to reach as many participants as possible. Everyone has their own, unique and favourite ways to learn and assimilate new concepts. The following graphics are examples of different ways to look at the ice pans that Thomson observed. 

I always found the satellite view to be easier to comprehend. Please employ your Coriolis hand (right hand in the northern hemisphere) to make sense of the nested rotations. 

Out of necessity, the above graphics must display the swirls as planar, flat entities.  But the swirls represent three-dimensional vortices that extend through the depths of the water, driven by the three-dimensional spring current surging down 16 metres from the level of Ragged Lake. This current drives the gyres in the south end of Smoke Lake in the same way that the jet stream energizes the conveyor belts of storms in the atmosphere. Fluids are full of surprises and interesting patterns. 

Ice integrates forces and motions over time. These shapes are captured when the temperature drops below freezing - typically overnight. These forces are applicable at all time and space scales. Ice circles can be hundreds of metres across with a scale determined by the geography of the waterway. 

An underlying structure can typically be discovered in what might appear to be chaos. We just have to slow down and look for it. That is something that Tom Thomson did with half of his little panel focused on patterns in the ice. The hard-working loggers and rangers did not have time to see the beauty in those designs of nature. 

As well, the colour of the ice takes on that of the water from which it is created. Algonquin is the important source of five major Ontario rivers. The swamps and bogs which capture the rain and snow are nutrient deficient. Organic decay in these headwaters produces tannins and the characteristic tea colour of the water emerging from the Algonquin Highlands. That same water forms the ice and that is why Thomson selected the colours that he did!

There is even more to the story of "Portage, Ragged Lake"...  There are a lot of questions about how and when Thomson might have made that trip. Given the extent of the ice Tom observed, paddling the 9 or 10 kilometres from the Canoe Lake dock was certainly not an option. 

The logging camp probably dates from the days when Gilmore and Company were active around Canoe Lake - namely 1897 to 1901. The Shelter Hut was probably built after 1893 when Algonquin Park was established. The exact dates for these structures are unknown. 

As my Thomson friend observes: 

"I would guess that TT most probably just hiked down there, did the sketch (or perhaps sketches, there and some other spots along the way) and eventually hiked back to his comfortable room and Annie Fraser's good meals at Mowat Lodge.  I can't imagine the accommodation in a lumber camp shanty of the era would be all that appealing - things were pretty cramped.  The meals would have been hearty but probably not up to Annie's standard, and I don't know how much they would have had to spare for some unknown person who just dropped in.  All the supplies would have been brought in the previous fall, with quantities calculated according to the number of men in the camp...   

I don't know what the reaction would have been if some random unknown artist just showed up at a shanty door looking for a bed and/or a meal." 

Algonquin Park personality Ralph Bice from Kearney, (1900-1997) was a trapper and writer who disparaged Tom Thomson and his artist friends saying "that unless you were out working or logging, you weren't much thought of..." Bice branded Thomson as a "drunk" who probably fell out of his canoe and died by accident or killed himself in a bout of depression. Bice was just seventeen when Thomson died. Ironically, both Tom and Ralph are honoured with Algonquin Park lakes named after them...

Further, my Thomson friend observes:

"I am beginning to think that perhaps 1915 is not an unrealistic date.  The provenance indicates MacCallum was the first owner and then it was a bequest to the National Gallery.  It seems reasonable that he might perhaps have seen this sketch during a visit to Tom's shack in late 1915 or early 1916 and, having recognized the quality of the sketch, acquired it for his own collection.  If this was the case, it would have been easy for him to ask for the identity of the location."

Portage, Ragged Lake
Spring 1915

The back of the panel also hints at the possible story behind this painting. That tale might have even unfolded in the Studio Building when Harris or MacDonald were sorting through the stack of panels salvaged from Thomson's Shack. Someone had written "Spring" on the back of the panel as the tentative title. That title was "crossed out" and replaced with the following.

 "Portage Ragged Lake / 27. / James M. MacCallum"

Note that "National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4712)" also appears on the back of the panel appended to the above text. Those words would have been written when the gallery obtained the sketch from MacCallum to denote the acquisition number in 1944.

An image of the actual back of the panel might yield more information. Perhaps the nondescript title "Spring" was crossed out upon the advice of someone who actually had been to that location with Tom Thomson or had asked him about the painting as suggested above. That person would have been much better qualified to name the painting. The question is who? The best guess is that it was Dr. MacCallum. 

As co-owner of the Studio Building with Harris, MacCallum would have been a frequent visitor to where Thomson's paintings were being organized. MacCallum might have even been very involved with the parsing of Thomson's oeuvre. MacCallum certainly took more than a passing interest in Thomson's art having sponsored him starting in the fall of 1913. He also offered the same support for a year to A.Y. Jackson (1882–1974). The rest is art history.

MacCallum may have witnessed the painting being processed as "Spring" and saved the panel the further indignity of the Estate Stamp. Of course, like many if not most other things about Thomson, we will never know for sure. 

Inscription:

• verso: u.l., in black crayon, 25; 
• c., H.M.L. 84 (circled); 
• l.l., label, Spring (crossed out) Portage Ragged Lake / 27. / James M. MacCallum National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4712) 

Provenance:

• Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto 
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4712). 
• Bequest of Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto, 1944 

"H.M.L." written on the back of this panel is another unknown. The immediate guess was that it referred to one of the Laidlaw brothers who were early collectors of Thomson paintings on the advice of their mutual friend Lawren Harris. But their initials are "W.C." and "R.A." so the text is still undetermined unless there are other Laidlaws with "H.M." initials. None of that mattered anyway as MacCallum snagged the painting for his own Thomson collection. 

In many ways, "Portage, Ragged Lake" is the quintessential Thomson painting - a simple observation of the beauty found in natural shapes and colours that most people ignore. The unpretentious brushstrokes belied much deeper levels of science and natural history that are required to complete the story. Of course, you can simply just appreciate Thomson's art and that is OK too!

Thank you for taking the time to read this...

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick, Tom Thomson Post TT-131

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson's Spring Break-up, 1916

Thomson's Shack in 1915

Tom Thomson headed back to Algonquin in mid-March 1916 after a very productive winter roughing it in "The Shack" for a dollar a month. That winter produced masterworks "Spring Ice", "In the Northland", "Autumn's Garland" and "The Pool" to mention just a few. 

En route, Tom visited with Winnie Trainor for a few days at her #3 Minerva Street home in Huntsville. My friend Roy MacGregor relates that when Winnie used to rent out the lower floor of her big brown house, she told renters they were lucky to be living in the only house in Canada where Tom Thomson had painted the living room walls.

Mid-March of 1916 was perhaps when Tom spruced up Winnie's living room with a fresh coat of paint. Like so many things, we will never know. No doubt he did not sign those walls just like he typically didn't autograph his plein air work either.  "Spring Break-up, 1916" was one of the few exceptions when he did add his signature. 

Canoe Lake Station

After leaving Huntsville and Winne Trainor, Tom took the Grand Trunk Railway to Canoe Lake Station. There was a brief window of time for Tom to be painting ice in the spring of 1916. Only one creek aside from Potter and Joe was within safe and easy reach of Mowat Lodge. That unnamed creek drains Rainbow Lake which is a few kilometres to the north. Travel during that time of year can be treacherous given the questionable ice and water conditions. Even walking through the clear-cut forest would have been a challenge given the tangle of brush and a slushy mix of marsh, ice and snow. Everything would be slippery with spring. 

It is important to remember the landscape that Thomson returned to in the spring of 1916 was still in the grips of an icy winter. It was also a ravaged land, the details of which can be found in a previous post "Tom Thomson's Spring, Algonquin Park, Spring 1916". 

Here is a brief summary of how and why the landscapes around Canoe Lake changed so dramatically. 

Recall that the Gilmour brothers operated the huge Gilmour Mill in Trenton. The March 1888 issue of Canada Lumberman included the following comment, 

"You think you have big mills in the United States, but the best of them dwindle into comparative insignificance alongside of the Gilmour mill, which has a capacity of 900,000 feet per day...".

The Gilmours were running out of timber so at the Ontario government auction in October 1892, David Gilmour purchased the timber rights on 225 square kilometres of land in the Canoe and Joe Lake region. The consensus was that he paid far too much. 

Gilmour and Co. Sawmills at Canoe Lake1903

David Gilmour and his brother Allan built the new company town at Canoe Lake in 1896. The bustling village was named "Mowat" after a politician of the day. About 500 workers plus family lived in the village enjoying a hospital, horse stables, a warehouse, cookhouse, storehouses, offices,  houses, boarding houses and a cemetery. Meanwhile, John Booth's Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway would soon reach Canoe Lake. A rail spur was constructed from the Mowat Mill to the Booth rail station just 2 kilometres to the north.

The new lumber mill was charging full steam ahead in the spring of 1897 but the Canoe Lake Mill would survive only five seasons. The Gilmour Lumber Company incurred big debts and Canada was coming out of a depression. The mill closed in September 1901 for good. Everyone returned to Trenton but even that mill and the Gilmour Lumber Company were done and torn down by 1909. 

Spring, Algonquin Park, Spring 1916

Tom also painted "Spring, Algonquin Park" in 1916 and the ravaged landscape was well recorded in that painting. The chip yard location where Tom painted that scene was very near where "Spring Break-up" had been completed a couple of weeks earlier. 

Location and viewing angles for Spring, Algonquin Park, Spring 1916

As revealed by Thomson's painting and photograph, the Mowat chip yard was desolate and the surrounding forest had been denuded of valuable timber to feed the Canoe Lake and Trenton lumber mills. "Spring, Algonquin Park" would have been painted in mid-April just before Thomson left on his fishing trip to the Cauchon Lakes.  

In late March 1916 when Thomson painted "Spring Break-up", that same painting spot would have been accessible by the road from Mowat Lodge to Canoe Lake Station. The road access was not too bad in comparison to getting to all of the other painting places that he might have wished to get to.

Spring River/Spring Break-up, 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

The lakes and creeks would have still been full of ice in late March exactly as Thomson observed. The painting location for "Spring Break-up, 1916" would have been close to his accommodation at Mowat Lodge. A likely creek would have been a short stroll along the road to Canoe Lake Station just north of the Lodge. Thomson possibly painted "Autumn Clouds Fall 1915" at the same location the previous fall. The following graphic summarizes that painting's location looking northwest along "Rainbow Creek". The creek drains Rainbow Lake so it is appropriate to name it after its source although officially, it has no known name. 

The creek painted in "Spring Break-up, 1916" gets narrow with distance and deviates to the gap in the hills to the left in the above graphic. This suggests that the view was looking upstream and Tom was close to the mouth of the creek where it drained into Canoe Lake. If this is the case, Tom was looking more northerly than when he painted "Autumn Clouds Fall 1915" which is an important factor in deciphering the weather. 

The central hill in  "Autumn Clouds Fall 1915" is labelled as Hill 2 above and also in the following graphic. The terrain recorded in "Spring Break-up, 1916" matches the hills around the north end of Canoe Lake.  

Tom completed several paintings from the area around the mouth of "Rainbow" Creek using Mowat Lodge as his home base. These paintings all had northerly viewing angles. Plein air artists avoid looking into the sun for more reasons than to protect their eyesight. Any scene illuminated with the sun on the artist's back must be front-lit and full of colour. There are of course exceptions to every generalization but at the latitude of Algonquin Park, it is typically correct to start a Creative Scene Investigation with a northerly viewing angle. 

The investigation of the terrain using elevation maps and other Thomson art to locate the painting spot for "Spring Break-up, 1916" was challenging. One can never be certain particularly since the forest has recovered and changed so much in the last century. Thankfully Tom painted exactly what he saw. The clues included in his oils reveal much about the nature of the landscape. 

Thomson's painting revealed that the flow in "Rainbow Creek" was subsiding and the spring flood was well past. The ice was melting first along the shoreline as the bare earth soaked in the heat from the sun. The white ice supported from the bottom of the creek was drained of water after the flood had passed. The remaining water in the creek's main channel was calm and reflective. Tom's painting observed that spring was right around the corner... of the creek! 

The ice along the edge provides the clincher that the spring flood has passed. The ice breaks first along the edge like a hinge. As the water continues to recede, these lines paralleling the shape of the shore form further out from the edge. Structure on the bottom of the creek can also cause other more random cracks in the rotten ice. The following graphic locates these fractures in the rotten ice. 

The same ice transformation noted on the banks of "Rainbow" Creek can also be observed on the shores of a lake. The movement of lake ice can push some of it up on the shoreline - above the water level.  Water drains from the crystalline structure dramatically "whitening" the reflective surface. The high water content of "rotten", melting ice keeps the mass as a cohesive, sodden conglomerate of crystals. Those crystals become separate reflectors when the water drains away.  I only have a distant view of the remains of "whitened" ice on the north shore of Singleton Lake. I have witnessed tall piles of brilliant ice on those rocky shores but omitted taking pictures to chronicle the event. I wish I had anticipated the need to document that science, unaware at the time that Tom had recorded the phenomenon in oils. That ice is the last to melt and patches of it can be seen in the accompanying photo. 

And now for the weather... Admittedly, the sky was just a tiny portion of this landscape not even filling the top third of the small panel. Regardless of the minimal space allocated, Thomson still devoted his full attention to the nuances of the clouds. 

Tom had the sun on his back and the northerly viewing angle of the scene would favour a timing around noon. There were no shadows painted into this scene as they would all be pointed away from Tom and thus not visible. 

I also consulted with my friend Johnny Met and he made these observations: 

"The sky is relatively easy for a weather observer to see. There are several layers of clouds. In spring, there is a lot of surface moisture from melting snow and ice. The lower cloud looks like the first daytime heating cumulus forming. Then a brisk upper wind may be a warm conveyor belt blowing perpendicular to the cloud, making ripples in the higher cloud. The altocumulus seems to be invading the sky from the west. There is a layer of wispy, see-through cirrus  cloud above all the other clouds that may be associated with a jet stream."

The detailed science of the companions of the warm conveyor belt is explained in more detail in "The Art and Science of Phil the Forecaster". There is no exam on this material!

Thomson did an underpainting on the panel for “Spring Break-up, 1916”. The high-resolution image of the painting on the Alan Klinkhoff Gallery site clearly shows the texture of the brushstrokes that applied the coloured underpainting.  Preparing a surface for a painting is actually quite involved and it is unclear whether Thomson did all of the steps which are described briefly in order below.

• Blocking Size - Raw canvas, or any oil painting substrate, requires an impermeable barrier between itself and the oil paint. One does not want the oils seeping into the substrate. As well any chemicals in the substrate must not leach into the oils. 
• Priming - The painting surface also requires priming. The primer is also called a ground or gesso. The primer is not size and will not seal or create a barrier to the surface or paint. The absorbent primer does exactly the opposite by providing a surface for the paint to bind to. A ground of oil paint has more tooth and provides more drag on the brush as compared to the slippery acrylic or traditional rabbit skin gessoes.
• Underpainting follows the priming step when you want to start to create your composition. Earth colours are typically used for underpainting in oils because they dry quickly due to their iron content; have a matte finish and have large particle sizes. The texture of the underpainting can often be seen in the final work. This underpainting stage needs to be loose and creative, at least for me. I do not use rulers or straight edges.

My Thomson friend brought the following details of the underpainting of “Spring Break-up, 1916” to my attention. It is well worth sharing as it provides more insight into the art of Tom Thomson. Note how the brushstrokes that applied the yellow ochre oils are aligned along a diagonal from corner to corner. The thick, oily strokes provide interesting, additional texture to the finished painting as well as a complementary colour to the composition. 

The complementary colours of yellow ochre are light blues or greens on the opposite side of the colour wheel - exactly as Tom included in "Spring Break-up". Letting some of the underpainting peek through the finished art allows the adjacent, complementary colours to scintillate. Employing some simple colour theory can make the art sparkle and come alive!

A coloured underpainting also benefits the eye health of a plein air artist. Painting on a bright and reflective white gessoed surface with the sun on your back is very hard on your eyes. All wavelengths including ultra-violet are reflected from a white painting surface into the artist's eyes. A coloured surface is much less reflective. 

Spring River/Spring Break-up, 1916

This painting was not 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. The Thomson Estate Stamp was not used on this panel. Tom signed the panel in the lower right with very dark oils using a small brush. 

Mario Airomi, the master artist from Florence who relocated to Maitland near Brockville after World War Two, advised me to never use black paint in dark shadows. Instead, "Pheal, use a dark complement and mixing red with it will yield a surprise". I smile every time at the wisdom of Mario! Thomson apparently used both bone and charcoal black oil pigments and it looks like he employed one of those to sign his name on this panel. 

Telling the story of a painting is important but the art must also speak for itself. While in galleries I often watch people look at the signature before the painting. The signature is important but much less than listening to the brush strokes. The name need not be large and blaring but it does need to be there, somewhere. 

There are no rules. Some artists only sign the back of a painting. I sign both the recto and verso. The name on the front (recto) must blend with the painting. The loudest voice needs to be that of the oils rather than the signature. Typically that signature is signed when the painting is done but the oils are still wet. This is just my opinion of course.

Tom’s choice of black paint for his signature (above right) makes me ponder that signing this work was an afterthought not using the wet oils on his palette. Tom's signature on "Birches, 1916" used a colour mixed from his palette (above left). The likely time "Spring Break-up, 1916" was signed was when Tom gifted the art to a friend. Of course, we will never know for certain. 

Inscription recto:

• signed by the artist, 'TOM THOMSON' (lower right)

Inscription verso:

• inscribed, ‘CAT.90’ (verso frame, upper left, in crayon); 
• titled & inscribed, ‘Spring Ice / TOM THOMSON / Mrs. J.S. McLean’ (verso frame, upper right, in graphite)

Provenance:

• The J.S. McLean Collection of Canadian Painting
• Edith Lillian Flavelle McLean, probably circa 1954, bequest from the above, her late husband
• William F. McLean, probably circa 1967, by descent from the above, his mother
• Carol June McLean, circa 2001, bequest from the above, her husband
• Private collection, Ontario.

The fact that Tom signed this sketch indicates that it probably went to an unknown friend. Tom only signed a very few plein air sketches and these all went to friends like Ernest Freure, Daphne Crombie, and Tom McLean.  The "J.S. McLean" noted in the provenance above was the president of Canada Packers and not related to Thomson's friend Tom McLean.  

J.S. McLean started to collect Canadian art in the late 1920s. McLean’s impressive collection was shown at the National Gallery of Canada in February and March 1952 and it included eight oil panels by Tom Thomson. Thomson had signed five of those paintings.  There are no records detailing how and when McLean acquired these paintings which might have revealed the identity of the unknown Thomson friend. Later in 1952, McLean recalled:

“Tom Thomson had been dead more than ten years and, although I have several of his oil sketches, including that of the “West Wind”, I have never been able to secure a good Thomson canvas.” 

J.S. McLean  (1876-1954) was one of the country's most avid collectors of Canadian contemporary art. The art is now in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). The J.S. McLean Collection of Canadian Painting was gifted to the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1969. It was then donated to the AGO in 1988. Canada Packers further gifted 173 paintings from the McLean Collection in 1990.

As mentioned above, Thomas Wesley McLean [1881-1951] who worked with Tom Thomson at the Grip was not related to J.S. McLean - the last name is just a coincidence. The story behind Tom McLean was detailed in "Tom Thomson's, Aura Lee Lake, Spring 1916". Tom McLean was a vital thread linking the personalities who guided Thomson to Algonquin and his meteoric 5-year burst of creativity. Encounters can be serendipitous and Tom 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.

In the spring of 1916 Thomson was having fun with his paints. He did not need to venture far from his room at Mowat Lodge to be inspired. Of course, no one can be certain that the above story is absolutely accurate but it does make the most of the clues left in plain sight on Tom's small panel. 

Maybe surprisingly, the underlying theme is one of a devasted environment and economic ruin. With the Canoe Lake forest clear-cut, there was nothing to hold back the meltwater from the winter storms over the Algonquin Highlands. The spring floods along "Rainbow" Creek would have been a recent occurrence but one that Thomson recorded on this small panel. These lessons have yet to be learned not just in Canada but around the globe. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this...

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick, Tom Thomson Post TT-130

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date.