119 Franklin Carmichael CSPWC G7 OSA RCA 1890 – 1945
Port Coldwell, Lake Superior oil on board, on verso titled Port Coldwell, dated 1928, inscribed OS–3–5 and stamped Estate of Franklin Carmichael 10 x 12 in, 25.4 x 30.5 cm P rov e n an c e
Estate of the Artist By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto Franklin Carmichael made his first sketching trip to the north shore of Lake Superior in 1925, in the company of his Group of Seven colleagues Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson. During a subsequent trip in 1928, A.J. Casson also joined them. At the time,
Harris was deeply into his spiritual quest through his involvement in theosophy, and his paintings of Lake Superior were filled with an almost supernatural light. Doubtless Harris’s philosophy was part of the campfire discussions that were an integral part of these trips. Harris’s influence entered into Carmichael’s work, and this sketch shows intimations of Harris’s simplification of form in the far landforms and the arching shapes in the sky. However, Carmichael was his own man, and here he used earthier hues and more natural details in the foreground hills. He was drawn more to the sensory physicality of this landscape; he depicted the moodiness of the dark receding hills and the allure of the distant body of water, its deep blue glowing with reflected light. In Port Coldwell, Lake Superior, Carmichael makes us feel the grandeur of this vast lake in a still and transfixing vista. Est imat e : $70,000 – 90,000
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