Additional Images

Provenance:

Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto

Literature:

Anna Hudson et al., Fugitive Light: Clark McDougall’s Destination Places, (catalogue), McIntosh Gallery, London, 2011, pages 13 and 15.

Note:

Clark McDougall (1921-1980) was in excellent company among a group of Canadian artists - including Lawren Harris and Bertram Brooker - who, in Anna Hudson’s words “invested the familiar with phenomenal potential to generate aesthetic experience.” It is not difficult to accept that certain places held special significance for the artist with whom they have become inextricably bound - Carl Schaefer and Hanover, JEH MacDonald and Algoma, Emily Carr and the forests of B.C. - and that this special relationship is forged from years of repeat exposure to the particular in that “terroir.” Similarly, McDougall returned time and again to his favourite stomping grounds in and around St. Thomas, Ontario, including Talbot Street (the subject of this lot). Rather than dulling his sensation by such repeat visits, McDougall felt he developed a deeper understanding of his subject, each rendition building on the exposure and memories accrued during the execution of the preceding works.