Additional Images

Provenance:

Elan Fine Art, Vancouver
Private Collection, Vancouver

Exhibited:

Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C. Society of Fine Arts, 27th Annual Exhibition, Vancouver Art Gallery, 16 April - 2 May 1937, cat. no. 32.

Note:

Paul Rand was born Otto Schellenberger in Bonn, Germany in 1896, immigrating to Canada in 1912, travelling throughout the prairies before finally settling on the west coast in 1927. There, he began evening classes in painting at the Vancouver School of Art (VSA). Early works were produced under his original name, but he quickly began signing his works as Paul Rand. He did not legally change his name until 1941.

This lot is an exceptional example of the artist’s technique. A hazy sky is struck through with a dawn glow and evocatively rendered clouds. The rising sun clears the distant morning fog, revealing the searing ridgeline of mountain peaks. The whole scene is counterbalanced by the deep blue-black lake against a burnt-orange shore, while a heavily gnarled tree moors the scene to solid ground. This work was exhibited along with one other painting, Woodland Lace (Vine Maples), at the B.C. Society of Fine Arts annual exhibition of 1937, where it was shown alongside works by Jack Shadbolt and Jock Macdonald, under whom Rand studied at the VSA.