Provenance:

Acquired directly from the artist.
Private Collection, Toronto.

Literature:

Edith G. Firth, Toronto in Art, 150 Years Through Artist’s Eyes, Toronto, 1983, pages 174-175, reproduced in colour.
The Toronto Sun, March 4, 1984, page S15, reproduced in colour.
Miriam J. Stewart, Community Nursing: Promoting Canadians’ Health, 1995, outside front cover, reproduced in colour.

Note:

Firth’s book, Toronto in Art, was published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Toronto as a city. The present owners generously gave permission for their painting to be reproduced in colour. In a letter to the owners, Firth wrote:“I have just seen a very poor tiny reproduction, but the painting looks gorgeous - a perfect example of Mr. Kurelek’s work at the peak of his form.”

Firth, in her entry which accompanies the colour plate of this painting, provides a brief interesting history of this location: “In 1907 the Toronto Street Railway Company opened the Scarborough Beach Amusement Park between Leuty and Maclean Avenues at the end of its Queen streetcar line. It included a merry-go-round, picnic facilities, refreshment stands, midway attractions, a great chute into the lake, and a lacrosse field - anyone carrying a lacrosse stick could ride free on the Company’s streetcars. In 1909 the first aeroplane to fly over Toronto took off from the park. It was closed in 1925, and in 1932 the City opened the mile-long public park, including Balmy Beach, Kew Gardens and the area of the old amusement park. The boardwalk, extending from Silver Birch
Avenue to Woodbine Avenue, has always been a popular resort both for people in the neighbourhood and for those from a greater distance. In 1980 the police estimated that nearly a hundred thousand people used the east end beaches on summer weekends. In this painting the artist is shown in the foreground looking west along the boardwalk from near Glen Manor Drive.”