Provenance:

Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto.
Private Collection, Toronto.

Literature:

William Moore, Celebrating Life: The Art of Doris McCarthy, The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario, 1999, page 205; page 165, reproduced in colour.

Note:

Perhaps McCarthy’s most coveted motif, her Arctic landscapes are full of geometrical depth and blends of muted and vibrant colours. In “Tip of the Icebergs (1995)” McCarthy displays her virtuosity, using several shades of blue without paling the magnitude of the iceberg. The artist retired from teaching in 1972 and made her first Arctic trip to Pond Inlet, Resolute Bay, Eureka and Grise Fiord in Nunavut. In later trips McCarthy also painted in Alaska, Yukon, Greenland, Antarctica, Newfoundland and Labrador. McCarthy's iceberg illustrations are often compared to those of Lawren Harris; in the chapter entitled “Heart of Vision”, William Moore writes: “In the monumental arctic visions of Lawren Harris, we confront dense and dramatic portraits of the surfaces of the north. These are idealized structures and through them we feel the idea of place---but we see it from afar. McCarthy's skilful compositional manoeuvres invite us to enter, share and wander within the experience of the artist. We share her place; her structures surround us and we enter into a communion not only with the landscape but also with the artist.”