Lot 38
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD, O.S.A., R.C.A. (1873-1932)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
When the personalities of the Group of Seven’s members are discussed, J.E.H. MacDonald’s is commonly described in terms of his contemplativeness, poetry and quietude. As the oldest member and the only one of a catalytic trio of Lawren S. Harris and A.Y. Jackson who needed to work to support a family, he also carried a maturity with his approach, purpose, and technique that set him apart then and now.
This understated view across Sand Lake in Ontario’s Algoma region, about 600 kilometres northwest of Toronto requires time from its viewer. MacDonald’s light is refracted through a twilight haze that also appears in his October Evening, Algoma (1921) in the Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the AGO’s own The Lake, October Evening (1922). The light activates the viewer’s eyes differently in each of the paintings, and on looking at Sand Lake, Algoma, one needs to let their eyes adjust to the painting. Meeting the painting on its terms and not demanding instant gratification amplifies MacDonald’s accentuated visual poetry. As in rare atmospheric moments like this, the light nearly becomes palpable as something we see and in which we are enveloped.
MacDonald’s greatness as a painter of nuance and tonal subtlety has been overshadowed by the bold compositions of some of his Group of Seven colleagues and by his own masterworks such as Tangled Garden (1916) in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario and Falls, Montreal River (1920) in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario. Truly, MacDonald can neither be seen nor understood without understanding paintings like Sand Lake, Algoma that speak softly, surely and reveal themselves like the changing light of eventide.