Lot 40
ALAN CASWELL COLLIER, O.S.A., R.C.A. (1911-1990)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, ON;
Corporate collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
Whether or not Alan Collier criss-crossed Canada as frequently as Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson, he certainly did so with more intention. Starting in 1956 he spent summers travelling the country, usually by car with a trailer for camping attached and family in tow, painting the landscape. His majestic Peace River Country is thoroughly a concert of greens and yellows modulated with earth tones with a spectral luminosity, courtesy of Lucite 44. This synthetic resin varnish became available in the 1930s and was soon used by Canadian artists such as L.A.C. Panton, Jock Macdonald and Collier in search of new ways to paint. Added to paint as a medium, it accelerated drying, enabling Collier to work with the rapidity of watercolours, but with a palette and at a size far beyond its confines. Each of Collier’s gestures can be enumerated in this painting of northwestern Alberta that continued the landscape tradition into the post-war era.