Lawren Stewart Harris

This work will be included in the forthcoming Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project being compiled by Alec Blair. This project is an initiative to assemble a working catalogue of the works of Harris to create a publicly accessible database, providing opportunities for exploration and discovery of Harris’ diverse and varied career.

Houses in Winter is an atmospheric and sensitive painting, evoking the cold quiet of winter in Toronto. Capturing the muted stillness and tranquility of dusk, it is a fine example of Harris’ practice of sketching outdoors, translating his observations of the environment directly onto a wooden panel. Likely painted around 1920 in the rapidly expanded neighbourhoods of either Earlscourt or Lambton in western Toronto, this sketch comes from Harris’ broad catalogue of urban scenes, a subject of fascination for the artist in the years around the formation of the Group of Seven. This enthusiasm for Toronto itself as a subject set him somewhat apart from his fellow members, but is completely in line with his broader vision for creating a body of work that Canadians could identify with and relate directly to.

In a description of his early urban subjects, Harris commented in 1926 that they were “the natural expression of a love for homely subjects with their roots firmly fixed in the everyday life of all Canadians.” [1] Sketches of urban subjects, like those that depicted northern lakes and forests, were an avenue he saw to expand the country’s interest and identity in art. Quoted in his friend F.B. Housser’s book, A Canadian Art Movement, Harris wrote that one of the ways of interesting oneself in art was “…the way of life. This way demands an interest in what is being done to-day in our midst; the furthering of all original expression in one’s own community. It requires a perspective that relates near and distant happenings and brings all findings to bear fruit here and now […] It sees that life is creative, and that people only live when they create, and that all other activities should be a means to creation.”[2] In another piece, written in 1913 under a pseudonym, Harris describes the artist’s purpose in depicting commonplace city scenes as such: “Through his pictures we, whose specialities are of a more practical sort, are led to see the inward beauty of the subject.”[3] These ideas are linked together by a belief that, for both artists and audiences, there is great importance in the connection between lived experiences, one’s surroundings, and the art that these contexts can inspire and reflect. This sentiment was at the core of Harris’ mission for the Group of Seven, creating a particularly Canadian artistic movement that celebrated its own identity and environment.

This peaceful sketch portrays the everyday beauty that was as much a part of Harris’ early artistic mission as his wilderness subjects, and its confident execution speaks to Harris’ familiarity with the scene and a deftness of skill needed to paint quickly in the evening cold. The subdued palette and madder-toned underpainting provide a cohesive harmony to the composition, with the subtle yellows, greens, and greys of the houses catching the eye, painted with the appropriate restraint to convey the fading of colour of the scene’s low light. As in so many of his works, through this sketch Harris provides the audience a window into a moment of Canadian life, and through his artist’s eye, guides us to realize an appreciation of the serene beauty found there.

[1] Lawren Harris quoted in Fred Housser, A Canadian Art Movement: The Story of the Group of Seven, Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1926, 36.
[2] Lawren Harris quoted in Fred Housser, A Canadian Art Movement: The Story of the Group of Seven, Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1926, 42.
[3] Dewar Montague, “The Classic Commonplace”, MacLeans Magazine (May 1913), 39.

We thank Alec Blair for this essay. Blair is the director of the Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, working with the estate of the artist to create a catalogue of the artist’s works.