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Catalogue entry
1912-1913.01
Northern Lake
Alternate titles: A Northern Lake; Northern River; Stormy Bay
Winter 1912–13
Oil on canvas
28 1/4 x 40 5/16 in. (71.7 x 102.4 cm)
Provenance
Purchased from the artist through the Ontario Society of Artists by the Government of Ontario, 1913
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (72/25). Gift of the Government of the Province of Ontario, 1972
Exhibition History
1913 OSA
Ontario Society of Artists, Art Museum of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario Society of Artists Forty-First Annual Exhibition, April 5–26, 1913, no. 88.1932 Thomson
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Imperial Economic Conference, July 18, 1932–January 23, 1933, no. 18, as lent by the Normal School, Ottawa.1935 AGT Margaret Eaton
Art Gallery of Toronto, Loan Exhibition of Paintings Celebrating the Opening of the Margaret Eaton Gallery and the East Gallery, November 8, 1935, no. 153.1941 Thomson
Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Horatio Walker - Tom Thomson, January 1941, as A Northern Lake, or Stormy Bay.1967 Thomson
Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, May 27–June 11, 1967, no. 1.1970 NGC
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The Group of Seven, June 19–September 8, 1970, no. 18, (repr.) Traveled to: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, September 22–October 31, 1970.1971 Thomson
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Art of Tom Thomson, October 30–December 12, 1971, no. 1, (repr. col.) Traveled to: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, January 15–February 3, 1972; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, February 25–March 31, 1972; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, April 14–May 28, 1972; Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, July 2–September 5, 1972.1982 Sault Ste. Marie
Art Gallery of Algoma, Algoma, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, July 1982.1984 AGO
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Mystic North: Symbolist Landscape Painting in Northern Europe and North America, 1890 - 1940, January 13–March 11, 1984, no. 116, (repr.) Traveled to: Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, March 31–May 13, 1984.2002 Thomson
National Gallery of Canada; Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson, June 7–September 8, 2002, no. 8, (repr. col.) Traveled to: Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, October 5, 2002–January 5, 2003; Musée du Québec, Quebec City, February 6–April 3, 2003; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, May 30–September 7, 2003; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, September 29–December 7, 2003.Published References
Fairbairn 1913
Fairbairn, Margaret L. "Younger Painters Do Time at O.S.A. Exhibition." Toronto Daily Star, 12 April 1913.Globe 1913
"Buy Pictures for the Normal Schools." Globe (Toronto), 23 April 1913.Kyle 1913
Kyle, Fergus. "The Ontario Society of Artists." In The Year Book of Canadian Art, 1913. Toronto: The Arts and Letters Club, 1913, pp. 186–187.OSA 1914
Ontario Society of Artists. "Annual Report.", p. 6.MacCallum 1918
MacCallum, J.M. "Tom Thomson: Painter of the North." Canadian Magazine 50, no. 5 (March 1918), p. 376.Housser 1926
Housser, Frederick Broughton. A Canadian Art Movement: The Story of the Group of Seven. Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1926, pp. 62–63.Robson 1937
Robson, Albert H. Tom Thomson. , Canadian Art Series. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1937, p. 7.Hubbard 1962
Hubbard, R.H. The Gallery of Canadian Art, 2 Tom Thomson. Toronto: Society For Art Publications and McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1962, pp. 7, 15, fig. 5 (repr.)Harper 1966
Harper, J. Russell. Painting in Canada: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955, p. 278 as Northern River (2nd edition 274).Davies 1967
Davies, Blodwen. Tom Thomson: The Story of a Man Who Looked for Beauty and for Truth in the
Wilderness. Vancouver: Mitchell Press Limited, 1967, pp. 34, 41–42.Groves 1968
Groves, Naomi Jackson. AY's Canada. Toronto and Vancouver: Clark, Irwin & Company Ltd., 1968, p. 110.Addison 1969
Addison, Ottelyn, Elizabeth Harwood. Tom Thomson, The Algonquin Years. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969, p. 9 (repr.)Mellen 1970
Mellen, Peter. The Group of Seven. Toronto, Montreal: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1970, pp. 30–31, 61 (repr. col.)Reid 1970
Reid, Dennis. The Group of Seven. Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, 1970. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 52–53, 55.Murray 1971
Murray, Joan. The Art of Tom Thomson. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1971. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 25, 56–57 (repr. col.)Arbec 1972
Arbec, Jules. "Rétrospective Tom Thomson." Le Devoir, 19 May, 1972.Lord 1974
Lord, Barry. Painting in Canada: Towards a People's Art. Toronto: NC Press, 1974, p. 126 (repr.)Reid 1975
Reid. Tom Thomson: The Jack Pine. 5, Masterpieces in the National Gallery of Canada, The National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa: 1975, pp. 5–6 (repr.)Town & Silcox 1977
Town, Harold, and David P. Silcox. Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977, p. 55.Varley 1978
Varley, Christopher. Lake in Algonquin Park: An Examination of an Early Painting by Tom Thomson. Stratford: The Gallery Stratfrod, 1978. Exhibition catalogue, (repr.)Nasgaard 1984
Nasgaard, Roald. The Mystic North: Symbolist Landscape Painting in Northern Europe and North America 1890-1940. Toronto, Buffalo, London: Art Gallery of Ontario and University of Toronto Press, 1984. Exhibition catalogue, p. 179 (repr.)Town 1985
Town, Harold. "Thomson, Thomas John." In The Canadian Encyclopedia III. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1985, p. 1817.McMichael, R 1986
McMichael, Robert. "One Man's Obsession." One Man's Obsession. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall Canada Inc., 1986, p. 327.Murray 1998
Murray, Joan. Tom Thomson: Design for a Canadian Hero. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1998, p. 53.Davis 1998a
Davis, Ann. Thomson, Thomas John (Tom). Vol. 14 1911-1920, Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998, pp. 996, 998.Reid and Hill 2002
Reid, Dennis and Charles C. Hill. Tom Thomson. Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre with the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada, 2002. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 60, 74, 120, 123, 130, 160 (repr. col.), 312, 330n35.King 2010
King, Ross. Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven. Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2011, pp. 92–93 as A Northern Lake.Remarks
In an interview with Lawrence Sabbath, 1960 (transcript, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston), F.H. Varley recalled that he and Thomson painted together in the offices of Rous and Mann, Toronto on weekends and that Thomson, persuaded by A.Y. Jackson, enlarged a painting from a sketch Jackson had chosen. In the painting, Thomson used the palette knife. Varley also remembered that J.E.H. MacDonald found the picture too dark and gave Thomson the advice to use brighter colour as well as finding Thomson an appropriate frame for the picture so that he would enter it in the O.S.A. This could be the painting Varley remembered since Thomson used a palette knife to render parts of the work.
Record last updated March 3, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Murray, Joan. ""Northern Lake, Winter 1912–13 (1912-1913.01)." In Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné. www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=125 (accessed on April 18, 2024).