1916-1917.13
The Pointers
Alternate title: Pageant of the North
Winter 1916–17
Oil on canvas
39 3/4 x 45 1/8 in. (101 x 114.6 cm)
Provenance
Exhibition History
Arts Club, Montreal, Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Tom Thomson, March 1, 1919, no. 57. Traveled to: Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, March 25–April 12, 1919.
Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by Tom Thomson, February 13–29, 1920, no. 25.
British Empire, Fine Arts Galleries, Wembley Park, London, British Empire Exhibition, Canadian Section of Fine Arts, May 9–October 1925, E.E. 47. Traveled to: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, November 26–December 23, 1925 (as Exhibition of Canadian Art); York City Art Gallery, United Kingdom, January 16–February 13, 1926; Corporation Art Gallery, Bury, United Kingdom, February 20–March 20, 1926 (as Exhibition of Canadian Art); Blackpool, United Kingdom, March 27–April 24, 1926; Corporation Art Gallery, Rochdale, United Kingdom, May 1–29, 1926 (as Exhibition of Canadian Art); Corporation Art Gallery, Oldham, United Kingdom, June 12–July 10, 1926 (as Exhibition of Canadian Art); Cartwright Memorial Hall, Bradford, United Kingdom, July 17–August 14, 1926; Queen's Park Branch Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom, August 28–October 9, 1926 (as Exhibition of Canadian Pictures); Sheffield, United Kingdom, October 15–December 11, 1926; Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, United Kingdom, January 12–February 12, 1927.
Musée & du Jeu de Paume, Paris, Exposition d'art canadien, April 10–May 10, 1927, no. 227.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Imperial Economic Conference, July 18, 1932–January 23, 1933, no. 8.
Tate, London, A Century of Canadian Art, October 15–December 15, 1938, no. 207, as Pageant of the North.
Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Horatio Walker - Tom Thomson, January 1941.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Forty Years of Canadian Painting: From Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven to the Present Day, July 14–September 25, 1949, no. 91.
Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, Exhibition of Paintings and Sculp¬ture Arranged by the Canadian National Exhibition Association and the Art Gallery of Toronto, August 25–September 9, 1950, no. 22.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Canadian Painting: An Exhibition Arranged by the National Gallery of Canada, October 29–December 10, 1950, no. 79, as c. 1915. Traveled to: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, January 5–30, 1951; Fine Arts Society of San Diego, San Diego, February 1951; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, March 1951; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, April 4–May 6, 1951; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 15–June 11, 1951.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Exhibition of Canadian Painting to Celebrate the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, June 2–September 13, 1953, no. 65.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Group of Seven, March 29–April 25, 1954, no. 64.
London Public Library and Art Museum, London, Ontario, Tom Thomson 1877 - 1917, George Thomson 1868 -, July 6–September 6, 1957, no. 35.
Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, Tom Thomson 1877 - 1917, October 6–November 2, 1957, no. 12.
Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, lnstituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Arte Canadiense, November 22, 1960–February 1961, no. 115.
London Public Library and Art Museum, London, Ontario, Canadian Impressionists, 1895 - 1965, April 7–May 2, 1965, no. 36.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Images for a Canadian Heritage, September 1966, no. 70.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art, May 12–September 17, 1967, no. 195. Traveled to: Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, October 20–November 26, 1967.
Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, Paintings by Tom Thomson: The Second Anniversary Exhibition, May 23–June 15, 1969, no. 1.
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Art of Tom Thomson, October 30–December 12, 1971, 0, no. XIII (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.
Elvehjem Art Centre, Madison, Wisconsin, Canadian Landscape Painting 1670 - 1930: The Artist and the Land, April 11–May 23, 1973, no. 50, (repr.) Traveled to: Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 15–August 1, 1973; University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, August 20–October 7, 1973.
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canadian Paintings in the University of Toronto: An Exhibition in Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the University of Toronto, 1977, no. 27, (repr.)
Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery and Museum of Fine Art, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, The Tom Thomson Memorial Exhibition, May 4–June 1, 1977, no. 9, as 1915-16.
Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, Sixty Years of the Group of Seven, May 10–June 1, 1980, no. 9, (repr.)
Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, Painters of the Shield, Inaugural Exhibition of the Gallery, September 6–November 5, 1980. (repr.)
Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, Canadian Treasures: 25 Artists, 25 Paintings, 25 Years, October 8–November 1, 1981, no. 1, (repr. col.)
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, OKANADA, December 5, 1982–January 30, 1983, no. 53. Traveled to: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, Germany, February 8–March 20, 1983.
Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, Masterpieces of Twentieth-Century Canadian Painting, March 18–April 29, 1984. (repr.), as 1915.
The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, Toronto, The Prevailing influence: Hart House and the Group of Seven, 1919 - 1953, September 8–October 9, 1987, no. 20, (repr. col.) Traveled to: Centennial Gallery, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, October 29–December 13, 1987; University Art Gallery, Mount St. Vincent, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, January 8–February 7, 1988; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, March 5–April 1988; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, April 23–June 5, 1988; Musée d'art de Joliette, Joliette, Quebec, Canada, June 25–September 2, 1988.
Art Gallery of the Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C., The Canadian Landscape: An Exhibition of Canadian Landscape Paintings, 1915 - 1939, Selected from the Hart House Collection, November 8, 1990–March 16, 1991.
Americas Society Art Gallery, New York, Visions of Light and Air: Canadian Impressionism, 1885 - 1920, September 27–December 17, 1995, no. 50. Traveled to: Musée du Québec, Quebec City, June 14–September 4, 1995; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, February 18–April 14, 1996; Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, June 12–August 11, 1996; Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, September 12–December 8, 1996.
National Gallery of Canada; Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson, June 7–September 8, 2002, no. 127, (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.
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, October 2, 2010–January 30, 2011.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, October 19, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 11, Fig. 48 (repr. col. det.), Pl. 13 (repr. col.) Traveled to: National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway, January 29–May 13, 2012; The Groninger Museum, Groninger, the Netherlands, June 3–October 28, 2012.
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and Hart House, University of Toronto, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, A Story of Canadian Art: As Told by the Hart House Collection, March 8–July 1, 2013, no. 12, ill. in color, pp. 58-59. Traveled to: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, January 17–March 22, 2014; Varley Art Gallery, Markham, Ontario, Canada, May 24–October 1, 2014; Museum London, London, Ontario, September 10, 2014–January 4, 2015; University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, January 15–March 7, 2015; Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, May 2–July 4, 2015; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, August 15–November 29, 2015.
Published References
"Beauty of North Shown in Colour." Mail and Empire (Toronto), 14 February 1920.
Kahn, Gustave. "L'Exposition de l'art Canadien. Musée du Jeu de Paume." Mercure de France (1 May 1927).
Lismer, Arthur. "Art Appreciation." In Year Book of the Arts in Canada, 1928-1929, Bertram Brooker. Toronto: Macmillan, 1929, p. 62 as Pageant of the North.
"Hart House Acquires Tom Thomson Painting." Mail and Empire (Toronto), 18 April 1929.
Barbeau, Marius. "Tells Remarkable Story Progress and Achievement." Ottawa Evening Citizen, 27 July 1932.
Davies, Blodwen. A Study of Tom Thomson: The Story of a Man Who Looked for Beauty and for
Truth in the Wilderness. Toronto: The Discus Press, 1935, p. 112.
Robson, Albert H. Tom Thomson. , Canadian Art Series. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1937, p. 9.
Buchanan, Donald W. Canadian Painters from Paul Kane to the Group of Seven. Oxford & London: Phaidon Press, 1945, fig. 38 (repr.)
Buchanan, Donald W. "The Hart House Collection." Canadian Art 5, no. 2 (Christmas 1947), pp. 63, 66 (repr. col.)
Saunders, Audrey. Algonquin Story. Toronto: Department of Lands and Forests, 1947, pp. 172–73.
Harper, J. Russell. Canadian Paintings in Hart House. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955, p. 21 (repr. col.)
Hubbard, R.H. An Anthology of Canadian Art. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 93 (repr. col.)
Hubbard, R.H. The Gallery of Canadian Art, 2 Tom Thomson. Toronto: Society For Art Publications and McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1962, p. 12 as 1915 (repr. col.)
Hubbard, R.H. The Development of Canadian Art. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1963, p. 89.
Montagnes, Ian. "The Hart House Collection of Canadian Art." Canadian Art 20, no. 4 (July-August 1963), p. 218 (repr.)
Harper, J. Russell. Painting in Canada: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955, pp. 281–82 (repr. col.)
Davies, Blodwen. Tom Thomson: The Story of a Man Who Looked for Beauty and for Truth in the
Wilderness. Vancouver: Mitchell Press Limited, 1967, p. 88.
Adamson, Jeremy. The Hart House Collection of Canadian: Painting. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969, pp. 21, 108 (repr. col.)
Addison, Ottelyn, Elizabeth Harwood. Tom Thomson, The Algonquin Years. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969, pp. 81, 83.
Murray, Joan. The Art of Tom Thomson. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1971. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 44–45, 47 n43, 56, 62 (repr. col.)
Engel, Walter. "The Art of Tom Thomson." Art Magazine 3, no. 10 (Winter 1972), (repr. col. cover).
Reid. Tom Thomson: The Jack Pine. 5, Masterpieces in the National Gallery of Canada, The National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa: 1975, pp. 23, 37.
Brink, Andrew. "Tom Thomson and the Personal Meaning of Landscape." Copperfield: An independent Canadian Literary Magazine of the Land and of the North 6 (1977), p. 34.
Town, Harold, and David P. Silcox. Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977, pp. 26–27, 86, 87 (repr. col.)
Siddall, Catherine D. The Prevailing Influence: Hart House and the Group of Seven, 1919-1953. Oakville, ON: Oakville Galleries, 1987. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 42, 53, 102 (repr.)
Duval, Paul. Canadian Impressionism. Toronto, London: McClelland & Stewart, 1990, pp. 126–27 (repr. col.)
Murray, Joan. Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited, 1994, p. 60 as 1915–16 (repr. col.)
Murray, Joan. Tom Thomson: Design for a Canadian Hero. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1998, p. 80 as c.1916–17 (repr. col.)
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. 32, 139–40, 282 (repr. col.)
Silcox, David P. Tom Thomson: An Introduction to his Life and Art. Toronto: Firefly Books, 2002, p. 55 (repr. col.)
King, Ross. Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven. Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2011, pp. 223–224, Pl. 24 (repr. col.) as 1915.
Dejardin, Ian. Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2011. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 14, 62–63 (repr. col. det.), 76 (repr. col.), 80–81.
Boyanoski, Christine, Emma Conner, Barbara Fischer, Joan Geoghegan, Bruce Kidd, Devon Smither, Elizabeth Went. A Story of Canadian Art: As Told by the Hart House Collection. Barbara Fischer. Toronto: University of Toronto Hart House, 2014. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 58-59 (repr. colour).
Remarks
Dr. J.M. MacCallum believed the work was unfinished, as he often wrote (see Hill, 2002,140 and n163). In his list of 7 May 1937, Martin Baldwin also described the picture as “unfinished;” he dated it to 1915-1916. Hill, however, believes the painting is “fully integrated” (Hill, 2002,140).
The pointer boat is used mainly in the spring to guide logs down swollen rivers towards a sawmill. Other titles include Pageant of the North.
Record last updated February 16, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Murray, Joan. ""The Pointers, Winter 1916–17 (1916-1917.13)." In Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné. www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=632 (accessed on May 19, 2024).