Lot 84: JACQUES GODEFROY DE TONNANCOUR 1917 - 2005

JACQUES GODEFROY DE TONNANCOUR 1917 - 2005 BLACK SPRUCE COUNTRY 1957 signed and dated lower right de Tonnancour '57; titled on a gallery label and titled and dated in French on an unidentified gallery label on the reverse oil on board 121.3 by 162.7 cm. 47 ¾ by 64 in.

XXIX Biennale Internazionale d'Arte di Venezia, 1958, no. 70

Laing Galleries, Toronto

Private Collection, Ontario

Instead of following his contemporary colleagues, Riopelle, Borduas, and Ferron, in their use of the palette knife, de Tonnancour used a squeegee, a tool seldom, if ever, found in the studio, to lay in the backgrounds of his landscapes. Against this ground he flicked on the spruces and pines of the Laurentian hills and created enchanting works that were, in their way, as symbolic of Canada as the Group of Seven's earlier poetic renderings of the North.

De Tonnancour was chosen to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1958, and this particular painting was was praised and admired there. It is one of the largest de Tonnancour's ever made in this style. Its apparently easy execution, its airy distribution of spaces, the sharp, clear light, and the illusion of depth that he has borrowed from conventional landscape painting, all contribute to give this picture the freshness and power that it obviously still has half a century after its creation.