Lot 55: JAMES WILSON MORRICE, R.C.A., LANDSCAPE, oil on canvas, 20 ins x 25.25 ins; 50 cms x 63.1 cms

JAMES WILSON MORRICE, R.C.A.LANDSCAPE, oil on canvas; signed and dated '91 20 ins x 25.25 ins; 50 cms x 63.1 cms Provenance: W. Scott & Sons, Montreal.Sir William Van Horne (purchased from the artist through W. Scott & Sons, Montreal, in 1891). By descent to the present owner, Ontario.Exhibited: Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by James W. Morrice, R.C.A., Art Association of Montreal, 16 January - 15 February, 1925, no.105 Exhibition : A Selection from the Collection of Paintings of the Late Sir William Van Horne, K.C.M.G., 1943-1915, Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, 16 October - 5 November, 1933, no.171.Literature: Robert J. Wickenden, "Catalogue of Paintings in Oil and Water-colours, Drawings, Etchings, Etc., in the Collection of the Late Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, K.C.M.G. at 513 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal - Alphabetical with Addenda", 1927 (manuscript).Van Horne Family Fonds, Series 13: Wickenden catalogues, Box 35, S.64.11/01/07: No. "V.H. 350 / Landscape", with note "Purchased from the artist" (Art Gallery of Ontario, E.P. Taylor Research Library and Archives).Donald W. Buchanan, "James Wilson Morrice: A Biography", Toronto, 1936, pages 7-8.Note: In his seminal Morrice biography, Buchanan narrates how Sir William Van Horne, President of the CPR, purchased a "sketch" from Montreal dealers Scott & Sons; impressed, he "was soon telling David Morrice that his son would never be happy in the law. Let him go to Paris, was the advice..."; stuff for legend, until now. If a 1887 watercolour with the same provenance is a more probable "sketch", could the present painting have been a commission? Its large dimensions, absolutely unique in Morrice's early corpus, could indicate that; or an exhibition painting... but the price tag besides Morrice's entry in the 1891 AAM Spring Salon, "Afternoon" (oil), and the summertime depicted in "Landscape" makes it unlikely. As Morrice's first major oil, purchased, perhaps even commissioned, by celebrated collector Van Horne, this painting is extremely important for the history of Canadian art, especially for the Montreal art milieu.The subject, treated as pure landscape, is typical of the artist's early work in Europe; but is it French or English? Although Morrice sailed to Liverpool just before Christmas 1899, and was living in London in April 1891, he had already spent some time in France, and the tall poplars over low hills evoke region north-west of Paris. If the technique is a bit crude, let's not forget that Morrice, who was just starting his career, had never painted anything that big. But the future artist is already there, as Wickenden saw in 1927: "A dreamy mystery pervades the canvas, the realistic details being suppressed in favour of an agreeable general effect." ("Catalogue") And flowers similar to the lower left poppies will dot the foregrounds of "Promenade, Dieppe and Morocco Buildings" (ca. 1910 and 1920 respectively, both paintings in the Thomson Collection at the AGO). We would like to Lucie Dorais, who is preparing the Catalogue Raissone of Morrice's work, for contributing the foregoing cataloguing details and essay.