Lot 110: John Goodwin Lyman 1886 - 1967 Canadian oil on

John Goodwin Lyman 1886 - 1967 Canadian oil on canvas board Group on Provincetown Beach 12 x 16 inches 30.5 x 40.6 centimeters signed and on verso titled variously, inscribed with the Dominion Gallery inventory #H3182 and stamped Dominion Gallery, Montreal Literature:Louise Dompierre, John Lyman 1886 - 1967, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 1986, page 91, similar works entitled The Beach, St-Jean-de-Luz reproduced page 138 and The Beach, St-Jean-de-Luz II reproduced page 139 Provenance:Dominion Gallery, Montreal Private Collection, Quebec Private Collection, Vancouver The tradition of beach scenes in art history goes back to Eugène Boudin in the mid-nineteen century and to the beautiful, atmospheric scenes of leisure so beautifully portrayed by the French Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Georges Seurat. The concept of spending summer holidays at the seaside is quite a modern one, and John Lyman embraced this subject, painting beach scenes in locations ranging from France to North America. An inheritance gave Lyman financial freedom, and he was a very cosmopolitan man, taking many sojourns abroad. As Louise Dompierre writes, "the leisurely contemplation of human nature and of nature generally" reflected the predilections of his lifestyle. Lyman was a modernist and a founder of Montreal's Contemporary Arts Society. Although he chose not to venture into abstraction, he was keenly aware of the relationships created by line and colour. He stated that he needed to reflect his interior life through the images of exterior life. Group on Provincetown Beach, infused with a mood of sweet reverie and the pleasure of a day at the beach, is a fine example of his beach scenes.