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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 23
111 ALFRED JOSEPH (A.J.) CASSON
CGP CSPWC G7 POSA PRCA 1898 ~ 1992
Lake Mazinaw from the Hawk’s Nest
oil on board, signed and on verso signed
and titled on the artist’s label, circa 1951
30 x 40 in, 76.2 x 101.6 cm
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection
LITERATURE:
D.G. Carmichael et al, The McMichael Canadian Collection,
1979, the related watercolour entitled Cliffs, Lake Mazinaw
reproduced page 173
A.J. Casson visited the Bon Echo area, painting specifically at Lake
Mazinaw, in the summers of 1951 and 1952 and again in 1957. While we
know that he had been there before, in 1928, painting near the Bon Echo
Inn with Franklin Carmichael, we presume that this work comes from
watercolours painted on one of those three 1950s trips. On the 1928 trip,
Carmichael and Casson had produced only sepia-toned oils of the area as
designs for a series of two-colour advertisements, the whereabouts and
published results of which are unknown. Perhaps as a result of this initial
connection, or perhaps because of the area’s mythic reputation and
historical significance for artists, Casson returned in the 1950s.
Since F.M. Bell~Smith first painted there in 1911, the vast rock formations
that thrust so steeply and dramatically downward into the lake have been
painted by Frank Johnston, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer and Charles
Comfort, to name but a few. The area had also been a popular tourist
destination at the turn of the twentieth century, but languished during the
late 1920s, and the hotel, once thriving, was destroyed by fire in 1936.
Despite this, the magnificent rock forms in the lake drew artists and
writers alike, inspiring several plays and magnificent works of art such as
Arthur Lismer’s iconic The Sheep’s Nose, Bon Echo from 1922 that was sold
by Heffel in May of 2010. The Walt Whitman memorial was carved into
the face of Bon Echo Rock in 1919, and re-dedicated in 1955.
A.J. Casson’s oils, such as this expansive view of Lake Mazinaw, are
painted in a style that is uniquely his. His training in design and his skill in
watercolour gave him the foundation that allowed him to use oil paint in a
much softer, more stylized fashion than was common. He would hone
and perfect these skills in the later years of his painting life, creating works
of lacy delicacy, using soft atmospheric qualities combined with a feeling
for overall pattern. His training in print design also shows in this work.
Lake Mazinaw is part of Bon Echo Provincial Park, and Mazinaw Rock,
more widely known as Bon Echo Rock, lies in the narrows between the
northern and southern parts of the lake. Casson sometimes approached
his sketching sites by boat, and thus had a great sense of the movement
and patterns of the surface of the water. This large-scale painting, with its
lovely zig~zagging bands of colour in the lake, is a fine example of
Casson’s masterful work.
ESTIMATE: $150,000 ~ 200,000