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HEFFEL FINE ART AUCTION HOUSE 45
126 ALEXANDER YOUNG (A.Y.) JACKSON
ALC CGP G7 OSA RCA RSA 1882 ~ 1974
Encampment, Eastern Arctic
oil on canvas, signed and on verso signed
20 x 26 in, 50.8 x 66 cm
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection
LITERATURE:
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country, The Autobiography
of A.Y. Jackson, 1958, pages 132 and 133
Naomi Jackson Groves, A.Y.’s Canada, 1968, page 2
Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: A Love for the Land, 2003, page 134
EXHIBITED:
Loch Gallery, Calgary, Exclusive Works by A.Y. Jackson, RCA,
Annual Exhibition & Sale of Historical Works of Significance,
November 5 ~ 19, 2011; this work was on loan for exhibition only
“No other painter has travelled back and forth across this country as
Jackson did, never faltering in his lifelong quest to express on canvas the
beauty and grandeur of Canada’s wilderness and the simple charm of its
small towns. Throughout his travels ~ from the fishing villages of Nova
Scotia and snow~covered farmland of lower Quebec to the frozen Arctic
and native settlements of British Columbia ~ Jackson got to know such a
diverse cross section of the Canadian population that he could have
written several books. Instead he chose to show the many different parts
of this country in his vivid paintings,” wrote Wayne Larsen.
In 1930 A.Y. Jackson visited the Arctic with Lawren Harris. It was
Jackson’s third trip and Harris’s first. Jackson had already been to this
frozen region of Canada in 1927 and 1928 with Dr. Frederick Banting.
These were extremely productive trips, and work from them had been
shown at The Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) and
was well covered by the press. This would spur Harris, who was
extremely interested in austere landscapes, to accept Jackson’s 1930
invitation. “My heart’s in the Arctic, my heart is not here,” wrote Jackson
as he was preparing for the trip. Aboard the supply ship SS Beothic, the
artists steamed through Davis Strait and would venture as far north as the
Kane Basin, with numerous stops planned along the way. Successful
landings at port depended entirely on the weather, which was
intermittently foul, and pack ice often thwarted their plans. Sketching
days on shore were cherished, and between Jackson’s autobiography and
his known sketches, we find that they spent most of their onshore time at
Pangnirtung, as the SS Beothic was delivering building supplies for a
hospital there, and in Greenland at Godhavn. They also stopped at
Framhavn on Ellesmere Island, Pim Island, Nerck and Coburg Island,
and broke through the ever~encroaching pack ice in Bathurst Inlet and
Lancaster Sound before its hull~crushing dangers turned them back.
If we consider Jackson’s designation of this work as having come from
the Eastern Arctic, we can presume that this work depicts a spot in either
Greenland or at Pangnirtung, where his writings tell us they had clear
Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson and Captain Falke
aboard the SS Beothic, 1930
weather, and descriptions fit the scenery. At Pangnirtung he wrote, “The
settlement consisted of the usual white painted wooden buildings and the
colourful Eskimo igloos and tents made of skins and old sails stuck
anywhere. There were husky dogs and boulders all over the place. It
would have made a fine setting for a play at Hart House if anyone had ever
written one with such a background.” He also relates that he “climbed to
the top of a high hill and made drawings of the mountains on Pangnirtung
Fiord. What a country it was! Lakes, hills, upper grassy meadows,
snow~capped mountains. The last time I visited it, fog obscured all.”
Encampment, Eastern Arctic certainly seems to fit this description. The
igloo shelter is made of skins anchored with boulders, and the tent is
either canvas or old sails. The placement of the figures and their boat
reminds us of Jackson’s Quebec works wherein red~jacketed figures drive
sleighs. Here and there children lean against a fence. Jackson speaks
frequently of the huskies in his Arctic writings, and his inclusion of the
sled dogs ~ which were everywhere, including on the SS Beothic ~ seems
fitting. The clean, sweeping lines of the distant mountains, perhaps the
very ones he describes in the foregoing quoted passage, are a slight nod to
his sketching companion Harris, and rendered in contrasting shades of
earthy umber brown and pearly glacial white. His affection for this place,
despite the difficulties of travel there, is clear in this fine work.
Jackson used a 1930 graphite drawing as the source material for this vivid
Arctic canvas, as well as the oil sketch Eastern Arctic, now in a private
collection. Both are rare glimpses into the trips he took there. It is rather
remarkable to realize that on his journeys he sketched the remains of the
Franklin expeditions, drew the camps of nomadic hunters who lived in
skin tents, and saw the first telephone poles to be erected on Baffin Island.
As with all of Jackson’s work, Encampment, Eastern Arctic is a significant
monument to our diverse and varied Canadian history.
ESTIMATE: $300,000 ~ 350,000