FILTER RESULTS × Close
by Artist (58)
by Century (2)
by Object Type (8)
Skip to Content
NEHMA logo
Showing 42 of 66

Print this page
Image of Painting No. 48

Lawren S. Harris (aka Lawren Stewart Harris)

Canadian
(1885–1970)

Painting No. 48
circa 1938-1941

Oil on masonite
26.125 x 31.25 x 1.5 in.
Gift of the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation
2000.47

Relatively unknown in the United States, Lawren Stewart Harris was a leading figure in Canadian art during the first half of the twentieth century. His family was part of the Massey-Harris company, the largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the British Empire at the time, which gave him financial independence. He devoted himself entirely to painting, which evolved from an early impressionist style to an analytical abstraction informed by theosophy and transcendentalism.

Painting No. 48 is from a transition period in Harris’s career. Previously, he had been one of the founders of the Group of Seven, which, heavily influenced by theosophy, helped develop a distinctly Canadian art through direct contact with nature. He relocated to Taos, New Mexico, in 1938 to join a group of painters dedicated to a spiritual form of abstraction. While Painting No. 48 evokes the specific locale of Taos and its surrounding mountains, its austere geometry conveys the more abstract terrestrial and spiritual elements of the landscape. Here Harris adopted a refined color palette and varied his treatment of the viscous oil paint. He applied thick layers for the sun and its rays, but maintained a thin layer elsewhere, revealing the textured surface of the masonite support.

In 1940 Harris settled in Vancouver, a move that marked the end of his landscape career. He continued to represent the visible world, imbuing his imagery with spiritual values but holding steadfast to an experimental abstract sensibility. However, his idealized landscapes of the cold and empty northland, filled with isolated mountain peaks, barren shorelines, and dark expanses of water, remain central to the nation’s visual identity today.

Rebecca A. Dunham

Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
This object has the following keywords:
abstraction, geometric, geometric abstraction, triangles

Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Also found in
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:
Thumbnail image of Collecting on the Edge
Collecting on the Edge
Thumbnail image of Collecting on the Edge Part II
Collecting on the Edge Part II
Thumbnail image of Paintings
Paintings

Your current search criteria is: Exhibitions is "Independent & Creative Impulse: Dialogues from the Collection".





This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.