Board Minutes
Acquisition Record
1991-02-14


[transcription]

SCHEDULE "A"

Recommended for Acquisition

MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 14, 1991: Page Seven

Submission

Donations

8. Cat's-tails, Canoe Lake, c. 1913
oil on canvas (laid down on paperboard)
21.7 x 26.9 cm

Artist: Thomas John (Tom) Thomson
Donor: Dr. E. Bylsma
Provenance: Miss Violet Trainor; Walter Klinkhoff Gallery; Art Emporium, Vancouver
Condition: Good (some cleaning & reframing required)

Thomson began his career as a commercial artist. His painting career did not begin promisingly until, with the encouragement of Dr. McCallum and other artists, he devoted himself full time to painting in 1912, when he began to produce images of conviction. He spent much of that year in Algonquin Park and in the Canoe Lake area. This work, if not entirely successful, points the way to the artist's extraordinary achievements of the next two years, and the use of colour is particularly interesting. It would be an interesting contrast to the two later Thomson works in the collection and an important addition to our small holdings of historical Canadian landscape paintings.

Curatorial Comments: Recommend Acceptance
Committee Disposition: [Accepted Unanimously in black ink]
Board Approval: [Feb. 20, 1991 in blue ink]