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Medium: Oil »

Support: on wood panel »

Year(s): 1916 »

1916.53

Northern Lights

Alternate title: Aurora Borealis

Spring 1916

Oil on wood panel

8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.6 x 26.7 cm)

Inscription verso: u.r., in graphite, # 274

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (947.984)

Provenance

Winifred Trainor, Huntsville?

Terrence McCormack, Vestal, N.Y.? From the Estate of Winifred Trainor?

Laing Galleries, Toronto

A. Sidney Dawes, Lachine and Montreal

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (947.984). Gift of A. Sidney Dawes, Lachine and Montreal, 1947

Exhibition History

1964 Montreal

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Pespective: its use in art, April 20–May 21, 1964.

1999 Montreal

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Cosmos From Romanticism to the Avant-garde, June 17–October 17, 1999. (repr. col.) Traveled to: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 1999–February 20, 2000; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, 2000 (Title as Cosmos: From Goya to de Chirico, from Friedrich to Kiefer, Art in Pursuit of the Infinite).

2009 Montreal

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Expanding Horizons. Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860-1918, June 6–September 27, 2009. Traveled to: Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, October 17, 2009–January 17, 2010.

Published References

Montreal 1960

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Guide/Handbook. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1960, p. 144 (repr.)

Steegman 1960

Steegman, John H. Catalogue of Paintings. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1960, p. 41.

Mills 1970

Mills, John Fitz Maurice. "The Irish Times." Art Forum (29 December 1970), (repr.)

Murray 1986a

Murray, Joan. The Best of Tom Thomson. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1986, p. 52 (repr. col.)

Murray 1994b

Murray, Joan. Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited, 1994, frontispiece and 80 (repr. col.)

Remarks

Daphne Crombie may have described this sketch in an interview with Ronald Pittaway, 14 January 1977, Algonquin Park Museum Archives, (published in) Murray 1994a, 96.

Note on recto, the panel is primed with yellow ochre paint, the verso has beveled edges.

Record last updated May 13, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.

Citation: Murray, Joan. ""Northern Lights, Spring 1916 (1916.53)." In Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné. www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=495 (accessed on May 19, 2024).