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Catalogue entry
1917.32
Northern Lights
Spring 1917
Oil on wood
8 7/16 x 10 1/2 in. (21.5 x 26.7 cm)
Inscription verso: Landscape, sketch of rushing stream between snow colored banks; t.c., in graphite, 48
Provenance
Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (4677r). Bequest of Dr. J.M. MacCallum, Toronto, 1944
Exhibition History
1926 AGT Canadian
Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Exhibition of Canadian Paintings, 1926, no. 57.1956 Thomson
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson Exhibition, 1877 - 1917, September–October 1956.1957 Thomson London
London Public Library and Art Museum, London, Ontario, Tom Thomson 1877 - 1917, George Thomson 1868 -, July 6–September 6, 1957, no. 25.1957 Thomson Windsor
Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, Tom Thomson 1877 - 1917, October 6–November 2, 1957, no. 30.1958 Los Angeles
National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Cultural Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, Tom Thomson, January–March 1958.1969 MacCallum
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The MacCallum Bequest of Paintings by Tom Thomson and Other Canadian Painters & the Mr. and Mrs. H.R. Jackman Gift of Murals from the Late Dr. MacCallum's Cottage Painted by Some of the Members of the Group of Seven, January 25–February 23, 1969, no. 115, as c. 1916.1971 Thomson
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, The Art of Tom Thomson, October 30–December 12, 1971, no. 122, (repr.) Traveled to: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, January 15–February 3, 1972; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, February 25–March 31, 1972; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, April 14–May 28, 1972; Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, July 2–September 5, 1972.1975 Thomson
National Gallery of Canada, Rodman Hall Arts Centre, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Tom Thomson: The Jack Pine, September 12–October 5, 1975, no. 7, as 1915. Traveled to: Nova Scotia Museum of Arts, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, October 20–November 2, 1975; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, March 31–April 25, 1976; Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, May 28–June 20, 1976; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, October 5–December 5, 1976.1995 Thomson
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Tom Thomson. The Last Spring, May 4, 1995–January 7, 1996, no. 37.1998 Algonquin
Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Algonquin Gallery, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada, Algonquin Memories: Tom Thomson in Algonquin Park, June 25–October 25, 1998. (repr. col. cover detail and in text).1999 Mexico City
National Gallery of Canada; Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Museo de Arte Moderno de México, Mexico City, Tierra salvaje: La pintura paisajistica canadiense y el Grupo de los Siete, August 26–October 31, 1999, no. 68, (repr. col.) Traveled to: Prins Eugens Waldemarsudd, Stockholm, February 10–April 2, 2000 (Title: Terre sauvage: Kanadensiskt landskapfmaleri och Group of Seven); Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 15–June 12, 2000 (Title: Terre sauvage: Canadisk landskapsmaleri og The Group of Seven,); Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Lillehammer, Norway, July 29–September 23, 2000 (Title: Terre sauvage: Canadisk landskapsmaleri og Group of Seven); Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborgs, Sweden, October 14–December 3, 2000.2001 Beijing
National Gallery of Canada, Yan- Huang Museum of Art, Beijing, Terre sauvage: The Canadian Landscape and the Group of Seven, April 19–May 20, 2001, no. 68, (repr. col.) Traveled to: Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, June 2–24, 2001; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guang-zhou, China, July 10–August 10, 2001; Guanshanyue Art Gallery, Shenzhen, China, August 20–September 23, 2001.2004 St. Petersburg
Art Gallery of Ontario, Alexander Hall, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, Tom Thomson, September 10–November 14, 2004, no. 57.2011 Dulwich
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, October 19, 2011–January 8, 2012, no. 25, Pl. 28 (repr. col. det.), Pl. 34 (repr. col.), as 1916 or 1917. Traveled to: National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway, January 29–May 13, 2012; The Groninger Museum, Groninger, the Netherlands, June 3–October 28, 2012.Published References
Saunders 1947
Saunders, Audrey. Algonquin Story. Toronto: Department of Lands and Forests, 1947, p. 172.Hubbard 1960b
Hubbard, R.H. National Gallery of Canada, Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. Vol. III, Canadian School. Ottawa, Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1960, p. 304.Reid 1969
Reid, Dennis. The MacCallum Bequest of Paintings by Tom Thomson and Other Canadian Painters & the Mr. and Mrs. HR. Jackman Gift of the Murals from the Late Dr. MacCallum's Cottage Painted by Some Members of the Group of Seven. Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada, 1969. Exhibition catalogue, p. 53.Little 1970
Little, William T. The Tom Thomson Mystery. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1970, pp. 197–198.Murray 1971
Murray, Joan. The Art of Tom Thomson. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1971. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 49, 90, 96 (repr.)Murray 1986a
Murray, Joan. The Best of Tom Thomson. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1986, p. 84 (repr. col.)Murray 1994a
Murray, Joan. Tom Thomson: The Last Spring. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1994, p. 50 (repr. col.)Murray 1994b
Murray, Joan. Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited, 1994, p. 81 (repr. col.)Silcox 2003
Silcox, David P. The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. Toronto: Firefly Books, 2003, pp. 284–5 (repr. col. det.)Strauss 2003
Strauss, S. "Thomson's Painting's Location is Written in the Stars." Globe and Mail (Toronto), 8 October 2003, (repr.)Dejardin 2011
Dejardin, Ian. Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven. London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2011. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 28, 29, 33, 101 (repr. col.)Additional images
Verso
Record last updated February 12, 2016. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Murray, Joan. ""Northern Lights, Spring 1917 (1917.32)." In Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné. www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=668 (accessed on April 30, 2024).