The dense brushwork and variegated colors of Forest B.C showcase Lismer’s lifelong attraction to the key motifs of the impressionist tradition, in particular the privileged position given to natural light, movement, and drama. The work’s tight framing and close composition exemplify the move from the wide-angled, panoramic views of his earlier paintings to the cropped foreground views that occupied him toward the end of his life.
Arthur Lismer, Forest B.C, 1961, oil on wood. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Estate of George and Ida Halpern, 1990
Title
Forest B.C.
Artist
Arthur Lismer
Year
1961
Medium
Oil on wood
Collection
SFU Art Collection
Donor
Gift of the Estate of George and Ida Halpern
Year Acquired
1990
Artists
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was an English-Canadian landscape artist and educator. As a young man he apprenticed as an engraver in his native Sheffield and then went on to study at the Sheffield School of Art. In 1906 he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. He returned to Sheffield, where he worked in a commercial art studio. Lismer moved to Toronto, Canada in 1911 where he was employed as an engraver at David Smith and Co. He later moved to the Grip company where he met other future members of the “Group of Seven”, an influential group of artists who sought direct contact with the spiritual character and elemental force of the Canadian landscape. Lismer taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1915 and was principal at the Nova Scotia College of Art, Halifax from 1916 to 1919. He returned to Toronto to become vice principal of the Ontario College of Art from 1920 to 1927.