Toronto In Art

[yonderbean]

I saw the Jack Bush show at the National Gallery last weekend. Bush was a commercial artist in Toronto for years before becoming known for his abstract work. He did his share of paintings in and around Toronto.

Ward Sketch, 1929

King West, 1930

Hoggs Hollow House, 1929

Hoggs Hollow Bridge, 1943

North York, 1943

North York Market, 1943

Parking, 1941

Swansea, 1943

Untitled House, 1943

 

[PaulKane]

These are great! Though Bush became super famous for his abstract works as you suggest, the art of his earlier years is super! and you can see the beginnings of his move away from realism in some of these Toronto scenes.

 

[Conrad Black]

Those are quite good. Love all the slanting houses.

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

http://art.artsource.ca/p191017897/h358F06F6#h358f06f6
and in b/w:
http://tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=63

View from the Windows of Grip Ltd.
c.1908–10
Gouache, and watercolour on paper
5 7/8 x 4 in. (14.9 x 10.2 cm)

-from the 'Catalogue Raisonné' (second link):
"This sketch was found in Thomson’s sketchbox after his death. It was probably painted from the offices of Grip on Temperance Street before 1911 when the firm moved to the Graphic Arts building on Richmond Street. Harold James, who worked at Grip at the time (he was eighteen), recalled that the building shown was the roof of the old Burlesque Theatre on Richmond Street (Harold James to Joan Murray, 6 June 1971)."

 

[thecharioteer]

http://art.artsource.ca/p191017897/h358F06F6#h358f06f6
and in b/w:
http://tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=63

View from the Windows of Grip Ltd.
c.1908–10
Gouache, and watercolour on paper
5 7/8 x 4 in. (14.9 x 10.2 cm)

-from the 'Catalogue Raisonné' (second link):
"This sketch was found in Thomson’s sketchbox after his death. It was probably painted from the offices of Grip on Temperance Street before 1911 when the firm moved to the Graphic Arts building on Richmond Street. Harold James, who worked at Grip at the time (he was eighteen), recalled that the building shown was the roof of the old Burlesque Theatre on Richmond Street (Harold James to Joan Murray, 6 June 1971)."

This is a very interesting atypical urban Thomson painting, but the description doesn't quite make sense. Below is a detail from the 1910 Goad Atlas. The Grip was at 48 Temperance Street, next to the Ontario Veterinary College. What are we looking at in the painting? Is that the Temple Building which was on the NW corner of Bay and Richmond? There was no "old Burlesque Theatre" on Richmond Street (there was the Star Theatre on Temperance but that was demolished in 1907). Finally, don't think the firm moved to the Graphic Arts Building in 1911, as it wasn't built until 1913. A mystery worthy of Tom Thomson.....

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

Yes, it is tough to tell where the window is facing. Thanks for this.

 

[k10ery]

This is a very interesting atypical urban Thomson painting, but the description doesn't quite make sense. Below is a detail from the 1910 Goad Atlas. The Grip was at 48 Temperance Street, next to the Ontario Veterinary College. What are we looking at in the painting? Is that the Temple Building which was on the NW corner of Bay and Richmond? There was no "old Burlesque Theatre" on Richmond Street (there was the Star Theatre on Temperance but that was demolished in 1907). Finally, don't think the firm moved to the Graphic Arts Building in 1911, as it wasn't built until 1913. A mystery worthy of Tom Thomson.....

I think you're right: that is the curved SE corner of the Temple Building at the left of the image. In the middle ground is rear of the two-story Georgian commercial building at the SW corner of Bay and Richmond. Along the skyline at the right of the image, we are probably looking at the cornice of the Simpson's building.

That would place the painter indeed at the rear windows of the offices of Grip Ltd. -- but in the Graphic Arts Building, not on Temperance St. Then the image must date from 1913 or after. (And our informant is probably talking about the Gayety burlesque theatre on Richmond, roughly across the street from Graphic Arts.)

Are folks buying this reading?

 

[Goldie]

Moscow is preparing to unveil a monument to Soviet author Mikhail Bukgakov (a city competition was won in 1998 by sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov).

Is there not an amazing resemblance to Toronto's Glen Gould sculpture (1999) by Ruth Abernethy?

Should we be asking: Which sculptor originated the idea?

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

Did this get missed? Published almost a year ago:
http://www.blogto.com/arts/2015/01/15_iconic_paintings_of_toronto_worth_knowing_about/

In the comments section, there's a reference to Toronto in art

"a book published for Toronto's Sesquicentennial.

Toronto in art : 150 years through artists' eyes
by Firth, Edith G., 1927-
Year/Format: 1983, Book , 199 p. :"

(Ingram Gallery commented it had several copies available.)

 

[Goldie]

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2015/01/15_iconic_paintings_of_toronto_worth_knowing_about/

Beautiful work - all fifteen!
I've always admired that Kurelek:

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

Doc about Lawren Harris: http://tvo.org/video/documentaries/where-the-universe-sings
Includes early film and photos of Toronto ... and several paintings which may not have been posted here...

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

Ontario Travel is promoting locations where Group of Seven artists painted, including in the city. Official site
Our building:

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

Another existing building, once sketched by Lawren Harris: https://hiveminer.com/Tags/1912,ago/Recent
Thanks to: https://www.facebook.com/FootstepsG...14833/503318043071335/?type=3&hc_location=ufi

 

[Gallery Arcturus]

So, with the above sketch, the following building makes three surviving Toronto 'subjects' of works by Group artists. Great researching:
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2017/10/12/search-elusive-lawren-harris-toronto-house/

 

[LC_hist]

This is a very interesting atypical urban Thomson painting, but the description doesn't quite make sense. Below is a detail from the 1910 Goad Atlas. The Grip was at 48 Temperance Street, next to the Ontario Veterinary College. What are we looking at in the painting? Is that the Temple Building which was on the NW corner of Bay and Richmond? There was no "old Burlesque Theatre" on Richmond Street (there was the Star Theatre on Temperance but that was demolished in 1907). Finally, don't think the firm moved to the Graphic Arts Building in 1911, as it wasn't built until 1913. A mystery worthy of Tom Thomson.....

View attachment 53988

The Star Theatre wasn't destroyed in 1907. Fred Stair was still running it, and Reverend R.B. St. Clair got into a nasty legal case after he drafted a rather too descriptive report of a show called "The Darlings of Paris" there in 1912. The case went to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1913.