Untitled (mountains near Jasper)
Artist
Lawren S. Harris
(Canadian, 1885 - 1970)
Date1934-1940
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions127.8 × 152.6 cm (50 5/16 × 60 1/16 in.)
Frame: 143.8 × 168.5 cm (56 5/8 × 66 5/16 in.)
Frame: 143.8 × 168.5 cm (56 5/8 × 66 5/16 in.)
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Gift of the Mendel family 1965.
Object number1965.4.8
Classificationspainting
Collections
On View
On viewLawren Harris was a founding member of the Group of Seven, and the most vocal champion of its nationalist and spiritualist ideals. His early interest in the heroic content of 19th-century German Romantic art, and his later enthusiasm for the expressionism of northern European painters, led him to his own personal vision of vast open landscapes filled with radiant light. For Harris, the landscape of the Canadian Shield and the far north symbolized both the freedom of a new country striving to establish its own identity, and the individual coming to consciousness in a contemporary age. Untitled (mountains near Jasper), marks both a high point and a transitional moment in Harris’s career. Here, the landscape is simplified to the point of near pictorial abstraction. The work suggests, rather than describes, the towering mountains, imbuing them with a sense of revelation.
Lawren Harris came to the Prairies in the 1940s to deliver a lecture at the Saskatoon Art Centre. Years later, he encouraged Fred Mendel to exhibit his private collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Mendel purchased this painting to include in the Mendel Gift: the first 13 artworks to comprise the Mendel Art Gallery’s collection in 1965. Since then, the work has been included in more than 25 exhibitions, including numerous touring shows. Untitled (mountains near Jasper) is one of the most iconic works from the collection, which now numbers more than 8,000.
Lawren Harris came to the Prairies in the 1940s to deliver a lecture at the Saskatoon Art Centre. Years later, he encouraged Fred Mendel to exhibit his private collection at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Mendel purchased this painting to include in the Mendel Gift: the first 13 artworks to comprise the Mendel Art Gallery’s collection in 1965. Since then, the work has been included in more than 25 exhibitions, including numerous touring shows. Untitled (mountains near Jasper) is one of the most iconic works from the collection, which now numbers more than 8,000.
