Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) Canadian, framed watercolor titled “Lake Superior”. Signed in the lower right. One small tear near the bottom middle (see image 11). Provenance: Comes from the important ex board member of the Ontario Museum of Art. His purpose and goal was to acquire the finest Canadian Artists, and both of these Lismer paintings were acquired directly from Walter Klinkhoff Gallery in Montreal. Purchased with his wife who we imagine is still living. From a living estate where the collector's wife acquired the pieces with her late husband directly from Walter himself at Walter Klinhoff Gallery. The husband was also a student of Lismer and a personal friend. Lismer was one of the original, internationally acclaimed members of Canada's Group of Seven, also known as the Algonquin School. They were a collective of landscape painters founded in 1920. This work beautifully captures a bright and windy day overlooking the waves of Lake Superior. Lismer uses white to show contrast of the surf with the varying shades of blue to give the water depth and variation. Artist Signed, Lower Right. Stamp of originality verso. Dated 1935, Back. Provenance: Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal. Overall Size: 27 x 24 3/4 in. Sight Size: 16 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. Frame Thickness: 1 in. #1287 Arthur Lismer was born in Sheffield, England in 1885. At the age of 15, while he apprenticed as an engraver, he became an illustrator for the Sheffield Independent. He studied at the Sheffield School of Art (1898 - 1905) and in Belgium at the Antwerp Academy (1906-07). In 1911, Lismer came to Canada where he was employed as an engraver at David Smith and Co. in Toronto. Lismer was fascinated by the Canadian landscape of rocks, pines, and expansive stretches of tumultuous water and sky. Lismer painted landscapes in northern Ontario, Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence, the Gaspe, Newfoundland, and the Rocky Mountains. In his later years he exhibited at the Dominion Gallery. From 1920 Lismer was a charter member of the Group of Seven, painters who advocated a new Canadian art that expressed the spirit of the nation through its landscape. Throughout his life he was a dedicated painter and draftsman and visionary teacher. Lismer joined his fellow artists on painting trips to the Algoma region and north shore of Lake Superior. In 1928 he painted in the Rockies and from 1930 in the Atlantic provinces. His Impressionist-influenced paintings of the 1910s evolved into a more angular and cruder expression that he equated with the Canadian terrain and national identity. In his later work, Lismer concentrated on detailed foregrounds and tightly framed, close-up compositions of vegetation and land formations.