Latest Acquisition

Latest Acquisition

So I started buying art a few months ago.  I found this online art auction website, which happens to be across from the AGO on Dundas called Consignor Canadian Fine Art.  They have about 8 auctions a year and you get some absolute steals.

I came across this charming little watercolour. by Thomas Wesley Mclean.

Thomas Wesley McLean (1881-1951) was born in Kendal, Ontario, about 30 kilometers northwest of Port Hope.  At the age of fifteen he started working for Grip.  Grip was a Toronto design firm that was home to many of Canada’s finest painters and designers during the first half of the twentieth century.  At Grip, he worked alongside Tom Thomson, Arthur Lismer, Frank Carmichael, Frank Johnston, J.E.H. MacDonald and F.H. Varley.

In his early twenties, McLean began exploring northern Ontario during the summers. During one of these summers McLean discovered Algonquin Park and brought back stories and sketches of his experiences there to his fellow workers, including Tom Thomson, at Grip.  After McLean piqued his interest in the area, Thomson visited Algonquin Park with various other artists and work colleagues.  Out of these visits, came the formation of the Canadian Algonquin School and later the Group of Seven.

In 1912, McLean moved to Winnipeg to teach, and in 1925 he became a founding member of the Manitoba Society of Artists.  He also became a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour in 1925.  Two years later, in 1927, he moved back to Ontario.  In May of 1932 an exhibition of his work was held at the Robert Simpson Galleries in Toronto.  During the thirties, he also exhibited his work with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists. McLean died in Toronto in 1951 at the age of 71.

~ from mtantiques.blogspot.ca

Thomas McLean

 

Winding River Landscape

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