“The West Wind”
I hope everyone has been doing alright in these dire times. Since nature is one place, we can still indulge ourselves with, today I am sharing a landscape piece by a Canadian artist. Enjoy and stay healthy!
This oil on canvas painting was made by the Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson, during the winter of 1916 to 1917. It is titled “The West Wind”. This painting was based on a sketch of a pine tree that Thomson had painted in 1916 when he was working as a park ranger at Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. Today, “The West Wind” remains as one of Thomson’s most famous pieces.
The setting of the painting is within Algonquin Provincial Park. There is uncertainty as to its precise location, but it is believed to have been painted at either Grand Lake or Cedar Lake. A lover of poetry, the name of this piece is likely an homage to the poem, “Ode to the West Wind”, by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which can be read online here.
To prepare the canvas, Thomson painted a base of bright red over the entire canvas. He took the same approach with his well-known piece, “The Jack Pine”, as he liked the overall mood the base color gave to the final product.
In 1917, Thomson disappeared on a canoe trip and was found days later dead. The official cause of death was drowning, though some people suspect foul play. He was just 39 years old. This was Thomson’s final painting, and some scholars believe it was unfinished at the time of his death.
“The West Wind” is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. The same gallery also owns the original sketch that this painting was based on.
For more on Tom Thomson, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
