George Reid
Blue and Gold (Blue and Gold-Temagami Forest or Harmony in Blue & Gold)
oil on canvas
signed and dated 1928 lower right
40 x 50 in ( 101.6 x 127 cm )

In 1928, the year in which "Blue and Gold" was painted, George A. Reid was given a year’s leave of absence at full salary by the Council of the Ontario College of Art in recognition of his steadfast service to the cause of art education. Reid and his second wife, Mary Wrinch, went on a summer sketching trip that year. They spent a month in Port Hope and then set out on the Ferguson Highway to Temagami in search of inspiration. This artistic period marks Reid’s foray into landscape painting, when he took a sojourn from recording social history, and instead fully embraced depicting lakes, rivers, countryside and scenes of serenity.
Muriel Miller-Miner records the fine detail and compositional aptitude of this painting in "G.A. Reid Canadian Artist", stating, “Rhythmically spaced black spruces rise in front of a steel-blue lake; yellow woods beyond are touched by flaming sunrays.” Miller-Miner continues, “During this period Reid was painting quiet scenes of lake-studded stretches of forest and barren rock tableland, flaming northern sunsets and expanses of blue sky and metallic water, raging torrents and foaming spray. The rugged grandeur of the north, he depicted from Algoma to Temagami and from Abiti to Lake Nipigon.” The power and atmospheric expression of "Blue and Gold" marks it as a superb example of Reid’s masterly hand.
This artwork is being sold to benefit the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq in establishing an endowment fund to support more diverse representation in the permanent collection, beginning with contemporary Canadian art. Cowley Abbott is pleased to donate our selling commission to the fund as part of the sale.