Magnificent & Wonderfully Large Canadian Shield Landscape Painting by Joachim George Gauthier (1897-1988), Watercolour on Paper, 14″ x 18.5″, Signed & Dated 1926

Joachim George Gauthier (often shown simply as Joachim Gauthier), is a renowned Canadian artist best known for his landscape paintings and watercolours. He lived from 1897 to 1988 and spent much of his life in Ontario, Canada. Gauthier was born in North Bay, Ontario and became interested in art at a very young age. Early in his career he apprenticed as a sign-writer and took life-drawing classes while in Washington State. He studied under notable Canadian artists like J.E.H. MacDonald and Franklin Carmichael, both famous “Group of Seven” landscape painters. Gauthier worked for many years as a commercial artist with Sampson-Matthews Ltd. in Toronto, where he became friends and showed with “Group of Seven” members.

This wonderfully large watercolour is a skillfully composed early watercolour by Gauthier depicting a classic Ontario Shield landscape with granite outcrops and autumn foliage. The overall intensity of the colour and fine brushwork promotes “a calm feeling “. The very sophisticated hues are cohesively “from nature”, and draw your eye in from the the bottom right “as if you want to go on a hike” up the moss covered granite.

Signed to the right lower front and dated 1926, this work is in excellent condition and reflects Gauthier’s close connection to the Canadian landscape and his association with artists of the Group of Seven circle. Gauthier was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists, and his work is held in numerous public and private collections. His watercolours are particularly admired for their confident brushwork, natural colour harmony, and sensitive rendering of Canada’s rugged terrain.

Interesting fact, one of his paintings was once presented by the Province of Ontario to Pope Paul VI and now hangs in the Vatican. His watercolours and other works continue to appear in galleries and auctions, appreciated for their depiction of Canadian landscapes.

Dimensions: Image: height 14″ x width 18.5″  Frame: height 23″ x width 29″ x depth 0.75″

This is an unusually large scene as Gauthier’s typical size is 10″ x 14″