Winter Morning, by Tom Thomson, confirms my theory that the Group of 7 were Canada's pre-eminent painters of rocks and trees. Note, in this particular scene, all the trees. Here they have been painted mostly white, which either indicates that they are covered in snow or that Mr. Thomson ate a whack of acid about an hour before he took up his brushes. Unfortunately, the trees are not actually doing anything here, like leaning out over a lake , or blowing in the wind while leaning out over a lake. Therefore I think $970,000 was far too much to pay.Here is a recently uncovered Group of 7 picture from their "rocks" phase, entitled "What No Trees"?
PS. Meanwhile Barnett Newman continues to suck.
