Light for a Cold Land: Lawren Harris’s Life and Work

Description

He painted the soul of a country — in ice, light, and silence. Lawren Harris (1885–1970) is the defining figure of Canadian art: founding member of the Group of Seven, whose bold, luminous landscapes taught a young nation to see itself. Peter Larisey’s study is the first to explore the man and the paintings in full.

Follow Harris from early Toronto years through the Group’s founding in 1920 to the great northern expeditions of the 1930s — Arctic journeys that produced his most celebrated work: stark, spiritual landscapes of cold mountain wilderness. Along the way, trace his inner journey too: the turn toward abstraction, the fascination with Theosophy, the belief that art could reveal deeper truth.

Richly illustrated and deeply researched, this shows a vision moving from city streets to the far north and finally to pure abstract form. For art lovers, students of Canadian culture, and anyone drawn to austere northern beauty — the essential guide to Harris’s life and work.

Lawren Harris (1885–1970) is the defining figure of Canadian art: a founding member of the Group of Seven whose bold, luminous landscapes taught a young nation to see itself. Light for a Cold Land: Lawren Harris’s Life and Work, by Peter Larisey — published by Dundurn in 1993 — is the first art-historical study to explore both the man and the paintings in full.

Larisey follows Harris from his early Toronto years through the founding of the Group of Seven in 1920 and the great northern expeditions of the 1930s, when Harris traveled into the Arctic to paint the stark, spiritual landscapes that became his most celebrated work. Along the way, the biography traces Harris’s inner journey too: his turn toward abstraction, his fascination with Theosophy, and his lifelong belief that art could reveal a deeper spiritual truth.

Richly illustrated and deeply researched, this book shows how Harris’s vision moved from the city to the cold mountain wilderness and finally to pure abstract form. For art lovers, students of Canadian culture, and anyone drawn to the north’s austere beauty, Light for a Cold Land is the essential guide to an artist who painted the soul of a country.

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