Lawren Harris ~ Influences

Early Houses 1913 

Following his art training, Harris became fascinated
by an old Toronto district known as the "Ward" which
lay astride University Avenue and south of College St.

From 1910 til 1925, he painted a series of urban portraits
of its houses. The earliest ones were filled with accidental
light and shade and these are the ones I admire most.


Houses on St. Patrick St., 1923 

"Small rundown houses, many of roughcast, some of brick,
with bright touches in their paint and set amid chestnut
tress, board fences and refuse heaps. The facades seem always
to be changing as the harsh summer sunlight is replaced in
winter by days of dazzling brilliance or grey bluster."
(Harper, 1977)

Houses on Richmond St., 19 

But gradually, his paintings took on a monumental simplification.

"For the first time, Post-Impressionist colour, hot
and strident, had found its way into Canadian painting, the
neutral greys of the roughcast enhancing this intensity."
(Harper, 1977)

Red House 1925 

Broad surface planes
bold decisive strokes
simplified shapes
and brilliant colour.