1922 Wm Edwin Atkinson Canada Watercolour After the Storm

A very attractive watercolour of a farmyard in Ontario, Canada, by the acclaimed Canadian artist William Edwin Atkinson (1862 – 1926).

It shows a woman walking towards a farmhouse, with a spectacular sunset, behind. The painting is signed W. Ed. Atkinson and dated 1922. On the back of the board is written, in the artist’s hand: A FARMYARD ONTARIO AFTER THE STORM. W. E. ATKINSON A.R.B.A. (Associate of the Royal Society of British Artists. The artist was a Canadian painter of landscapes, whose work was influenced by Impressionism combined with aesthetics drawn from the Barbizon school and the Hague School. "He delights in quiet communion with peaceful pastoral scenes", wrote E.F.B. Johnston in 1912.

In 1889, he travelled to Paris, France, to study at the Académie Julian and took private lessons with several teachers, of whom the most important was Paul-Louis Delance. He painted in Pont-Aven in Brittany, an art colony which favoured North American students. Paul Gauguin was in Pont-Aven that summer and one day when Atkinson was painting an old mill, Gauguin, passing by, told him to use stronger colour, saying that (Atkinson recalled later)), "If the sky is blue, paint the roof red. If the roof is blue, paint the sky green." He took it to heart as he uses the colours very boldly.

The painting is in very good condition and has been mounted, framed and glazed.

Size image: 29.5 x 24 cm (11 5/8 x 9 ½ inches)
Size frame: 51 x 45 x 1.5 cm (21 x 17 ¾ x 5/8 inches)
Weight: 1680 g