An Outstanding Work and a Symbol of John Lyman’s Precocious Contribution to Modernism
John Lyman (1886-1967), The Hammock under the Tree (Dalesville, Quebec), 1912, oil on canvas, 61.7 x 76.6 cm. MMFA, purchase, the Museum Campaign 1998-2002 Fund, Denise Meloche Estate, Madeleine Bélanger Fund and Peter Herrndorf Fund. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
On your next visit to the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion for Quebec and Canadian Art, you will want to stop and admire the John Lyman painting recently acquired by the Museum, titled The Hammock under the Tree (Dalesville, Quebec). Veiled in a subject that might initially appear picturesque or traditional, this iconic work of Quebec and Canadian Modernism is fascinating in its Fauvism-inspired painterly treatment and the controversy that followed its first showing, in 1913.
Jacques Des Rochers
Born into a cultured, upper-class family with an interest in painting, Lyman was drawn to art from an early age. As a cousin of F. Cleveland Morgan, his world revolved around the Art Association of Montreal (AAM), now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In 1906, his visit of the exhibition Some French Impressionists organized by the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris and presented at the AAM, inspired him to become a painter. He began studying in Paris in 1907, returning to Montreal in 1910. Lyman’s first solo exhibition at the AAM in 1913 was met with scathing criticism. Disheartened, he left Quebec and did not return until 1931, when Modern art had found a more favourable audience. In 1936, he became an art critic for The Montrealer and earned respect in the city for his clear and convincing defense of the art of his time. He then went on to found the Montreal Contemporary Art Society (1939-1948), a topic discussed in a previous article of the M Webzine.
The Hammock under the Tree (Dalesville, Quebec) was executed in 1912 in Dalesville, a town in the Laurentian Mountains. In this painting, the figure of a woman sitting in a hammock, set apart by a flat area of pink, draws the eye, serving as a focal point in the rhythmic composition full of rippling lines and rays around her, with long brushstrokes of green, ochre, yellow, grey and blue for the grass, buildings and sky, which are made more noticeable by the reserves1 between them. The tiny strokes of paint for the foliage and trunk of the tree frame the scene in an equal liveliness, as well as justify the area of shadow that stands out in this luminous painting, an early contribution by Lyman to the assertion of modernity in what was then a fundamentally conservative society.
The artist showed this new painting in 1913 at the first solo exhibition of his work at the AAM, which included more than thirty of his paintings and drawings. In the preface of the exhibition catalogue, Corinne Saint-Pierre, the artist’s wife, wrote, “Art is not the story of what we see, but of what we think about what we see; what determines it is what arises between expression and the inspiring object: imagination, organizing intelligence and personality as well.”2
Only three works from that landmark event in modern Canadian art are known to us: two other small oil paintings at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec; and the sketch for this work, which today is part of the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s collection. After having studied with Henri Matisse in 1910, Lyman then presented the Montreal public with works that shocked many of them and spawned the greatest controversy in local art history, duly chronicled in the press. At the time, the artist considered his exhibition a failure and left the country for Europe, only permanently returning to Quebec close to twenty years later.
- 1John Lyman (1886-1967), Wild Nature 1, Dalesville, 1912, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, 32 x 40.5 cm. MNBAQ, gift of the Mrs. John Lyman Estate. Photo MNBAQ, Denis Legendre
John Lyman (1886-1967), Dalesville, 1912, oil on canvas mounted on Plexiglas, 32.7 x 39.8 cm. MNBAQ, gift of the Mrs. John Lyman Estate. Photo MNBAQ, Denis Legendre
John Lyman (1886-1967), The Hammock under the Tree, about 1912, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, 31.7 x 40 cm. Art Gallery of Hamilton, Gift of Dr. Richard Renlund, 2018
In 1913, I had my first exhibition in Canada. It attracted savage and unprecedented criticism that drove me from the country. I think if opinions had been different, I’d have stayed in Canada.
– John Lyman, August 22, 1958
The painting was exhibited again in 1947 at the Dominion Gallery of Fine Art in Montreal. Critic Paul Duval wrote of it: “In most places in Canada, outside Quebec, John Lyman’s contribution to Canadian art is inadequately known. His role as a pioneer of Modernism here is even less known.”3 Below the illustration of the work in his article, the critic added, “In 1912, while most Canadians painted in dull tones, Lyman did this vigorous, brilliant landscape study.”4 The following year, the painting circled Canada as part of the charity exhibition Canadian Appeal for Children. Published under the descriptive title Hammock Under Tree (Rural), a more evocative reference enables us to connect it to the painting Rural Sensation (cat. 35) in the 1913 exhibition catalogue leaflet.
Paul Duval, “John Lyman Helps Younger Artists to Experiment,” Saturday Night, August 2, 1947
In 1948, Lyman exhibited several works at the AAM’s 65th Spring Exhibition, where the Association purchased its first work by the artist, Rose. The chosen painting was recent yet more conservative, in contrast with the ebullience permeating the new era in art history, sparked that same year by the publication of the Refus global manifesto. Hammock Under Tree (Rural) would be presented once more at the MMFA in a Lyman retrospective in 1963 – the only time the work was ever separated from the private collection it was held in until the MMFA’s offer to purchase it in 2022.
John Lyman (1886-1967), Rose, about 1947, oil on canvas, 55.9 x 68.9 cm. MMFA, purchase. Photo MMFA
The Museum already possessed a rich body of works by John Lyman, along with the largest collection of the artist’s preparatory drawings in the country. Nonetheless, this new acquisition strengthens our collection in its documentation of the beginnings of Quebec Modernism.
The Hammock under the Tree (Dalesville, Quebec) is currently on view on the 2nd floor of the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion, in the Era of Annual Exhibitions galleries.
1 The “reserves” are the sections of the composition that have not been covered with pictorial materials, thus leaving the base canvas visible.
2 A translation of the original quote in French.
3 Paul Duval, “John Lyman Helps Younger Artists to Experiment,” Saturday Night, August 2, 1947.
4 Ibid.
