How Did This Fall Through the Cracks?

Here’s a gem of a painting that is not on the site. Ellie B. from Calgary, Alberta provided me with these photos and description in March 2012! Somehow they were never added to the Clara collection. Shame on me but now you can enjoy them.

"Hello - I found your site on the internet and wanted to contact you. My father and I were both born in Cobourg, Ontario and from the time I was very young I'd always remembered a picture that my father loved when I was growing up. I'm 61 now, my father is long gone, but I have been hanging on to this painting for quite awhile. It's an original oil by Clara Harris - pine trees to the left, large white house in centre, red boat with 2 people on lake and a bridge on the right. In the background it appears to be snow covered hills. For the longest time I thought the name on the painting said 'Clare' Harris and not until tonight did I decided to try and type in 'Clara' after looking at the name with a magnifying glass. Any information you can give me would be appreciated and if you'd like."

"It appears the painting was done on canvas - definitely not on wood. Dimensions of painting are: 10 1/2 x

13 3/4" unframed, 15 x 18" framed. There is no writing on the back of the picture. You'll notice some tape on the back of the painting (put there no doubt to keep it from falling out of frame when nails were lost) - also looks like new hooks were put on the frame for hanging."

The frame appears to be original and is typical of other framed Clara pieces.

Although Clara did not identify this scene it is reminiscent of so much of her work. It could be Haliburton. Scrolling through the site there are two similar scenes:

Clara’s Homestead in the Valley (See Curator’s Blog, Thursday, January 29, 2015, “A Cache of Clara’s”) with its yellow house by the water.

And the second: Yellow and White Houses in Winter (See the Dockrill Collection). It could be the same scene of the yellow house and water taken from a different angle.

As Ellie and her father came from Cobourg and Clara went to the Port Hope Summer Art School it makes sense that paintings from the period were acquired by the local population.