"I just fell in love with her painting"

In early September artist-writer, Evelyn N. Pollock of Horseshoe Valley, Ontario, contacted me: “I came across your Clara Harris website by accident. In 1982, I purchased a painting by Clara Harris for $450.00 at an antique shop on Eglinton Avenue West in Toronto. It seems to be the highest price paid at the time according to your website. The owner of the shop lived upstairs and claimed to have been a good friend of Clara Harris. She had quite a few paintings. Both in the shop and on the walls of her apartment above the shop. She gave me a copy of an article from the Toronto Telegram dated January 3, 1962 titled "Oil Painting Gifts...Not Gold Watches". I still have that article taped to the frame. The article mentioned that the municipality had purchased Clara Harris paintings as retirement gifts for four Municipal Department Heads who were retiring. I can send you a photograph of my painting for your records. 

The scene is not currently on your website. The painting is a landscape of trees rocks and rushing water and waves. There was no title on the back when I purchased it. When I first saw it, I felt that it was someplace that I had been while boating in Georgian Bay. That is why I bought it but it could also be somewhere else in Northern Ontario. It is 24 inches wide by 20 inches high. I would love to know where it was painted.


In 2001 I had the painting re-stretched and reframed. It hangs in my dining room. My guess is that the canvas is actually stretched linen. It must be old and was probably painted in the late 30's or early 40's."

Northern Scene Oil on linen, 20 x 24”, Reframed.