Franklin Carmichael - 'A Northern Silver Mine'

 

      The painting shows Cobalt in Ontario, 500 miles north of Toronto. It was founded in 1904 and had rich silver, cobalt, and nickel deposits. In 1911 it produced around one eighth of the world’s silver. In its heyday, the story of Cobalt was known around the world, and the town attracted miners, scientists, scholars, and artists. 

      Famous for his watercolours, Carmichael was a passionate landscape painter. Many of his paintings depict the trees, rocks, hills, and mountains of Ontario. His earlier works had flat juxtapositions of colour, but as he matured through the 1920s he emphasized depth and three dimensional space.