Abstract Landscape, 1942

Abstract illustration by Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald rendered lightly in grey and brown shades of chalk with crosshatched shading. Organic shapes similar to thick tree branches obscure jagged formations similar to stone or cliff edges.

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, Abstract Landscape, 1942, coloured chalks on wove paper, 61 x 46 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Visiting British Columbia’s West Coast for the first time in the summer 1942, FitzGerald stayed at his daughter’s cottage on Bowen Island. There, the new environment proved to be a tremendous visual stimulus for the artist.


Back in Winnipeg that September, he summed up his experience: “I was just becoming aware of the possibilities of the material and getting a sense of power that I don’t remember ever being so strong. Two or three of the last things contained a living quality that was tantalizing. . . . I felt them so much of myself.”

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Abstract Landscape - Art Canada