The significance of this painting lies in its confirmation of the deep bond of friendship between Sarah Robertson and Prudence Heward. It serves as evidence that Robertson was a guest at Fernbank, the Heward property near Brockville where she spent time with Heward. This work captures the very view from Fernbank, offering a rare glimpse into the setting that inspired her.

Of the Beaver Hall Group women who maintained their friendship for the better part of 30 years, Sarah Robertson was conceivably the least prolific, making fine paintings by her especially rare and precious for Beaver Hall Group collectors. Robertson had only two solo exhibitions, both held posthumously: the first was a Memorial Exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 1951, and the second occurred at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., in 1991, marking the 100th anniversary of Robertson's birth.

Dr. Barbara Meadowcroft, author of Painting Friends, The Beaver Hall Women Painters published an insightful biography of Sarah Robertson for the 1991 Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc, Sarah Robertson Retrospective Exhibition.

"In 1920 a group of [William] Brymner’s students, past and present, banded together to form the Beaver Hall Hill Group. Undoubtedly, the example of the Toronto-based Group of Seven, which held its first exhibition in May 1920, provided a powerful incentive to the Montreal artists. Encouraged by A.Y. Jackson, whom they elected president, the Beaver Hall artists held their first annual exhibition at their studios on Beaver Hall Hill. Both The Gazette and La Presse gave generous coverage to the vernissage, which took place January 17, 1921. In his opening speech, Jackson emphasized the right of the artist to paint what he feels. "Schools and ‘isms’ do not trouble us," Jackson maintained, "individual expression is our chief concern."

Sarah Robertson was at the hub of the group. She was, in Anne Savage’s words, "a bureau of information for her friends, who would come to her for help and discussion... concerning their work." Prudence Heward, in particular, relied on Robertson’s criticism and always showed her paintings to Sarah before anyone else.

Outdoor sketching was an integral part of the group's dynamic, offering the women opportunities to gather, share ideas, and paint together. Whenever transportation was available, they would pack a picnic and head to the countryside; otherwise, they found inspiration in cityscapes closer to home. Sarah Robertson’s own circuit was more limited, she stayed with the Hewards at Fernbank near Brockville, visited Nora Collyer in the Eastern Townships, or spent time with family friends in Stowe, Vermont.

Robertson’s paintings reflect her capacity to charge "every tiny experience with an intense emotional ecstasy." She loved nature and that love is expressed in her work. But she was no slavish imitator. As Lismer remarked of Sarah Robertson’s work in 1934, "she has the courage to create landscapes, and not copy them literally."

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Source: 

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc, Sarah Robertson Retrospective Exhibition (Montreal: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., 1991).

Sarah Robertson: Beaver Hall Group in Focus by Alan Klinkhoff
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These two paintings by Sarah Robertson are a testimony of companionship and shared artistic purpose synonymous with the legacy of the women of the Beaver Hall Group.

That the one Sarah Robertson is painted while staying at Nora Collyer’s parents’ country home, in the Eastern Townships and the other at Fernbank, the Heward’s country home near Brockville, Ontario, these are not just studies of places, they are testimony of companionship and shared artistic purpose synonymous with the legacy of the women of the Beaver Hall Group.

April in Foster Woods - Spring Eastern Townships Que. is a spring landscape of awakening energy—painted with a sensitivity to colour and texture. The vitality of the brushwork animates the forest; the white trunks of birch trees twist upward while the ground is laid down in warm, earthen reds and ochres.

The Needle’s Eye is painted at Fernbank, the property near Brockville where the Hewards continue to today have a few houses. In the distance, beyond the Island known as the Needle's Eye on the United States side of the St Lawrence River would be New York State, somewhere between Briar hill and Oak Point. Fernbank was a meeting place where the Hewards, a family of some affluence in the day, invited a number of these Beaver Hall Group artists including A.Y. Jackson to paint. The legacy of Fernbank is strongly etched in the canon, the Beaver Hall Group.

As A.Y. Jackson wrote in praise of Robertson’s painting in the Introduction to the Memorial Exhibition of 1951 at the National Gallery of Canada, her painting “...expresses a bright, eager spirit with very definite convictions, sensitive to all the beauty of nature, the sun, the wind, the trees and fields and flowers”.

The significance of this pair of paintings by Sarah Robertson painting lies in their confirmation of the bond of friendship between the women of the Beaver Hall Group. The Needle’s Eye at Fernbank finds Robertson a guest at Fernbank, the Heward property near Brockville while April in Foster Woods would place Robertson as a guest at the country home of Nora Collyer’s parents in Foster in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, near Magog. Both are demonstrative of Robertson’s strong sense of colour, the modernism for which she and her painting friends are celebrated.

Not incidentally, of the Beaver Hall Group women who maintained their friendship for the better part of 30 years, Sarah Robertson was conceivably the least prolific. This scarcity makes the availability of these fine paintings by her especially rare and precious for Beaver Hall Group collectors.

Dr. Barbara Meadowcroft, author of Painting Friends, The Beaver Hall Women Painters published an insightful biography of Sarah Robertson for our Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Sarah Robertson Retrospective Exhibition in 1991. Her text informed us that outdoor sketching was an integral part of the group's dynamic, offering the women opportunities to gather, share ideas, and paint together. Whenever transportation was available, they would pack a picnic and head to the countryside; otherwise, they found inspiration in cityscapes closer to home. Due in a large part to family obligations and financial constraints Sarah Robertson’s own circuit was more limited than most of the others, she stayed with the Hewards at Fernbank, visited Nora Collyer in the Eastern Townships, or spent time with family friends in Stowe, Vermont.



Also according to Dr Meadowcroft , Sarah Robertson was at the hub of the group. She was, in Anne Savage’s words, "a bureau of information for her friends, who would come to her for help and discussion... concerning their work." Prudence Heward, in particular, relied on Robertson’s criticism and always showed her paintings to Sarah before anyone else.

There have been only two dedicated Sarsh Robertson exhibitions, both held posthumously: the first was a Memorial Exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 1951, and the second at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., in 1991, which Alan Klinkhoff co-curated to mark the 100th anniversary of Robertson's birth.

Both paintings offered here were included in the 1951 Memorial Exhibition.
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Footnotes:

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Sarah Robertson Retrospective Exhibition (Montreal: Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., 1991).