In the Orchard (Spring)

Although he was born in Scotland and died in England, William Brymner spent his entire professional career in Canada, where he was a well-respected teacher in Montreal and President of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts from 1909 until 1917. While not an Impressionist painter, his watercolours and oils were strongly influenced by the light effects he studied sketching out of doors. A man and a woman, dressed in dark clothes and wearing hats, walk along a path that meanders through an orchard in bloom. The man turns his head as he addresses his companion while she listens attentively with her eyes on the path. Isolated in this framed space, the engagement is intimate and poignant.