Summer address:--West Redding, Conn., August 26th, 1926.

Telegrams:--Danbury, Conn.

My dear Mr. Harris:

Your picture of "Ontario Hill Town" gave me such pleasure when I saw it at the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, that I asked Mr. Bower, Director of the Fine Arts, to permit me to include it in the brochure on Modern Art, which we are issuing in connection with the Sesqui-Centennial and which will be out by the beginning of next week, when I will send you a copy.

I am in the midst of arranging a very important International Exhibition of Modern Art for the Brooklyn Museum and it would give me great pleasure if I could include you in this group. Will you be so kind as to let me have two paintings in the same splendid modern spirit in which your "Ontario Hills" are painted.

I am issuing in connection with this Exhibition a special catalog, representing twenty-three countries, in which each artist will be represented by a reproduction of his painting, as well as by a picture of himself with a short biographical sketch. Each artist taking part in the Exhibition will receive a free copy of this Special Catalog, as well as approximately a hundred museums scattered throughout the world. The rest will be sold at ten dollars a piece.

As I have just returned from Europe and we are in the midst of compiling this catalog, will you not let me know immediately that I may count on two of your paintings and that you will send me the required material for the catalog as soon as possible.

We hope very much that the Art Association of Montreal will exhibit part of this Exhibition of extreme Modern Art in Montreal and I am sorry that for some reason Ottawa and Toronto declined. I am especially sorry, for this is going to be a very important Exhibition, as I was assisted in the assembling by Kandinsky, the Russian, Fernand Leger and Marcel Duchamp, the French and Mondrian, the Dutch, besides Bragaglia, the Italian. I am writing you this for maybe through your influence something could still be done regarding it.

Looking forward with much pleasure to your cooperation, believe me,

Very sincerely yours,

Mr. Lauren Harris,
25 Severn Street,
Toronto, Canada.

Summer address:--West Redding, Conn., September 2nd, 1926.

Telegrams:--Danbury, Conn.

My dear Mr. Harris:

The following telegram was received from you during my absence
to town for a few days. It reads as follows:

I cannot ascertain what "box 62" means. Does it mean 5 feet 2 inches
square ?

I would like very much to hang it, if I have room. I wonder if
you would mind sending it with two smaller vancases, so that in case I
cannot place it, I have the two smaller ones to fall back on and would
then immediately return the big one to you. I shall begin hanging the
first of November, but I must have your vanvases by the first of Octo-
ber at the latest for reproduction purposes, as I wrote you.

Being an artist myself, my effort in arranging an exhibition is
to have the pictures so balance each other in color and composition that
the ensemble forms a pleasing whole. In this way I feel that each pict-
ure has a chance to give its own message and the total makes for the ad-
vancement of art as well as creating deeper interest in the artist.

While in New York I was told that there were as many complications
in sending pictures from Canada to New York or from New York to Canada
as exist now between France and America. Under these conditions do allow
sufficient time and if you will be so kind and send me, if possible, pho-
tographs of your pictures, as well as their measurements, besides a pho-
tograph of yourself with a biographical sketch, I shall be most happy to
proceed and include you in our Exhibition.

I prefer to have the artist select his own pictures, unless I
really know that he has not the best judgment regarding them. I think an
artist knows best what he wants to say and how well he has said it. My
reason for having an artist make his own selection is based on this.

Thanking you for your telegram and hoping that you can let me have
the large picture as well as two smaller ones, believe me,

November 19th,

1926.

My dear Mr. Harris:

My only apology for not writing to you sooner is that I
have been snowed under with work. Somehow I thought I would have
had a little more assistance at the Museum during the time of as-
semblage, checking and hanging, but as this was not the case, all
letters had to be put aside until the work was finished.

Now the great day of the opening is here and I hope you re-
ceived our invitation and only wish you could come and see how
very handsome your two pictures look and how much your canvas call-
ed "Mountain Forms" has been admired. I think there can be no
doubt that it will be chosen for a permanent picture for your Na-
tional Gallery, as it certainly is a very important canvas, re-
presenting Canadian Art of this period.

I will do as you instruct and at the close of the Exhibi-
tion, January second, will have the big "Mountain Forms" sent
direct to the National Gallery at Ottawa. Since the Exhibition
is going to be up until then, I do hope that you will be able to
come to New York and see how well your pictures look. I can only
repeat that they have been greatly admired and several papers
have asked for your Mountain Forms, so that we have photographed
it and I hope the papers will print what the reporters have sent
in.

When you are in town, do drop me a line, so that we may
have the pleasure of meeting. I was so interested in your atti-
tude towards art and its importance in connection with the na-
tional life as well as in the work you are doing in Canada.

Our Special Catalog will not be finished in time for the
opening, but as soon as it is I will mail you a copy.

Again thanking you for cooperating and begging you to ex-
cuse my delay in telling you that your pictures were on exhibi-
tion, believe me,

Very sincerely yours,

Mr. Lawren Harris,
63 Queen's Park,
Toronto, Canada.

December 10th,
1926.

My dear Mr. Harris:

Do let us try and carry out your plan of bringing the group of
pictures, which will go to Buffalo, up to Toronto.

At present I am so overwhelmed with some other detail work
that I cannot find out exactly how much it will cost, especially as
the selection of pictures has not yet been made and I do not know their
size and value, but since there will only be approximately 100-130
pictures, I cannot imagine that the expense of shipping them that dis-
tance will be so great.

The important thing in my judgment is to have these pictures
speak to the people to whom they are able to speak and though I cannot
take the burden of the whole expense on my shoulders I always feel that
if it means so much to a group somehow the means will present themselves.
If people are really anxious to help the movement on and to help the
educational work, the question of overcharging never comes in and so I
think we can bide our time and work it out in careful detail when we
have more leisure.

The reason I am so pressed at present is because of the Sesqui-
Centennial situation, since a great number of those pictures have to be
sent to an exhibition in Belgium, which complicates matters very much,
for the dismantling is going to be a slow process.

Nothing will give me more pleasure than to come to Toronto in the

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spring while the Exhibition is on and hold some conferences and I love
nothing better than to answer questions. Since I have had to put so
much of my personal funds into bringing this Exhibition over and have
had so little time to collect the money for replacing, which may take
a long time - longer even than April - I hope it will be possible to
put me up in Toronto as a guest, so that I will not have to incur any
special expense in connection with that trip. I generally receive quite
a fee when I speak on Modern Art, as this is one of my sources of in-
come for doing my work, but I do not want to let that interfere with my
coming to your group, as I feel that it is such fertile ground.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you and how grateful I am that our paths have come together. I feel that with such a spirit as you own and are sending forth into your group, we ought to be able eventually to do some very important work on this upper continent of ours. I want you to know that I will do all in my power to meet your situation, for I know how difficult it is

I am answering your letter immediately so that you may know that
you can count on my cooperation in every way.

Thanking you very much for your letter and feeling sure that it
will materialize in some form, for after all we are not dependent on a
museum to show the works - the thing is that they be shown - believe
me,

Most sincerely yours,

Mr. Lawren Harris,
63 Queens Park,
Toronto, Canada.

January 5th,
1927.

My dear Mr. Harris:

I have a great deal to write you and you must forgive my apparent
tardiness, but when one is chief cook and bottle washer, one has to skip
around to such an extent that some things must of necessity be neglected.

First let me thank you for the charming book you sent me on the
Canadian artists. It gives me a very attractive insight and that after
all is very important.

Secondly, let me tell you that I got a letter from the Art Gal-
lery of Toronto saying that they are pleased that I can arrange to ex-
hibit the group of pictures towards the end of March. I cannot tell you
how happy I am at the thought of coming to Toronto. To come to a group
of people who show the interest and enthusiasm which you showed, fills
me with renewed life and vigor, for it has been a terrific piece of
work and I sometimes wonder how I had the physical strength to go through
with it.

To-day your large picture "Mountain Forms" will be boxed and sent
direct to the National Gallery at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I am sorry
I could not send it between Christmas and New Year, but we are sending
it by express and I hope it will reach you very soon.

We open on January 25th at the Anderson Gallery for two weeks
with a radio talk over Station WEAF at 4:30 on Monday, the 24th, an
evening of Modern Music of the compositions of Henry Cowell, as played
by himself on Tuesday, February first and a talk on Modern Art on Fri-
day, February 4th by Professor Barzun, of Fordham University. This, I

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think will help to continue our educational work. But you can see how
all of this causes me a lot of work, for I always have to do all the work
and it will explain to you why I cannot always answer more promptly.

I had a letter from Mr. Hekking from Buffalo. What an odd man he
is. He wants to re-arrange my entire Exhibition, as if it were an after-
noon's work. His letter made me so angry that I do not know that the re-
sult will be. You know, if one has no cooperation in educational matters
which are ahead of one's time, one's patience in time wears off. The
publicity which our Exhibition has brought the Brooklyn Museum has ex-
ceeded any publicity which it has ever received, Mr. Fox tells me. And
the last official number of attendance, which covered a period of five
weeks, reached 48,000, so that the Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum, who
were very doubtful have become reconciled. For, after all, what does a
museum want, but to reach the public and it certainly reached the public
through this Exhibition. But, if one works as hard as I have been work-
ing, one wants a little enthusiasm from others to carry one along, other-
wise the path is a little too stony and that is why I am looking forward
with so much pleasure to my trip to Toronto the end of March or beginning
of April, when I shall have the pleasure of meeting you again and making
the acquaintance of your whole group.

With cordial greetings, believe me,

Faithfully yours,

Mr. Lawren Harris,
25 Severn Street,
Toronto, Canada.

March 16th,
1927.

My dear Mr. Harris:

I have been very impatient to hear what you thought of our
Special Catalog and though it was sent on February 24th, I have had
no news from you which has been very sad, for you know how like
children all artists are - when they have a new toy, they do want
their friends to admire it.

I am eagerly awaiting news whether I am to come to Toronto
on the 28th or not. I had a letter almost two weeks ago from Dr.
Tovell, in which he suggested that I would speak on the 8th, but
I would prefer to talk on the 5th, as I would like to reach Toronto
before the pictures are all hung, as I know them so well and would
like so much to see that they were in harmony with one another. I
hope, of course, that you will help hang them, for there is nothing
that helps one to enjoy pictures as much as to study them in relation to one another when hanging them.

Somehow I feel as if Toronto were the Sleeping Beauty and the
seven years had not passed, for I have received no word from either
Mr. McDougall or Dr. Tovell as to whether I am to come up on the
28th. Neither has Mrs. Watson received any word from her friend
with whom she hopes I will stay. We both thought that if I could
stay with some Toronto friends that I could put the message across
much better than if I were put up, as you so kindly suggested, at
the Woman's Club. So here I am twelve days before my departure,
not knowing whether I am leaving or not.

You have heard from Mr. Hekking what a tremendous success the
Buffalo Exhibition has been. I recall that in my last letter of
January 25th I was very cross at Mr. Hekking, which you may remember also, caused by a stupid misunderstanding which we have entirely cleared up and also I am grateful to say the pictures themselves gave Mr. Hekking the pleasure they now give you and me. This has cleared the atmosphere completely, because you know how I love the pictures.

The Exhibition closes at Buffalo on Sunday, the 20th and I
shall be very eager to know whether any of the sales under consideration actually went through. We have been quite thrilled at the
pictures we sold at the Anderson Galleries, for though their number was not large, it was a new audience and that always means a
great deal.

I cannot tell you how keen I am to meet your group up in Toronto and how grateful I was to you for sending me the book by Housser "A Canadian Art Movement". I have been reading it with

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great enthusiasm and I believe that you will be able to create some-
thing in Canada which I question whether we will ever have in the
United States and that is "Canadian Art". It really looks as if
that were possible with you, whereas I question whether we will ever
have "American Art" independent of European art.

A sentence which quite thrilled me in this book is the follow-
ing:

"Poor men in their adversity create wealth for themselves
and likewise men conscious of spiritual poverty search
out and accumulate spiritual wealth. The spiritual
famine which follows the triumphant advance of material
progress will eventually cause us to replant our fields
so that we may harvest food for our souls as well as for
our bodies".

I think that is amazingly well expressed and explains the tremendous
new vitality which is entering Art all over the world. I was quite
thrilled by that when I read it.

May I ask you to send me a telegram, telling me whether I am
expected on the 28th and whether I am to talk on the 5th. It would
mean a great deal to me to know.

With cordial greetings and looking forward with the keenest
of pleasure to my trip to Toronto, believe me,

Faithfully yours,

March 23rd,
1927.

My dear Mr. Harris:

I was delighted to receive your letter of March eighteenth and to know that you and your wife would kindly put me up at the Ladies Club, and I am going to ask you to do so, since Mrs. Watson's plans of coming to Toronto have fallen through through a deferred visit of Mr. Hugh Walpole and apparently her other friends are not in a position to take me. I am sure it is better for me to be alone at either the Club or a hotel, as the accumulated effort of the past year is telling on my health. At the same time, if it had gone through, I could not have resisted the temptation of doing a little extra work for Modern Art which I thought I could do better through a home than otherwise and as Mrs. Watson agreed with me, that is why we attempted to put it across. Conservative people respond much more readily to the suggestions of a wellbred person than through any other form and I think the reason I have succeeded to win people over to our point of view has been based chiefly on that, that I am a perfectly normal intelligent person.

I am taking the 6:30 P.M. train on Monday, the twenty-eighth, and shall reach Toronto at 7:50 on Tuesday morning, the twenty-ninth. It would be ever so kind if you would meet me, as of course I do not know where the Ladies Club is and whether that is its title. Mr. Greig, the Curator, kindly said he would also meet me, but it would be hardly necessary to drag both of you out of bed at that early hour and so I shall look forward to you, as I know you. Then later in the morning I hope to meet you again at the Gallery to help hang the pictures.

My lecture is planned for Monday, the fourth of April, at half past eight in the evening, and I shall leave on Tuesday, the fifth, to return home.

Looking forward with great pleasure to seeing you again and meeting your wife as well as the group of Seven and hoping that the whole Exhibition will be the same success it was at Buffalo, believe me,

Cordially yours,

Mr. Lawren Harris,
63 Queens Park,
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada.

SOCIETE ANONYME: MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: 1920

c.o.

July 25, 1949

Dear Mr. Harris:

It was ever so good to get your letter and also to receive the enclosed questionnaire.

I wonder if the heat had reached you, or whether our imagination that you were enjoying pleasant weather was correct. For the heat here has been perfectly tremendous and very exhausting.

I am delighted to know that you will give us, in exchange for the two small sketches, a canvas - 32 x 40 - either a Canadian Landscape or an Abstraction.

Since your paintings are all on exhibition and won't be returned till December, I wonder if I could ask you to send me photographs of each of the paintings you had in mind to be added to our Collection so that we could then decide which of the two would fit in best with the Collection as a whole. Perhaps you could also give us some idea of the colors which are represented in both pictures.

I was over at the Yale University Art Gallery on Saturday with some friends who had not seen the Collection for a great many years, and they, as well as I, were perfectly delighted how beautiful they looked.

I am interested that you returned to the North again, for the greatest impression that was made on me when we saw something of each other, was your love and interest of the North. Your consciousness of the psychic vibrations which one finds there. Do you ever go off on those trips any more, of which you used to tell me, where you had such interesting experiences? And I am also interested to know whether your son ever really decided to be a painter. I remember receiving a letter, after months of delay, asking whom I would recommend as a teacher; but at that time nobody really was in New York -- they were all in Paris. For that reason I never answered.

Again thanking you for your generosity in letting us have one of the larger canvases, and hoping to receive soon the photographs, believe me, with all best wishes for you and your wife,

KSD/en

Mr. Lawrence Harris
4760 Belmont Avenue
Vancouver, British Col. umbia
Canada

SOCIETE ANONYME; MUSEUM OF MODERN ART; 1920

c.o.

September 19, 1949

Mr. Lawren Harris
4760 Belmont Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada

Dear Mr. Harris:

Mrs. Frederick Kiesler, the wife of the eminent modern architect, is helping me with the data of my work on the Catalogue.

She came across two articles in the "Canadian Art", Christmas 1948:

1. Lawren Harris, A Retrospective Exhibition of His Painting, 1910-1948, by Andrew Bell.

2. The Pursuit of Form by Northrup Fry.

I had photostatic copies made of these, as I wanted to have some idea of your work as it is today. These copies have just reached me.

Both Marcel Duchamp and I are very much interested in your abstract work which is reproduced in connection with the article "The Pursuit of Form."

Since our Collection at Yale is especially interested in abstract form, I think it would be wonderful if you sent us an example of one of your abstract paintings rather than your interpretative paintings of the North.

I am hastening to write you this since you said you were going to send us a painting some time the beginning of October, and we are very anxious, therefore, to have an example of one of your abstract works. Will you send it collect to:

Collection of the Société Anonyme
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut.

I am so happy that you are big enough to want to give us one of your paintings so that Canada, as well as you, will be represented in this Collection.

With all best wishes and a thousand thanks, believe me,

KSD/cn

April 24, 1950

Dear Lawren Harris:

I received your letter a few days ago asking whether your two
small paintings had been sent to you since you had not received
them. I got in touch with the Yale University Art Gallery, and
they assured me that the paintings had been packed and were on
their way to you. I hope this is right.

Through the wisdom of President Seymour, who is deeply interested in art, a very fine plan was evolved to continue the interest of the Alumni of Yale, not only in the Arts but in the various departments of Yale University. As a result, in connection with Art, groups have been formed of Yale Alumni in various important cities of America who belong to the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University -- each city being a unit by itself as well as a member of the whole.

We had our first yearly meeting at Yale last Monday with the opening of a very fine small exhibition of French Art of the last half of the 19th century loaned by members of the Alumni, besides another exhibition of part of the Collection of the Société Anonyme. And I think it was because of the work involved in this that perhaps there was some delay in your pictures being sent to you.

With all best wishes, believe me,

KSD/cn

Mr. Lawren Harris
4761 Belmont Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.