Director’s Choice:
David Milne,
Passing Car, 1913
As a collector, Robert McMichael has become well known for his excellent eye for the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, but he was equally discerning when it came to the paintings of David Milne. While such glorious works as Lilies, 1913–14, Black, 1914, Blue Church, c. 1920, and Side Door, Clarke’s House, 1923, have long been held at the McMichael, a relatively new addition—Milne’s Passing Car, 1913—has been with us for just five years, the gift of Patricia Fischer in memory of her husband, the noted art collector John Band.
In these first May flashes of summerlike warmth, it is nice to consider this jazzy New York scene, in which brilliant green trees, summer frocks, blinding white plaster and a Model T come together in a tightly syncopated composition. Milne had arrived in the city in 1903, fresh from small-town Ontario, first as a student at the Art Students League, then as a commercial artist, and finally as a fully-fledged fine artist whose works had garnered praise in the landmark Armory Show. That exhibition had opened in New York in February 1913, just a few months before he painted Passing Car. Milne, a frequent attendee at New York’s museums and galleries, including Stieglitz’s vanguard 291, had imbibed the lessons of the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and the Fauves as soon as anyone in North America had, crafting from those influences his own distinctive painterly language—a kind of enticing subtractive shorthand that barely cohered into conventional rendering.
Milne’s crusty white impasto suggests the dazzling heat of the day, while a slight comic note is struck by the windows at right, with their peculiar eyelid-like awnings, and by the little male figure in the left foreground, with his legs like stilts. Other passersby—presumably ladies in white and blue dresses and hats—are suggested by mere smudges of paint, rapidly laid down. With his apparently effortless and intuitive fluency, Milne has captured the moment.
Passing Car is an exaltation of modernity; cars were a relatively new feature of city streets, even in New York City (the first Model T Ford had come off the assembly line just five years earlier), their honks, squeals, and roaring engines providing fresh new notes to the music of the city. But that music began to grate, and Milne and his wife, Patsy, began that summer to spend time in West Saugerties, north and east of the city. Milne’s New York period finally came to an end in 1917, when he and Patsy retreated to Boston Corners, upstate. Rattled by the jangle and jostle of city life and by his suddenly rising reputation among artists, Milne sought to distance himself from the scramble for reputation and what he saw as distractions from an artist’s true calling — the devotional pursuit of the painter’s craft, and the careful consideration of aesthetics away from the pressures of commerce.
Ironically, despite Milne’s eventual aversion to urban life, few Canadian artists have painted the city so well, though he would later come to judge these paintings harshly. Many of the New York works on paper were destroyed by the artist decades later in a bonfire at Six Mile Lake, Ontario, during one of his long periods of profound artistic seclusion in nature. He seems to have judged them frivolous in hindsight, having turned to a far more austere and muted style in his later years. We can only rejoice, then, that this ebullient little painting has survived the rigours of the artist’s judgement, conveying the pleasures of a summer day as palpably now as the day it was painted.
Side Door, Clarke’s House
David Milne
c. 1923
oil on canvas
30.5 x 40.7 cm
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, gift of the Founders, Robert and Signe McMichael
1976.25.2
The Waterlily
David Milne
1935
oil on canvas
45 x 55 cm
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, purchase 1983
1983.7
Blue Church
David Milne
c. 1920
oil on canvas adhered to hardboard
46 x 56.2 cm
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, gift of the Founders, Robert and Signe McMichael
1966.16.22
Summer Colours
David Milne
1936
oil over graphite on canvas
31 x 36.5 cm
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, purchase 1993
1993.4.2
Passing Car
David Milne
1913
oil on canvas
40.8 x 51 cm
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, gift of Margaret Patricia Fischer in loving memory of John Trumbull Band, KStJ, 1915–2005
2021.11.2
Photo: Craig Boyko
Old Growth: Masterworks by the Group of Seven and Their Contemporaries
On view through Jul 5, 2026
related articles
David Hartman Captures Sandra Brewster’s Creative Process in New Short Film
November 6, 2025Back in 2021, the McMichael teamed up with the Koerner Foundation and the acclaimed Canadian filmmaker David Hartman to create a series of short documentaries that pull back the curtain on the lives and practices of some of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary artists represented in the McMichael’s collection. Each film offers an intimate glimpse into their studios and landscapes, inviting us to listen as they share stories of creativity, process, and the inspirations that shape their work.
Kananginak Pootoogook, Two Caribou, 2008–2009
November 10, 2025Two Caribou, 2008–2009, by Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010), is a rich example of contemporary drawing from Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), Nunavut, depicting two bull caribou locked in battle, perhaps over a mate. Hooves fly and antlers clash, lending a sense of immediacy to the conflict.
Native Art Department International, Aanzinaago (Caught in a Transformation) 01, 2024
November 10, 2025Last year at Art Toronto we acquired Aanzinaago (Caught in a Transformation) 01, 2024, by Native Art Department International (NADI), for the collection at the McMichael. NADI is a collaborative long-term project created and administered by the Ojibwe Anishinaabe performance artist, sculptor, and mixed-media artist Maria Hupfield (b. 1975) and the Chiricahua Apache and Mexican multimedia artist Jason Lujan (b. 1971).
Kent Monkman, Compositional Study for “tâpwêwin (Truth),” 2025
December 23, 2025Kent Monkman (b. 1965) is a leading Cree visual artist from Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory, Manitoba, and is currently based in Toronto. Compositional Study for “tâpwêwin (Truth),” 2025, is part of Monkman’s new Knowledge Keeper series, a body of work examining the history and enduring impact of Canada’s residential school system.
Director’s Choice: Lucy Qinnuayuak
January 5, 2026One of the pleasures of exploring the Kinngait Drawings Archive is discovering works by artists who may not have the household name recognition they deserve. Lucy Qinnuayuak (1915–1982) is one such artist.
Director’s Choice: Stan Douglas
February 9, 2026Stan Douglas’s photographs of Nootka Sound, on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island, document many sites important in the history of both colonial and Indigenous people in the territory.
Close to Home
February 1, 2026Close to Home brings together paintings, drawings, and prints by the Group of Seven and related artists, all inspired by the landscapes of Southern Ontario.
Director’s Choice: Tom Thomson
March 4, 2026Tom Thomson’s sketch and canvas depicting Algonquin Park during the spring thaw are among the most prized holdings of the McMichael.
Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire
March 4, 2026With Stan Douglas: Tales of Empire, the McMichael presents a focused survey of the artist’s work, bringing together key projects that relate to the enduring impositions and contradictions of empire.
Kenojuak Ashevak at the McMichael
March 12, 2026Look back at the McMichael’s history with the renowned artist Kenojuak Ashevak and her time spent at the gallery.
Director’s Choice: J.E.H. MacDonald, Lichen-Covered Shale Slabs, 1930
April 1, 2026Explore how this striking work reveals J.E.H. MacDonald’s bold and experimental late style, capturing the physical intensity and modernist vision of his encounters with the Canadian Rockies.
Aaron Jones, Lithic, 2026
April 1, 2026A newly installed work by Toronto artist Aaron Jones transforms the Grand Hall—discover how Lithic layers image, material, and meaning to explore identity, resilience, and the search for grounding.
Artist Spotlight: Bess Larkin Housser Harris
May 7, 2026The paintings of Bess Harris capture the spirit of the landscape through a vivid, intuitive approach shaped outside formal academic training. An artist, writer, and critic deeply embedded in Canada’s modernist art community, she made significant yet often overlooked contributions to Canadian art history.
Melanie Authier, Venture Myth, 2023
May 7, 2026Melanie Authier’s dynamic abstract paintings create immersive spaces charged with movement, light, and shifting sensation. Highlighting a recent acquisition to the McMichael’s collection, this article explores how Authier transforms memory, atmosphere, and the language of painting into richly layered contemporary abstraction.
Excerpt from Uses of Enchantment
May 7, 2026Marking the third anniversary of Uses of Enchantment: Art and Environmentalism, this article revisits Shary Boyle’s haunting explorations of apocalypse, fantasy, and environmental anxiety. Featuring an excerpt by writer Ruth Jones, it examines how Boyle’s imaginative works reflect contemporary fears surrounding climate change and ecological collapse.