Old Hotel, Elora, 1929

Mayberry Fine Art, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto

Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, Toronto, 1951, page 27 Peter Mellen, The Group of Seven, Toronto, 1981, pages 154-58

An example of Casson's early works and affinity for architectural elements within the landscape, Old Hotel, Elora gives a glimpse into one of Canada's early settlement communities. Founded in 1832 by Captain William Gilkison, Elora flourished first as a lumbering town with the historic mill as its central industrial fixture. Due to an economic recession and fire, the mill was rebuilt and expanded to include a general store and distillery, helping to grow and define the town as a major marketplace. This work exemplifies Casson's growth into more intentional compositions with keen focus on the villages and traces of human existence within the landscape. For Casson, the buildings and villages he encountered while on his sketching trips in Southern Ontario were of equal importance to the natural surrounding landscapes as they were the visual representation of human contribution to the ever changing Canadian landscape. The soothing colour palette employed with soft earth tones and greens highlighted by complementary violet outlining, reflects the charming atmosphere of the town and gives a more monumental tone to the subject matter. The structural forms are clear and refined, with focus kept to the use of colour to accentuate the warm atmosphere of the day as the sunlight bounces off of the sides of the hotel building. On the importance of these early towns in Canadian visual history, Paul Duval writes, “Southern Ontario villages have a domino-like clarity. Their slabs of plaster walls – spanking white in the sun, and their roof of blue, black and terra cotta, allow full play for an artist's sense of pattern.” Similar to other village depictions from Casson, Old Hotel, Elora is a token of Canada's historical reliance on the logging industry as an integral part of community growth and nation building while maintaining an element of human drama.