Hills Near Ripon, Quebec, 1962

Private Collection, Toronto

Throughout his long and prolific career, A.Y. Jackson was dedicated to painting small towns of rural Quebec. As a young artist, he journeyed up the St. Lawrence River, sometimes alone, other times with fellow painters including Albert Robinson, Arthur Lismer and Frederick Banting. Jackson would often board with families during stays in smaller communities, providing a thorough examination of not only the land but also the daily life and culture of the residents. Many of those in the communities were enchanted by Jackson’s stories of his extensive travels and experiences. The artist returned home each time with his quota of sketches to be painted into canvases. Jackson moved to the Ottawa region in 1955, settling in Manotick. During these later years, he continued to take many painting trips, exploring the Ottawa Valley, the Gatineau Hills, the Lièvre River Valley and Ripon. Jackson was often accompanied on these excursions by his former student Ralph Wallace Burton, as well as fellow painters Maurice Haycock and Stuart D. Helmsley. Burton later became a friend and regular painting companion to A.Y. Jackson. Over a period spanning more than twenty years, the two men travelled the lengths of Eastern Ontario and Quebec, as well as Alberta, Alaska and the Yukon territory together, depicting the environs of the regions they visited. “Hills Near Ripon, Quebec”, is a quintessential A.Y. Jackson oil sketch of a Quebec winter scene. A valley with soft, rolling hills is populated with a few small farm buildings and blanketed in snow. Despite the clouded sky, the charming scene is warm and bright, and the snow appears illuminated by sunlight. Ripon is a municipality located in the valley of the Petite-Nation River in the Outaouais region of western Quebec. The town was named after Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. A small and picturesque village, Ripon provided Jackson with both the rugged barren Canadian landscape and small town the artist sought to explore in his artistic practice.