Les Éboulements (c.1929), circa 1928

Private Collection, Toronto

A.Y. Jackson exhibited with the Group of Seven from 1920 and played a key role in bringing the artists of Montreal and Toronto together. He and Edwin Holgate were the only two Group of Seven members native to Quebec, and both men frequently depicted the Quebec landscape. From Jackson’s inscription, we know he painted this sketch near Les Éboulements, east of Baie Saint Paul. One of Quebec’s most picturesque villages, it is named after a landslide in 1663 that was triggered by an earthquake in the Charlevoix region. Thereafter, the area was known as Les Éboulements, translating to “the landslides”. Jackson first painted the sloping riverside village with Edwin Holgate in March 1923, writing to his cousin Florence Clement: “It’s snowing in Baie St. Paul. It seldom seems to stop and soon there won’t be anything to paint but snow. The fences have all disappeared... It’s almost impossible to get around. There has not been a thaw all winter and consequently no crusts on the snow, and even with my big snowshoes I sink down so far I can scarcely lift my feet. I expect to spend a week in the next village down - Les Éboulements - and then return here until mid-April.... I have to fill up fifty panels before I leave here.” While this painting is inscribed “about 1928” on the reverse, it is recorded that Jackson travelled to Saint Urbain and Les Éboulements in the early spring of 1929 with Randolph Stanley Hewton and Alfred Henry Robinson. Jackson preferred to paint the Quebec landscape during the changing of seasons. The brown colour palette suggests hints of earth peeking out beneath the snow, and the sailboats float amid a mix of ice and water, all signalling hope that spring is on its way in a province known for its long winters.