The Camel’s Hump, Lake of Bays, circa 1983

Private Collection, Toronto

Margaret Gray, Margaret Rand and Lois Steen, “A.J. Casson”, Agincourt, Ontario, 1976, page 43 Hubert De Santana, ‘A Painter’s Life: A.J. Casson looks back on 60 years at the easel’, “Canadian Art”, Spring 1985, pages 64-69

A.J. Casson has a played a prominent role in the development of Canadian art, quietly having built his reputation as a master painter without sacrificing the principles of his personal approach to painting. Although a professed lover of travel, Casson never went far afield. Ontario is Casson’s place. He knows and loves the varying landscape of the province. From the pastoral rolling countryside, where a few houses and stores cluster at a crossroad, to the craggy heights of the lonely landscape where only the wind through the trees breaks the silence. Adjacent to Algonquin Park, Lake of Bays is an idyllic oasis in the northeastern part of Muskoka. A small township with over a hundred lakes, the area is a popular destination for cottagers escaping the city. Casson frequented the area on his sketching trips, revelling in the expanse of forests, rocks, lakes and wetlands to paint. Casson has captured the heavy atmosphere of an early autumnal day in the Lake of Bays in this oil. The camel hump shaped hills of the background are shrouded in cloud from the moody grey skies. Mist rises from the lake, signalling the cool dawn of fall. The ruddy red and soft yellow leaves of the foliage in the foreground stand in stark contrast to the overall subdued palette, providing a rich warmth in the play of light and shadow. The artist has “worked up” this canvas, inspired by a sketch executed in 1981. The moody skies remain, but it is interesting to note the shift in colour palette and season. The vantage point of the canvas, viewing the camel hump shaped hills head on from across the lake is striking, placing the viewer actively in the thick of the landscape as opposed to passively on the shoreline. Casson shows his appreciation for the beauty and simplicity of the landscape in this composition, harnessing a boyhood passion for exploring the countryside. Characteristic of the artist’s later works, there is a softness to both the colour palette and the handling of brushwork emphasizing a more reserved depiction of the Canadian landscape. The work showcases Casson’s dedication to the Ontario landscape in this subtle rendering of the popular region. Common to Casson’s work throughout his career is a limited colour palette. In a 1985 interview, the artist recalls this strategy as being present since his early days with the Group of Seven, when “exhibitions were flaming with colour.” He elaborated by stating: “Well, I’ve always thought that if you want to stand out, don’t follow the herd. I was inclined to go into subtle greys, to get away from the gaudy. I painted a few gaudy ones, but they never appealed to me.” “The Camel’s Hump, Lake of Bays” is a prime example of a subtly dramatic landscape of this period in Casson’s oeuvre. Speaking to the artist’s legacy, Margaret Gray, Margaret Rand and Lois Steen share that, “[Casson’s] hundreds of drawings, sketches and paintings, which have recorded the beauty and the character of his land, are a great legacy indeed. But perhaps from a historical point of view A.J. Casson’s greatest contribution lies in the present-day link which he provided with that vital period when Canadian art took on its own identity. The Group of Seven laid down the foundations upon which modern art in this country has built, and Casson, although never avant-garde, has made his own unique contribution to the structure. He paints his own vision, unaffected by the tyranny of the new.”