Small Lake in Algoma, 1920, circa 1920

Laing Galleries, Toronto, prior to 1961 K.R. Thomson, Toronto Ash Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto Acquired by the present Private Collection, 2005

“Small Pictures and Sculpture by Members of the Ontario Society of Artists”, Art Gallery of Toronto, 8 October 1921, no. 39 as Small Lake in Algoma at $50 “Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven”, Vancouver Art Gallery; travelling to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Art Gallery of Hamilton, 30 October 2015‒25 September 2016 as Autumn in Algoma, circa 1920 Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont, “Where the Universe Sings: The Spiritual Journey of Lawren Harris” [movie], 2016

A.Y. Jackson, ‘Sketching in Algoma’, “The Canadian Forum”, 1:6 (March 1921), pages 174‒175 L.S. Harris ‘The Group of Seven in Canadian History’, “The Canadian Historical Association, Report of the Annual Meeting Held at Victoria and Vancouver”, June 16‒19, 1948, with Historical Papers, Toronto, 1948, page 34 Ian Thom, et al., “Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven”, Vancouver/London, 2015, reproduced page 126, caption page 201 as Autumn in Algoma, circa 1920 “Group of Seven in Algoma: Entertainment on Fire”, Algoma Fall Festival, Sault Ste. Marie, 1‒30 October 2015, reproduced on poster

Lawren Harris first travelled to Algoma with Dr. James MacCallum following his discharge from the army in the spring of 1918. “We found Algoma a rugged, wild land packed with an amazing variety of subjects. It was a veritable paradise for the creative adventurer in paint in the Canadian North,” he wrote in 1948. He returned with J.E.H. MacDonald and Frank Johnston in September and an exhibition of their paintings from Canyon, Hubert, Batchewana, Montreal River and Mitchell Lake was held at the Art Museum of Toronto the following spring. Jackson joined the artists in the fall of 1919, and Lismer painted with Harris and Jackson at Mongoose Lake following the opening of the first Group of Seven exhibition in May 1920. MacDonald, Harris, Jackson and Johnston returned to Mongoose Lake and nearby Wart Lake that fall, and in May 1921 Harris, Jackson and Lismer painted on the Agawa River and Montreal Lake. Harris’ last expedition to Algoma was in the fall of 1921 when he painted with Jackson and Lismer at Mitchell and Sand lakes. Jackson wrote about their sketching trip in the fall of 1920. “The morning mists are slowly dispersing round Mongoose Lake as we start off on the day’s hunting. Being individualists, we mostly go different ways. As there are no roads we can go anywhere. ... M[acDonald] has a predilection for Bald Rock... [and] from here there was an outlook over range on range of forested hills, red and gold with maple and birch, or dark with patches of spruce and pine; here and there the sheen of small lakes; and below the long irregular form of Mongoose.... from Mongoose we went in to twenty‒three lakes and there were indications of others which we did not get to.” The vast expanse of the hills and myriad lakes of Algoma are superbly evoked in Harris’ sketch “Small Lake in Algoma”. Five pines frame our view overlooking the sinuous lines of a small body of water. Sunlight illuminates the still waters surrounding the small outcrops and islands below and the dark firs by the shore rise to green slopes below the more autumnal orange foliage in the higher hills beyond, the more distant hills outlined in blue. There are a number of panoramic paintings by Harris, Jackson and MacDonald painted in the fall of 1920. Yet in Harris’ oil sketches, and in his canvas “Algoma Country” (Art Gallery of Ontario (48/9) the striking difference is the overall colouring of the foliage, yellow and khaki green being predominant in all save for “Algoma Country II” (Ottawa Art Gallery) where the browns, greens, oranges and purples create a rolling rhythm across the vast landscape. As Jackson wrote, “Sketching here demanded a quick decision in composition, an ignoring or summarizing of much of the detail, a searching‒out of significant form, and a colour analysis that must never err on the side of timidity. One must know the north country intimately to appreciate the great variety of its forms. The impression of monotony that one receives from a train is soon dissipated when one gets into the bush. To fall into a formula for interpreting it is hardly possible.” We extend our thanks to Charles Hill, Canadian art historian, former Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada and author of “The Group of Seven‒Art for a Nation”, for his assistance in researching this artwork and for contributing the preceding essay.