Morning, Agawa River, 1919

The Artist S. Walter Stewart, Toronto Jane Stewart, Toronto McCready Gallery, Toronto S.C. Torno, Toronto, by 1969 Acquired by the present Private Collection, 23 October 1971

“Small Paintings and Sculptures by Members of the Ontario Society of Artists”, Art Gallery of Toronto, 8 October 1921, no. 59 “Le Groupe des Sept/The Group of Seven”, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; travelling to Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 19 June‒31 October 1970, no. 122 as “Morning, Agawa River”, 1920 “Collector's Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; travelling to Musée du Québec, Quebec City; Vancouver Art Gallery; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, 14 May 1988‒7 May 1989, no. 67 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

Dennis Reid, “Le Groupe des Sept/The Group of Seven”, Ottawa, 1970, reproduced page 160 as 1920 Dennis Reid, “Collector's Canada: Selections from a Toronto Private Collection”, Toronto, 1988, no. 67, reproduced page 64 as 1920 Ian Thom, et al., “Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven”, Vancouver/London, 2015, reproduced page 116, caption page 201 as 1920

In October 1918 A.Y. Jackson returned from England, where he had served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force since 1915, but was only discharged from the army in April 1919. After a brief visit with friends in Georgian Bay, in September, he joined Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frank Johnston on the Algoma Central Railway. Harris and MacCallum had first visited Algoma in the spring of 1918 and had been joined by MacDonald and Johnston that fall. This was Jackson’s first trip to Algoma. The artists first painted at the Canyon on the Agawa River at Mile 113 from Sault Ste. Marie, the site of so many major canvases painted by the future Group of Seven artists. Jackson dated this sketch both September ’19 and 1920 yet the artists painted near Mongoose and Wart lakes in the fall of 1920, not on the Agawa River. This very decorative oil sketch superbly evokes the rich autumn foliage that rises from the calm waters of the river. Arranged in successive, vertical ranges, the river’s reflections, accented with horizontal strokes of blue‒green, set the stage for the conical cedars that create a gentle rhythm across the composition. Behind the rolling red and orange bushes meet a flow of oranges and greens that recall the central bouquet in J.E.H. MacDonald’s famous painting “The Tangled Garden”. The green foliage at the top of the composition, touched with blue, echoes the foreground waters. The clarity of colour, dense composition and sinuous line create a paean of praise for the artist’s discovery of the glories of Algoma. 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.