Alexander Young Jackson particularly enjoyed his trips to Lake Superior. In “A Painter’s Country”, the artist recounted that, “the Algoma country was too opulent for Harris; he wanted something bare and stark, so at the conclusion of one of our sketching trips he and I went to the north shore of Lake Superior, a country much of which had been burnt over years before. New growth was slowly appearing. The C.P.R. main line follows the north shore of Lake Superior from Heron Bay westward to Port Arthur. I know of no more impressive scenery in Canada for the landscape painter. There is sublime order to it, the long curves of the beaches, the sweeping ranges of hills, and headlands that push out into the lake”. This work is a view across the lake from a rocky shoreline, with dark grey clouds hovering above. The vegetation has been executed in a palette of warm, earthy greens, and the water contains a rich blend of hues ranging from teal to purple.
“Otter Head, Lake Superior” displays the hallmarks of A.Y. Jackson’s style. The artist experienced the land and revealed the inherent rhythm of the landscape. As fellow Group of Seven member, Arthur Lismer explained, “He paints neither as a poet, writer, archeologist, or historian, but as a painter with a purpose; to reveal, to say, ‘Here I was, here I saw and felt, and this is what I found.’ A Canadian with a few generations long in the land before him, he reveals deep affection for his native soil and a lyric quality of mood of time and space.” Jackson captured the raw vitality that makes the Canadian landscape distinct, such as the vast, uninhabited wilderness and the Precambrian rocky terrain of the Canadian Shield.
