Exhibited
"Nationalism in Canadian Art", Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, 24 January-30 March 1979 as "Algoma"
Literature
F.H. Johnston, Toronto to Eric Brown, Ottawa, File 5.42 Johnston, Library and Archives, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
'Etchings Predominate at Art Exhibition', "Daily Star" (Toronto), 3 May 1919
F.H. Johnston, Hubert to Florence Johnston, Toronto, 1 October 1919 and 6 October 1919, Mary Bishop Rodrick and Franz Johnston Collection, R320, vol. 1-8, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa
[Fred Jacob], 'Seven Artists Invite Criticism', "Mail and Empire" (Toronto) 10 May 1920
Margaret L. Bell, "Nationalism in Canadian Art", Victoria, British Columbia, 1979
Algoma is intimately associated with the early history of the Group of Seven. If Georgian Bay and Algonquin Park were the stages for their first shared ventures, Algoma inspired their bold new explorations in the years following World War I. Twenty-five Algoma subjects were included in the first Group of Seven exhibition in May 1920. Such classics as Lawren Harris’ "Island, MacCallum Lake" (Vancouver Art Gallery), J.E.H. MacDonald’s "Falls, Montreal River" (Art Gallery of Ontario), Frank Johnston’s "Fire-Swept, Algoma" (National Gallery of Canada), A.Y. Jackson’s "First Snow, Algoma" (McMichael Canadian Collection) and Arthur Lismer’s "Isles of Spruce" (Hart House, University of Toronto), were all inspired by Algoma’s dramatic landscapes.
In August 1918 Johnston received a commission to draw and paint the activities of the flight training schools in southern Ontario for the Canadian War Memorials program; however, a trip to Algoma with Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald in October interrupted his war work and set him off in a new direction. “Our trip north was a great success – we struck new country in every respect and had a wonderful time sketching for all that was in us,” he wrote to Eric Brown, director of the National Gallery. “I returned with fifty three sketches–all sizes ranging from four to seven inches up to thirty by thirty. We all came back without a regret as regards the amount of work we could do. Next time you are in Toronto I would like you to see them. Sir Edmund Walker seemed to like them well enough to ask if Harris, MacDonald and myself would hold a three man show in the Grange this coming spring, so we are going to keep the collection of sketches intact, and try and get a couple of big ones painted to include in the show.”
Johnston had fifty‒seven works in the Algoma exhibition at the Art Museum of Toronto in late April 1919, fifty-one sketches of varying dimensions, probably most in tempera, his favoured medium, and six larger canvases previously shown with the Ontario Society of Artists in March. The writer in the "Toronto Daily Star" admired Johnston’s contributions, stating, “Mr. Johnston sees nature much as a huge decoration‒ the blue and purple mountains with a glimpse of orange sky; the sparkle of autumn foliage against the molten grey of a placid lake‒he eliminates detail and finds wide unbroken expanses.”
In September 1919 Johnston returned to Algoma with Harris, MacDonald and A.Y. Jackson, prior to the first Group exhibition in May 1920. In early fall of the same year, Johnston once again went to Algoma with Harris, Jackson and MacDonald to paint at Mongoose and nearby Wart Lake. It was during this trip when he would have painted this tempera on paperboard. "Sun Song of Algoma" is set from an unusual vantage point, providing a view looking up at the pine trees and an indigo sky. Johnston used a striking monochromatic colour palette of deep blues and purples, repeated in the sky, mountains and rock formations, contrasted with the bright white clouds.
Johnston was a prolific artist, as evidenced by his delight in his own production. Having encountered financial difficulties constructing a house in north Toronto, in the fall of 1920 he moved his family to Winnipeg, where he taught at the city’s art school and directed the public gallery. In January 1922 he held an exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery that included three hundred twenty-six works of which over one hundred bore Algoma titles. In spite of the great number of Algoma subjects he painted, they remain relatively rare and most of the known works are decorative arrangements of trees and foliage against hills or sky.
