Lake La Pêche, 1951

Private Collection, Toronto

Paul Duval, A.J. Casson, His Life and Works, A Tribute, 1980, unpaginated

Although A.Y. Jackson had invited A.J. Casson to paint in Quebec as early as the 1920s, Casson considered the province to be Jackson’s territory. He made his first sketching trip to Quebec in 1951, renting a cabin with his family for two weeks at a resort near Wakefield in the Gatineau region. This painting depicts the shoreline of Lake La Pêche, where the artist sketched while his daughter fished in a boat. The tranquil scene is interrupted only by three small birds in flight, with the Gatineau hills looming in the distance. This painting is the first executed in Quebec by Casson.

Casson’s sustained exploration of Quebec’s landscape began in 1966, when A.Y. Jackson finally persuaded him to accompany him on a sketching trip to Grenville, near the Ontario–Quebec border. As Paul Duval writes, “Casson was persuaded at last to paint in Quebec by A.Y. Jackson... Jackson spoke enthusiastically about the painting possibilities around the town of Grenville, a half-French, half-English community where he had stayed as a guest of Munroe Putnam.” The Putnams, while in Toronto buying a number of sketches by Casson, invited him to their home to paint with Jackson. After visiting Grenville, the artist was so taken with the surrounding countryside that he returned to paint there nearly every summer until 1974, staying with the Putnams. Casson produced at least one hundred and fifty oil sketches while exploring the surrounding countryside with Jackson showing him the best painting places.