PROVENANCE
A gift from the Artist to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson
Empire Auction, Toronto, April 15, 1992
Private Collection, Toronto
By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver, 2003

Agawa Valley, Algoma is an energic and spirited sketch that captures the beauty of a wild and expansive Canadian landscape. It depicts Ontario’s rugged Algoma region, located to the east of Lake Superior. The significance of this subject is linked to the critical role that it played in catalyzing the formation of the Group of Seven, and the realization of a shared vision to depict Canada under its own terms.

Lawren Harris described Algoma as “a veritable paradise for the creative adventurer in paint in the Canadian North,”[1] and its diverse and dramatic landscapes were a critical source of artistic inspiration for him and other members of the Group. Harris first visited the area in the spring of 1918 with his friend and art patron Dr. James MacCallum, and after this initial reconnaissance demonstrated the area’s potential, the two men organized a return for the fall of that same year, this time accompanied by fellow artists J.E.H MacDonald and Frank Johnston.

Harris’s enthusiasm for Algoma is evident in his letters to MacDonald, who had been recovering from a stroke in Thornhill in early 1918. That summer, while organizing the first group trip, he wrote:

I have only one doubt. The Doc snores on occasion… I can think of nothing else that would interfere with your benefitting greatly from the trip—and once we leave the Soo [Sault Ste. Marie] and commence climbing into that paradise you will forget entirely to give your health or state of mind even a passing thought—just give up to drinking in gorgeousness with your eyes, sweet, woodsy sounds with your ears, and crisp, clean air with your lungs. God bless you!”[2]

Harris’s lighthearted concerns notwithstanding, the results of the 1918 trip were resoundingly successful, and Harris would organize subsequent group expeditions back to Algoma in 1919, 1920 and 1921.

A favourite sketching site on many of these trips was the majestic Agawa Valley, the subject enthusiastically captured in the panel. Today, the valley remains as splendid a sanctuary as it was when this was painted, still accessible only by rail (or by canoe), and insistently impressive in its grandeur and scale. In 1918, the artists were immediately inspired by it. MacDonald wrote upon arriving there:

The country is certainly all that Lawren and the Dr. said about it. It is a land after Dante’s heart.… The canyon seems to lead upwards [italics in the original], and has all the attributes of an imagined Paradise, excepting, perhaps, anything in the way of meadows. There are beautiful waterfalls on all sides, and the finest trees—spruce, elm and pine.[3]

For this sketch Harris has ventured up from the valley, climbing the hillside to get a better view of this grand landscape. The exposed rock on the far side with the mixed forest provides a monumental backdrop for the regal, old-growth white pines that transect the composition vertically. The arrangement creates a sense of great space, suggesting the seeming endlessness of this sublime land beyond the foreground trees, which are a mix of spruce, pine and deciduous trees in various stages of autumnal senescence.

The notation on the verso of this painting reveals that the artist gifted the work to its first owners, suggesting he was pleased with the result. It also gives us a glimpse of Harris’s sense of humour, having signed it “compliments of the perpetrator.” This echoes the amusing tone he used in a 1920 National Gallery of Canada survey, when he responded to the prompt “Particulars of any honours conferred in connection with art” by writing “Sold one picture once to a citizen. Citizen still alive.” Despite Harris’s modest approach to his works, one can be certain that the early collectors of his fine paintings, including Agawa Valley, Algoma, were appreciative to act as custodians to such important contributions to Canada’s artistic legacy.

We thank Alec Blair, Director/Lead Researcher, Lawren S. Harris Inventory Project, for contributing the above essay.

1. Lawren Harris, “The Group of Seven in Canadian History,” Report of the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association 27, no. 1 (1948): 34.

2. Harris to J.E. H. MacDonald, undated, 1918, LSH Estate Archives.

3. Quoted in Paul Duval, The Tangled Garden: The Art of J.E.H. MacDonald (Scarborough, ON: Cerebrus/Prentic Hall, 1978), 86–87.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars