Frank Johnston trained as an artist at the Central Technical School and the Central Ontario School of Art in Toronto, under the tutelage of Gustav Hahn, William Cruikshank and George Reid. Upon graduation, he joined the staff of the commercial graphic studio Grip Ltd., also in Toronto. After some time working in the United States, Johnston returned to Canada in 1915 and later painted with Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald, future colleagues in the Group of Seven, in the Algoma region of Ontario. Johnston was invited to become a founding member of the Group in 1920 and showed in their first exhibition that year. Johnston was offered the position of principal at the Winnipeg School of Art later in 1920 and moved to the city. He had returned to Toronto by 1927, where he worked as principal of his alma mater, the Ontario College of Art.

Lake of the Woods, east of Winnipeg, became a favourite painting location for Johnston when he lived there. Although this canvas was, as revealed on a label on the back of the work, sent to be exhibited at the Ontario Society of Artists exhibition in 1923, it was not included in the OSA exhibition. This was not uncommon; artists often submitted many more works for consideration than were ultimately selected. Given the painting’s provenance, it was likely sold to a private collector in Toronto in the mid-1920s.

A handsome and thoughtfully constructed composition, Pine Point, Lake of the Woods reveals Johnston’s confidence as both painter and draughtsman. The foreground is dominated by a small rocky spit and its foliage: pines, smaller brush and some blooming flowers. Johnston has asserted the importance of this vegetation by placing it securely in the centre of the composition and painting the dominant trees so that they extend beyond the pictorial space. Pine Point, and its dense vegetation, is of central importance and defines our perception of the landscape behind these foreground elements. Here Johnston has employed a pictorial device—the foreground screen of trees—seen in many works by his Group colleagues. This almost abrupt introduction to the scene allows Johnston to control our visual passage through the landscape.

Sunlight is suggested by the lighter, reflected passages on the surface of the water and the bright yellow flowers on the foreground spit of land. Beyond this introductory screen, the rocky shoreline at the right, the more distant spit of land, the darker blue water and the landscape in the background all suggest the immense scale of Lake of the Woods. In contrast with the relatively quiet cloudy sky above this sweeping landscape, Johnston emphasizes the elaborate pattern of the foliage of the foreground pines. Meanwhile, the openness of the branches at the top of the composition visually balances the density of the brush at the base of the pines.

Pine Point, Lake of the Woods reveals itself both quickly and slowly. Initially the composition seems both visually striking and relatively simple. As the eye explores the composition more thoroughly, Johnston’s expertise as a painter becomes evident, as he guides our exploration of this landscape. In some places the eye moves quickly; in others, like the richly detailed and textured foreground, it moves more slowly. Johnston’s skilfully executed canvas reveals both the beauty and the majesty of his subject.

This painting has been held within the same family’s collection for three generations until its consignment with Heffel, over 100 years after it was painted.