The early twentieth-century landscape work of Lawren Harris and his contemporaries, including the Group of Seven, is defined by an appreciation for the Canadian North; the art they produced forged a new vision of the country, securing a profound legacy. Harris wrote of their endeavor:

Our aim is to paint the Canadian scene in its own terms. This land is different in its air, moods, and spirit from Europe and the Old Country.…

It has to be seen, lived with, and painted with complete devotion to its own life and spirit before it yields its secrets.[1]

Inspired by the Scandinavian works that he and fellow future Group member J.E.H. MacDonald saw exhibited in Buffalo, New York, in 1913, Harris’s landscape work in Canada into the 1920s centred on discovering the diverse subjects of Ontario.

One of the earliest, and most quintessential, subjects for this burgeoning art movement was Algonquin Park. Adopted first by Tom Thomson as a sketching ground, Algonquin became the site where most of his development occurred and iconic works originated. He was joined at various times by future Group members, including Harris, who enjoyed a well-documented trip to the park in the late spring of 1916. This resulted in a fine series of works, including, for Thomson, the sketch for his celebrated canvas The West Wind (1917, collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario). Other visits by Harris are not as clearly documented, though he made multiple trips to Algonquin until the early 1930s, often accompanied by his young family.

A distinct series of paintings, to which this Algonquin Park sketch belongs, were painted during a winter trip with significant snow covering the ground and thus stand out from his other paintings of the region. Executed en plein air, and sketched with the same vigour and energy as his Algoma sketches of 1918 to 1921, Algonquin Park most likely comes from those same few years. This dating is supported by the existence of a finished canvas depicting a snow-covered camp, entitled Shacks, Algonquin Park (present whereabouts unknown), which was exhibited in the third Group of Seven exhibition, held in May 1922, and likely executed shortly beforehand.

Given the Algonquin subject, this work invites a strong association with Thomson, who died suddenly and mysteriously in the park in the summer of 1917. Without knowing the exact date of this work, we cannot know definitively whether Harris would have had the opportunity to discuss the piece with his friend, or if it instead was a chance to celebrate his memory. However, we can safely assume that the artist would have been reflecting on Thomson’s own works depicting the magnificence of the quiet streams and corners of the northern woods when sketching this subtle and nuanced scene. Harris owned four works by Thomson, including A Rapid (collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lawren S. Harris, 1927), a solemn and resonant sketch that immediately elicits comparison to this evocative work. Thomson’s work, though a fall scene, has a similar foreground of water (with swirling pools introducing complexity in the same way that the felled trees do in Harris’s work) and leads the audience towards a dark and shadowy distance in the centre background. The drama of both scenes allows their relatively limited palettes to work to great effect, displaying remarkable depth and dimension.

In Harris’s Algonquin Park sketch, the brilliant white of the snow in the foreground, blanketing the interlocked array of branches, provides engaging complexity, with understated colouring variation giving volume to the forms. The shadowy forest beyond, with the ultramarine snow and deep viridian and umber trees, carries our attention deep into the quiet of the winter scene.

This painting, and the small series of sketches from this winter trip to Algonquin, are rare and significant, as they link Harris’s early fascination with snow scenes, which were commonly executed with decorative formality, to his outdoor, plein air oil sketches that define his most essential Group-era works. Algonquin Park is a brilliant example of the crystallization of a new perspective on Canada, and an embodiment of the mission that Thomson, Harris and others in the Group of Seven sought to achieve: a celebration of the varied landscapes that Canada has to offer.

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

1. Quoted in Bess Harris and R.G.P. Colgrove, eds., Lawren Harris (Macmillan, 1969), 48.