I have always had an affection for old, country stores. This may well stem from the fact that there were storekeepers both in mine and my wife’s families.

—A.J. Casson

The imagery of rural Ontario communities is central to A.J. Casson’s distinctive body of work. These subjects allowed him to showcase his deft skills as a draughtsman and also gave him the opportunity to convey a kind, even idyllic, sentiment. Rendered with rich detail and character, his depictions of country buildings are often central to the composition, as a sitter might appear within a portrait. Over decades of sketching journeys with his friend, mentor and fellow Group of Seven member Franklin Carmichael, Casson revisited views of homes, inns, mills and storefronts.

The dominant building in this composition may, in fact, be a modest country storefront. Various goods and advertisements can be discerned in the window, and its construction aligns with Casson’s observation that these general stores were “invariably part business and part house.” The exact subject, however, is less important than Casson’s ability to place humanity harmoniously within nature, in compelling counterpoint to the ethos of many of his contemporaries, who often kept nature and humanity on either side of a divide.

He began to engage with these themes in the late 1910s, and they would become a recognizably Casson motif. While other Group members, such as Lawren Harris, had periods in which they focused on urban and rural architecture, only Casson maintained a steadfast interest throughout his career. As a further testament to the uniqueness of Casson’s works within this period of Canadian painting, when placed on a broader spectrum of artistic comparisons, Casson’s village paintings lean more towards Edward Hopper than they do to John Constable, whose work so compelled Group patriarch J.E.H. MacDonald. Comparable in their modernity to Hopper’s, Casson’s works take on a distinctive, individual tone: while one can often perceive a harrowing alienation in Hopper’s work, something more existentially serene exists in Casson’s. Although Casson was entirely capable of depicting the imposing, even immense grandeur of nature, especially in his angular skies and massive vistas, he was equally adept at placing his sympathies amongst people and community.

With regards to technique, aside from earlier oil sketches, Casson did not typically utilize thick impasto applications. Instead, he experimented with more nuanced variations of texture and gesture, as seen here. The character of the painted surface of the sky, for example, and its large, varying applications, serves to scatter reflected light, lending a sense of inner luminosity. Through a palette dominated by shades of white and pale, cool blues, a stilled winter chill is palpable within the scene, accentuated by the lone figure’s subtle hunch against the cold.

These overarching choices are complemented by the subtle yet joyful playfulness of the angular blocks of colour depicting doors, signs, windows and half-pulled blinds. The stylized simplicity of these decisions underscores the modernity in Casson’s work, even carrying a subtle nod to the formalist experiments of De Stijl artists such as Piet Mondrian. Most importantly, however, Casson captures here, with a remarkable distinctiveness, an intimate daily moment in a rural community with a warm and enduring regard.