The landscape paintings of Arthur Lismer’s long and impressive career depict Canadian scenes from coast to coast and from farmlands to alpine glaciers, but his most familiar and characteristic works are centred around the lakes and islands of Georgian Bay in Ontario. His dynamic brush-strokes and confident colour palette were perfectly suited to the rhythms and vitality of this much-loved landscape. In the bright and airy sketch Georgian Bay, we find the artist deftly capturing tall white pines swaying in the breeze of a summer’s day, and we are transported to this idyllic lakeshore to share in its appreciation.

As is evident in this jubilant depiction, Lismer was moved by the landscape of Georgian Bay, and he returned to it many times as a place to vacation and, of course, to paint. His work there resulted in many of his most enduring and notable compositions, capturing the various moods and qualities of this celebrated region. His first visit was in 1913, and by the 1940s he was making regular summer trips to the area. Like most of his fellow members of the Group of Seven, Lismer did not work as a full-time artist. For many years he worked in the field of art education, where his legacy is equally as commendable as his artistic one.

Because of the demands of these dual careers, time away from teaching often doubled as both family vacation and sketching expedition. As described by his daughter, “Holidays to Arthur Lismer, painter, meant physically transposing his family and studio to the great outdoors.”[1] This would most often occur in the summer, when he had a reprieve from his vocational responsibilities. Georgian Bay provided an ideal setting for the family to visit, with its abundant accommodation and recreation opportunities, and no shortage of the wild and striking landscapes that had long been the subject of Lismer’s artistic fascination.

This work was painted in August 1949, when Lismer was vacationing at Deerhorn Lodge at Manitou Dock. This island, like others in the region, enabled Lismer to paint a wide range of subjects, from the tangled undergrowth to the backwater pools, as well as classic Canadian subjects such as the iconic pines captured here. From the glowing green of the vegetation and the bright blue sky that is reflected in the water, Lismer’s use of colour in this panel is completely uninhibited, and he expertly utilizes boldness to make sense of the diversity of life found in this verdant landscape. As in many of his great works, his brushwork is direct and fluid, allowing us to recognize a familiar world and appreciate it in a new way.

Through this, Lismer’s summer sketching activities represent another facet of his teaching career: an opportunity to inspire the public to engage with their environment and be moved by it. He believed this was a critical responsibility and wrote: “All artists should teach, or in some way help others to see, encourage them to create—if only on the assumption that life is much richer for all people if they can see further and deeper than others into the meaning and beauty of life.”[2] Georgian Bay is a brilliant example of how Lismer’s paintings continue to teach Canadians about the majesty of the land we share, and can eloquently communicate the joy of spending time in the natural world.

1. Marjorie Lismer Bridges, A Border of Beauty: Arthur Lismer’s Pen and Pencil (Toronto: Red Rock, 1977), front flap.

2. Arthur Lismer, quoted in ibid., 139.

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