LANDSCAPE ART IN CANADA 



ing fish. At sunset the deer steal out on to the lake shores and stand like 

 statues in the level glow, scarcely lifting their heads from the feeding 

 to watch the passing canoe. Autumn comes when the mists and dews 

 are burnt up by the midday sun, and the flaming scarlet and gold of 

 maples and birches vie with the emerald and olive greens to paint a 

 picture regal in its gorgeousness. And at last the winter, when the quiet 

 snow has buried every landmark, and all the world is blue and white. 

 It is possible to paint out of doors in March ; the snow is often at its 

 deepest but the sun is as high as it is in England in May. It is a climate 

 to breed landscape painters and such seasons are their nurture. 

 John W. Beatty (pp. 9 and 10), is one of those artists to whom the in- 

 timacy of this new Canada is being revealed. It is six years ago since 

 his two pictures The Evening Cloud of the Northland and Prospectors, the 

 fruits of a trip into the country where Porcupine now yields her gold, 

 first heralded the attempt to paint into this northern wilderness the 

 quality of its trackless immensity. Beatty 's Morning, Algonquin Park 

 (p. 9), or his Hemlock Forest are representative of his recent work, which 

 takes to its accomplishment a straightforward simplicity of technique 

 and grasp of the subject as a whole which achieve results both powerful 

 and convincing. 



Lawren Harris leans more towards decoration than any other member 

 of this group. Thus, as may be seen from his Snow (p. 19), he finds 

 in the snow-laden spruces and stark pines the patterns for his decorative 

 compositions which do not evade a sufficient truth and add to it a satis- 

 fying surety of space and balance. Lawren Harris is a seeker, the prob- 

 lems he attacks change from year to year, and his buoyant and fetterless 

 art admirably typifies the new spirit of Canadian landscape painting. 

 Tom Thomson and Alexander Jackson occupy two of the foremost 

 places in this movement. The former has only been exhibiting a few 

 years, but in that time he has leapt into such prominence that critics 

 when looking at such a picture as his Northern River (p. 32), and 

 remembering his youth, look to him to carry forward the Canadian 

 landscape painting far beyond anything at present realized. Wandering 

 alone the best part of the year in the Algonquin Park, inured to hard- 

 ship, and reputed the best guide, fisherman, and canoeman in the district, 

 he lives with these wonderful seasons and they live by him. Here again 

 is the decorative sense strongly developed and visible in every compo- 

 sition. There is no loss of character ; the northland lies before you, 

 whether it is a winding river fringed with spring flowers seen through 

 a screen of gaunt-black pines, or whether the green blocks of melting 

 ice float on the blue, liberated waters of the lake. Alexander Jackson, 

 who, at the time of writing, after being twice wounded while fighting 

 with the Canadian Infantry in France, is now recuperating in England, 

 has achieved many successes with his striking studies of autumn and 



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