PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Edmonton

LITERATURE
A.J. Casson, My Favourite Watercolours, 1919 to 1957, 1982, foreword by Paul Duval, page 122

Traditionally, artists tend to work in standard-sized formats, and that is particularly true of A.J. Casson and other members of the Group of Seven. For smaller works, the artists’ sketch boxes used during en plein air painting excursions fit a very specific size of support. For larger studio works, however, sizing is more by tradition, in that rules of proportion incline certain ratios to be better suited to visually pleasing arrangements. Casson was, in both materials and quality, an extremely consistent artist, which makes a composition such as this one so notably unique. Impactful and dramatic, In the Cloche Hills contains many Casson hallmarks within a novel format, and it was produced at a key juncture in the artist’s career, both personally and professionally.

The Roberts Gallery label on verso suggests this work was first sold in the earliest days of an exclusive representation agreement between gallery and artist that began at the end of the 1950s. This arrangement closely followed Casson’s retirement as vice-president and art department head of Sampson-Matthews Ltd., one of Canada’s premier commercial art firms. Casson’s solo shows held at Roberts Gallery, initially comprising new and recent work before eventually exploring his rich back catalogue, were immensely successful.

The burgeoning Canadian art market of the 1950s had found its bearings and passionately embraced Casson’s work as the living connection to an artistic movement that had done so much to establish Canada’s national identity. CBC Radio would cover the openings, which were often boisterous, raucous events with all available works eagerly snapped up by collectors. This immense good fortune was not lost on the thoughtful and humble Casson, since many of his closest friends and Canada’s most important artists had not lived to benefit from this fortuitous timing.

While many of the most well-known depictions of Georgian Bay show its more southern locations like Go Home Bay and Pine Island, this work is set in one of the bay’s more remote areas, depicting its northernmost region where the North Channel connects this storied body of water to Lake Huron. With a tendency towards windswept storminess, this region was also favoured by fellow Group member Arthur Lismer, who was enthralled with the more rugged elements of its character.

This region is also bordered by the La Cloche Mountains, an area Casson was first introduced to by his friend and mentor Franklin Carmichael, who passed away in the autumn of 1945, only a few years before this painting was created. It was Carmichael who had facilitated the younger artist’s 1926 initiation into the Group of Seven, and their close connection gave this part of Ontario a deep resonance for Casson. From 1947 to 1950, La Cloche was one of Casson’s primary painting locales, with the artist staying at a lodge in this exact region for two weeks in 1947. He later reminisced, “I found the Cloche Hills an excellent place to sketch.… I was attracted by the Jackpines and the white rocks covered in lichen.”

Here, he incorporates each of those elements into the composition, with the rugged pine surging skyward from an amphitheatre of dappled quartzite stone below. This effect is deftly amplified by the fascinating low angle of the perspective paired with the marked verticality of the support. The stillness of the water in counterpoint to the turbulent sky conveys Casson’s distinctive sense of the dramatic, always subtle yet stirring. Casson’s work often expresses essential elements of nature’s theatricality, and we see that displayed here with a compelling mastery.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars