signed lower left; signed verso; inscribed verso “O.S.A. / Little Picture Show / Title: Go Home Bay / Price: $40.00”
Exhibited: Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario Society of Artists: Little Pictures by Members of the Ontario Society of Artists, November 1931, cat. no. 202
It was in the early fall of 1913, after a summer of exploring and painting the splendours of Georgian Bay, that A.Y. Jackson received a surprise visit from Dr. James MacCallum. He had approached Jackson’s camp on the beach of Portage Island in his motorboat and, when they were introduced, Jackson recognized MacCallum as a friend of his colleague, Lawren Harris. MacCallum asked Jackson to show him some paintings (which impressed the patron), and then to show him his living quarters: an old, draughty bathing shack (much less impressive).
Finding that Jackson was planning to stay in the area until October, MacCallum offered the artist an opportunity to continue his stay in more comfortable quarters at his cottage, just north of Portage Island, at Go Home Bay. Jackson accepted, and when he mentioned that he might head to the United States for the winter, MacCallum made him another proposition, in an effort to keep Canadian artists in Canada: “If I would take a studio in the building he and Harris were having erected, he would guarantee my expenses for a year. Of course, I accepted.”
Go Home Bay provided Jackson with many opportunities to camp, fish, and most importantly sketch. “Padding around the islands and exploring intricate channels and bays that cut into the mainland provided me with much material”, he wrote. Often, MacCallum and his family would join Jackson on these expeditions in their own canoes. The area was replete with inspiring scenery in all seasons, and though the climate could be harsh, with rough winds, rocky shores, and stormy nights, Jackson loved it: “Go Home Bay and the outer islands are filled for me with happy memories of good friends and of efforts, more or less successful, that I made to portray its ever-varying moods.”
In 1931, when Jackson included this panel in the O.S.A.’s Little Pictures Show, he was a well established exhibitor of the Group and on the precipice of a new phase of his career: the Group of Seven would hold their final exhibition together that same year, and would formally disband in 1933. Jackson would go on to become a signature member of the newly formed Canadian Group of Painters, and his distinguished career would extend for years beyond the Group. His commitment to capturing the Canadian landscape was unfaltering, and Jackson would return to Go Home Bay for years to come, making his last trip in 1967.
In this work, from a spot amongst the rocks, on a shore within Go Home Bay, Jackson captures the natural debris and the incoming tide, as the pines — now synonymous with the Group and Tom Thomson — are swept by the wind against a cloudy sky.
Reference:
1. A.Y. Jackson, “A Painter’s Country”, 1958, pp. 30, 91
