signed lower centre; signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal QC (label verso)
It was in 1913 that A. Y. Jackson first met Dr. James MacCallum and stayed at his cottage at Go Home Bay. Dr. MacCallum was an arts patron and friend of Lauren Harris who at the time was working with Harris to construct a building in Toronto where artists might live and work in comfort (the Studio Building). Jackson was spending early fall in rather chilly living quarters on Georgian Bay. On p. 30 of “A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A. Y. Jackson” (Clark, Irwin & Company Limited; 1976) Jackson recalls the day McCallum pulled his boat onto the beach, introduced himself, and asked to see the work he was doing. Seemingly impressed, he offered Jackson the opportunity to continue his stay in more comfortable quarters at Go Home Bay. He went on to make Jackson a surprising proposition: “If I would take a studio in the building he and Harris were having erected, he would guarantee my expenses for the year.” It was a fateful meeting…Jackson accepted.
Go Home Bay, made up of a cluster of islands on the east side of Georgian Bay, provided Jackson with many opportunities to camp, fish and, most importantly, sketch. He writes “Paddling around the islands and exploring intricate channels and bays that cut into the mainland provided me with much material (p. 31). He fondly recalls sketching trips with MacCallum: “I have many memories of long canoe trips and rough portages with him, and of campfires on delectable islands, but what I remember best is MacCallum, the loyal friend to the artists of the Group of Seven when faith in us was low.” (p. 87)
Jackson was fond of Go Home Bay, returning many times over the decades, even after Dr. MacCallum had passed away. “Go Home Bay and the outer islands are filled for me with happy memories and good friends and of efforts, more or less successful, that I made to portray its ever-varying moods.” (p. 91) On one such nostalgic trip, Jackson produced this lively sketch: one can imagine the artist sitting by the shore, reminiscing, and gazing out over the rugged, rocky ground of the Canadian Shield, towards a row of pines – an iconic Group of Seven motif.
