A Contrast In Artistry

One of the changes in the Canadian collection included setting a large series of paintings together in this room as you see here, with a contrast in the foreground: an outstandingly crafted traditional birchbark canoe.

The painting at the far right in the above is this one. Lawren Harris painted Afternoon Sun, North Shore, Lake Superior in 1924 some years after the first of his many trips to this mighty lake. 

Franklin Carmichael was one of Harris' fellow members in the Group of Seven. The Upper Ottawa, Near Mattawa is a 1924 oil painting capturing a high view of the Ottawa River. Mattawa is a village some hours northwest of the capital, and still a rugged area today. Carmichael uses the lone pine as his central focus, a concept often used by his colleagues in the Group.

War Scenes is the title of this 1926 work by a Blackfoot artist named White Wolf, using pictographs in the style of his people to recount history.

A tunic, mittens, and knife sheath are presented here. These are replicas of an outfit from the 1800s that was typical of the Gwich'in, and done from 2002 into 2003 by six members of the tribe. Maureen Wright, Karen Colin, Emily Francis, Patsy Krutko, Cheryl Moore, Karen Wright-Fraser, and Lucy Ann Yakelaya crafted these items as a replica of the original. The Gwich'in would wear these caribou hide items in summer in their homelands- the Mackenzie River delta and the northern stretches of the Yukon.

Burnt Land is a 1915 oil painting by Tom Thomson, depicting the aftermath of a wildfire.

Northern River is another Thomson, done in 1914-15. 

The Jack Pine is one of Thomson's iconic works, finished in the winter before his death in 1917, based on an oil sketch at Grand Lake, a place he spent time at in Algonquin Park. The location in question is preserved today in the park- a hiking trail leads to the very spot where Thomson painted at, though the pine itself is gone.