Alfred Joseph (A.J.) Casson was asked to join the Group of Seven in 1926. In accepting, he restored the Group to seven members, for Franz Johnston had left after their first exhibition in 1920.

Toronto, Ontario-born Casson blossomed as an apprentice to Franklin Carmichael at the commercial design firm Rous and Mann, and later joined Carmichael at another, Sampson-Matthews. Through this association, Casson met other Group of Seven members and began accompanying them on sketching trips. Among these was a memorable and demanding journey to the northern shores of Lake Superior, which Casson undertook with Carmichael, Lawren Harris, and A.Y. Jackson. From these excursions, Casson produced impressive canvases such as October (1928), a large oil depicting sculptural clouds moving swiftly over a lake and rocky shore.

But Casson also sought out opportunities to paint villages that, to him, conveyed a Canadian identity as eloquently as the landscape. In later years, he recalled, “I began to dig out places on my own. I also loved to paint villages … and I’m glad, because they’re pretty much gone now. They’ve all changed, fallen down or been destroyed.”¹ White River, October 1929 depicts such a place north of Lake Superior. Here, Casson chooses a perspective that balances the simple geometry of clapboard buildings and sinuous, snow-covered roads.

1. quoted in Anne Newlands, Canadian Paintings, Prints and Drawings (Richmond Hill, ON: Firefly Books, 2007), 74.