J.E.H. MacDonald, like Canadian artist Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith before him, found boundless creative inspiration in the Canadian Rockies. MacDonald first visited the Rockies with members of the Group of Seven in 1924. He returned regularly over the next six years, and, when his health failed, he continued to paint the Rockies in his studio until the final year of his life.

MacDonald’s first exhibitions of Rockies-inspired paintings were held at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) and the Arts & Letters Club in 1925. His majestic subject matter drew praise from his first viewers. The close-cropped mountains found in Near Lake Arthur are characteristic of MacDonald’s approach. These are not mountains seen from a comfortable distance in town; rather, they are rugged peaks that have required considerable effort to view and sketch. In style, Near Lake Arthur chooses a bold and stylized technique explored in such larger canvases as Early Morning, Rocky Mountains (1928). Unlike many of his earlier Algoma paintings, which are full of riotous movement, MacDonald’s paintings of the Rockies are often quiet studies displaying remarkable tonal variation. In the alpine stillness, MacDonald discovers a full spectrum of colour, ranging from “rainbow green” and “orange crimson” to “burning purple.”¹

1. J.E.H. MacDonald, “A Glimpse of the West” (1925), quoted in Nancy Townshend, “CanadianParks and Protected Areas through Artists’ Eyes: Transforming the Western Canadian Rockies.” (June 2008) http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/46914/1/Townshend.pdf