Lawren Stewart Harris
Canyon V, Algoma Sketch XCVI
circa 1920
oil on board; pressed wood
27.0 x 34.8 cm
Edmonton Art Gallery
© 2003, Margaret H. Knox

This is a prime example of Lawren Harris’s most adventurous and accomplished Algoma landscapes. This sketch was painted during one of the famous boxcar sketching trips that Harris organized so that he and his artist friends could explore Northern Ontario. For these outings, Harris rented a boxcar from the Algoma Central Railway and had it outfitted as a moveable art studio and living quarters. Using this inventive method of transportation, the artists made several excursions to the vast Algoma region, which was still a wilderness. This dedication to painting the land, despite adverse weather and transportation conditions, underlines the intrepid nature of Canadian landscape artists.