Director's Choice:
Tom Thomson
March 4, 2026 — Sarah Milroy
Tom Thomson's sketch and canvas depicting Algonquin Park during the spring thaw are among the most prized holdings of the McMichael, and we are delighted to show them in our current exhibition, Old Growth. The larger canvas is a major artistic statement, a work fit for the mantelpiece, with ornately creeping Art Nouveau shadows in the foreground, harmonized colours carefully counterpoised, and a decorative surge of brooding clouds aloft. But it is the brighter and livelier little oil sketch that's the dazzler, delivering the sharp sting of a cold blue sky and scudding clouds, and the pulpy texture of sodden spring earth as the melting snow retreats, rendered in a flurry of confident quick strokes. Pinks and lavenders in sky and snow hint at subtle warming as the sun's strength returns, capturing that revelatory moment when you realize that the cold days of winter are finally done.
Thomson was always keen to make his way to the park early in the year, to get in some weeks of solid sketching before the warmer summer months arrived. In the high season, he might work as a fishing guide or fire ranger, but the shoulder seasons were his bliss, with the land deliciously free of tourists and distractions. This sketch speaks of Thomson's pleasures in solitude, alone but not lonely in his favourite painting place.
Sarah Milroy
Frances and Tim Price Executive Director and Chief Curator
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Old Growth: Masterworks by the Group of Seven and their Contemporaries
On view through Jul 5
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