Provenance

Roberts Gallery, Toronto c.1960

Private Collection, Ontario

A.J. Casson was introduced to the Group of Seven through Franklin Carmichael, his colleague and mentor at the commercial art firm Rous & Mann Ltd., where they began working together in 1919. Carmichael brought Casson into the creative fold of Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club, where he became a regular at the Group’s “Artists’ Table”—a progressive circle that challenged the more conservative art scene of the time. By the mid-1920s, Casson was frequently sketching alongside Group members, and in 1926, he was officially invited to join. This was a pivotal decade in his career, marked by artistic growth and increasing recognition. His watercolour The Bay, Gravenhurst, offered here for sale for the first time in over 60 years, exemplifies his refined sense of design and mastery of the medium. Gravenhurst, one of Muskoka’s earliest settlements and a former hub for logging and steamship travel, held historic and personal significance for Casson. In this work, he captures the tranquil charm of the town’s waterfront with clarity and restraint, distilling the essence of place through simplified forms and delicate, luminous colours. “Group Period” Casson watercolours are rare and highly collectable and prized for their direct association with the formative years of his career and the legacy of the Group of Seven.