Essay by Catharine Mastin

In 1922, Carmichael made his first known trip to the Severn River, Ontario. Bridging Lake Couchiching and Georgian Bay at the north end of Simcoe Country and the south end of the Muskoka District, Severn River was a defunct logging area recovering from extensive industrial deforestation in the nineteenth century. It was with A.J. Casson that Carmichael made that sketching excursion in October of 1922.

He and artist, William J. Wood returned there in the fall of 1923 when An Old House, Severn River, 1923 was painted. Wood reflected on their time together a few weeks afterwards when he wrote this: “Remembering your happy holiday and I might say mine too in Severn… so far I have fared quite fortunately since our stay in Severn.”¹ A geography of recuring interest, Carmichael sketched the Severn again in 1929 with Casson, where he created the watercolour Severn Bridge, 1929 (Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, 2006.006.002). It was such works that led him to create the studio watercolour Old Sawmills, Severn Bridge, 1930 (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1974.14).

Carmichael is well known for his industrial landscapes such as Old Sawmills, Severn Bridge, and In the Nickel Belt, 1928 (Ottawa Art Gallery, FAC 0108), but less so for the sketches that inspired him to comment on the ecological damage and built infrastructure left behind by industry. An Old House, Severn Bridge depicts a barren rocky landscape striped of most all vegetation excepts those trees surrounding a house nestled between an evergreen and a deciduous tree cluster in the middle ground.

The fall colour around the house provides a vibrant contrast with the bare rock formations and their striations and veins. It is a landscape in transition as nature works to recover the once plentiful forests; in the foreground and background hilltop, short trees begin to repopulate the land. On this bright fall day, a sky peppered with light cloud formations above casts shadows across the rocks to create engaging contrasts of light and dark.

Carmichael first began showing his Severn sketches in 1922 at the annual Little Pictures exhibitions organized by the Ontario Society of Artists. In 1924, he submitted An Old House, Severn Bridge to the annual Canadian National Exhibition and it was one of three works chosen for display.² His Severn River production is known to have included the oil painting, Houses, Severn Bridge (whereabouts unknown),³ and about a handful of identified Severn River area sketches in oil and watercolour. At this time in Carmichael’s career as part of the Group of Seven, it was the geography between Severn River and his home in Lansing that formed the subjects for his landscape painting practice.

- Catharine Mastin, July 27, 2006

¹ W.J. Wood to Carmichael, December 30, 1923, volume 5, file 33, “Correspondence, 1916-31,” Franklin Carmichael papers, Library and Archives of Canada.

² Canadian National Exhibition, August 23 – September 6, 1924, no. 337, An Old House (Severn Bridge), $35.

³ Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario Society of Artists 51st Annual Exhibition, March 10 – April 8, 1923, no. 29, Houses, Severn Bridge, $250.