Provenance

"In recent years the cowboy has almost disappeared and the West has become completely mechanized. However, the foothills of Alberta, with the mountains as a background, afford the artist endless material ... In the early thirties Alberta was beset by the years of drought; one could drive for miles and miles across the land without seeing a blade of grass. Russian thistle and dwarf cactus seemed to be all that would grow there. Underneath the burned-up land was wealth untold, which only a few people then visualized. Hills rose from the prairies, range after range of them, and then themountains rose abruptly out of the hills. Valleys with shallow streams at the bottom cut through the hills. The countryside offered all kinds of motifs for composition."

A.Y. Jackson, Excerpt from A Painter's Country, pp. 146-149