Algonquin Park

Winter takes over almost the entire scene here, but Tom Thomson refused to paint it as plain white. Instead, the snow shimmers with quick strokes of blue, lavender, and warm gold, crossed by long bluish shadows that ripple across the drifts. Twisting bare trees lean along the edge of the frozen ground, and behind them a strip of rust-colored brush and dark evergreens rolls back toward gentle hills. Above it all, a restless sky of heavy clouds seems to drift and shift. The place is Algonquin Park in Ontario, a rugged patch of Canadian wilderness that Thomson kept coming back to throughout his short career.

Painted in 1914, this work came just before a circle of artists called the Group of Seven formed, and Thomson's thick, confident brushwork helped point them toward their bold way of capturing Canada's wild north. Mostly self-taught, he spent his days outdoors sketching, fishing, and paddling through the very landscapes he painted. His story ended in tragedy in 1917, when he drowned in Canoe Lake at just thirty-nine, a death still wrapped in unanswered questions. The mystery added to his fame, and he remains one of the country's most cherished painters of the northern land.