Anglican Church at Magnetawan

In 1926 Casson moved to the Toronto firm of Sampson-Matthews Ltd. where he would become Vice-President and Art Director over the next thirty-two years. He painted with Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris (1885-1970) and A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974) on the north shore of Lake Superior in 1928 but his favourite subjects were rural Ontario villages and human habitation in the northern Ontario landscapes. This painting of the Anglican church of St. George the Martyr was the result of a 1932 sketching trip on the Magnetawan River east of Georgian Bay. The artists' usual practice was to paint oil sketches on these trips and paint the canvases in their Toronto studios. The formal treatment of the building and landscape affirms the subject's institutional and spiritual values.