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Collection

Scenes of summer

A painting with a hill in the foreground and a sky in the back

J.E.H. MacDonald, One Nee Hill, Petite Rivière, Nova Scotia, date unknown. Oil on wood-pulp board, Overall: 21.5 x 26.4 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario

A painting with a hill in the foreground and a sky in the back
J.E.H. MacDonald, One Nee Hill, Petite Rivière, Nova Scotia, date unknown. Oil on wood-pulp board, Overall: 21.5 x 26.4 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario

We’re not ready to say goodbye to summer just yet. In honour of the sunny season, we’ve picked some of our favourite Canadian paintings in the AGO Collection that give us that summer-time feeling.

All the paintings below are currently on view. Stop by the AGO today to see these gorgeous summer sights. If the humidity outside has you down, remember the AGO is air conditioned so forget the humidity, and enjoy these summer scenes in comfort.

A little girl sitting at the beach shoreline with building in the back
James Wilson Morrice, Beach, Paramé, c. 1902-1903. Oil on wood, 23.5 x 32.7 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario

This peaceful beach scene was painted in France, the country where Canadian landscape artist James Wilson Morrice spent much of his adult life.

A tree beside a lake
Tom Thomson, The West Wind, Winter 1916-1917. Oil on canvas, Unframed: 120.7 × 137.9 cm. Gift of the Canadian Club of Toronto, 1926.

One of the AGO’s most celebrated works, The West Wind was based on a sketch Thomson made in Ontario’s Algonquin Park. This iconic work can be found in the Fudger Rotunda on the Main Level.

A painting of a family standing around a horse
Cornelius Krieghoff, Going to Town to Market (Summer), 1845. Oil on canvas, Overall: 35.5 x 53.4 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Enjoy spending a Saturday at St. Lawrence or Kensington Market with the family? So did Cornelius Krieghoff – as this summer scene of a family trip to the market shows. (Want to learn more about Krieghoff? Check out this post about a fascinating winter-time Krieghoff painting.)

A scene of a beach and sky
J.E.H. MacDonald, Charles Band Island, c. 1930. Oil on composite wood-pulp board, Overall: 17.7 x 22.8 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

This breezy landscape by J.E.H MacDonald is in our Thomson Collection, Gallery 215, Level 2.

Painted squares of a boat sinking
Joyce Wieland, Boat Tragedy, 1964. Oil on canvas, Overall: 50.2 x 121.9 cm. Gift from the Toronto Dominion Bank, 1965. © 2018 Art Gallery of Ontario

Canadian artist Joyce Wieland reminds us that not all nautical adventures are happy ones. Find out more about this work currently on view in the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art.

A young girl walking to the beach
Paul Peel, The Young Gleaner or The Butterflies, 1888. Oil on canvas, Overall: 124.2 x 93.2 cm. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Summer-time is bug season – but they’re not all so bad, as the delicate butterflies in this Paul Peel painting remind us.

Like what you see? All of these paintings and more can be found in our Thompson Collection and the newly reopened J. S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art on our second floor, as well as the Fudger Rotunda on our first floor. Don’t forget, we’re free Wednesday nights from 6-9 pm and AGO Members are always free.

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