Clearing After Rain, Maganatawan River, Ontario

Rain has just lifted off the Maganatawan River, and wet sky dominates the scene. In Clearing After Rain, J. E. H. MacDonald paints the northern Ontario wilderness at the moment the storm lets go. Cloud banks part in smoky grey and pale sulphur yellow, letting a low glare spill onto the water. The river itself reads as a band of slate and steel blue, its surface broken by the dark verticals of spruce and windthrown trunks along the banks. MacDonald works the brush in loaded, directional strokes, the kind Group of Seven painters used to give granite shorelines and boggy shallows their weight. Reflections double every tree in softened ochre and green, while the wet foreground carries a cold violet cast. A study or cottage living room with timber and stone suits this mood of northern air and cleared weather.