J.E.H. MacDonald’s mountain sketches radiate with the enthusiasm he had for the spectacular environments of the Canadian Rockies, and Mt. Ringrose from Wiwaxy Peaks Above Oesa Trail is a fine example from this catalogue. This lively oil sketch is a celebration of the alpine, where the artist has hiked high up a mountain slope and captured the effects of the early afternoon light playing on the spires and gullies that bring glorious drama to the settings around Lake O’Hara. The composition is direct and effective, highlighting the verticality of the scene and bringing viewers to his enviable vantage point in one of Canada’s most celebrated regions.

After his first visit in 1924, MacDonald was entranced by the potential of Lake O’Hara and its surroundings. He made annual late-summer visits until, in 1931, his failing health finally prevented his return. Many of Canadian art’s most exciting and powerful compositions capturing the spirit of the mountains emerged from the sketches MacDonald produced, and the experience he gathered, across his seven trips to the area. He created work of remarkable variety, his attention shifting constantly depending on the weather, the atmospheric conditions and the lighting. He diligently moved up and through the landscape to capture new and exciting viewpoints that went well beyond the typical lakeshore scenes that are often the most familiar and well-known depictions of the region.

As is characteristic of MacDonald, his faithful translation of the area’s topography gives the opportunity to pinpoint the exact location of this painting, as is done thoroughly for many paintings in the 2024 publication To See What He Saw, by Stanley Munn and Patricia Cucman. The authors determine that Mt. Ringrose from Wiwaxy Peaks “was painted at about 2,375 metres elevation on the steep, upper slope of Wiwaxy, approximately 150 metres below the saddle that separates Wiwaxy Peaks from Mount Huber.”[1] The date for the work, September 2, 1930, is inscribed by the artist on the lower right of the painting and written on the verso in his hand.

Given this information, MacDonald’s journals can provide even more fascinating insight surrounding the conditions of the work’s creation. His entry for that day reads:

To head of Lake again alone and up Oesa trail again. Went higher up Wiwaxy and made sketch of Biddle and Shaffer [sic] in mist effect.… Climbed higher for lunch and ate it above gravel slopes in a goat pasture. Many signs of goats about but saw no animals.… Smoky mountains again in afternoon & a singing bird new to me on mountain, a hurried formless little song but sweet & wild. Another sketch. Later it cleared a little and made a third one of Lefroy and Ringrose. Came down by a well established goat path.… A fine day.[2]

From this account, and knowledge of his other works, we can determine that Mt. Ringrose from Wiwaxy Peaks was the second of the three sketches MacDonald painted that day, and we are able to appreciate more fully that his work capturing the atmospheric early afternoon light on the mountains was carried out in seemingly as idyllic and heavenly conditions as one might hope for. It is easy to see why MacDonald concluded his journal entry for the day with the satisfied, succinct and understated “A fine day.” This work stands as a testament to the many moments where the vitality of the mountains is presented to those lucky enough to visit them, skilfully and effectively translating such majesty into paint and crystallizing it to be treasured and enjoyed by all.

1. Stanley Munn and Patricia Cucman, To See What He Saw: J.E.H. MacDonald and the O’Hara Years, 1924–1932 (Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, 2024), 70.

2. J.E.H. MacDonald, 1930 diary, MG30, D111, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.