Travel
Photographing Lake Superior
A fall photo tour captures the spirit of Canada's largest Great Lake
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Perhaps it’s the imposing cliffs that surround it, or the saturated colours of its sunsets and storms. Perhaps it is its sheer size. Whatever the reason, Lake Superior — in particular the 550-kilometre stretch of shoreline between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay — has held a particular fascination for artists since before Canada became a country.
In a story that appeared in the December 1986 issue of Canadian Geographic, Celia Ross surveys various paintings created over a period of more than a century and suggests that Lake Superior poses an irresistible challenge — one that pushed some of Canada’s most notable painters to produce the best work of their careers.
“Our artists have had to mature and struggle over the years to meet the challenge of depicting this wild landscape,” Ross writes. “The story of their efforts turns out to be a capsule history of the development of landscape art in Canada.”
Here is a look at some of the most noteworthy depictions of the largest of the Great Lakes:
Travel
A fall photo tour captures the spirit of Canada's largest Great Lake
People & Culture
A century after the Group of Seven became famous for an idealized vision of Canadian nature, contemporary artists are incorporating environmental activism into work that highlights Canada’s disappearing landscapes
Environment
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Places
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