From the rolling ranchland of BC’s Cariboo to the peaks of the Rockies in Alberta and the Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories, A.Y. Jackson painted diverse landscapes across Canada. But arguably his most iconic scenes are those of villages and farm buildings in the snow-covered countryside of Quebec.

For a quarter of a century, from 1921 to 1947, each spring Jackson would make an expedition to the shores of the St. Lawrence River below Quebec City, to seek out rural subjects as the winter snow lingered on the fields. Farm at Chichester, Que. depicts a scene some distance to the west, but this sparkling canvas charms with many of the artist’s favoured motifs: a snaking fence, exposed rocks beneath melting snow, simple buildings with touches of bright colour, and, adding a human element, a lone figure splitting wood.

In 1955, Jackson left his long-term studio in Toronto and settled in Manotick, south of Ottawa, where he continued to work on canvases and undertake painting excursions. The municipality of Chichester, situated between the Ottawa River and the Laurentian mountain range, is about a two-hour drive from Manotick.