The artwork titled “Drowned Land,” created by Tom Thomson in 1912, is an oil painting on paper affixed to plywood. It belongs to the Realism movement and depicts a landscape as a sketch and study. The dimensions of the artwork are 17.5 x 25.1 cm. This piece is housed in the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada.
The artwork showcases a serene yet somber landscape dominated by waterlogged, spear-like trees reaching toward an overcast sky. The foreground features remnants of logs and wooden debris submerged in reflective water, suggesting the aftermath of a natural or environmental transformation. The distant greenery remains isolated beyond the marsh, emphasizing the encroaching dampness that defines the scene. Thomson’s brushwork captures the interplay of light and shadow on the water’s surface, employing naturalistic tones and textures that resonate with the viewer’s sense of place and time.
