Paintings of Algonquin Park were becoming a theme of Canadian painters in the early years of the Twentieth century.

In 1909, the year he returned to Canada, he went to the park in order to paint Canadian landscape themes.

He painted The Evening Cloud of the Northland in 1910, a view of a forest fire burning in distant hills.

"[7] The Evening Cloud of the Northland is considered a masterpiece and is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

In 1917, he worked as an Official War Artist with Frederick Varley, Maurice Cullen, and Charles Walter Simpson for the Canadian Expeditionary Force[8] but became aghast at the destructive power of modern warfare.