Spring, Ste. Adele

In his reminiscences, Reminiscences of an Art Dealer, Walter Klinkhoff wrote the following about Robert Pilot:
"... In 1920, Robert Pilot, Albert Robinosn and Randolph Hewton were invited to exhibit in the first Group of Seven Exhibition in Toronto. On that occasion they did exhibit with the Group but declined to formalize their union. Had the course of art history been otherwise today we might have been lionising a "Group of Ten." However, Robinson later confided in me that the three simply could not share the philosophy of the others. They did not feel compelled to paint the remote wilderness of Canada, but preferred those inhabited places, particularly the Lower St. Lawrence region. Another factor must undoubtedly have been that Pilot and his two confreres were based in Montreal and maintained close ties with the artists who became the Beaver Hall Hill Group of painters. The Group of Seven had its base in Toronto, where Lawren Harris had built the Studio Building expressly for them. A.Y. Jackson, a life-long friend of Pilot, helped to reconcile the two groups and their philosophies. In the spring, in his native Quebec, Jackson painted with his friends along the banks and rolling country of the St. Lawrence; during the remainder of the year, he ventured to the wilderness reaches of the North and the West. Pilot's first love as subject was always Quebec."