John Douglas Lawley was most known for painting Canadian street scenes and animals – particularly the cab horses in and around Mount Royale and Old Montreal. Horses particularly were of special interest to the artist, and one of his ambitions was to visit Sable Island to paint the legendary wild horses. He received permission from the Department of Fisheries to visit the Island as a result of extensive research into the origin of the Sable Island horses and found their history originated as far back as 1518, when Baron de Lery of France abandoned the various domestic animals he brought onboard to the Island in an attempt to establish a settlement, which was unsuccessful.  The Island’s harsh environment made settlement challenging and the angry Atlantic surrounding it subsequently sunk 250 ships with little or no survivors. Lawley flew over the Island several times before landing to study the horses in detail, which resulted in a series of studies and largescale paintings of the ponies wandering among the sand dunes. The Island is now occupied by a small group from the meteorological division of the Government of Canada. Lawley’s Sable Island paintings were exhibited at his first one-man show, held at the Dominion Gallery in Montreal in April of 1962. His work was noted by one art critic as “A trifle conservative, the canvases do, nevertheless trap the movement of the horses, making a sensible sacrifice of detail to make this effect even more pronounced”.