EXHIBITION OF EARLY CANADIAN MASTERPIECES

The consignment of a major collection of early watercolours spurred the decision to mount a major retrospective exhibition of Early Canadian Masterpieces, with the addition of works collected by us over many decades. Spanning the century between 1825 and 1925, this exhibition represents major early artists committed to capturing the lifestyle and landscape of early Indigenous and pioneer life across Canada.

While Canada was discovered by European Vikings as early as the twelfth century, it would be another 500 years before European explorers began to arrive in earnest. While the Indigenous populations of early Canada had their own artistic traditions, the first Europeans brought with them traditional European methods used to document the cartography and describe visual accounts of North American early life including the flora and fauna. Early drawings were often reproduced as etchings that became popular and were spread throughout Europe. With colonization came the immigration of skilled artists who recorded historic events, battles, visual accounts and leaders both Indigenous and immigrant. 

By the early 19th century artists in Canada specialized in portraiture, marine painting and landscapes. Pre-confederation artists include Peter Rindisbacher, Theophile Hamel, George Henry Burgess, William Armstrong, William Hind, Frederick Whympers, Charles Jones Way, John Innes, and Frederick Verner. Many of these artists accompanied exploratory or military expeditions across the country, often following the lure of gold. 

While Canadian artists often received their initial training at home, some travelled internationally to study and gain recognition. Many studied under international artists, or attended institutions such as the Royal Academy London or the Academie Julien in Paris. While some of these artists settled abroad, such as William Blair Bruce, many travelled back and forth, like F.M. Bell-Smith, James Macdonald Barnsley, and John Wentworh Russell. Most returned to Canada to paint the picturesque landscape and growing cities and towns across the country. These included many women artists such as Laura Muntz and Mary Riter Hamilton.

A transcontinental railway was conceived in 1849, aimed at uniting the country, spreading the population to the west and creating a physical border to the south. Construction was started on the complicated and expensive undertaking in 1871. Artist John Hammond accompanied the early survey team, and photographer Richard Maynard was hired to photograph railroad construction between Port Moody and Eagle’s Pass. The railroad was completed in 1885, with the first commercial run occurring in the summer of 1886. General Manager William Van Horne understood that in order to survive the railway needed passengers and set out to publicize the new train line and the picturesque landscape it traversed. "If we can't export the scenery," he is quoted as saying, "we'll import the tourists." An amateur artist himself, Van Horn offered artists, photographers and writers a free pass program to paint sites along the new railway line in exchange for first choice of their artwork. Lucius O’Brien, first President of the newly formed Royal Canadian Academy, was one of the first artist to travel west with this artist pass on the newly completed railway. Many others were soon to follow, including F.M. Bell-Smith, John Hammond, Thomas Mower Martin, John William Beatty and more. This program succeeded at spurring interest for travel to the west and boosted tourism.  

Known as the Railway Artists, between 1886-1914 these artists documented the opening of the Canadian West. Artists in the free pass program received rail passage, accommodation, temporary rail car studios, and the promotion of their work at international exhibitions, which resulted in the CPR assembling one of the most significant art collections in Canadian history. Different from American artists who were promoting their Manifest Destiny, Canadian artists developed a unique style of landscape painting, embracing modesty but doing so on a grand scale. 

The railway had a lasting effect on the Western landscape, and people who lived and settled there. Artists endeavored to capture not only the majestic landscape but also the impact and critical role the CPR had on the settlement process and indigenous population, the selection and development of townsites, and Western industrial growth. 

Join us on a journey through early Canadian art history. Opening reception Saturday, November 30 from 1-4 pm.

George Henry Burgess (British 1831-1905)

George Henry Burgess was born in London, England in 1831 where he studied at the Somerset House School of Design and worked in a lithograph shop. In 1849, George and his brothers moved to San Francisco to join the Californian Gold Rush, where they worked as miners, jewellers and hunters, with George documenting the city and gold rush. The brothers travelled to the Hawaiian Islands three times in 1855-57, 1866-67, and 1871 where George produced a series of landscapes and portraits. Member and co-founder of the San Francisco Artists’s Association, he produced landscapes and lithographs of the Bay Area including an exhibition titled “San Francisco in 1849”. He died in Berkeley, California in 1905.

When gold was discovered in British Columbia in 1858, Burgess travelled by canoe to from Hope to just North of Lillooet documenting the Fraser River Gold Rush in sketches and paintings. These two watercolours are from this exciting expedition and the larger depicts the artist steering the canoe. 

William Armstrong (Canadian 1822-1914)

Born in Ireland in 1822, William Armstrong studied art in Dublin and engineering in England before immigrating to Canada in 1851. He worked as a civil engineer in Toronto where he was a pioneer in the use of photography for industrial purposes and worked on some of Canada’s earliest railways. In 1859 Armstrong travelled for the first time to Fort William, present day Thunder Bay, and its vicinity. This was the first of a series of trips west where he found the focus for his future work as an engineer and artist documenting the Canadian frontier. He was to accompany various survey expeditions and worked with CPR railway construction parties as well as visited the Rocky Mountains in 1877 with Sanford Fleming’s party. Armstrong’s paintings depicted early First Nations encampments and pioneer life, showing the remnants of the fur trade, mining and events of the day.

The setting of this watercolour is most likely Fort William, at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River, now the present day Thunder Bay. The town was selected as the starting point for construction of the pacific Railway to the west.

These important Gold Standard Balances made by Howard and Davis of Boston was considered to be the world’s finest type of weighing device at the height of the North American gold rushes. Howard and Davis supplied gold scales for most of the banks in Boston, and their scales were said to be as accurate as the Scales of Justice and rumoured to be so sensitive that they could weigh a signature made with a lead pencil. It was imperative that the weighing of gold dust was accurate, as miners watched anxiously as their gold dust was carefully placed on one side of the scales and calculated weights placed on the other.

Edward Howard and David Potter Davis trained and apprenticed under Aaron Willard Jr. of Roxbury, Massachusetts in clockmaking before forming their firm in 1842. For a short time between 1844 to 1847 the firm was joined by Luther Stephenson and named Stephenson, Howard & Davis. The original company built a reputation for their high quality, producing clocks, precision balances and scales, as well as sewing machines and fire pumps. The firm was dissolved in 1857 when Davis left and joined Davis, Polsey & Co. and Edward Howard continued his own firm, E. Howard & Co. 

This extremely rare and important piece of early British Columbia history was made for the Hudson's Bay post at Barkerville and came from the museum at Barkerville. It is said to be the scale which weighed every ounce of gold that came out of Barkerville. 

William George Richardson Hind (Canadian 1833-1889)

Born in England, William Hind immigrated with his family to Canada in 1851 to join his brother Henry, an author and explorer who taught at the Toronto Normal School. At the age of 18, Wililams was appointed ‘drawing master’ at the school, where he taught until 1857 before opening a studio in Toronto. During a trip back to England in the late 1850’s Hind was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artists. Upon his return to Canada in the spring of 1861 he met his brother Henry in Montreal and joined his exploration party to the Moisie River as expedition artist, producing hundreds of sketches on the journey. Many of his sketches of the landscape and customs of the local Labrador Naskapi and Montagnais were used as woodcut illustrations in Henry’s published report of the journey “Explorations in the interior of the Labrador peninsula” in 1863. These sketches were also the foundation for a group of larger watercolour works completed upon the return to Toronto, 16 of which were also used as coloured lithographs in the same report. 

In April 1862 Hind joined the ‘Overlanders’ trek of approximately 150 travelers who followed the old fur trader’s trails traveling westward from Fort Garry across the prairies and over the Rocky Mountains to the Cariboo Gold Rush. The perilous trip took several months and Hind documented the journey with sketchbooks and detailed watercolours. He visited San Francisco in the autumn of 1862 painting the California goldfields, then settled in Victoria in 1863 where he lived for several years working as an artist and sign painter. He returned to the Cariboo in 1864 where he produced a number of detailed watercolours documenting the gold fields. He lived in Winnipeg from 1869-70, then followed his brother to Nova Scotia working possibly as a draughtsman for the International Railway Company. William settled in Sussex, New Brunswick where he died in 1889. His Cariboo works traveled with him and were discovered in 1927 in the attic of Henry’s house in Windsor.

These two watercolours depicts Seven Islands, the location of a mission and Hudson's Bay post, and Moisie located beside it in the north eastern region of Quebec. Both were painted in 1861 during William and Henry’s expedition exploring the Moisie River, Quebec’s longest river from Sept-Iles to the Ashuanipi River in Labrador.

Charles Jones Way (Canadian 1835-1919)

Born in Devon in 1835, Charles Jones Way was one of the many British artists who immigrated to Canada. Way studied at the South Kensington School of Art before immigrating to Canada and settling in Montreal circa 1858. Working in oil, watercolour and chalk, he is known for his romantically inspired landscapes, urban views and building studies in Southern Quebec and Southern Ontario. A selection of his paintings were photographed by photographer William Notman and published in his 1863-4 book. Way also travelled west with the Railway Artists in 1898, visiting and painting the Rocky Mountains and as far as Victoria for the CPR. He travelled extensively painting frequently in England, Italy and Switzerland, settling in Lausanne in 1900 where he remained until his death in 1919.

Also known as the Kana:tso or Akikodjiwan Falls, the Chaudière Falls are a set of cascades and waterfall in the center of the now Ottawa-Gatineau area where the Ottawa River narrows. During the fur trade, the falls were an obstacle along the Ottawa River trade route where canoes portaged around the falls in the area now known as Hull.

The Port Neuf Rapids are located on the Saint Lawrence River between Quebec City and Trois-Rivières. The area was granted in 1636 by the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France as a seignory to Jacques Leneuf de La Poterie, who became substitute Governor of Trois-Rivières from 1645-1662. The first colonizers arrived around 1640 and settled at the mouth of the “Port Neuf” river which means “New Harbour”.

Frederick Whymper (Canadian 1838-1901)

Frederick Whymper was a topographical explorer, artist, illustrator and author best known for his documentation of the west coast of North America. He travelled throughout the Northern Pacific from 1862 to 1867, first settling in Victoria. He embarked on a sketching tour of the Cariboo Gold Rush in 1863, where he was commissioned to draw and paint by mining companies, claim holders and prominent citizens. In 1864 he was hired to publicize the new Cariboo Wagon Road, however the enterprise was plagued with problems and the project was eventually abandoned after Whymper’s account of the attack and subsequent killing of builders on the project by local First Nations was publicized. He served as documenting artist on the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition which covered much of the southern part of Vancouver Island, and exhibited 33 drawings upon his return to Victoria in November 1864. Over the winter of 1866-67 he joined the Russian-American Telegraph project building a telegraph line to link the United States to Europe via BC, Alaska and Siberia. During this time he travelled throughout region documenting  the volcanos and glaciers of Kamchatka and Alaska. In November of 1867 Whymper returned to England to write his book Travel and Adventure in the territory of Alaska. The book contained several chapters on his travels in British Columbia and was illustrated with his drawings

This rare watercolour sketch, dated 1865, depicts Yale, BC which sits at the beginning of the Cariboo Road, also called the Great North Road, Cariboo Wagon Road, or Queen’s Highway. The road stretched from Fort Yale through the hazardous canyon territory north via the Fraser Canyon over Hell’s Gate, connecting to the Cariboo Road at Clinton to the terminus at Barkerville. Originally a rough and dangerous ‘mule trail’, the road was built to lower supply costs to the gold fields of the Cariboo. Frederick Whymper was hired to publicize the new road, however the enterprise was plagued with problems and the project was eventually abandoned. This sketch is dated 1865 and depicts the picturesque town situated where the Fraser River emerges from the mountains showing the contrast of wilderness and frontier civilization. On the left is the original log house which served as both store and Hudson’s Bay Company fort, behind which is the Church of St. John the Divine. Along the main thoroughfare in the center are the false-front saloons, hotels, stores and liveries of the main town, with the steamer to the right on the river. Yale was a popular subject and painted many times by Whymper, who used his pencil sketches to create watercolour copies on demand for sale. Sketches of Yale are held by Library and Archives Canada, the National Gallery, and the British Columbia Archives, and Milton & Cheadle and Robert Brown both used these depictions of Yale as illustrations in their books.

Théophile Hamel (Canadian 1817-1870)

Théophile Hamel is considered one of Canada’s greatest early portrait painters, creating oil portraits of many important figures of government, aristocracy and the church. The success of his work allowed Hamel to leave behind his modest upbringing and operate within the intellectual and social elite of 19th century Quebec.

Isabella Buchanan was the first wife of William Augustus Baldwin (1808-1883), the brother of Robert Baldwin (1804-1858) who with Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine led the first responsible ministry in Canada prior to Confederation and was instrumental in setting up modern municipal government and the jury system in Canada. William Baldwin lived on a family farm between Spadina and Avenue Road, Toronto. He transformed this family property into valuable real estate in which is now downtown Toronto.  

Richard Maynard (Canadian 1832-1907)

Richard Maynard is known for his landscape views of BC, coastal Alaska and the Bering Sea. Born in Cornwall, England in 1832, he met and married Hannah Hatherly in 1852, and the couple immigrated to Canada where they settled in Bowmanville, Ontario. Richard left for the Fraser River Gold Rush in 1859 and in 1862 settled in Victoria with Hannah and their four children. Richard headed North to the Stickeen Valley while Hannah set up a photographic studio in his absence, instructing Richard on his return. Richard’s his first recorded photograph is a panorama of Victoria from 1864. 

Richard travelled extensively throughout the West documenting with his camera including several trips to Vancouver Island, Alaska and the Bering Sea. In 1880 or 1881 he won a government contract to photograph the construction of the CPR between Port Moody and Eagle Pass. On July 4, 1886, Richard documented the first passenger to reach the Pacific Coast at Port Moody. The following  year he photographed Vancouver, which had been almost completely destroyed by fire the previous year. Richard retired in 1890 and died in Victoria in 1907, and Hannah worked until her retirement in 1912, and died in 1918.

Otto Reinhold Jacobi  (Canadian 1814-1901)

Otto Reinhold Jacobi was born in Germany in 1812. Originally, he studied at the Berlin Royal Academy of Arts before switching to the Dusseldorf Art Academy. His subjects were often landscapes and genre paintings and his work was well received in Europe, earning him many Royal commissions. In 1837, he was named the court painter to the Dutchess of Nassau, now a part of Germany.   

In 1860, while visiting New York, Jacobi was offered a commission to paint Shawinigan Falls in Quebec as a gift to the Prince of Wales who would be on a state visit to Canada later in the year.  Upon completion of the commissioned painting, Jacobi chose to settle in Montreal rather than returning to Europe and remained there for the following ten years. In Montreal he offered private tutoring, worked for Notman and Fraser photography studio and continuing to paint waterfalls and forest landscapes, romanticising the wild Canadian landscape. Many of these scenes he shipped back to Europe for his eager clients. Early in his Canadian period, Jacobi often painted recognisable locations, noted views that would be identifiable to his clients. He would source photographs to ensure accuracy of his scenes. Later, his paintings became more idealized views of Canadian landscapes.  

Jacobi left Montreal for Philadelphia before moving to Toronto in the mid 1870’s and was to split his time between these three cities over the next fifteen years. He joined the Ontario Society of Artists in 1876 and was a teacher for a short time at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He regularly exhibited at the Art Association of Montreal and the Royal Canadian Academy of which he was named president from1890 to 1893. He died in 1901, at the age of 89, in North Dakota, USA.

Thomas Mower Martin (Canadian 1838-1934)

Born in London in 1838, Thomas Mower Martin sought a career in the military but decided to switch to an artistic career after attending Royal Academy Exhibitions. Considered mainly self-taught, he did receive some training in England before immigrating to Canada in 1862 with his young wife. The couple originally settled in the Muskoka region before settling in York Mills from where he would commute to train to Toronto to his art studio. Along with Marmaduke Matthews, R.F. Gagen, and John Fraser, Mower Martin established the Ontario Society of Artists. He befriended the current Governor General John Campbell, Marquess or Lorne and his wife Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and the Marchioness of Lorne. A painter herself, the Duchess took an interest in Mower Martin’s work which further led to led to the formation of the Royal Canadian Academy of which Mower Martin was a charter member. Publishing two books of his writings and paintings, he also illustrated Wilfred Campbell’s 1907 book “Canada”.

Always travelling in search for inspiration for his paintings, in 1887 Mower Martin made his first trip to Western Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He would make this trip approximately ten times over the next decade and was one of the first artists to capture the splendor of the Rocky Mountains and bring those images east. 

John Hammond, Rca, Osa (Canadian 1843-1939)

John Hammond is one of Canada’s earliest celebrated historical artists. Born in Montreal in 1843, at the young age of nine he worked with his father as a marble cutter and at eleven decided to become an artist. In his twenties, he traveled with his brother to London, England, and then sailed to New Zealand where they spent two and a half years panning for gold, returning to Canada in 1870. In 1871 he accompanied the Transcontinental Survey party who were making preliminary studies for the building of a railway. Hammond was employed by William Notman Photographers in Montreal, where he worked with artists John Fraser, Henry Sandham and Otto Jacobi. At the age of twenty-eight he was working hard toward becoming a full time painter, which he achieved in 1873 when he was elected as a member of the newly formed Ontario Society of Artists.

Hammond moved to Saint John, New Brunswick where he painted portraits in 1880. He became the Principal of the Owens Art Institution, which was moved to Mount Allison Ladies College in Sackville in 1893, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1885 Hammond sailed to Europe and painted with James McNeill Whistler in Dordrecht, Holland, from whom he learned much about the fine points of etching. In France he painted Francois Millet at Barbizon, and later traveled to Italy where he produced a large number of drawings and lithographs. He exhibited at the Paris Salon, winning two awards in 1886.

Sir William Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was a great admirer of Hammond’s work and commissioned him to create murals for the railway’s hotels and offices across Canada as part of the Railway Artists.  In 1900-1901 Hammond travelled to China and Japan to promote the Canadian Pacific steamship line.

Hammond was elected Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1890, and then as a full member in 1893, exhibiting regularly between 1891 and 1935. In 1920, he had a solo exhibition at the Jenkins Gallery, of which The Toronto Star Weekly noted, “There are pictures of Holland in winter, of coast farms, and tree bordered roads, but one feels that Mr. Hammond is essentially a painter of the sea and of the harbour, with its shipping, and that his greatest success are his atmospheric effects, when he fixes on canvas the prismatic beauty that comes from the sunlight struggling through the fog.”

Lucius O'Brien (Canadian 1832-1899)

Lucius O’Brien is considered one of the most prominent artists of his generation. His subjects include landscape, genre and First Nations portraits working in first a Romantic and later an Impressionistic style. He was instrumental in organizing the Royal Canadian Academy for the then Governor-General the Marquis of Lorne and was a charter member as well as its first President, a position he held for 10 years. He was Vice-President of the Ontario Society of Artists from 1873-1880 and exhibited extensively with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1880-1899, and with the Art Association of Montreal from 1880-1892.

Born in Shanty Bay on Lake Simcoe, Ontario, O’Brien was the second son of Lt. Col. Edward George O’Brien of the British Royal Navy and Sophie Gapper, member of the landed gentry in Canada. Although he was born in a log cabin, Lucius O’Brien’s parents instilled in him a sense of culture and of social responsibility appropriate to their station. Showing an aptitude for drawing at an early age, he trained at Toronto’s Upper Canada College. He worked in various vocations both in the arts and business, but it was not until 1872 that he dedicated himself full time to painting. 

In 1882 O’Brien began work on the ambitious Picturesque Canada: The Country As It Was and Is., aimed to celebrated Canada's natural landscape united under confederation, producing nearly 100 of the 500 engravings. With the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he was one of the first artists to be sponsored by William Van Horn as part of the Railway Artists commissioned to paint sites along the new railway line. O’Brien travelled west on the CPR on three occasions in 1886, 1887 and 1888 when he traveled to Vancouver and spent the whole summer in and around Howe Sound in a sailing canoe, with the aid of two Chinook guides. After retiring as President of the RCA in 1890, he opened his own art school and continued to travel and sketch each summer, mainly in Quebec and along the St Laurence river. 

Frederick Arthur Verner (Canadian 1836-1928)

Frederick Verner was born in Ontario in 1836 and studied in London from 1856-60 before serving in the British armed forces. He returned to Canada in 1862 and took a studio in Toronto, for a time working as a photographer in William Notman’s photographic studio. He travelled extensively across Canada and back and forth to England, often  alongside friend and fellow artist Paul Kane in Kane’s later years. Verner exhibited extensively with the RCA from 1880-1927, was one of the founding members of the Ontario Society of Artists, and holds the honour of being the first Canadian member of the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists. His work focuses primarily on landscapes, wildlife, life on the Prairies and early pioneer life, painted in a soft and romantic style. He worked mostly in watercolour and pencil but also in oil. 

James Macdonald Barnsley (Canadian 1861-1929)

James MacDonald Barnsley was one of the first Canadians to make an impact in Paris prior to the twentieth century. He had a very short span of productivity, only thirteen years, however although he only produced for a short time his works influenced some of Canada’s well know artists, including his Montreal contemporaries William Brymner and Maurice Cullen. 

Born February 20, 1861 in West Flamboro, Ontario, James’ last name was originally spelled Bansley. His mother was Scottish, and his father of African descent who was part owner in a local paper mill but died when James was only one. A series of unfortunate circumstances followed the family which forced him to relocate with his mother to St. Louis, Missouri when he was 14 where he enrolled in art classes at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. He thrived and had already begun to publish images in local magazines when he graduated with a gold medal. 

In 1882 Barnsley traveled to Paris and began to exhibit at the Salon, focusing on landscapes and seascapes and more specifically where the land meets the sea. He was tutored by several prominent artists, exhibited frequently and held memberships in several recognized Parisian art clubs. His work was well received, winning awards and receiving favourable reviews. He travelled throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, and in 1886 was invited to show at the Royal Canadian Academy. He represented by W. Scott & Sons Gallery in Montreal. He returned to North America in 1887, settling in Montreal where he opened a studio. He was hired to teach at the Art Association of Montreal in 1889, and continued to travel and paint. However, in 1892 he was admitted to Verdun Protestant Hospital in Montreal for schizophrenia, but not before destroying many of his paintings. His health deteriorated and he was seldom lucid and often violent for the remaining years of his life. He was never to paint again, however his Montreal dealer W. Scott & Sons and his mother continued to promote his work. 

In 1964, Vancouver Art Gallery curators Richard Simmins and Barry Lord held an important retrospective exhibition of James Barnsley’s work including over 65 works which travelled to institutions nationwide. Curator Barry Lord wrote: "Barnsley was unparalleled in Canadian painting: he is completely at home with the sights and sounds and smells of the harbour, his vessels settle solid and durable hulls into the water, and their sails or smoke reflect perfectly the movement of the wind, the appearance of clouds and the mood of the waves." 

See more works by James Macdonald Barnsley here.

Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (Canadian 1846-1923)

Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith was born in London, England, the son of a miniature painter. He received early training under his father and later at the South Kensington School of Art and the Academie Colarossi in Paris before immigrating to Montreal with his family in 1867. He worked at James Inglis’ photography studio where he retouched and tinted photographs, and from 1872 and 1884 as a freelance artist as well as teaching in art schools in Ontario. In 1868, is first exhibition was at the Art Association of Montreal. Both Frederic and his father were founding members of the Society of Canadian Artists, and Frederic was founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872. He was elected Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880 and a full member in 1886. 

Along with photographer William Notman Jr. and fellow artist Lucius O’Brien, Bell-Smith was one of the first artists to take advantage of the promotional Railway Artists free pass program organized by William Van Horne to record the construction of the railroad. Bell-Smith’s first formal excursion through the Rockies in 1887 marked a notable change in his subject matter, as he strived to capture the sublime beauty and boldness of the rugged Canadian landscape. This trip provided him with access to Western areas including Banff, Kicking Horse, the Selkirk Mountains and Victoria Harbour. In painting these untamed landscapes he excelled at capturing the atmospheric effects created by the vast mist, endless lakes and cascading mountains that distinctly identified Canada in its early stages as a nation. Following his trips west, Bell-Smith made regular visits across the country, intermittent with travels to Paris, England and Holland in the 1890’s. He obtained a prominent place in the art world, allowing him to exercise his interest in depicting historical events which furthered his reputation as a highly prominent Canadian artist. 

Roger Boulet writes in "Vistas: Artists on the Canadian Pacific Railway": "An evening light bathes this scene. The view is of Georgia Strait to the south of Vancouver in view of Mount Baker on the distant horizon. A note in a sketchbook places Bell-Smith on a boat between Vancouver and Victoria on September 2, 1909, and one presumes that the annual salmon fishing season is at its height judging by the large number of boats on the water…"

Painted while at Alma College in 1910 at the height of Bell-Smith's career, "Fishing Fleet" would have been inspired by a sketch he made while fishing on September 2, 1909. The painting depicts fishing on what is now the Salish Sea, clearly showing the defining line where the fresh water from the Fraser River meets and mixes with the salty ocean. Depicting over 75 fishing vessels, the scene illustrates the prolific BC salmon industry of the time. Fraser River salmon, both canned and salted, was popular and the introduction of stable round-bottomed Columbia River skiffs replacing earlier flat-bottomed boats allowed fishing to extend further out from the shore. Behind the numerous fishing vessels can be seen the iconic peak of Mt. Baker which dominates the southern Vancouver skyline. The scene is set at dusk and is a masterpiece showing Bell-Smith’s skill in both detail and atmosphere.

See more works by See more works by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith here.

Marmaduke Matthews (Canadian 1837-1913)

Marmaduke Matthews immigrated from England at the age of 21, starting a five-decade career as a landscape artist that brought him much acclaim. An avid traveller, he crossed the country many times creating panoramas of the Rockies and prairies as part of the Railway Artists, as well as eastern Canadian and New England landscapes. He worked in a loose, translucent style, mainly in watercolour, also producing some portraits.

Of Welsh descent, Matthews was born in Barchester, England. He studied watercolour painting in Oxford before immigrating to Toronto in 1860 at the age of 21 to embark on a career as a landscape painter. He travelled to New York where he stayed for four years from 1865-1869. He was an avid traveller, journeying to Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as nationwide including several times to British Columbia. Matthews was hired by William Van Horne as one of the Railway Artists and made numerous cross country trips to the West including in 1887, 1889 and 1892, reportedly sketching from the cowcatcher of a locomotive.

 A founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy, Matthews served as its first secretary, and also helped found the Ontario Society of Artists, for which he served as vice president, president, and secretary. He exhibited extensively in both Canada and the US and his work is in institutions across the country.

John Innes (Canadian 1863-1941)

John Innes was an early painter of the Canadian West and his many vocational pursuits, including cartoonist, surveyor, rancher, soldier and published writer fused together to inform his artistic approach. Trained in England, Innes’s work was rooted in a European approach to painting, but in subject matter he exhibited a deep affection for the Canadian land. He admired the free spirit present in the west, and observed the changes brought by the coming of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the growth of settlements, particularly as it affected First Nations peoples, and he was determined to document what he observed.

Born in London, Ontario, Innes was educated at Hellmuth College, London Ontario as well as in England at King’s College and the Dufferin Military Academy. He returned to Canada and journeyed west ahead of the C.P.R., working with a survey company in the foothills of the Rockies. He spent some years ranching near Calgary and later moved to the mouth of the High River where he sold horses. He spent much time painting in the mountains and on the Pacific Coast. Returning east he joined the staff of the Toronto Mail and Empire as illustrator and sketch writer, and was published in numerous Canadian, American and English publications. After returning from the Boer War in Africa he was called to the New York World in 1907 as staff artist. 

Returning to the Canadian West in 1913, Innes began a series of historical illustrations and made his home in Vancouver. He painted several series of paintings including “The History of British Columbia”, “The Epic of Western Canada” which was purchased by the Hudson’s Bay, and “The Epic of Transportation”, which became the property of the Glenbow. He became known as “The Painter of the Canadian West”.

The Days That Were portrays the drama of a native buffalo hunt, putting the viewer in touch with the reality of living off the land. The inscription on the plaque, which reads “Their bones lie bleached mid the dusty grass, by the gash of the white man’s share and only in dreams, wild brothers, do we live in the days that were”, shows a poignant nostalgia for the loss of the freedom of this time. This large-scale canvas is an outstanding example of Innes’s work and an important record of early life in the area.

William Blair Bruce (Canadian 1859-1906)

A Canadian by birth, William Blair Bruce’s career took him from a small city in southern Ontario to France where, as a founder of the famous artists’ colony in Giverny, he became one of the first North Americans to adopt the strategies of Impressionism. Bruce was later associated with the art life of Sweden, exhibiting his work in Stockholm and eventually settling on the island of Gotland, in the Baltic Sea.  A prolific painter, his oeuvre includes figural and mythological subjects, as well as landscapes and seascapes––his ability to evoke transient effects inspiring one critic to deem him “the open-air painter par excellence, an enthusiastic lover of Nature in all her moods.” 

Born in Ontario, Bruce studied law and worked as a draftsman in his home town of Hamilton. He received artistic training from his father, an amateur painter, and two local artists John Herbert Caddy and Henry Martin. In 1881 he exhibited at the Ontario Society of Artists which spurred him to pursue a career as an artist and travel to France to study. With financial support from his family he enrolled in the at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1881 where he studied under William Bouguereau and fraternized with a number of American art students, including prominent artists Theodore Robinson and Willard Metcalf. Between 1881 and 1885, Bruce divided his time painting between Paris and the villages of Barbizon and Grèz-sur-Loing to critical acclaim. However the energy this involved overwhelmed him and he returned to Hamilton to recuperate with the intention of exhibiting his French work in Canada and England. Unfortunately, approximately 200 paintings he created during his first sojourn to France, were lost when the ship carrying them sank off the Ile d’Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on November 8, 1885.

Despite this setback, Bruce returned to France towards the end of 1886. A pivotal moment in his artistic evolution occurred in the spring of 1887, when he and a group of fellow artists including Robinson and Metcalf decided to spend the season painting outdoors in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet. Inspired by the efforts of his cohorts, Bruce turned his attention to intimate landscapes executed with the bright hues and lively brushwork of Impressionism. These paintings from the early history of the Giverny art colony affirmed Bruce’s role as a pioneer of Canadian Impressionism.

In 1888 Bruce married Caroline Benedicks, an affluent Swedish sculptor who was also active in the art circles of Paris. The couple travelled and painted in France and Italy and visited Hamilton where he was much admired. He continued to paint, exploring and expanding his motifs and stylistic approach. The couple typically spent their summers in Gotland, Sweden, and built a house (Brucebo) in 1899, now the Brucebo Foundation, near the town of Visby where Bruce enjoyed gardening and capturing the Nordic light in his paintings. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, the Paris Salon, and elsewhere in Europe including a solo show in Stockholm in 1897. Although his work was well known in Europe, he never established relationships with dealers in North America and his promising career was cut short by his death at 47. Bruce has become much better known in the United States and Canada due to recent scholarship on Impressionism and studies relative to the tradition of North American artists working in international art colonies such as Giverny.

In 1896, the Swedish Tourist Association organized an expedition to experience the August 9 total solar eclipse in the north of Sweden. William Blair Bruce and his wife Caroline were among the 13 hardy participants who were housed in a cottage built in 1890 near the waterfall site, which is still in use. In May of 1897, the Swedish Arts Association hosted an exhibition of 130 of Bruce’s paintings including 35 works based on the solar eclipse expedition. It is very likely that The Stora Sjöfallet Waterfall was included in that exhibition.

Peleg Franklin Brownell (Canadian 1857-1946)

Born in Massachusettes in 1857, Brownell studied first at the Boston Museum of Fine Art and then at the the Academie Julian in Paris where he trained under William Bouguereau. He moved to Ottawa in 1886 where he worked as Headmaster at the Ottawa Art School from 1886 until 1900. He was awarded a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition in 1900, the same year he took a position at the Women’s Art Association in Ottawa (later the Art Association of Ottawa) where he taught until 1937. 

An active member of the Canadian art scene, Brownell was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, Ontario Society of Artists, and a founding member of the Canadian Art Club, Toronto.  He also received a retrospective exhibition of his work at the National Gallery of Canada in 1922, a rare honour. He is credited with introducing brilliant colour into Canadian art, his paintings expressing a combination of Impressionism and Realism in a variety of subjects including portraits, floral still lifes, landscapes, genre, and marine subjects. Artist Arthur H. Robson described Brownell’s: “his canvases have a shimmering radiance of light, a subtle feeling for values and sound capable craftsmanship”.     

See more works by Peleg Franklin Brownell here.

Laura Muntz Lyall (Canadian 1860-1930)

Laura Muntz was born in Warwickshire, England, and at the age of nine her family left for Canada and settled in Orillia Township, Ontario. In 1872 her father purchased a large cattle farm in the Muskoka district near Bracebridge, Ontario. A gentleman farmer from a wealthy family, he instilled routine. and a good work ethic which helped his daughter later in life. Before leaving England, Laura was mesmerized at an exhibition of paintings in the Crystal Palace in London, and was encouraged to study in Muskoka under William Charles Forster. Forster encouraged her to move to Hamilton to study at his art school there, and she lived with his family on and off for the next two years. Forster and his family remained close and champtioned for Muntz her entire life. 

In the fall of 1882 Muntz moved to Toronto to study at the Ontario School of Art under Lucius O’Brien. She continued her studies in England and enrolled at the St. John’s Wood Art School in London where she studied under Pre-Raphaelite Maurice Greiffenhagen. During this time she also had a residency at the school of Scottish genre painter Thomas Faed. Muntz was influenced to continue to focus on sentimental genre paintings, and mothers and children became a common theme in her work. She returned to Canada where she stayed with the Forster family and opened her first art studio in Hamilton, before moving to Toronto in 1890. Under George A. Reid she studied painting the human figure and was introduced to the ideas of the Impressionist movement. Reid nominated Muntz for membership in the Ontario Society of Artists in 1891 where here works were well received.  

Muntz’s success allowed her to travel to Paris in 1891 where she studied at the Academie Colarossi, which accepted women students. In Paris she was further influenced by Impressionism and learned to paint emphasizing mass and reducing the details, and her women and children subjects now gained Impressionistic light and motion. She painted more technically traditional paintings for submission to the Salon where her work was well received over the next four years. She worked at the Academie Colarossi and enjoyed success, sending her work back to Canada for exhibition. She was elected an Associate to the Royal Canadian Academy, as women could not be full members. While in Paris she shared an apartment with the American artist Wilhelmina Hawley and the two artists travelled throughout France and Holland. While at the Barbizon artist colony Moret-sur-Loing in the winter of 1894, Muntz met James McNeill Whistler and struck up a friendship. Wphistler would later often visit their flat in Paris.  

Just as she was enjoying critical acclaim, Muntz left Paris suddenly in 1898 when she discovered her lover was married. She opened an art studio in the Young Street Arcade in Toronto, joined for six months by her friend Wilhelmina, where they painted and taught classes but Muntz’s heart was not in it. She was hired to teach at the Hamilton Art School, then at St. Margaret’s College and a number of private schools. Taking up residence in Montreal, she continued to paint and receive accolades for her work. She won many prizes and was the first woman to be invited to exhibit with the Canadian Art Club in 1909. In 1915, at the age of 55, she married Charles Lyall and began signing her canvases Laura Muntz Lyall, applying this signature even to work completed much earlier so that each signature appeared on opposite corners. However after her marriage her painting activities all but ceased, and she only resumed her work shortly before her death in 1930 at the age of 70.

See more works by Laura Muntz Lyall here.

Robert Ford Gagen (Canadian 1847-1926)

Born in London, England in 1847, Robert Ford Gagen immigrated to Ontario with his family in 1862. He studied under William Nicoll Cresswell who owned a farm nearby and who encouraged him to move to Toronto where he studied under George Gilbert. Gagen joined Notman and Fraser’s art department in Toronto, working under the direction of John Fraser who encouraged and advised the young artist. Gagen spent nine years with the firm from 1873-1892 painting portraits and miniatures on a photographic base. He emerged as a skilled landscape painter, drawing his inspiration from the vast Canadian landscape. He was a founding member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872, where he exhibited for more than 50 years, an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880, and held significant roles in numerous cultural organizations.

Gagen travelled extensively across the country, travelling to the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains to the Atlantic, as well as abroad to the US, the UK and Europe. In his later years he travelled regularly to the Bay of Fundy sketching and gathering materials to paint in his studio.

An accomplished landscape painter, Gagen’s best work is considered his paintings of the sea and landscapes including seashores, rocks, waves, fishing boats. Inspired by his visits to the Atlantic coasts, he mastered the ability to capture maritime life and the effect of sunlight on shadow on the rocky coasts. 

Walter James Baber (Canadian 1856-1924)

Walter James Baber was born in Knightsbridge, London, the son of James Baber, a member of a manufacturing firm and a painter in his own right. Arriving in Canada in 1897, Walter settled in New Westminster and over the next 30 years he devoted himself to painting, producing little gems in watercolour and oils of the unrivalled scenery of his adopted country. A prolific artist, painted throughout the Fraser Valley and the Pacific Coast.  He died in New Westminster in 1924 at the age of 69.

This watercolour depicts the New Westminster Railroad Bridge, built 1904, which was also known as the Fraser River Swing Bridge.  Built with two decks, lower for rail traffic and upper for car traffic. The upper deck was removed in 1937 when the Pattullo Bridge was constructed. In the foreground can be seen the Simon Fraser Monument which commemorates Simon Fraser's discovery of the Fraser River in 1808.  The monument now sits at New Westminster Quay.

John William Beatty, Rca, Osa (Canadian 1869-1941)

John William Beatty was born in Toronto, middle child of nine children of a signed painter whom he often assisted. He left school early and worked in a series of professions including as an engraver, house painter and fireman, as well as serving in the 10th Grenadiers in the second Northwest Rebellion. He spent his spare time sketching, and when time permitted studied under Georg Agnew Reid, William Cruikshank and F. M. Bell-Smith. After a solo show in 1900, Beatty and his wife Caroline travelled to France where he studied at the Academie Julien where his work was well received. The following year they returned to Toronto where he opened a studio and began teaching at the Ontario School of Art and Design. He continued to train and take classes, and by 1906 returned to study at the Academie Julian. The following three years he studied in London and travelled through Holland, Belgium, Italy and Spain. He was greatly influenced by the Barbizon School and his landscapes from this time reflect this

Beatty began to paint with artists travelling into the parks and lakes outside of Toronto via canoe, and by 1912 he was going on regular sketching trips with Tom Thomson, J.E.H. MacDonald and A.Y. Jackson. These sketching trips to the North show a lightening and brightening of Beatty’s palette. He was one of the first to be offered a studio in the now famed Studio Building at 25 Severn Street in Toronto, and although he worked alongside many of the artists who later became known as the Group of Seven he never wished to become a member.  He was good friends with Tom Thomson and along with A.Y. Jackson was commissioned by the CPR as one of the Railway Artists to paint the construction camps, landscapes and railway as it was being laid. 

Beatty taught at the Ontario College in 1913 and remained for the rest of his life except for the period he served overseas as an official war artist starting in 1917. During his teaching career he is responsible for teaching a number of the artists who went on to have remarkable careers, including A.J. Casson, Franklin Arbuckle, Doris McCarthy, and Illingworth Kerr. He was an active member of the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists and served as president of the Arts and Letters Club.  

See more works by John William Beatty here.

Mary Riter Hamilton (Canadian 1873-1954)

The Canadian Impressionist painter Marty Riter Hamilton was overlooked until recently and is the subject of many books including "I Can Only Paint" by Irene Gammel. Mary Riter Hamilton began painting and drawing at an early age, studying in Canada and the US. Her early life was plagued with tragedies including the loss of a sister, her father, her child, her husband, and her business. In 1901 she sold everything she had and travelled to Europe, settling in Berlin to start a new chapter of her life. She began studies in art history and then painting under the Impressionist painter Franz Skarbina, a member of the German Secessionist movement. Irene Gammel writes:  "Mary Riter Hamilton was coming into her own just as she was arriving in Berlin during the late summer of 1901. Her arrival inaugurated two decades of exceptional productivity and experimentation, when she was between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five. The work she produced during this time reveals the thrill of creativity, drawing on a seemingly inexhaustible amount of energy in painting and exhibiting, and in exploring the myriad aesthetic effects offered by oil, chalk, pencil, and watercolour.”

Hamilton was very influenced by the Impressionists, arriving in Paris after 18 months in Germany. She travelled throughout Europe including summers in Italy and Belgium before settling in France where she visited Monet’s gardens in Giverny. She returned to Canada in 1911 and embarked on a popular cross country exhibition of her new Paris works starting in Toronto and moving on to Ottawa where one piece was purchased by Prime Minister Robert Borden and three by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.  Her watercolours were much praised by critics during her tour and by the time the collection had reached Montreal and Winnipeg news of her patronage under the Duke and Duchess had brought her national attention. This watercolour is listed in her Montreal exhibition notes as "Young Girl in Blue Dress" and may have been purchased there, as the newspapers of the time report many of her works being purchased by prominent art patrons, and it does not appear on the artist’s lists afterwards.

There is some discussion as to the date of this painting as either 1901 or 1911 however we are grateful to Irene Gammel who confirms that there is no record of Mary Riter Hamilton visiting Paris prior to 1903 and that the signature is consistent with works from her Paris period. Additionally, it is documented that it was under the supervision of Franz Skarbina in Berlin during her studies in 1902-3 that the artist drew her first head, three months later adding colour.

Samuel Maclure (Canadian 1860-1929)

The well-known British Columbia architect and painter Samuel Maclure was born in Sapperton, New Westminster in 1860 to John and Martha Maclure. He studied painting at the Spring Garden School of Art in Philadelphia from 1884-1885 and was also a self-taught architect of over 450 commissions, best known for his Tudor Revival and Craftsman style houses in New Westminster, Vancouver, and Victoria. He was the foremost domestic architect of his time and known for open plans and two-storey central halls using native materials and local construction techniques. He was also a consultant to the Butchart Gardens near Victoria where he designed many of the famous historic buildings as well as several additions to the residence Benvenuto. 

Samuel Maclure married the accomplished pianist and portrait painter Margaret Catherine (Daisy) and the couple were founding members of the Vancouver Island Arts and Crafts Society in 1909. He painted extensively, documenting the local landscape and indigenous portraiture in watercolour. His work was published in Canadian Illustrated News and Studio Magazine. He exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy in 1906, and his work is represented in the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Maltwood Art Museum at the University of Victoria, and the Public Archives of British Columbia. His architectural plans and drawings are held in the University of Victoria Architecture and Special Collections (Samuel Maclure fonds). 

Thomas William Fripp (Canadian 1864-1931)

Thomas William Fripp was born in London to an artistic family. His grandfather was Captain Nicholas Pocock, one of the founders of the Old Watercolour Society in 1804, and his father George Arthur Fripp was an established watercolour and oil painter, like his uncle Alfred Downey Fripp. Thomas attended the St. John’s Wood Art School in 1883 and also studied in France and Italy, and was accepted at the Royal Academy in London. In 1893 he immigrated to British Columbia where he worked as a farmer and where he married Gertrude Maude Muriel in 1897. The couple settled in Vancouver in 1904 where he worked for two years in a photography studio before turning to painting full time.

Thomas Fripp became known for his watercolours depicting the Rocky Mountains and landscapes of the Pacific. He  was a principle founder of the British Columbia Society of Artists in 1908, served as president of the BC Society of Fine Arts, and was a founding member of the British Columbia Art League. 

Alberta Cleland (Canadian 1876-1960)

Canadian Impressionist painter and educator Mary Alberta Cleland Cleland painted a broad range of subject matter including landscapes and city scenes, interiors, floral studies, and portraits in a variety of mediums including pastel, watercolour, oil, and sculpture. Born in Montreal, she studied at the Art Association of Montreal under William Brymner. She painted in New England and Quebec, and exhibited regularly at the Art Association of Montreal and the Royal Canadian Academy from 1897 to 1943. She taught at the Art Association of Montreal alongside William Brymner and Maurice Cullen from 1898 to 1937.

John Wentworth Russell (Canadian 1879-1959)

Russell studied at the Hamilton Art School and then the Art Students League in New York where he spent six years under the influence of American Impressionist artists. Moving to Paris in 1905 to study and work, he travelled between France and Canada frequently completing commissions. He exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1906, 1907, 1909 and 1910, as well as with the Royal Canadian Academy from 1905 to 1919.

A strong individualist, John Wentworth Russell was known as a maverick in the early 20th century Canadian art scene. He formed a unique soft Impressionistic style during his years studying in New York, which remained throughout his career. Shunning the subject matter of the natural Canadian landscape which consumed most of the Canadian artists of his time, his subject matter included city scenes, intimate interiors, portraits and nudes, the latter he was often embroiled in controversy for exhibiting. Known to be outspoken, he avoided organized art societies, working in isolation for most of his career. Ignored by critics, he was passed over by most curators. Today his paintings can be found in collections across Canada.

Statira Elizabeth Wells Frame (Canadian 1870-1935)

Statira Frame contributed to the introduction of Modernism to Vancouver, her colourful palette enhancing her free and expressive Post-Impressionist progressive style. She is known for views around Burrard Inlet and Vancouver, flower markets, First Nation figures and villages. Born in Quebec in 1870, she settled in BC in 1892 after marrying William Frame, a bookkeeper for the Hastings Mill Store in Vancouver, and the couple had at least one daughter. Frame was mainly self taught except for studying art classes at Vancouver Night School and receiving instruction from Robert Henri and Armin Hansen. She was influenced by Post-Impressionism, most likely from Emily Carr who stayed with the Frames for three weeks upon her return from France, during which time Frame and Carr sketched together. She painted in and around Vancouver except for two trips to California and Alert Bay. She exhibited her work throughout British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Academy, Art Association of Montreal, and the Seattle Art Museum, and was an active member in British Columbia art societies. A retrospective of her work was held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in April 1936, less than six months after her death, where her paintings were praised by Emily Carr and Harold Mortimer Lamb. 

Charles John Collings (Canadian 1848-1931)

Charles John Collings was born in Devon, England in 1848. His desire to be an architect was never fulfilled and the majority of his working life was spent in a solicitor’s office. He started painting at the age of fourteen, but it was not until his mid-forties that he began producing work seriously.  He exhibited at the British Royal Academy for the first time in 1893, and continued to contribute there and to the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Engravers for several years. Although mostly self-taught, he received some formal training from the watercolour artist Nathaniel H.J. Baird in 1895. Collings began to teach in 1897 and held several one-man shows.  

At the age of sixty-two, Collings immigrated to Canada in 1910 with his wife and two sons. They settled on the remote Seymour Arm of Shuswap Lake where the family built an English Tudor country house which still stands today. It was here that Collings found his true and lasting inspiration for his artwork and perfecting his technique using paper soaked in water then mixing the colours directly on the paper. Collings sketched 'en plein air' but created the finished works in his studio; thus giving his imagination free reign.  Because of his pioneer life and solitude in the mountains, Collings was not influenced by the artistic trends of the day and was therefore free to develop his unique perception of nature and to capture its vastness and grand intensity. 

Collings work was popular in both Canada and England where he was represented by English dealer Luscombe Carroll. Collings travelled and painted travelling to England, Western Canada and Ontario. He exhibited in Montreal, Chicago and New York, yet he chose to have little contact with the local art community and rarely exhibited B.C. Always an ardent climber, he hiked the Rockies and the Selkirks actively until his death at the age of 83 and was labelled "The Recluse of the Rockies". Throughout his life and in his work, Collings demonstrated a love of nature and an incredible ability to express its grandeur. 

See works by Charles John Collings here.

Walter Joseph Phillips (British/Canadian 1884-1963)

Walter J. Phillips is best known for his watercolours and as a pioneer and master of the Canadian woodblock print. He captured the unique topography, serenity and shifting moods of the Canadian landscape, combining unique expressions of Japanese printmaking and the British Arts and Crafts style into his own techniques.

In 1927, Phillips took his first trip to the West Coast of British Columbia, visiting and sketching at Siwash and Kwakiutl villages such as Mamalilicoola, Alert Bay and Karlukwees on Turnour Island. He was fascinated by these exotic landscapes so different than the rest of Canada, with their humidity and extensive vegetation. Of his trip to Mamalilicoola, he described his hiked into the village from the bay where his boat was moored through a “green twilight”, emerging at the villages. The scene that welcomed him was “a tall and magnificent totem pole. It stood in front of a community house, the pediment of whose façade was carved and painted with an allegorical figure of the sun, flanked by two fishes.” This became the main view of this woodcut. The stark white of the beach a product of, as he noted, broken clam shells. Phillips wrote of his time on the coast “these villages cannot be disassociated from their setting- the mountains and sea which surround them, and the clouds which alternately reveal and obliterate them, wholly or in part”. Under ten percent of Phillips' colour woodcuts are of West Coast subjects with Mamalilicoola, BC is considered to be one of Phillips’s most outstanding woodcuts.

See more work by Walter Joseph Phillips here.

Artists include:

William Armstrong
Walter James Baber
James Macdonald Barnsley
John William Beatty
Frederick Marlett Bell-Smith
Peleg Franklin Brownell
William Blair Bruce
George Henry Burgess
Alberta Cleland
Charles John Collings
Statira Frame
Thomas William Fripp
Robert Ford Gagen
Theophile Hamel
Mary Riter Hamilton
John Hammond
William George Richardson Hind
Ernest John Hutchins
John Innes
Otto Reinhold Jacobi
Edward Lange
Frederick Walter Lee
Vernon March
Samuel Maclure
Thomas Mower Martin
Marmaduke Matthews
Richard Maynard
Laura Muntz Lyall
Lucius O’Brien
Walter Joseph Phillips
John Wentworth Russell
Frederick Arthur Verner
Charles Jones Way
Frederick Whymper

Please visit the gallery to view the entire exhibition. Other artists include:

Theophile Hamel
Richard Maynard