Walter Joseph Phillips (British/Canadian 1884-1963)
Jack Pine 1940
colour woodcut, titled and editioned lower left "Jack Pine 88/100" and signed lower right "W J Phillips"
Literature: Roger Boulet, The Tranquility and the Turbulence, 1981, reproduced page 150.
This woodcut was produced in an edition of 100
W.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.
One of the most iconic symbols of the Canadian landscape is the rugged Jack Pine. As the tree grows in poor conditions, in permafrost and even rock faces, it often grows gnarled and windblown, giving it character. The Jack Pine was the subject of one of Tom Thomson’s most loved and reproduced paintings and was a fixture in the National Gallery since 1918. W.J. Phillips would certainly have been aware of Thomson's painting which was possibly the inspiration for this Phillips’ colour woodcut, Jack Pine, from 1940. Phillips' version shows a lone dead Jack Pine amid a cloudy sky highlighting the sculptural form of the gnarled branches, in comparison to Thomsons’ living tree. This Phillips print has also come to represent a symbol of the Canadian landscape.
Size: 8 ¾ h x 9 ¾ w in (with frame 19 ½ h x 20 w in)
ZJ21048
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