SOME NOTES ON DRAWINGS

SOME NOTES ON DRAWINGS

Drawing is a noteworthy medium within the connoisseurship of fine art; being important to both collectors and art historians. Drawings can be an excellent choice for collectors who can frame their collections around the medium or include them to complete the story of a specific artist’s oeuvre. Novice and discerning collectors will recognize that drawings can be a good starting point for an art collection. As works on paper, drawings are often an affordable way of obtaining outstanding examples by highly marketable or historically significant artists whose paintings on panel or canvas sell in the highest, and often less obtainable, league. Furthermore, the medium is often used for sketching in the preliminary stages of an artistic process, and can therefore be used by historians and connoisseurs for research and insight into an artist’s techniques. Drawing can also be intentionally used as the medium of choice for a stand-alone finished work of art, often adding an additional dimension to an artist’s oeuvre.

For Group of Seven artists such as Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson, whose drawings have both been published, the medium was frequently used for rapid sketchbook notations en plein air. Their drawings often preceded the popular oil panel sketches that the Group members are known for, and marked the first step towards a finished panel or even canvas. In a publication of Harris’s sketchbook drawings art historian Joan Murray remarked that, “drawings take us some distance into the artistic life of Lawren Harris.” Harris’ sketchbook drawings were intimate and display quick yet accomplished draughtsmanship; which often included notations regarding colour, place or theme as seen in White Mountains, near Sugarloaf, New Hampshire. They were not necessarily intended to be seen by the public. The drawings with notations are an excellent primary source for research and understanding the artists. Well-known artists and friend of Harris noted that “his drawings are a key which open the door to what he was thinking and painting.

Lawren Harris himself understood the importance of drawings in an artist’s career; not just as studies for finished works, but as completed works of art themselves. He wrote an essay in 1945 to accompany his friend Emily Carr’s retrospective exhibition. Within he devoted much attention to her charcoal drawings. He felt that her charcoal drawings held “her widest range of expression and experimentation.” Emily Carr used drawing both as a means to flesh out ideas for the bigger picture and for completed works of art. In her 1990 publication Emily Carr, Doris Shadbolt proclaimed, “drawing was a natural habit with Carr…[and] is an important and relatively little-known body of her work.” Shadbolt stated that Carr produced innumerable drawings for nature in pencil, charcoal, or brush, ranging from small sketchbook drawings… to more developed compositions, like Inside a Forest. Shadbolt mentioned that a group of, “small sketchbooks first in 1929 and 1930 were the basis for a group of studio drawings done at the same time but of a larger format… and on good quality paper,” as seen in Inside a Forest. Like Lawren Harris, Doris Shadbolt insisted upon the importance of Carr’s drawings to “tell us about…[the] inventive artist.”

Another British Columbian artist who is well-known for using meticulously detailed graphite sketches as the first step towards subsequently creating watercolours and then finally canvases, was E.J. Hughes. Like Harris, he would include notations throughout. However, he too was know to use the medium for completed works of art, as seen in his graphite portrait of F.W. Guernsey.

With the credit that scholars have given to drawings, and the real feasibility of adding them to art collections, drawing is clearly a fine art medium that warrants a good look!

By: Jill Turner

Photo credits:

1. Lawren Harris White Mountains, near Sugarloaf, New Hampshire, 1935, graphite on paper

2. Emily Carr Inside a Forest charcoal on paper, circa 1929-30, 24.5 x 29 in.

3. E.J. Hughes Portrait of F.W. Guernsey, Stanley Park Fort graphite on paper

CANADIAN ARTISTS IN EUROPE

CANADIAN ARTISTS IN EUROPE

A great majority of acclaimed Canadian artists throughout the past two centuries have spent time in Europe nurturing their artistic careers. Canadian art throughout the 19th and 20th centuries has always embodied a distinct ‘Canadianness’; whether this is the romantic landscapes of Krieghoff and Kane, Canadian Impressionism, or the more distinct Group of Seven and their followers. However, most important Canadian artists have travelled to Europe to study, and in some cases taken up permanent residency. Particularly in Paris, artists have found a stimulating and supportive environment for developing their artistic careers. Although work executed on Canadian soil and of Canadian subjects might be of greater interest to some, it cannot be overlooked that for many Canadian artists their work in Europe has reflected pivotal periods in their careers.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Canadian artists in Paris would have immersed themselves in an all-encompassing artistic environment. They would spend their days in training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Academie Colarossi or the Academie Julian. They would then spend free time congregating with their peers in the creative climate of the boulevard cafes. At this time, Impressionist and subsequently Post-Impressionist movements were at their heights, and both would have lasting effects on visiting Canadians. William Brymner was the first to go and experience Impressionism first hand. He took much away from this experience, and encouraged his own art students back in Montreal to take post-graduate courses in Europe. Artists who travelled to study in Paris academies or elsewhere in Europe included Blair Bruce, Paul Peel, J.W. Morrice, A.Y. Jackson, Suzor-Cote, Edwin Holgate, Albert Robinson, Clarence Gagnon, Laura Muntz, George Reid, Maurice Cullen, Frank Armington, William Clapp, Helen McNicoll, Emily Carr, and Robert Pilot.

Emily Carr went to study in Paris in 1911. She recalled that her goal was, “…to find out what this “new art” was about.” She also spent time in Brittany at St. Efflam and Concarneau. This marked a notable turning point in her artistic career. She embraced post-impressionistic ideals; letting go of realistic representation in favour of bold colour and dynamic brushwork.

In 1912, shortly after Emily Carr sojourned in France, Edwin Holgate went to Paris to study at the Academie de la Grande Chaumerie. Like Carr, he also visited Concarneau in Brittany to paint. Holgate was in Russia and then back in France during World War One, and returned in 1920 to Paris to resume studying art, this time at the Academie Julian. His mentor was Russian artist Adolph Millman, whose art would have a lasting stylistic impression on Holgate. In 1922, Holgate travelled to the south of France, including the seaside town of Sanaray, before returning to Canada.

While most Canadian artists returned to Canada after a period of study, some artists remained in Europe permanently. James W. Morrice went to Paris in 1890, where he first studied at the Academie Julian and later under tutelage of Barbizon painter Henri Harpignies. Morrice befriended those in artistic circles of the time, easily transitioning into the boulevard café lifestyle. Morrice returned almost yearly to Canada for visits, and associated with Canadian artists when they came to Europe, like Maurice Cullen. He made Paris his permanent home, and sketched around Europe frequently. He travelled around France, Italy and Northern Africa. He visited Dennemont and Antwerp in 1906.

Frank Armington was another Canadian artist who made Paris his permanent home from 1905 to 1939. He first went to Paris to study at the Academie Julian in 1899. After a brief few years back in Canada, moved back to Paris with artist wife Caroline. He is known for his impressionistic rendering of Parisian sites, such as the Jardin des Tulieries.

By: Jill Turner

Photo credits:

1. Emily Carr. Portrait of a Woman, Brittany, (France) 1911, watercolour, 14.75 x 11 in.

2. Edwin Holgate. Sanaray (France) 1922, oil on panel, 5.25 x 6.75 in.

3. James W. Morrice. Antwerp (Belgium) 1906, oil on panel, 8.5 x 10.5 in.

4. Frank Armington. Jardin des Tuileries, Paris 1916, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.

GRAPHIC ARTS IN CANADA

GRAPHIC ARTS IN CANADA

Graphic Arts is a branch of Fine Arts, to which the term covers a broad range of art forms that are most often two-dimensional. Included under the blanket term ‘graphic arts’ are calligraphy, photography, maps, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy, and bindery; as well as architectural design. This wide-ranging term also covers graphic design, which in general serves as a means of visual communication.

The history of graphic arts and graphic design in Canada suggests many of these art forms have been thriving since the 19th century and into the 20th century. The use of visual communication has been an important factor in the proliferation of many graphic art forms across the country. Historically, we have seen Canadians utilizing and advancing upon innovative and current artistic forms throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Evidence of this can be found in the pioneer photography of the mid to late 19th century. Professional and amateur photographers headed westward, either by their own intuition or by subsidizing from entrepreneurs such as the railway companies, to document and promote westward expansion. The desire to communicate the vast splendour of Western Canada led photographers to keep up-to-date with leading International industry advancements. They endeavored to keep pace with British and European photographic improvements all within a few decades from the early daguerreotype of the 1850s through albumen printing in the 1870s and 1880s to the silver gelatin printing process in the 1890s. Photographers would often endure harsh climate and terrain in order to best communicate the landscape to prospective visitors to the west.

The work of cartographers can also be considered a form of the graphic arts, and is one that alongside the popularization by Gutenberg of the printed book has permeated into regular use since the early Renaissance in Europe. In Canada the industry of mapmaking has followed suit, and in conjunction with the proliferation of lithography in the 19th century, a more widespread audience would gain access to such art forms. An example of this is a large scale 1889 map of the city of Victoria, which was made using lithography for wider dissemination. This map provides a detailed account of the city streets and surrounding geography. There are street names, accurately rendered buildings, wandering figures, and a delicate atmospheric rendering of the hills and a distant Mount Baker on the horizon. The publishers, Ellis & Co., also were the publishers of Victoria’s major newspaper, The Tribune.

Some graphic art forms like printmaking can serve purely aesthetic purposes. W.J. Phillips’ exquisite colour woodblock prints share more in common with traditional fine art, such as oil paintings or watercolours. The same could be said for the serigraphs that were commercially produced in the mid 20th century in Canada. The Sampson-Matthews Co. and the Marc Graf Company produced silkscreen prints of well-known artists in order to allow for a wider audience for the art. Though arguably, these Canadian silkscreen projects were still intended for widespread visual communication, considering that they were launched as a means for creating public awareness about Canadian artists.

Perhaps the most well known sub-category of graphic arts is graphic design. Graphic design in Canada has kept up with international innovation throughout the history of modern design. Using visual communication for advertisements or for relaying ideas and messages took flight in the 20th century, for Canada included. The English artist and designer William Morris is often credited as the father of modern design. His ideology and style make him a pioneer of the renowned Arts and Crafts movement in art and design. He contributed to the field of graphic design first through dabbling in calligraphy and illumination with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and later with his own typography and the instrumental Kelmscott Press. His illustration, page and book design are the embodiment of Arts and Crafts style, which became prevalent in graphic design in the early 20th century in Britain, Europe and North America. During the opening years of the 20th century, the leading design firms in Canada saw graphic artists working in the popular Arts and Crafts style. This included the design firms of Grip Ltd. and Rous and Mann, where graphic artists very often worked in the Arts and Crafts style. Many of Canada’s most celebrated artists were at some point working at these firms, including most Group of Seven members and Tom Thomson.

Tom Thomson, Quotation from Maurice Maeterlinck, ink of paper (at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection)

The Poster gained rapid popularity worldwide in the early 20th century as a method of visual communication for advertising or propaganda. A staple in the history of graphic design, the poster saw breakthroughs in Germany in the early 20th century, with a fresh new style that utilized few, but bold, colours with a minimal composition in order to easily attract attention. This specific style for posters was called Plakatstil in German. Plakatstil gained popularity worldwide; and Canada was no exception. Akin to the 19th century photographs of the West, bold simple avant-garde posters were designed to entice visitors out west along the railway lines in the 1930s, 1940s and 50s to ski resorts and outdoor adventures. The Canadian ski resort posters of this time are in tune with current International trends in poster design.

Thus, from the 19th century pioneers of historical photography out West, through the prestigious Toronto design firms on the early 20th century, to the avant garde travel posters of the 1940s; Canada has been forefront in the history of modern graphic arts.

By: Jill Turner

Photograph credits

1. Bailey & Neelands, Rogers Pass from Glacier House, B.C. circa 1892

2. 2. Ellis & Co., Bird’s Eye View of Victoria, 1889

3. W.J. Phillips, Jack Pine, colour woodblock print, 1940

4. B.C. Binning/ Sampson Matthews Co., Ships in a Classical Calm, serigraph

5. Peter Ewart, Ski Canada, Poster, 1941

WESTERN IMPRESSIONS

WESTERN IMPRESSIONS

Emily Carr is probably the best-known Canadian artist to have depicted Northwest Coast First Nations subject matter. Walter J. Phillips is also well known for his interpretations of the native villages at Alert Bay, Mamalilicoola, and Karlukwees, as seen in a previous blog Sketching Trips: W.J. Phillips out the West Coast. In particular, they both excelled at the depiction of totem poles. However, Carr and Phillips were by no means the only artists to have travelled into the more remote regions of the Pacific Northwest to lend their artistic impressions of the First Nations subject matter they encountered. By the end of the 1920s the popularity of taking sketching trips to the Skeena River Region or the Coast to document the First Nations villages and their totem poles was at a peak. Artists from all over the country and abroad were arriving on sketching pilgrimages of cultural tourism.

Already by the late 19th century in Europe and North America, there existed the concept of documenting the art, culture and customs of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. This was in response to the prevailing perception that indigenous cultures were both threatened and in decline. In the Pacific Northwest, this was made manifest by the visible decline of the totem pole. The consensus amongst anthropologists, government bodies, and interested parties was that raising awareness about First Nations communities through the proliferation of art and literature would lead to cultural tourism to these communities; and thus, ultimately towards official support for the restoration and preservation of First Nations traditions. In Canada, none supported this notion more fervently than the anthropologist, Marius Barbeau.

Marius Barbeau believed that both exposure and tourism were the key paths to the preservation of First Nations art and culture. Barbeau and artist Langdon Kihn teamed up with publicists of the Canadian National Railway to promote cultural tourism in British Columbia. There was eventual further collaboration with Indian Affairs and the government; whereby and a Totem Pole Restoration Programme was established. It focused on restoring the totem poles of well-travelled tourist routes. Curiously, the restored totem poles were often repositioned in order to face tourist paths more directly. Barbeau travelled with Kihn and later with other artists such as A.Y. Jackson, Edwin Holgate, and Anne Savage to the Skeena River region to document the totem poles of First Nations communities. He published detailed reference guides of the totem poles in the region, and assisted the Canadian National Railway making promotional materials. He ultimately was instrumental in organizing the 1927 National Gallery exhibition Canadian West Coast Art: Native and Modern with director Eric Brown. Artists who had made a name for themselves at the time desired to be included in this new movement that elevated the importance of native art in shaping a nationalist art for Canada. The continual use of totem poles as subject matter in Canadian western art is now historically interesting in it’s own right.

Although the late 1920s was a peak time for artists travelling to sketch the totem poles of the Pacific Northwest, it is worth noting that artists were exploring and rendering the indigenous inhabitants of British Columbia as far back as the late 18th century through the opening years of the 20th century. The Victoria-based photographer Richard Maynard accompanied ethnologists to the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1884 and documented villages and individual totem poles in his photographs. Emily Carr first travelled to an Indian Reserve at Ucuelet in 1898 and again in 1904; and continued to travel to Alert Bay and Alaska in 1907 and the Skeena River in 1912. The explorer artist Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith painted at Alert Bay in circa 1909.

By: Jill Turner

Photo Credits: 1. Emily Carr, Modern Indian Graves, circa 1932, oil on canvas, 22.75 x 28.75 in. 2. W.J. Phillips, Venus and the Priest, 1930, colour woodblock print 3. Lowrie Warrener, Heat, Skeena Valley, BC, 1931, oil on panel 4. A photograph of totem poles and building facades at Alert Bay, 1919 5. The cover of Marius Barbeau's totem pole reference 6. Richard Maynard, Masset, photograph 7. Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, Alert Bay circa 1909, oil on board, 9 x 18 in.

INSIDE THE SHOW AND BEHIND THE ART: W.J. Phillips in the West

INSIDE THE SHOW AND BEHIND THE ART: W.J. Phillips in the West

W.J. Phillips in the West includes nearly sixty works of art, including watercolours, colour woodblock prints and wood engravings. Phillips sketched across Western Canada and is particularly known for his watercolours and woodblock prints depicting Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg and rural Manitoba, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest Coast. The show incorporates works from all of these regions; and ranging in date from circa 1912 before he left England to 1952 on the Sunshine Coast.

The work that sparked the idea for the show W.J. Phillips in the West was the watercolour Sointula. Phillips documented his travels to the Pacific Northwest extensively, as seen in the previous blog Sketching Trips: Walter J. Phillips on the West Coast; but he makes far more mention of his first encounters with the art and life of the native peoples to which he was previously unacquainted. Phillips relayed one story about being on the beaches of Sointula when visiting his sister Edith on Malcolm Island; however this tale also recounts his finding a native carving washed ashore. The watercolour Sointula depicts burned trees before a vast vista over the village and across Broughton Straight to Vancouver Island. The burned trees were the result of a forest fire that took place on Malcolm Island in 1925, decimating the upper areas of the island. The village was at huge risk of being engulfed in flames, as can be seen in a 1925 photograph of the fire below. Two years later when Phillips visited the island the effects of the fire could still be seen through the masses of burned trees above the town. The photograph below was taken in 1927 and gives an indication of how well Phillips’ was able to express the vibrant green of the newly grown grass juxtaposed against the wall of burned trees above. It also gives us a glimpse at what Phillips would have seen through is own eyes as he looked out across Broughton Straight.

With thanks to to the Sointula Museum for there assistance with the history of Sointula and for providing the historical photographs of the fire of 1925 and Sointula in 1927 with thanks to Doris Wirta and Lee Anderson.

SKETCHING TRIPS: WALTER J. PHILLIPS ON THE WEST COAST

SKETCHING TRIPS: Walter J. Phillips on the West Coast

Canadian Landscape artists have been making sketching pilgrimages throughout the 20th century, often travelling deep into treacherous terrain to find the perfect subject matter. A selection of the more legendary Canadian sketching grounds include Quebec’s Beaupré, Charlevoix County, and the Laurentians; Ontario’s Algonquin Park, Algoma, and Lake of the Woods; the Rocky Mountains, and the coastal Indian villages of British Columbia. These regions each offer their own characteristic attractiveness; but in order for an artist to capture the essence of the land they often must deal with challenging climates and topography. We can marvel at the beauty of an artists’ end product, but all to often the means to the end are forgotten. What mirth or misery did artists encounter before achieving depictions of the perfect light falling on a mountainous glacier, or the early morning hoarfrost glistening on the branches of trees? We may never know what some artists experienced on their travels, but fortuitously many artists wrote firsthand accounts of their voyages. These accounts allow us at least some awareness of the activity behind the finished art. Some artists' sketching trips may have been more rugged or rustic than others, but all have an interesting story to tell about their experiences; whether it be Lawren Harris in the Arctic, A.Y. Jackson in Quebec, or Emily Carr on Vancouver Island. One well-known Canadian artist who relayed his experiences was Walter J. Phillips. Phillips is one of Canada’s most accomplished printmakers and watercolourists, but he was also an extremely accomplished and entertaining writer. The following gives some insight into Phillips’ first sketching trip to the coastal villages of British Columbia in his own words. His account of the trip is compiled in Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips On Canadian Nature and Art from Phillips’ newspaper column in The Winnipeg Tribune and his publication Wet Paint.

Phillips and his brother embarked upon his sketching trip by renting a 30 ft. gas boat named the Ludo. Phillips wrote, “I am on the British Columbia coast for a definitive purpose. I am here on a sketching trip, that is, to gather material for possible easel pictures, dignified or otherwise.” They went up past Jervis Inlet, stopping first to visit a friend at Sakinaw Lake and then proceeding on to their lodgings at Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. Phillips describes Alert Bay as a “picturesque town,” and the view looking down Johnstone Strait from his rented house at the Eastern tip of the Island as “forever changing colour and shape with the mood of the weather.” At this stage they hired a smaller boat called the Anne, which with its kitchen, lounge and bedroom did not appear completely devoid of creature comforts. After a less than impressive visit to Tsatsisnukomi, Phillips arrived next to Mamalilicoola, where he considered the “surroundings beautiful,... [and the] village strongly attractive.” Phillips wrote about Mamalilicoola: “I found material for several days sketching: the outlook across the bay, with interesting foregrounds, views along the street, and from the beach.” He wrote, “the humidity of the air produced wonderful tones od blue in every background and a range of soft harmonies which never occur in the mountains or in the prairies… as pure landscape it is the finest I have been privileged to see.” Phillips next moved to the village of Karlukwees, calling it “more interesting than the others,” and claiming that it, “provided many subjects for painting” and “In fact, never have I seen a more delectable sketching ground,” he says. These marvelous simple statements relate to some of Phillips’ most cherished West Coast watercolours and woodblock prints- both colour and monochrome.

Image

By: Jill Turner

: W.J. Phillips, Siwash House Posts, 1928, colour woodblock print, 8 x 6.25 in.

LOVELY WEATHER FOR A SLEIGH RIDE TOGETHER WITH ART

During the holiday season we are often reminded of longstanding seasonal traditions. This often brings forth the nostalgia for the seemingly quaint and ideal ways of the past. In Canada, thoughts of the comings and goings of a peaceful snow covered pastoral countryside or village are evoked nationwide. Nothing symbolizes this better than the iconic horse-drawn sleigh, which is fitting imagery to represent the cold Canadian yuletide. It is seen on greeting cards, flyers and posters, and turned into three-dimensional Christmas decorations. However, the horse-drawn sleigh has also become a celebrated and desirable theme within the history of Canadian art. Early ideas of nationalism in Canadian landscape art have cultivated the wintertime as favoured subject matter; and the horse-drawn sleigh is frequently present. Particularly in Quebec, the horse-drawn sleigh is a paramount feature in the work of the region’s most renowned local and visiting artists.

Many charming historical works that incorporate a horse-drawn sleigh can be found in major Canadian public institutions. Examples from both the 19th and 20th century exemplify the enduring prevalence of the subject matter over time. A mid-19th century work by Robert Clow Todd illustrates a favoured Quebecois subject The Ice Cone, Montmorency Falls, Quebec and depicts numerous horse-drawn sleighs in both the foreground and background of the work. Also active in the mid-19th century was well-known artist Cornelius Krieghoff, whom frequently included the sleigh in his genre paintings, such as The Toll Gate, 1861 and Sleigh Scene, Winter, Quebec, 1867. Working slightly later but still within a traditional style was Frederick Coburn; who painted horse-drawn sleighs and carts almost exclusively.

Into the early twentieth century, Canadian Impressionists such as James Wilson Morrice, Maurice Cullen and particularly Clarence Gagnon were known to have placed sleighs amongst their impressionistic depictions of wintery Quebec. Two charming examples by Morrice from circa 1909 The Old Holton House and 1910 Quebec Farmhouse can be found in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson is know for including horses pulling a sleigh along the paths of his Quebec country village scenes. This is clear in numerous major canvases of Jackson’s in public institutions, such as Winter, Quebec

from 1926 in the National Gallery. Although Jackson is well-known for his inclusion of the sleigh in his winter scenes, he is not the only Group of Seven member to depict them. There is a quaint winter scene by Lawren Harris entitled Red Sleigh, House, Winter from 1919 at McGill University. This work perfectly captures the aura of bygone holiday seasons.

Highlights at Masters Gallery in Calgary from the past year include Cornelius Krieghoff’s Canadiens Preparing for Town and Clarence Gagnon’s A Laurentian Homestead, Les Eboulements.

By: Jill Turner