Exhibition of “Early Canadian Masterpieces features 100 artworks from the 19th and early 20th century
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In 1858, he was among an estimated 30,000 people who came to B.C. for the Fraser Gold Rush. His paintings of the gold rush were among the earliest ever executed in B.C. — he even sold one to B.C.’s governor, James Douglas.
The paintings in the exhibition date from 1825 to 1925. Some are of B.C., some of Canada, and some by Canadian artists who were living in Europe.
Many are quite small and of historical interest, such as an 1870 Ernest Hutchings painting of Main Street in Winnipeg when it consisted of a handful of buildings, with First Nations teepees in the foreground.
Jeannette Langmann loves her vibrant attire.
“She’s got kind of a gossamer shawl on over her green and gold dress,” she said. “I love her (golden) headgear, which is so flapper. It’s almost Egyptian looking, with tassels or beads under her chin.”
Langmann said that many of the paintings in the exhibit have a Canadian Pacific Railway connection.
“A lot of them were railway artists that came across (western Canada) with the CPR,” she explained.
Langmann said they counted 75 boats in the painting, which was done at sunset, which people in the movie industry call magic hour.
Bell-Smith did another painting in 1899 of a couple of canoes on the water, just north of Horseshoe Bay. Hung directly above it is a painting by Lucius O’Brien which shows virtually the same scene. The main difference in the O’Brien painting is that the canoes have sails.
“They’re in the same position,” said Langmann. “But it’s hard to know whether they were both there (at the same time).”
There are several Innes historical scenes in the exhibition, some of them products of his creative imagination. One features a dynamic scene of First Nations hunters on horseback slaying a buffalo; another shows riders guiding their horses through a blizzard.
Langmann likes another Innes painting that was done from life, the Sea Island cannery in Richmond in 1892.
“We actually bought this (advertised) as a prairie landscape,” she said. “This is exactly the same scene as a photograph that we found in the archives. There’s a little steam ship (in the middle the painting), it’s the Fraser River.”
If you’re going do a 19th-century exhibit of Canadian paintings, you really should have a couple of those rather severe dark portraits that were popular in their day.
According to Langmann, Baldwin’s brother Robert led “the first responsible ministry in Canada prior to Confederation.” William’s claim to fame is that he transformed the family farm between Avenue Road and Spadina Avenue into real estate — today it’s downtown Toronto.
