In the 1600s French settlers in Canada either imported religious paintings or
commissioned stock subjects to adorn their new churches. Only Samuel de
Champlain, the “Father of New France”, stands out for his sketches of the Huron
tribe. After the English conquest in the 1760s, art moved from religion to
matters of politics, the land, and the people. Army officers, such as Thomas
Davies (1737–1812), painted fine detailed works, conveying their love of the
landscape.
Artists such as Robert Field (1769–1819), trained in Neo-Classicism, which was
prevalent in Europe at the time, and became very popular, as did Quebec painters
Antoine Plamondon (1817–95) and Théophile Hamel (1817–70). Cornelius Krieghoff
(1815–72) settled in Quebec and was famous for his snow scenes of both settlers
and natives. His contemporary, Paul Kane (1810–71), recorded the lives of the
First Nations on an epic journey across Canada. He then completed over 100
sketches and paintings, of which Mah Min, or The Feather, (c.1856) is one of the
most impressive. During the 19th century, painters focused on the Canadian
landscape. Homer Watson (1855–1936) and Ozias Leduc (1855–1964) were the first
artists to learn their craft in Canada. Watson said, “I did not know enough to
have Paris or Rome in mind. … I felt Toronto had all I needed.” His canvases
portray Ontarian domestic scenes.
After Confederation in 1867, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the National
Gallery of Canada were founded in 1883. Artists could now train at home, but
many still left to study in Paris. Curtis Williamson (1867–1944) and Edmund
Morris (1871–1913) returned from France determined to revitalize their tired
national art. They formed the Canadian Art Club in 1907, where new schools such
as Impressionism were shown.
James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924), Maurice Cullen (1866–1934), and Marc Aurèle de
Foy Suzor-Coté (1869–1937) were key figures in this move toward modernity.
MODERN PAINTERS
The influence of European art was criticized by perhaps the most influential set
of Canadian artists, the Group of Seven. Before World War I, Toronto artists had
objected to the lack of a national identity in art.
By the 1920s the Group had defined Canadian painting in their boldly colored
landscapes, such as A.Y. Jackson’s Terre Sauvage (1913). Despite his early
death, painter Tom Thomson was a founding influence.
Three painters who came to prominence in the 1930s were influenced by the Group
but followed highly individual muses, each of the artists were distinguished by
a passion for their own province; David Milne (1882–1953), known for his still
lifes, LeMoine Fitzgerald (1890–1956) for his domestic and backyard scenes, and
Emily Carr (1871–1945) for her striking depiction of the west coast Salish
people and their totem poles. Carr was the first woman artist to achieve high
regard. A writer as well as painter, her poem Renfrew (1929), describes her
intense relationship with nature, which was reflected in her paintings: “… in
the distance receding plane after plane… cold greens, gnarled stump of gray and
brown.”
The strong influence of the Group of Seven provoked a reaction among successive
generations of painters. John Lyman (1866–1945) rejected the group’s rugged
nationalism. Inspired by Matisse, he moved away from using land as the dominant
subject of painting. Lyman set up the Contemporary Arts Society in Montreal and
promoted new art between 1939–48; even Surrealism reached the city. Since World
War II there has been an explosion of new forms based upon abstraction.
In Montreal, Paul-Emile Borduas (1905–60) and two colleagues formed the
Automatists, whose inspirations were Surrealism and Abstract Impressionism.
By the 1950s Canadian painters achieved international acclaim. Postwar trends
were also taken up in Toronto where The Painters Eleven produced abstract
paintings. Today, artists work across the range of contemporary art movements,
incorporating influences from around the world and from Canada’s cultural
mosaic. Experimental work by painters such as Jack Bush, Greg Carnoe, and Joyce
Wieland continues strongly in the wake of ideas from the 1960s. Canada now
boasts a plethora of public and private galleries, and exceptional collections
of 20th-century art.
Canada Cities