Description |
Landscape painting of habitant winter scene; oil on canvas; framed; signed and attr. Cornelius David Krieghoff (1815-1872) on lower right corner, Dutch Canadian artist; most famous for his paintings of Canadian landscapes and the Canadian life outdoors; 14 x 11 in. (35.56 x 27.94 cm.) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Toronto, ON
Catalogue Note
Krieghoff early on established in his repertoire two major themes that he would revisit throughout his career and for which he is perhaps best known: rural francophones and aboriginals. His HABITANT scenes cover a range of situations: in some, for example, folk greet one another en route, play cards, race their sleds, fraternize at the local inn, or attempt to settle a tract of un-arable land - granted to them by the government - in the hinterlands of Québec. In another typical scene, a British solider flirts with a young francophone woman, the intimate moment interrupted by her husband or a parent. In Breaking Lent (The Thomson Collection), the local priest, stern and imposing, has arrived unannounced at a parishioner's humble abode only to catch the family in the forbidden act of eating meat during Lent. Whether viewed as benign narratives or subtle, satirical commentaries on French Québec society, such genre scenes often evidence Krieghoff's awareness of the relationship between ethnic groups and/or social classes.
Krieghoff's depictions of First Nations peoples are idealized and reflect his belief in their profound attachment to the land. Despite the artist's often detailed renderings of exquisite basketry, beadwork and such other Native handiwork, the figures - always set within a landscape - are almost without exception generic. His "Indian Encampment" scenes, so categorized in an advertisement in a contemporary Montréal newspaper, are characteristic. In A Caughnawaga Indian Encampment (ROM), the figures, placed centre stage next to a wigwam beside a forest stream, represent the type "Canadian Native." Little within the image itself clearly identifies these people as those who presumably were Krieghoff's inspiration: MOHAWKs who in fact resided in their community of Caughnawaga (now Kahnawake), with its stone Catholic church and white frame homes on the south shore of the St. Lawrence opposite Lachine. In his later renditions the romantic element is heightened; the aboriginal figures camp, hunt and trek in the deep forests and waterways, but they have become mere extras, entirely subsumed by nature in all its sublime grandeur (On Lake Laurent, ROM).
Landscape, portraiture and outdoor leisure scenes assumed additional significance in Krieghoff's repertoire upon his arrival in Québec City; they provided a means to take fullest advantage of the centre's significant military and business markets as well as the burgeoning tourism and leisure trade. The area's celebrated natural monuments are the focus of many of his paintings (St. Anne Falls, NGC), while others feature the forests and rivers that were at the core of the all-important timber industry but that also served as the playground for avid outdoorsmen (Death of the Moose at Sunset, Lake Famine South of Quebec, Glenbow Collection).
With a palette of brilliant colours, heightened gestures and facial expressions, and a realistic style and remarkable attention to detail that suggest close observation of nature, Krieghoff succeeded in creating paintings that seduced and resonated with significant segments of Canada's urban population. They provided a seemingly coherent image of Canada and thus ensured a continuing demand for his versions of "Canadian life." It has been debated whether his romanticized images of First Nations peoples and "habitants" are variously sympathetic or condescending or satirical, a debate that challenges assumptions regarding Canada's identity as a modern nation, both past and present. Nonetheless, his work continues to be recognized for its documentary and artistic aspects. It provides a remarkable record of one citizen's attempts to capture his perception of a modern Canada in images, and with those images to make a name and a career as a fully professional artist in an emerging nation.
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