Painting
Annapolis Valley Macdonald Museum
Tous droits réservés.
| Nom de l'objet : | Painting |
| Titre : | Sovereign of the Seas |
| Artiste ou artisan : | Charles DeWolfe Harris |
| Type de l'objet : | Watercolour |
| Catégorie de l'objet : | Art |
| Matériaux : | Watercolour paint, wood, cardboard matte. |
| Numéro d'accession : | 2006.0033.0004 |
| Date de début de production : | 1920-01-01 |
| Date de fin de production : | 1996-12-31 |
| Description : | Fully rigged ship is at the center of the image. Its fore is toward the left of the canvas, and its aft is toward the right. The sky is overcast gray and the sea is also charcoal gray. |
| Commentaires : | Charles Peter Dewolfe Harris was born in Digby in 1920. His father was a banker, and his mother, Erdine Maude Harris practiced photography and was born on January 17, 1889, and died in Lawrencetown on April 16, 1957. Erdines parents were George C. Dewolfe and Margaret A. Fuller from New Minas. Charles was an electrician and took up painting as a hobby in 1970. He drew and painted as a child, and now paints as a self-taught artist. This ship portrait by Charles is a realistic rendering of a tall, wooden ship. He could have made this image in retrospect-- by looking at a photograph of the ship, or by using a book as a reference. The ship portrayed is the Sovereign of the Seas; built in 1852 it was 258 feet long, weighed 2421 tons, and had 12 000 running yards of canvas. Ship portraits from Nova Scotia represent a Post-British presence in the province. When Canada was first settled most of the artists were craftsmen who did not have a formal education. The First Nation tribes did not have a word for art because art was an inherent way of life. Art was integral to their existence and it served spiritual functions, and it was used for social and utilitarian purposes. Ship portraits constitute different cultural ideas of the ocean that surround Nova Scotia, and also, act as publicity for the sea vessels and their makers. The early Acadian settlers have no visual records of their presence in Nova Scotia except for sketches by military topographers from the early eighteenth century. Most of the early depictions of Nova Scotia were watercolours, topographical sketches, and engravings made by military leaders and from the colonial outposts. Bishop Francois de Montmorency Laval, the first bishop of Quebec and spiritual leader of New France from 1663 to 1685, believed that it was important for the new colony to advance culture through institutions, churches, and art. He brought artists to Canada and was a catalyst for the development of craft. The church was the first patron of the arts. The early Acadian settlers have no visual records of their presence in Nova Scotia except for sketches by military topographers from the early eighteenth century. Most of the early depictions of Nova Scotia were watercolours, topographical sketches, and engravings made by military leaders who had brief training in the arts, and from the colonial outposts. If people did want to train as professional artists they would go to France to the academy. During the eighteenth century there was a huge demand for portraiture; clergy, government officials, wealthy merchants and their families, desired portraits to show their status in society. The artists often copied the styles that came from Europe without knowing what the styles meant. The Limner is the untrained artist of the English American colonies. The limner was archaic in that he or she painted in a style that was reminiscent of an earlier period of art. Paintings lacked the subtleties of tone and value, which would give them more depth and volume. Yet, the attempt of the artist is sincere. Barbara Novak writes in American Painting of the 19th Century, that the limner is like the primitive artist, the intent was to record reality as clearly and accurately as possible, but the artist is unable to master the illusion. Seascapes and ship portraits hung not just to decorate, but to show that they could be afforded. Ship owners and captains wanted a painting of their vessel to hang as evidence of the vessels excellence and it was also a matter of pride. The vessel would be accurately depicted with the rigging correct. It was a form of documentation. A ship portrait was typically of a specific vessel that was depicted in a seascape to provide atmosphere. It was also typical that the sailors would make models of their ships or shadow box models. And those who painted out of love for the vessels did not necessarily know the correct shape of the sails or how they were set. Joseph Légaré, who lived from 1755 1855, was the first Canadian artist to paint a landscape for its own sake. Up until this time landscapes served the purpose of documenting the new territories and also acted as propaganda to convince people from Europe to come to the New World. The images of the land were made hospitable and inviting so that people would be convinced that the colonies were civilized. Artists also recorded the hard journeys of explorers. In Canada, throughout the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century, the Garrison society was the British upper class. They had bourgeois values, influenced taste, and provided artists with incomes. They also categorized nature as either picturesque or sublime. What they knew about art had come from bourgeois society in Europe. More artists with professional training started to come to Canada in the nineteenth century. During the Victorian Era, artists did not paint the struggles that were taking place; instead, they painted a romantic, ideal world, through the forms of landscapes and portraits-- despite new cities, sweatshops, brothels, and other harsh realities. To survive as an artist in Canada, during the Victorian Era, they had to conform to certain standards and establish their pedigree. Canadian artists did not respond to the avant-garde movements in Europe, but followed well-established styles that attributed to success in the Paris salon. This called for technical brilliance, photographic realism, sentimental themes, strong draughtsmanship, scientific knowledge of anatomy, emotional messages, and grand manner. Grand manner was a term used during the eighteenth century by British artists to characterize a painting containing metaphors about noble qualities. Hardly any Canadian artists could compete with the artists involved with the Parisian Salon. Starting in the 1880s different institutions of art, and galleries began to develop across Canada. European traditions were found throughout these institutions. The first group that wanted to break away from these traditions was the Group of Seven, centered in Toronto, in the early twentieth century. It started with seven male artists who were passionate about making an art style unique to Canada. They were inspired by the wild, pure, and unspoiled land in the North of Canada. There paintings were explorative and used a different techniques to interpret the land than high realism. Often it involved an abstract, two-dimensional approach to the land. On the west coast, Emily Carr painted the spirit that she felt was in the land and the First Nation villages. Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Abstraction were late influences in Canadian art. The different approaches to making a painting led to more criticality of the painting as an object in the material world; what context the image was made in; and critical awareness of the consumer market. Traditionally artists had painted what they were taught to see in three-point-perspective. Within these movements artists advanced ideas of how an image relates to the world around it; how the artist relates to the image, how the viewer relates to the image; and how the image relates to a dialogue with the history of art. |
| Hauteur : | 25 cm |
| Largeur : | 36 cm |
| Établissement : |
Annapolis Valley Macdonald Museum
 Facebook-Annapolis Valley Macdonald Museum
|
| Ville de l'établissement : | Middleton |
| Province de l'établissement : | Nova Scotia |
Coordonnées de cette page web
-
Pour proposer des corrections ou des mises à jour sur cette page, veuillez contacter directement le Réseau canadien d’information sur le patrimoine (RCIP).