Page 24 - Studio International - December 1968

The Munnings's, disregarding the very large met earlier in France. Most of the army por- to fame. To others like A. Y. Jackson and
work which is not finished, are oil sketches traits lack the highly finished quality of Maurice Cullen it meant opportunities to
or easel paintings of cavalry activities, Orpen's later years and are better for it. They paint freely in their own styles. This meant
Canadian Forestry Corps scenes and a series are all of men who bore heavy responsibility much in a world where painting had given
of equestrian portraits of officers of the Can- through four years of war and Orpen seems way to war and the opportunity to contribute
adian Cavalry Brigade. I find the cavalry pic- to have truly caught this character, be it the to this great commission was welcome. Jack-
tures rather fascinating since they portray an one British regular or the products of the son started painting in a very light, colourful,
arm that is no more. In particular the horses Canadian Militia who achieved prominence impressionist style but later changed this to
are often portraits depicting distinct per- under Generals Byng and Currie. I had one a more sombre serious style after Passchen-
sonalities while the faces of the riders are instance of this a few years ago when I stood daele. Maurice Cullen, older than the others
very often blank. The forestry pictures with near a portrait of a proper martinet, in whose painted large canvases for the first time as
their magnificent teams of heavy horses also eyes I finally detected a twinkle which Orpen well as colourful ones, where the vivid green
have a nostalgia, for again they depict scenes had caught. An elderly well-preserved man grass of his Newfoundland birthplace sud-
no longer to be met with even in the remotest had examined each portrait till he came to denly appears in the French countryside in
backwoods of North America. Some of the this one. He at once bristled and muttered, spring. He even repeated a version of his
equestrian portraits show the informality of 'Huh ! Old so-and-so,' followed by a flow Quebec paintings of the face of Cap Diament,
superb horsemen handling impatient but of minor oaths. After forty-seven years here this time as Huy on the Meuse.
well-trained chargers. Needless to say these was a tribute (unsolicited) to the ability of Others, such as Cyril Barraud, recorded
are basically records, but they are by an out- Orpen, at this stage at any rate to catch that faithfully what they saw in sketches or prints
standing painter of horses in his prime and fleeting feeling for his sitters, truly recogniz- of high quality that are still attractive after
before a multitude of commissions spread able by those who knew them. fifty years.
his talent too thin. Among the many other portraits by a wide In Canada, the palm must go to Frank H.
Algernon Talmage is an unknown today, variety of artists, some from Australia, but Johnston for his sketches of air training.
but he was chosen to portray the care of sick most from Britain, there are some that, due Flying artists were few and far between at
and wounded horses by the Canadian Veter- to merit, are always on display. Prominent are that time and fewer have attempted the very
inary Corps just behind the lines. As well as two of VCs by Ambrose McEvoy. One is of difficult task of recording what is seen from
a large number of easel paintings of high a Russian-born sergeant, Filip Konowal, VC. the air. Johnston on all accounts must rank
quality, he finished one very large work and McEvoy has left a superb sympathetic por- among the most successful of these. Albert
such, I suspect, is the sentiment among old trait of a simple man stretched to the point H. Robinson in his turn recorded the scenes
soldiers for the horse that it was one of the of breaking who is still alive. The other is in the shipyards and F. Gagen the munitions
eight large works to be hung in the newly Lieutenant Strachan, VC, the survivor of a plants. Two women sculptors, Francis Loring
finished Senate Chamber in the rebuilt Par- Waterloo style cavalry sabre charge against and Florence Wyle proved not unworthy of
liament buildings in the 1920s. There, some artillery, surely one of the last of its kind. Here the task of recording in bronze former suffra-
forty-five years later, it still hangs in company he has caught the panache of the light horse- gettes in foundry or explosive factories. Ar-
with Sir William Rothenstein's Watch on the man of history with one tunic button undone, thur Lismer has left a faithful record of that
Rhine and works by James Kerr-Lawson and highly intelligent and slightly amused at busy port of embarkation, Halifax.
others. These paintings by Talmage are being painted. Harold Knight on the other One is tempted to read into the record of the
records of high artistic quality and display hand depicts a rather serious, heavily built Canadians in this great commission, some-
surprising skill in catching the fleeting scene youngster, Major MacDowell, VC, DSO, still thing of the germ of the idea of the nationalist
of horses in the corral or the mud baths. somewhat surprised that all this has hap- school of painting of the early post-war
J. A. Turnbull was an artist who apparently pened to him. Frank Dobson, the Vorticist, years, that is the Group of Seven. Of the
throve as a painter only under the excitement has painted an emaciated high school boy seven, Jackson, Johnston, Varley and Lismer
of war. He was a fighter pilot and thus had aged 18-19 years in Air Force uniform with all painted for the Memorials. Another, Law-
unique opportunities to observe at close over-size night fighter pilot eyes. This is F/O ren Harris, had served in the forces until ill-
quarters scenes of air fighting denied to other Maclean, VC, just recovered from his burns ness terminated this. This intangible but
artists. With this he combines an affinity in and shortly to succumb to influenza in the probable link is difficult to prove but it should
style to the Vorticist Edward Wadsworth. As great epidemic. not be left unconsidered.
a result his large work Air-Fight has far more There are other portraits mostly by senior In summary then, what have we in Ottawa
impact than another large air scene War in men of simple soldiers and the great and fifty years later? I suggest it is a collection of
the Air by the far better known C. R. W. would-be great. These artists have long since forty or more large decorative pieces of
Nevinson. This I find over-pretty by com- passed out of memory except for the student varied schools, some very far advanced in-
parison. Dog-Fight a smaller work by Turn- of the art periodicals of seventy-five to fifty deed—in fact some Vorticist works appear
bull has a vertiginous quality conducive to years ago. markedly advanced even now—others, solid
feelings of air-sickness when seen suddenly The Canadian painters in the collection are paintings of the older schools plus some
for the first time. He exhibited with 'Group X' much less numerous but they range from an hundreds of portraits, sketches and smaller
in London in 1920, but otherwise remains an unknown at the time like David Milne to the paintings totalling over 950. that provide a
unknown. aged Homer Watson, then in his eighties. For spectrum of the art world of 1917-19 in
Five of the seven portraits by Orpen are of them too it was all too frequently their first Great Britain and Canada. Some of these are
senior Canadian army officers, and with the and only great opportunity to paint free from unique in that for size they are one-time-only
addition of Sir Arthur Currie's ADC, Major care and on a large scale. To some, such as efforts by young artists yet to achieve fame.
H. Willis-O'Connor, were probably studies David Milne, it gave them such scope that For Canada especially, a nationalism among
for a large group painting which was never their style suddenly crystalized and matured its painters based on association in a great
completed. The seventh portrait Canadian into the pattern of the later inter-war years. commission which very probably played a
Airman is of a Canadian friend of Orpen's in To F. H. Varley it meant recognition and a not unimportant background role in the
the RFC, Captain Hoidge, whom Orpen had maturity of style which started him on a road nationalist landscape school of the 1920s.
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