Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Last updated
Canadian exhibition, 1904
The Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was the country's contribution to what was commonly called the St. Louis World's Fair, held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, in 1904. The exhibition included a showcase of Canadian natural resources and fine art.
The Canadian pavilion, designed by Lawrence Fennings Taylor
The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Missouri, United States was the largest exhibition held in the Western hemisphere to date.[1] Canada was one of 62 nations invited to participate. The Canadian government erected a Canadian pavilion, spending more than $30,000 on the building and on beautifying the grounds.[2] The official guide to the exhibition said the pavilion where Canada's forest, game and fruit wealth was exhibited was a spacious structure, said to be a clubhouse.[2][3][4] The building was designed by Lawrence Fennings Taylor in a Gothic style.[5]
Fine art from Canada was shown in another building, the Palace of Fine Arts (today the central part is the St. Louis Art Museum), in galleries 49 to 52 of its east pavilion, adjacent to Germany and Sweden's showrooms.[6]
The art exhibition included 117 works by 51 Canadian artists (88 in oil, 29 in pencil and watercolour).[7] Landscape, genre scenes and portraits predominated.[3] (The full list is available online).[7]
The Canadian exhibition was small but choice, wrote David R. Francis, the President of the exhibition in his three volume book on the Fair.[3] As in previous exhibitions such as the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, Canada was shown as an independent nation and not as part of Great Britain.[3] On viewing it, Francis wrote that Canadian art was never represented better at any international exhibition, adding that it most closely resembled developments in the United States and praising many of the Canadian exhibitors, among them painters Florence Carlyle, Robert Harris, Edmond Dyonnet, Curtis Williamson, Laura Muntz (who also exhibited in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition),[8] and F.M. McGillivray Knowles.[3] He also praised the show's conservatism.[3] The St. Louis Republic, in 1904, called it a "very credible display".[9] It wrote that the hanging was effective and in good taste and added, "it has been said of the collection that no better work was shown for its size by any other country". It also praised the fact that there were quite a few distinctively Canadian subjects.[9]
The Dominion government had left the selection of paintings entirely in the hands of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA), which upheld traditional values and academic training in art.[10] The Academy chose works from the annual RCA show that year which had an unusually good selection, artists having been encouraged to put their best, not only their latest works, Established artists were selected as, for instance, Robert Ford Gagen, one of the Canadian Fine Arts Comissionaires, who exhibited a watercolour of a seascape,[11][12] but relative newcomers also were included, such as Mary E. Wrinch who showed a case of miniature paintings on ivory.[13][7]
The Countess of Minto (1903) by Robert Harris. Oil on canvas.
The installation in St. Louis was done by distinguished Academicians, Robert Harris, the Academy President; long-term member, E. Wyly Grier; and seventy-year-old F. M. Bell-Smith, the Academy Secretary.[10] At the Fair, they were met with surprises, among them the news that they had to decorate and furnish the four Canadian galleries, line and paint the walls which were covered with burlap and brocaded cloth,[2] and paint a frieze at the top.[10] The walls, as in the international and British sections, were coloured a strong red with light grey, white and gold in the frieze.[10]
In the handbook of the exhibition, three artists were singled out for illustration: Harris (Countess of Minto), Homer Watson (The Flood Gate) and F. M. McGillivray Knowles (Landing the Catch).[10] Knowles's painting was said to form a delightful colour harmony and Watson was described as a dramatic, colourful, vigorous painter.[14] Taken as a whole, the exhibit reflected credit on such a young country, one critic wrote.[15]
In Harris's report on the exhibition to the Royal Canadian Academy, he said the facts spoke for themselves: at Chicago in 1893, five medals were given Canadian artists; at St. Louis, 15 were awarded.[10] Harris's correspondence with Halsey C. Ives, Chief of the Art Exhibition, can be found in the St. Louis Art Museum Archives, St. Louis World's Fair Correspondence. His letters home about the Fair are in the Robert Harris collection in the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown.
The artists in the show are still of relevance today. In 2020, the Art Gallery of Ontario exhibited Mary E. Wrinch's miniature portraits in a show titled "Mary Wrinch: Painted from Life".[16] In 2023 Sophie Pemberton whose painting A Livre Ouvert (1900), a large painting of two young women sitting together in conversation over a book,[17] was in the show (No. 63), had a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The show, titled Unexpected: The Life and Work of Sophie Pemberton, Canadian Artist, included this painting among the 70 art works on view.[18]
Related Research Articles
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 million were used to finance the event. More than 60 countries and 43 of the then-45 American states maintained exhibition spaces at the fair, which was attended by nearly 19.7 million people.
Laura Muntz Lyall was a Canadian Impressionist painter, known for her sympathetic portrayal of women and children.
Horatio Walker LL.D. was a Canadian painter. He worked in oils and watercolours, often depicting scenes of rural life in Canada. He was influenced by the Barbizon school.
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
Robert Harris was a Welsh-born Canadian painter, most noted for his portrait of the Fathers of Confederation.
Florence Helena McGillivray, also known as F H. McGillivray, was a Canadian landscape painter known for her Post-Impressionist style. Her family home was in Whitby, Ontario. She lived in Ottawa from 1914 to 1928. She was also a teacher. In 1916, on a visit to his studio, she encouraged Tom Thomson.
George Agnew Reid was a Canadian artist, painter, influential educator and administrator. He is best known as a genre painter, but his work encompassed the mural, and genre, figure, historical, portrait and landscape subjects.
Thomas P. Barnett, also known professionally as Tom Barnett and Tom P. Barnett, was an American architect and painter from St. Louis, Missouri. Barnett was nationally recognized for both his work in architecture and in painting.
Mary Augusta Hiester Reid was an American-born Canadian painter and teacher. She was best known as a painter of floral still lifes, some of them called "devastatingly expressive" by a contemporary author, and by 1890 she was thought to be the most important flower painter in Canada. She also painted domesticated landscapes, night scenes, and, less frequently, studio interiors and figure studies. Her work as a painter is related in a broad sense to Tonalism and Aestheticism or "art for art's sake".
Elizabeth Annie McGillivray Knowles was a Canadian landscape painter, known for her paintings of domestic animals, especially fowl.
Farquhar McGillivray Knowles, also known as F. McGillvray Knowles, was a Canadian painter. He was best known for his seascapes.
William R. Hope, was a prominent Canadian painter, draftsman and war artist, noted for his landscapes.
Sydney Strickland Tully was a Canadian painter. She is known for her pastel and oil portraits, landscapes and genre pictures, and for her success in a number of exhibitions. Tully kept a studio in Toronto from 1888 until her death. Her major works include The Twilight of Life (1894), an oil painting in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Franklin Brownell born in New Bedford, Massachusetts was a landscape painter, draughtsman and teacher active in Canada. He artistic career in Ottawa spanned over fifty years.
Johanna Knowles Woodwell Hailman was an American painter known for her floral paintings and scenes of industrial Pittsburgh.
Edward Francis Rook was an American Impressionist landscape and marine painter, and a member of the art colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Frances C. Lyons Houston was an American painter. Houston was born in Hudson, Michigan. She died in Windsor, Vermont in October 1906.
Robert Ford Gagen, also known as R. F. Gagen and as Robert F. Gagen, was a Canadian painter of seascapes and landscapes.
Curtis Williamson known for his portraits and figure painting; also genre and landscape. He was nicknamed "the Canadian Rembrandt" because of his dark, tonal style. Williamson showed his work at the Canadian Art Club's inaugural exhibition in 1907 and like some of the other members, his work had a Hague school or Barbizon sensibility.
Almyra B. "Myra" Spafard was an American artist. Her watercolor paintings of flowers were exhibited in American cities, mainly in the 1890s and 1900s.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
