The Curator’s View: Thomas Bouckley Collection, An Art Perspective Part 2

This post comes from the desk of Sonya Jones, Curator of the Thomas Bouckley Collection.

While studying and reviewing the photographs in the Thomas Bouckley Collection, I’m always looking for new ways to re-contextualize and interpret the Collection. What’s refreshing is that no matter how well I think I know the collection, I’m always pleasantly surprised to discover something new, or see something in a different light. For example, in a blog posted in 2012, (click here to view) I put on art historical lenses and selected a number of images from the collection that reminded me of famous artworks.

Since then, I’ve discovered more images that have similarities to artworks, whether through subject, composition, or both. Just for fun, here are a few more examples:

Jean Antoine Watteau Mezzetin, c. 1718

Jimmy Jacques With A Williams Banjo, 1910

Hans Holbein The Ambassadors, 1533

William and Wilkie White, 1890

L.S. Lowry The Fever Van, 1935

Traffic Signals at the Four Corners, 1920

Edward Hopper Office at Night, 1940

Tax Office, City Hall, 1957

Isabel McLaughlin Untitled, undated

Sand Filter Plant, Oshawa Harbour, 1919

Interested in exploring the Thomas Bouckley Collection? You can browse the collection online through our website here.

McLaughlin Day in Oshawa

This blog post is from Joan Murray, Director Emeritus.

Billiard Room. Image courtesy Parkwood Estate, copyright the Challener estate.

Frederick Sproston Challener’s inspired mural paintings in Parkwood Estate, commissioned in 1924, are particularly well done. Located in the billiards room and hallway, the murals have a strangely perfect, yet ineffably wry quality which combines romanticism and history. His narrative includes the five daughters of Colonel Sam McLaughlin, including the patron of the Gallery, Miss Isabel McLaughlin, outdoor sports events engaged in by Mr. McLaughlin and his family, and a vision of arcadia with wholesome-looking young children, McLaughlin’s grandchildren. The entire effect is joyous, with just the right mixture of Twentieth-century details to balance the artifice before us with its woodland setting of birch trees and panel of Pan playing his pipe.

Enchanted Wood. Image courtesy Parkwood Estate, copyright the Challener estate.

Challener was an artist who returned from a trip to Europe in 1898-99 with a passionate desire—to make murals. Fortunately for him, his wish fell in with a period of expansion in the theatre and architectural scene in Canada and he soon found himself hard at work executing murals in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, London, and Winnipeg. At the same time as his architectural commissions, he painted many easel paintings.

In celebration of McLaughlin Day, we honour here not only Colonel Sam McLaughlin and his wife Adelaide, but Miss Isabel McLaughlin, who was always deeply interested in mural painting, as well as the McLaughlin family, our friends.

Visit Parkwood Estate on McLaughlin Day on the August long weekend, for their wonderful Basement Tours. The tours are held August 3, 4, & 5, do not require pre-booking and will be available from 10:30 to 5:00pm. Admission is $10.00 per person, regardless of age. ($11.30 with the HST)

Visit Parkwood Estate online.

The Intern Files: Celebrating Canadian Artists through Wikipedia

This post for the Intern Files is written by Madison Cawker. Madison is an intern this summer with our communications team and is a Candidate for Diploma in Arts Management at the University of Western Ontario.

Painters Eleven are a powerful force in Canadian art history on both a local and national scale. In an era of predominantly landscape art, they helped raise the profile of abstraction and inspire the next generation of modernist artists.

Their influence has directly touched the RMG through our connection with Painters Eleven (P11) member Alexandra Luke. Her significant donations have, in part, given the gallery the largest Painters Eleven collection in Canada and the ability to continue inspiring our community through art.

Alexandra Luke (Canadian, 1901 – 1967)
Symphony 1957
oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. S. McLaughlin, 1972
This painting is very large – 246.7 x 208.3 cm or 97.126″ x 82.007874″

Painters Eleven are celebrated online through biographical websites, online collections and web encyclopedia entries. Upon examining popular resource Wikipedia, however, we noticed a gap in information. While P11 members such as Jack Bush, Jock McDonald and Kazuo Nakamura had in-depth articles written about them, the women of the group, Alexandra Luke and Hortense Gordon, did not have any published information available.

Inspired by the work of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative and the Global Women Wikipedia Write-in (#GWWI), I sought to fix this information gap. I wanted to share the lives and works of these important Canadian women artists not only because of their impact on the RMG but also because of their important contributions to the development and reception of abstract art in Canada.

Using a variety of references from our Joan Murray Artists’ Files and the RMG research library, I researched Alexandra and Hortense then put together two Wikipedia articles that reflect the vitality and impact of their arts careers. It was a time consuming process but it was ultimately very interesting work. I also got to learn some fun facts about the women. For example, did you know Hortense Gordon had an intense sibling rivalry with her artist sister Marion?

As of early July, both articles have been published and are available to read on Wikipedia.

Read about Alexandra Luke on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Luke

Read about Hortense Gordon on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortense_Gordon

Window Wednesday March 30, 2011 Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002) Above the Rooftops n.d. oil on canvas Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002)
Above the Rooftops n.d.
oil on canvas
Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

I believe that it is important for women to be included in the narrative of Canadian art history. I have now gone on to create and edit several more articles on Wikipedia including entries for Joan Murray (art historian and former director of the RMG), Isabel McLaughlin, and the Canadian Group of Painters. I feel proud to have helped support Canadian art history in a small way.

Archives Awareness Week 2013

The Durham Region Area Archives Group is hosting a show and tell night on Wednesday, 3 April from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Pickering Public Library. Libraries and archives from Durham Region will display and discuss strange and interesting items from their collections to celebrate Archives Awareness Week 2013. The objects on display will include a note signed by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, magic lantern slides, Victorian era postmortem photography, a circus flea, Second World War shells from the DIL plant in Ajax, and a stunt book from a student at Ontario Ladies’ College.

Plane Crash at the Four Corners of Oshawa, 1918

The RMG’s Sonya Jones, Assistant Curator and Curator of The Thomas Bouckley Collection, and Barb Duff, Library Services Coordinator are preparing our contribution to the display. The RMG’s contribution will include various historical images of a famous plane crash at the Four Corners of Oshawa, Alexandra Luke’s and Aleen Aked’s painters boxes, Isabel McLaughlin’s Order of Canada and Order of Ontario and various other oddities from our archives!

Residents from Durham are invited to attend and bring with them interesting historical items from their personal collections. There will be a meet and greet following the presentations and refreshments will be provided.

The Durham Region Area Archives Group was formed in 2011 and is the newest chapter of the Archives Association of Ontario. Its members represent libraries, archives, and historical societies in Durham Region and surrounding areas.

Community Curates Week 10

Our last week has arrived! Now that we are wrapping up this project, our first crowd sourced art exhibition, we are starting to review the successes and drawbacks. Please be sure to leave a comment on this post with your ideas for how we could improve this process. We’d like to try it again and shake it up, make it even more fun and interactive. We have enjoyed interacting with you and we encourage you to come to the gallery and see the results of your decision making.

The Community Curates exhibition will be hung from 23 September, 2011 to 11 March, 2012. We’ll celebrate the exhibition and show you how to leave comments on it using your smartphone at our First Fridays event on Friday 7 October 2011.

Thank you for your help and we hope you’ve enjoyed the process!

Community Curates Week 10

1. Paul B. Keele (Canadian, 1948 – 1973)

Buffalo prints won’t you come out tonight c. 1973

lithograph on paper

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Urquhart, 1978

Mclaughlin_drawingfromlifeprovincetown_2003mi56

2. Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002)

Drawing from Life, Provincetown c. 1948-1950

charcoal on paper

Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

3. Ray Mead (Canadian, b. England, 1921 – 1998)

Lattice 1954

watercolour, gouache and pastel on paper

Donated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, 1988; gift of M. F. Feheley

4. Gordon Smith (Canadian, b. England, 1919-2001)

Winter Sea 1973

lithograph on paper

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest and Rivette Herzig, 1993

5. Horatio Walker (Canadian, 1858 – 1938)

Lady Beside Lilypond n.d.

oil on paper, laid down

Gift of Rita M. Pretty in memory of husband Harry A. Pretty, 1984

Community Curates Week 1

Welcome to the inaugural week of our Community Curates project! In order to curate an exhibition that will be on from 23 September, 2011 to 11 March, 2012, we need your help!

The RMG permanent collection includes over 1300 works on paper that are stored in our vault in solander boxes to maintain their condition. Works on paper especially are susceptible to damage from light and as a result they aren’t as often shown in our gallery spaces. We wanted to share some of these hidden gems and have our visitors decide which ones will be shown.

Here is our first week’s selection of images. You are able to vote for your favourite and the top 2 selected will be hung in the gallery space. Stay tuned each week as 5 new selections are posted for your votes!

What will the community curate from our collection? We are looking forward to finding out!

Week 1:

1. Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002)
Untitled n.d.
watercolour over graphite on paper
Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

2. John Lander (Canadian, 1951 – 1992)
At Chanteclair 1973
serigraph on paper
Purchase, 1976

3. John Street (Canadian, b. 1942)
Untitled 1971
serigraph on paper
Purchase, 1973

4. William Blair Bruce (Canadian, 1859 – 1906)
Looking Towards Le Havre 1885
oil on paper
Purchased with the assistance of the Government of Canada through the Cultural Property Export and Import Act, 1986

5. Alan Flint (Canadian, b. 1958)
Lost 1995
woodcut on paper, A/P
Gift of Ihor Holubizky, 1998

VOTING ON WEEK 1 NOW CLOSED