Collection search - Paul Kane [graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Paul Kane [graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Series

Date:

1845-1848.

Reference:

R4976-5-2-E, MG30-B166

Type of material:

Art

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

186070

Context of this record:

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David Ives Bushnell collection of Canadiana

Paul Kane
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Record information – Details

Series includes:

6 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

1845-1848.

Place of creation:

Canada

Added country of publication:

United States

Extent:

9 watercolours.
1 painting oil.

Language of material:

English

Added language of material:

English, French

Scope and content:

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Series consists of nine watercolours and one oil painting by Paul Kane (1810-1871) depicting: a Nez Percé Indian, Oregon Territory; Cree Indian, Fort Pitt; Ojibway Chief, Michipicoten Island; Cree Indian, Rocky Mountain House; Blackfoot Chief, near Fort Pitt; Blood Indian Chief, near Fort Pitt; Assiniboin Lodges, Rocky Mountain Fort; sketches of buffalo; Ojibway Camp, Spider Islands, Lake Huron; a painted horse, Colville, Oregon Territory.

Additional name(s):

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Artist: Kane, Paul, 1810-1871

Biography/Administrative history:

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Kane, Paul, 1810-1871 : Paul Kane was born in Mallow, Ireland, in 1810, and emigrated to Canada with his family in 1820, where they settled in York. Apprenticed to Toronto furniture manufacturer W.S. Conger in 1828, he was encouraged to become an artist, and received private lessons from Thomas Drury, the drawing master at Upper Canada College, from 1830 onwards. He exhibited nine works at the initial Toronto Society of Artists exhibition in 1834. In the same year, he left Toronto for Cobourg, where he worked as a portraitist and furniture decorator for two years before moving to Detroit and then on to Mobile, Alabama. He sailed from New Orleans for Europe in June 1841. He spent his time in Rome and Florence copying old master paintings, before wintering in London in 1842, where he encountered the work of George Catlin. Inspired, he returned to Mobile to pay off his debts, and in 1845 returned to Toronto. In June 1845, he set off on his first sketching trip among the Indians of the Great Lakes. While on this trip, he met a Hudson's Bay Co. factor, John Ballenden, who brought Kane to the attention of Sir George Simpson, the head of the Company. Kane was offered HBC assistance for a western journey the following spring, and in 1846-1847 he was able to wander across much of Rupert's Land, the Oregon Territory, Vancouver Island, and the Rocky Mountains. He arrived back in Toronto in October 1848. Kane's working methods involved small sketches in pencil and watercolour, as well as quick oil sketches on paper, which were brought back to Toronto, and then used as the basis for a one hundred painting cycle illustrating all aspects of Western Indian life and scenery. This cycle was eventually purchased by George Allan for 20,000 pounds sterling. It is now part of the Royal Ontario Museum's collection. He also painted works for Sir George Simpson, for the Government of Canada, and for many other individuals. Kane never visited the West again, but spent the rest of his life in Toronto working on canvases based on his life sketches.

J. Russell Harper, Paul Kane's Frontier including Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971).

Finding aid:

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Watercolours and painting: (Electronic) All items described at item-level in MINISIS-ICON.

Additional information:

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Availability of other formats note:

The copy negative numbers of the items digitized are C-114374 C-114386 (colour transp.) (ICON).

Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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1981-055 PIC

Former archival reference no.:

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MG30-B166
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Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

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Watercolours and painting: No restrictions. Copyright expired. Credit the National Archives of Canada.

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09