National Gallery exhibition explores Impressionism in Canadian art – Ottawa Citizen

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If the thought of Impressionism brings to mind soft brushstrokes and blurry landscapes, a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada casts the movement in an exquisite new light, illustrating its impact on the evolution of art in Canada. 

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Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons explores the influence of Impressionism on Canadian artists of the late 19th century, a period that curator Katerina Atanassova describes as a “missing chapter” in the nation’s art history. 

“This exhibition contributes to a missing chapter in the history of Impressionism by bringing into the spotlight two generations of Canadian painters, men and women, who were Impressionists,” Atanassova, the gallery’s senior curator of Canadian art, said during Tuesday’s media preview. 

“Their approach, and their compelling connection with the issues of the day, prove that, while absorbing the avant-garde trends in Europe, Canadian artists helped close the gap between Impressionism and modernism back home.”

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Consisting of more than 100 paintings by 36 artists, the show includes lesser-known works by members of the Group of Seven that hint at the development of their singular artistic identity. Included are paintings of a corner store in Toronto by Lawren Harris, an industrial scene by J.E.H. Macdonald and a grove of cypress trees in Assisi, Italy, by A.Y. Jackson, who must have been dismayed at the poor reviews. 

“Few people liked the work I brought home from Europe,” Jackson wrote at the time. “The French Impressionist influence … was regarded as extreme modernism.”

That’s not a problem today. Instead, the exhibition offers a refreshing perspective on Impressionism that may surprise viewers on several levels, from the well-defined subject matter to the fact more than a handful of the artists are women. The inclusion of accomplished female painters such as Helen McNicoll, Sophie Pemberton and Emily Carr challenges established gender roles, highlighting their “professionalization” in pre-Suffragette times, Atanassova noted. 

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Overall, the show traces a journey in Canadian art, starting with a contingent of talented artists who travelled to France in the 1870s to train, exhibit and experiment with plein-air painting. Many also attended the 1878 World Expo in Paris. 

Space is devoted to works that Canadians created in Europe, including outdoor landscapes at the seaside and images of women in nature — some with clothing, some without — which was evidently a risqué proposition as nudes had usually been portrayed in intimate indoor settings. Two highlights are Henri Beau’s peaceful Nude in the Forest and Arthur Dominique Rozaire’s fleshy Nudes on the Beach. 

Some truly gorgeous paintings are hung in the Youth and Sunlight section, including the stunning Young Gleaner/The Butterflies by Paul Peel that shows the finely detailed image of a barefoot girl in a straw hat entranced by a pair of butterflies drawn to her armload of flowers. Another highlight is the famous painting by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, one of Canada’s most noted Impressionists, of a young woman with a parasol on a bench, entitled Youth and Sunlight. 

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The journey comes full circle when the painters return to Canada and apply the techniques to scenes of their homeland. This section of the exhibit is my favourite; it’s where you’ll see the superbly executed play of light and shadow on snow in paintings such as Maurice Cullen’s The Ice Harvest, Lawren Harris’s A Load of Fence Posts and a scene of sap buckets hanging in maple trees by Arthur Dominique Rozaire. 

Canada and Impressionism has already wowed audiences in three European cities, and “every country had a different and interesting reaction,” Atanassova said. Visitors in Munich were fascinated by the connection between Impressionism and Group of Seven modernism. In Lausanne, they were amazed at the number of female painters, while the French in Montpelier were blown away that Canada had its own tradition of Impressionism. 

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After a long, COVID-prompted delay, the exhibition opens Saturday and runs to July 3. It’s well worth a visit. You can also tune in to a Zoom lecture at 6 p.m. on March 17, when Atanassova and guest professor Anna Hudson discuss how Canadian Impressionists reinvented depictions of the female form. 

To visit the exhibition, you must book a timed ticket at gallery.ca. Proof of vaccination is still required, and masks are mandatory. An audio guide is accessible through a QR code posted at the entrance to the special-exhibitions gallery. A hardcover book is also available.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com