Canadian National Exhibition, Department of Fine Arts, Toronto, 1940
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1952
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 1953
Literature
“Efforts of Canadian Artist Stress Lighter Side of Life,” The Windsor Star, November 30, 1940, reproduced
Although Arbuckle studied under J.E.H. MacDonald, Fred Haines, J.W. Beatty, Arthur Lismer and Franz Johnston, he was more taken with French Impressionism and gravitated towards more sympathetic representations of the Canadian landscape. The artist visited Europe on a near annual basis, developing a relationship with European impressionism with an emphasis on light and the softening of the composition through gestural paint strokes. In “Sunday”, the leisurely activity complements the soft colour palette. The central horse and buggy remain the focus with acute attention paid to the child riding with her parents. Both the light sky and ground equally balance the image as neither overpower the subject. As with French and European Impressionists, a focus on society and the people who inhabit the landscape – urban or otherwise – is the preoccupation in this depiction. Arbuckle references the escape from city life to a leisurely rural day where the only concern is ensuring that one is protected from the sun's glare with a parasol.
