Indian Trappers, Lake St. Charles

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal An Ontario Estate

J. Russell Harper, “Krieghoff”, Toronto, 1979, page 59 Hugues de Jouvancourt, “Cornelius Krieghoff”, Toronto, 1973, page 98

The decade or so that Cornelius Krieghoff spent in Quebec City and its environs were years of fulfillment for the artist and among his most productive, according to J. Russell Harper. He notes that “In the decade following 1853, when [Krieghoff] first settles there at the age of thirty-eight, he achieved his greatest success as an artist.” A great lover of the countryside, Krieghoff would trek into the forest with First Nations guides to fish and hunt game. After these excursions, the artist would sit down to sketch, stimulated by his experiences in the landscape. Such inspiration may have informed this masterful landscape painting, “Indian Trappers, Lake St. Charles”. This canvas is a richly orchestrated landscape, with Krieghoff’s characteristic tight handling of detail and fine technique. The composition depicts a sumptuous view of Lake St. Charles, Quebec in deep winter. With fresh snow on the branches of the elegant evergreen trees, the frozen water of Lake St. Charles is surrounded by distant mountains and capped by a radiant blue and pink sky. Krieghoff has managed to evoke the sensibility of a crisp winter’s day. The crunch of snow under the feet of the trappers hauling their provisions home echoes as they edge closer to their well-earned rest. Krieghoff has paid close attention to the scale of the human figures in this painting, emphasizing the idyllic landscape, while romanticizing the life of the trappers and their environs. Lake St. Charles was a favourite area for hunting and fishing, with placid waters and ample forested areas full of game. Krieghoff would undoubtedly have visited this locale on one of his treks into the wilderness. Krieghoff decided to visit Europe in 1854, and as Hugues de Jouvancourt notes, “Before sailing he worked very hard on paintings whose subject-matter was familiar to him, among them landscapes begun during the autumn and winter of 1853.” “Indian Trappers, Lake St. Charles” is dated 1854, having been completed by Krieghoff prior to embarking on his trip abroad.