Collection of the Artist
By descent to the collection of Duncan MacDoanald (the artist’s son)
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature
Charles Beale, “Manly MacDonald: Interpreter of Old Ontario”, Napanee, 2010, page 104
The Bay of Quinte in Prince Edward County is home to boreal forests, picturesque pastoral farmland, and a beautiful waterfront. It is no surprise that a painter like Manly MacDonald would be drawn to a place with such rich scenery. But it is not simply that MacDonald was drawn to this land: he was in fact born and raised on Point Anne, overlooking the Bay itself. As a boy, he spent most of his time outdoors, breathing fresh Ontario air and working with his father, a fisherman and farmer. In his adult life, MacDonald painted fisherman all over Ontario, but he returned to this place of his childhood most often, where he eventually bought a summer home. His upbringing gave him an appreciation of not only the landscapes here, but of the hardworking people who had made this place their home. In “Fishermen Cleaning Catch”, we see the two fishermen from the side, suggesting that we, too, are perhaps at work on one of those same benches. Indeed, MacDonald brought the same work ethic to painting that he brought to working on the land. Dennis Reid, the former curator of Canadian art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, spoke of MacDonald’s work ethic: “He was an academic painter in the broadest sense of the word. He quite clearly believed in the need for tradition in landscape painting and he affirmed that in his work. His work appears quite frequently and there is a steady interest in it. He was one of the good solid workers that you would expect to see represented in most serious collections.”
