Nearing a Fur Post

Collection of General Motors, Oshawa, Ontario Private Collection, Ontario

James Stone, “Arthur Heming: Chronicler of the North,” Museum London, London, 2013, reproduced page 39 as “A Dog Brigade Nearing a Fur Post” W.J. Phillips, ‘The Art of Arthur Heming’, “The Beaver”, September 1940, page 25, reproduced page 24 as “Dog Brigade Nearing a Fur Post” as the cover of the article Editorial Department, “The Toronto Star”, Arthur Heming Fonds, National Gallery of Canada Archives, undated, unpaginated, listed as “Nearing a Fur Post”

Arthur Heming painted from experience, having spent many years involved in lumbering, mining, railroading, big game hunting and the rugged lifestyle of living on the land. Heming embarked on expeditions into the wilderness to capture romantic scenes of adventure for illustrations in books and publications. Life in the backcountry captured his interest, not in terms of the sentimentality of the picturesque countryside or forest, but in the power of nature. Heming wrote of his inspiration to explore and paint the wilds of Canada. He referenced the brutal death of his uncle as the impetus in his imagination towards “forever wondering what is going on in the great northern forest not just this week, this month, or this season, but what is actually happening day by day, throughout the cycle of an entire year? It was that thought that fascinated me.” According to a letter dated 1955 from Mr. W.E. Austin, Public Relations Manager of General Motors (GM), to Mr. T.E. Lee, three paintings by Heming were hanging in the offices of the Senior Executives of GM. “Nearing a Fur Post” was one of these paintings, acquired for a calendar series that GM designed to exhibit different methods of transportation. “Nearing a Fur Post” illustrates a team of strong husky dogs pulling a sled full of mail, slicing through the snow with a determined driver at the helm. To the right, a keen observer will notice the whiplash and tail end of a snowshoe belonging to a second driver speeding ahead. This early 1930s painting by Heming is executed with vivid colour, sublime light, and exaggerated drama. Heming does not belong to a particular school, movement or group in the sphere of Canadian art history. He was very much an individualist. According to artist, W.J. Phillips: “The idea of painting seemed to obsess him. As one canvas neared completion he visualized another. He painted as if impelled by supernal forces, setting down his experiences, dramatizing life as he knew it on the fringes of civilization, and interpreting by the same act the wild beauty of the land of his birth.”