Summer Landscape

Private Collection, Montreal

‘Montreal Boys Achieve Success with Paintings’, “Montreal Daily Star”, 20 February 1913, page 9 Victoria A. Baker, “Modern Colours: The Art of Randolph Stanley Hewton, 1888-1960,” Hamilton, 2002, pages 12-13

Randolph Stanley Hewton was one of the many artists of his generation who travelled to Paris to further his studies in fine art. After training with William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, he enrolled at the Académie Julian from 1908 to 1913. Inspired by the artworks of the European avant-garde that he witnessed first-hand, he adopted a painterly approach of “colourful, flattened surface patterns inspired by his understanding of the modern methods introduced by French impressionist and post-impressionist painters.” Hewton’s bright colour palette was well-received in Paris; a 1913 exhibition review described a painting of a garden as stylistically likened to “an early Gauguin of the Pont-Aven period.” Hewton’s “Summer Landscape” exemplifies his signature post-impressionistic style in its vibrant colours and soft brushstrokes of the lush green terrain. In 1920 he was invited exhibitor at the first Group of Seven exhibition. His landscapes shared the distinct sympathy for the new discovery of Canadian scenery. A founding member of the Beaver Hall Group, Hewton was an influential and respected artist in the Montreal art scene of the 1920s. He joined A.Y. Jackson, Dr. Frederick Banting and Albert Robinson on many sketching trips to Baie-Saint-Paul, Saint-Tite-des-Caps and Les Éboulements, as well as the Gatineau region.