Group of Game (Canadian Game), 1869

The Artist J. Spooner, Toronto C.W. Irwin, Toronto Mrs. Dalton Wells Waddington’s, auction, Toronto, 30 October 1980, no. 759 G. Blair Laing, Toronto Thomson Collection Ask Prakash & Associates, Inc., Toronto Acquired by the present Private Collection, December 2006

“Canadian Section”, Colonial Exhibition, London, 1886 as “Group of Game” or “Canadian Dead Game” “Dominion Industrial Exhibition”, Canadian National Exhibition, 1903, no. 211 or no. 212 “Fourth Loan Exhibition, Paintings by Deceased Artists”, The Art Museum of Toronto, January‒February 1911, no. 39 or 40 “Inaugural Exhibition”, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 29 January‒28 February, 1926, no. 213 or 222 Possibly “First Exhibition”, Ontario Society of Artists, 1873, no. 160 as “Dead Game” $100 Possibly “Third Exhibition”, Ontario Society of Artists, 1875, no. 32 as “Dead Game” N.F.S. Possibly “Fourth Exhibition”, Ontario Society of Artists, 1876, no. 195 as “Dead Game” $125 Possibly “First Exhibition”, Royal Canadian Academy, 1880, no. 216 or 222 Possibly “Seventh Exhibition”, Royal Canadian Academy, 1886, no. 101 as “Dead Game” $150 “Second Exhibition”, Society of Canadian Artists, 1870, no. 64 or no. 78 as Dead Game $100 “Daniel Fowler (1810‒1864),” Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, October 1964, no. 23 “Daniel Fowler,” Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, January 1978, no. 565

“Daniel Fowler (1810‒1864)”, Kingston, 1964, no. 23, reproduced G. Blair Laing, “Memoirs of An Art Dealer 2”, Toronto, 1982, plate 38, reproduced page 87 as “Game Birds‒Still Life”, 1869

Born in Kent, Daniel Fowler studied under the draughtsman and watercolourist J.D. Harding, who introduced him to a form of studio art that he would later reject for being overly mannered and uninspired. Instead, by following the traditions of English landscapists and learning to work “en plein air”, Fowler was able to discover an intense appreciation for his immediate surroundings, not unlike that of John Constable’s affection for his native Suffolk. Fowler emigrated to Canada in 1843, where he settled on an isolated farm on Amherst Island, near Kingston, and dedicated himself to becoming a gentleman farmer. He would eventually return to his pencils and brushes in 1857, at the age of forty-seven, following a short trip to London, where he re-immersed himself in art by attending exhibitions at the Royal Academy and befriending old acquaintances, all the while glimpsing the rise of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Inevitably, their appeals to simplify art and be truthful to nature strongly resonated with him as he began to sketch from nature and study the variations of colour “in situ” for the first time. His rural surroundings would have offered him a wealth of subjects, from dead game and peaceful meadows to fallen trees in nearby fields. Here, Fowler presents a day’s outing on the field and on the water, with a mixed ‘bag’ of upland birds and waterfowl. By painstakingly depicting the feathers of various breeds of birds, the artist highlighted minor differences in surface and tone. In order to create such vivid representations, Fowler would work the background with dense colour and, once dry, would then scrape away the surface of the paper to create texture and white highlights. This background technique, a testament to Fowler’s skill and expertise, enabled him to create these intensely vibrant works.