signed and dated 1900 lower right; titled and dated on a gallery label on the reverse
12 × 23.5 in (30.5 × 59.7 cm) (sight)
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, circa 1970s
Private Collection, Calgary
By descent to the present Private Collection, Calgary
Inspired by the work of Paul Kane, Frederick Arthur Verner moved to London in 1856 to enroll at London's Heatherley's Academy. His studies were cut short two years later when he served in the British military. Verner returned to Toronto in 1862 and worked as a photograph colourist, but spent his free time sketching the wilderness and Indigenous communities of Ontario. He co-founded the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872 and exhibited regularly with the group until he permanently moved back to England in 1880. His romantic Indigenous genre scenes had gained tremendous popularity overseas. Verner continued to paint in this style, returning to Canada regularly to gain source material.
Verner’s interest in Indigenous subjects was closely connected to his fascination with the Canadian landscape. His depictions of Indigenous people travelling by canoe, living in encampments and moving through lakeside settings became recurring subjects, often based on sketches he had made decades earlier. Although Verner’s paintings often appear documentary, they typically present an idealized vision of Indigenous life, removed from the social and political realities of the period.
