Victorian Sensibilities

Thomas Lawrence painted this formal portrait in 1800-01. Sir Alexander Mackenzie shows the Scottish born man who joined the fur trade out of Montreal, beginning a life of trading, exploring distant corners of the country, and interacting with First Nations peoples. In 1789 he traveled down the great river that today bears his name all the way to the Arctic Ocean. Four years later Mackenzie found a passage through the Canadian Rockies to the Pacific Ocean- a full decade before Lewis & Clark. He was knighted for his efforts, and sat for this portrait with the artist while in London.

Frederic Leighton painted this oil painting, Actaea, The Nymph Of The Shore, in 1868. This is a figure of Greek mythology, one of the Nereids, the fifty daughters of Nereus the old sea god. The classical references of mythology allowed Victorian sensibilities to overlook that whole erotic quality of the painting. 

This is another Victorian era oil painting circa 1878, The Letter, by James Tissot, a French artist who spent several years in Britain. It is thought that the setting of this painting is the Dutch Garden of Holland House in London. The letter, torn to shreds on the ground, is a common motif among Victorian era paintings, suggesting absent or unrequited love. 

Fate And Love is the title of this bronze sculpture by the French artist Gustav Dore, done in 1877. It portrays the Greek divinities of Atropos (Fate) and Eros (Love) together.

This bust was nearby- a marble, and it caught my interest, but I seem to have not photographed its details, so it'll have to wait until my next visit.

This oil painting is by George Frederic Watts, titled Time, Death, And Judgment. Painted at some point between 1865-1886, it was a gift of the artist to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887, one of the earliest gifts to the National Gallery of Canada. It is an allegorical painting. Time stands on the left, with Death to his right. Above them, Judgement hovers with scales.