Hell Unleashed On Earth

 A collage of newspaper headlines here speak to how much the country was focused on the war.

It was a tense time at home, with debates about conscription.

An election was held during the war, with Prime Minister Robert Borden facing a former prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier, who by that time was in the twilight of his life.

The painting above is Convoy In Bedford Basin,by Arthur Lismer, a commissioned war artist, depicting the harbour at Halifax. After the war, Lismer and several of his friends founded the Group of Seven, which changed Canadian art forever.

Halifax saw an explosion in its harbour on the 6th of December, 1917. A collision between two ships, one of which was carrying explosives, set off one of the largest non-nuclear and artificial explosions in history, killing almost two thousand people and wounding nine thousand more.

A piece of one of the ships is displayed here, along with medals related to the response.

That fall in France, Canadians were called upon to do what British and French forces had been unable to do- to take the ridge at the village of Passchendaele. Once again, they did what couldn't be done, achieving victory in a brutal battle that comes as close to hell on earth as anything in the history of warfare.

This is particularly vivid- a recreation of the shattered landscape you can walk through, with equipment, weapons, and even a body pounded into the mud. The Western Front still surrenders bodies back to the surface to this day.

History

 The Willow Room is one of the guest rooms in Moorside, up on the second floor of the house. It was a favourite of his closest friends, and King himself would sleep in here regularly if he didn't have guests.

I liked this painting.

And this old record player on the second floor landing.

As much as the estate was a retreat for him, King had to bring work with him as prime minister, leading the country during two of the country's crisis periods- the second half of the Depression and World War Two. One room up here was his private secretary's office space. King himself was a contradiction- staunch Scottish Presbyterian with an interest in spiritualism and a sentimental streak. This room was occasionally used for seances.

The master bedroom is nearby. 

Reproductions of works by the Group of Seven can be found.

And here's the master bed, with an ornate radio cabinet in the background.

A look out the window towards the gardens. We'll pick up here tomorrow.

The Gesture

 I start today with two paintings by F.H. Varley of the Group of Seven, both portraits of the same woman, with the same name, painted a year apart. Vera is the mutual title, with the work from 1929 at left and the follow up from 1930 at right.

Girl With Plant is a 1933 painting by Will Ogilvie.

Two paintings hang together. Self Portrait is a circa 1929 painting by Lilias Torrance Newton. 

This is her 1942 painting Portrait Of Frances Loring.

Gordon Davies painted Gesture and Elizabeth in 1936, depicting a fellow artist.

This is Gesture, by Elizabeth Wyn Wood.

Adrien Hebert painted Montreal Harbour, circa 1927-30.

We close out today with Tadoussac, a 1935 painting by Charles Comfort. A few years after painting this, Comfort was a commissioned war artist, embedded with Canadian forces fighting to free Europe.

Forest Interior

 This striking portrait commands attention. Girl In Yellow Sweater is a 1936 portrait by Prudence Heward.

Girl On A Hill is also by Heward, dating to 1928.

This display case features works by Inuit artists, including work made from the ivory of tusks of animals of the high Arctic.

Two works by members of the Group of Seven hang nearby. This is The Beothic At Bache Post, Ellesmere Island, a 1929 painting by A.Y. Jackson.

Here we see Birth of Clouds, by F.H. Varley, circa 1929.

Emily Carr was a contemporary of the Group of Seven whose work concentrated on the Pacific Coast and the indigenous cultures that were found there. Forest Interior In Shafts Of Light dates circa 1935-37.

A contemporary work by an indigenous artist. Here we have Raven Sun Transformation Mask, an undated work by Marven Tallio, strongly bearing Pacific Coast tribal influences. 

A display case features a drum, surrounded by moccasins and boots.

Another work by Carr. Sky was painted in 1935-36.

And this is her painting Totems, circa 1930.