The Passage Of History

Each summer, a couple of spots, close together downtown, are the sites for a series of panels on a given subject or two. The first of those sites is Plaza Bridge, which crosses the Rideau Canal just south of the Ottawa Locks. This year the federal government has partnered with the Canadian Science & Technology Museum and National Geographic for a theme on climate change, here and around the world. Panels examine the growing problem, the threat to ecoystems, and efforts being made to counter the issue. The panels contrast well with the surrounding architecture of the bridge, the government Conference Centre, the Chateau Laurier, and the National Arts Centre.

The other site is across the bridge along the terrace that leads beside the Chateau Laurier and into Major's Hill Park. Panels are placed outside the building's parking garage, and this year the theme is about the Hundred Days, so termed for the final days of World War One. Starting in early August, the Allied powers started an offensive that would end the war, finally employing combined arms fighting in a way that broke the stalemate of four years of war. Ludendorff termed the 8th of August the "black day of the German army." Veterans Affairs and Canadian Heritage are the two government departments that have put this series together.

The panels feature colourized photos, with the originals beneath, of Canada's experience in those days both at home and at the front. It starts with the original tombstone for a Canadian private named George Price, thought to be the last soldier killed in the war.

The success of the Hundred Days empowered returning veterans upon coming home, to the point where they were willing to protest the gap between rich and poor and demand a better society for the sacrifice they and their comrades in arms had made.

Racial discrimination was a factor during the war, but that didn't stop black Canadians from serving. These three men pose in a captured bunker during the Hundred Days.

Nursing sisters were present during the Hundred Days, and their service throughout the war allowed them to vote in the federal election in 1917, among the first Canadian women to do so. Here they are seen casting ballots. I have more from this tomorrow.

A Danish Golden Age

I'll be catching up with things over the next few days, what with the tornado on Friday evening. Internet coverage has been spotty the last couple of days. Today I have the last of these posts from the exhibition.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this 1877 oil painting Portrait Of A Romanian Lady (Madame Iscovesco). Nothing is known of her aside from her name.

Berthe Morisot took on plein air painting early in her career. This 1885 oil on canvas is titled Young Girl On The Grass, The Red Bodice. The portrait is of Isabelle Lambert, seventeen at the time.

Alfred Sisley painted this 1865 oil on canvas. Line Of Chestnut Trees At La Celle-Saint-Cloud dates to early in his career, and like the Monet The Chailly Road, which I showed you yesterday, shows the legacy of the Barbizon School of landscape artists, a generation before Monet and Sisley. In fact, the setting for both paintings is close to the village of Barbizon. Sisley uses dense, dark brushstrokes that are quite different from his later, brighter Impressionist works.

Such as the case with this 1877 oil painting by Sisley. Unloading Barges At Baillancourt depicts a harbour town on the Seine between Paris and Le Havre, with particular emphasis on the sky.

The Seine also features into this Sisley oil painting from 1873. The Flood, Banks Of The Seine, Bougival shows us the river at high tide. The building in the background was the home of the sluice keeper. Sisley frequently painted the Seine upon settling in the area in 1871, and while flooding might be a concern, the effect of this painting is tranquility.

Paul Gaugain painted Landscape At Pont-Aven in 1888. Gaugain started out in the Impressionist style and took it in new directions. This woodland scene reflects his style.

I paused here before moving on, thinking of photographing some of the other visitors to the exhibition.

The Hansens had built their collection with Impressionist and Romantic era artists from France, but they didn't ignore artists closer to home, and so the last section of the exhibition concerned itself with Danish artists and the period called Denmark's Golden Age. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg toured Italy from 1813-16 as part of his studies, and this oil painting dates from that period. View Of The Colonnade, St. Peter's Square, Rome gives a different perspective, not going for the obvious facade of the basilica but instead focusing on the square.

View From Frederiksborg Castle is an 1842 canvas by Peter Christian Thamsen Skovgaard.  

Johan Thomas Lundbye, a friend of Skovgaard, painted this 1838 work. A Meadow Near Lake Arreso depicts a spot in Zealand, north of Copenhagen; the lake is the largest in the country.

Lundbye painted this oil canvas in 1841. Landscape, Sorup Vang shows a scene in Zealand, a frequent subject for the artist.

Johannes Larsen took inspiration from the Impressionists in terms of painting outdoors and letting the weather influence him. This 1899 painting demonstrates that. Summer, Sun And Wind, Kerteminde shows a harbour town on the island of Funen on a pleasant, breezy day.

I end this visit with two paintings by the same artist. Vilhelm Hammershoi is another Danish artist whose work was represented here as part of the exhibition. The National Gallery bought a Hammershoi in the last year that was included in the exhibition, the only such example that I noticed from a source different than the Ordrupgaard. I had photographed that one on a previous visit, and found it interesting to see it displayed alongside the Ordrupgaard's paintings by the artist. Hammershoi painted this 1913 oil on canvas. The Tall Windows, Interior From The Artist's Home, Strandgade 25 is its title, and features a woman with her back to us, a common motif in his works. 

That shows itself again in the 1901 oil painting Interior With Piano And Woman In Black, From The Artist's Home At Strandgade 30. Hammershoi tended to paint the rooms of his homes repeatedly, but never the same way twice. When there was a person involved in the painting, it was generally his wife Ida, dressed in black, facing away. Until the Hammershoi painting Sunshine In The Drawing Room entered the Gallery's collection last year, he was an artist I wasn't familiar with, but I do like his moody style.

I hope you've enjoyed this look at this exhibition. For those of you in Europe, the Ordrupgaard is close at hand, and well worth a visit when its renovation work is finished.

Impressionist Work

Picking up where I left off yesterday with the Gallery exhibition, Claude Monet painted this oil on canvas work in 1865. The Chailly Road Through The Forest Of Fontainbleau shows a country scene in Chailly, where the artist stayed for several months that year.

Monet returned to a favourite subject, the Normandy region, in this circa 1881 oil on canvas. The Cliffs  Near Sainte-Adresse, Overcast captures the wild coastline.

Waterloo Bridge, Overcast is a 1903 oil painting by Monet. Later in his career, the artist would paint a given subject repeatedly in different light conditions. Such is the case with this London bridge, which was the subject of some forty paintings over several years. The National Gallery has one of those in its collection, out on loan to another museum at the moment.

And here we have another Monet oil painting. Seascape, Le Havre is a dramatic painting dating around 1866, depicting the coastal waters in the area where he grew up.

Moving on, this is a work by Camille Pissarro, an oil painting from 1898. Morning Sun In The Rue Saint-Honore, Place du Theatre Francais is one of fifteen paintings the artist did from his hotel room overlooking the view, in this case Paris in an autumn glow.

Pissarro spent time over the years in Pontoise, where he became friends with Cezanne and Gaugin. This oil painting dates to 1876 and uses the area as its subject, titled By St. Antony's Brook, The Hermitage, Pontoise.

Pissarro was afflicted in 1888 with a chronic eye condition that required him to stay indoors for hours on end, and so he began to paint the countryside around his home in Eragny, working from his studio. This 1894 oil painting is titled Snowy Landscape, Eragny, Evening. It gives a view out from the second floor of his studio, and reflects his feeling of winter as "the most colourful season... that there is 'nothing colder than the summer sun at its height'."

This is another oil painting from that period by Pissarro dating to 1897. A Corner In The Garden, Eragny (The Painter's Home) shows the gardens outside his home in summer. While his eye condition kept him indoors a lot, he could still look outside and take inspiration from what was before him, and so his property was a recurring theme in his work late in life.

This 1894 oil painting by Pissarro is another instance of his property being central to his work at this stage of his life. Plum Trees In Blossom, Eragny gives us his property in spring. The barn one sees in the background is the building he converted into his studio upon moving to the area in 1884. Its distinctive outer staircase appears often in his late work. The plum tree at the heart of this work seems to be shimmering.

Edouard Manet painted this oil on canvas at some point from 1858-60. Woman With A Jug reflects the history of art, in which the motif of a woman pouring water from a jug was well established, but does so in a style typical of the 19th century. The model in this case was Suzanne Leenhof, later the artist's wife and a frequent subject for him.

Eva Gonzales painted The Convalescent, Portrait Of A Woman In White around 1877-78. Her sister Jeanne, a frequent subject for the artist, is the subject here. 

Today I finish off with this 1894 oil painting by Edgar Degas. Woman Arranging Her Hair exhibits some of the qualities of a pastel, which Degas had taken to primarily using starting in the 1880s. 

The Ordrupgaard

Impressionist Treasures: The Ordrupgaard Collection was the title of a temporary exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada this past summer. The Ordrupgaard is an acclaimed national museum in Denmark, a collection built up by the Danish businessman Wilhelm Hansen and his wife Henny during the early years of the 20th century. Named for the residence of the Hansens in Copenhagen, the collection and the property was bequeathed to Denmark after their deaths. The museum is undergoing a renovation project at the moment, and so the Ordrupgaard has sent portions of their collection on tour for the duration. Over seventy paintings from the collection formed this exhibit of works with an emphasis on the French Impressionists, who were particular favourites of the Hansens. Danish artists were also included in the exhibition. With the exception of one painting included in the exhibition from the National Gallery's own collection, everything else displayed was from the Ordrupgaard, at least that I noticed looking at the identification panels.

One of the first things one saw upon entry was a period photograph of the house on a large scale, and a quote from Wilhelm close by.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted Dante Offering The Divine Comedy To Homer. It is related to his monumental mural Apotheosis Of Homer which was originally a ceiling panel in the Louvre. Two dates, both marked in the accompanying panel date it to the 19th century- 1827 and 1864-65. I would assume that applies to the two works. It is an oil painting.

Eugene Delacroix painted this portrait in 1838. George Sand is one half of a double portrait showing the French writer who was a friend of Delacroix. The other half of the painting, now at the Louvre, is of the composer Frederic Chopin, who was her lover at the time. The reason for the division of the painting is unknown.

Delacroix also painted Ugolino And His Sons in 1860. It takes a sequence from Dante's Divine Comedy in depicting the fall from grace of Count Ugolino and his family.

Gustave Courbet painted The Cliffs Near Etretat in 1869. This place along the Normandy coast was a favourite locale for the artist while staying in the area in August and September of that year. 

Courbet was also behind this painting done in 1866. The Ruse, Roe Deer Hunting Episode (Franche-Comte) is an oil canvas showing the social activity of the hunt, a stark contrast to the expectations of the Exposition Universelle of 1867 that would have favoured religious or historical material.

Courbet painted this oil painting in 1861. The Wiremakers' Workshops On The River Loue, Near Ornans depicts the distinctive countryside where he had come from in Franche-Comte.

Seascape, Overcast is the title of this 1874 oil painting by Charles-Francois Daubigny. Visits to Normandy had a strong influence on the artist.

Camile Corot painted Young Italian Woman Seated Near A Lake at some point between 1850-55.

Corot painted this oil canvas around the same time. Dancing Nymphs takes mythology for inspiration. It is similar to another work by the artist at the Musee d'Orsay. Four nymphs dance in a circle around a drunken man lying on the ground.

Today I finish with another Corot. Hamlet And The Gravedigger was done circa 1870-75 and depicts the scene in Act V of the play in which the Danish prince comes across the freshly reopened tomb of the court jester Yorick, who he'd known as a child.